Maybe today’s article should have been titled, “Old Hackneyed Sales Tactics Debunked, Part 117,” but I thought the above was catchier.

What I’m talking about is an old tactic called, “Not Spilling Your Candy.”  This tactic assumes that customers are simply talking to you to pump you for information before buying from someone else, and that your job – as a defensive selling strategy – is to avoid giving them important information at all costs while trying to lock them down into a purchase.  Hint:  It doesn’t work.  Especially now.

Here’s the scenario.  A client of mine was interviewing two Website developers.  Both were very competent.  One communicated the proposal bearing the “Don’t Spill” mindset at hand; he showed her the “what,” but not the “how” and the “why.”  The second walked her through the proposal step by step.  He showed her part of the “how” and all of the “why.”  When I met with my client, she raved about his comprehensive approach to the business, and how she learned a lot about how a website can be used as a business tool.  Guess who’s going to get the business?

You see, the second vendor tapped into a principle called Reciprocity.  Reciprocity is the idea that, when you do nice things for other people, they feel that it’s appropriate to do things for you – which could include giving you a referral, a testimonial, or buying from you.  It’s one of Dr. Robert Cialdini’s Six Principles of Persuasion, and in my opinion, it’s the most powerful one.

Further, he tapped into what I call the Brave New World of Selling:  These days, the salesperson MUST create value for the customer through the sales call itself – not just the purchase.  The customer – my client – walked away from the sales call better off, more knowledgeable, and more comfortable with Web marketing than she was before the meeting.  He earned his place in her buying process.  If you’re worried about “spilling your candy,” you’re not going to do that.
Here’s the Catch-22:  The information that salespeople are worried about “spilling” is out there already.  And it’s probably free, if you want to Google it.  My client didn’t, but she certainly appreciated the fact that the information was communicated.

“But Troy,” you say, “What if I tell them what I know, and then they take that information and buy from someone else?”  Simple, short answer – that’s your fault.  If they buy from someone else, that’s because you didn’t give them enough positive and persuasive reasons to buy from you.  What generations of salespeople have failed to realize is that customers have the ultimate control of their buying power and their money – and if they want to buy from you, they will – and if they don’t, they won’t.  Successful selling is based on getting them to want to buy from you, not trying to keep them from buying elsewhere.

That’s the core of the whole “Spilling Your Candy” philosophy.  It’s not focused on making the customer want to buy from you – it’s about preventing them from buying from anyone else; the idea is that if you withhold knowledge, they’ll “have” to buy from you.  Again, it doesn’t work.  It never really worked all that well, and it works even less in today’s information age.

Troy’s Truth of Selling: Today’s successful salesperson knows that he/she must GIVE value to the customer before expecting to GET value from the customer.

If you’re “busy,” you’re losing sales!

In February, I attended a conference at the Palms casino in Las Vegas.  I love Las Vegas.  I’ve been going there for years, and normally when I do, I stay at a Harrah’s property on the Strip.  The Palms is owned by a different group, and it’s off-Strip.  Still, first impressions were good.  I arrived, checked in, and attended the first afternoon of the conference.  That evening, I needed to get my car out of valet, so I could go out.  I called the valet, and then came the first sign of trouble.

The phone rang several times, and the bell desk answered.  I explained that I needed to get my car, and gave her the ticket number.  She said, “I’ll try to get this to them – but they’re awfully busy.”  So, I walked downstairs and nobody had taken the number to them.  I gave my ticket to the valet, and he said, “I’ll do my best, sir, but we’re pretty busy.”  Then it occurred to me – in a decade of staying at Harrah’s properties all over the country, an employee had never told me they were “busy.”  It had already happened twice in five hours at this property.  Further, it started me thinking about what “busy” really means in the sales and service world.

When you tell someone you’re “busy,” you are sending them a subliminal message that says, “I’m doing things…and every one of those things is more important than you!”  In some cases, that could be true; in the case of sales and service, I’m not sure how it could be.  For instance, the valet’s job is to park cars and retrieve them for the customers.  Being a customer, I’d say that I was at least as important as anything else that he could have been doing.

Another example of this phenomenon came when I attempted to eat lunch at a local restaurant last week.  All was fine as I ordered my lunch – a salad and a half of a club sandwich.  The waiter brought me my salad, which I ate.  And then waited. And waited. And waited.  Suddenly I looked at my watch and I realized that a half-hour had passed since my order, and my waiter hadn’t even checked on me.  I flagged him down and asked about my sandwich, and he said, “Well, the kitchen is awfully busy right now.”  I looked at my watch; it was Noon.  I said, “Does it happen about this time every day, by any chance?”  I have to be honest – I don’t suffer this kind of thing well.  He said, “Well, your food is in line, sir.”

I told him not to worry about it.  I dropped six dollars on the table – enough to cover the salad and drink – and said that if the kitchen was too busy to prepare a club sandwich in a half-hour, they were too busy for me to spend my money.  Again, that word – “busy.”  Again, I wasn’t asking anyone to fulfill an unreasonable function.  It was a restaurant, and I wanted to eat.  But what he said conveyed to me that I was an imposition, and I really hate to impose on people.

I don’t think salespeople or service people recognize what an off-putting word that is.  Speaking as a manager, I always hated it when my employees were “busy.”  I liked it when they were engaged in conversations, tasks, meetings, etc.  But usually when they were “busy,” I found that they were engaged in less-than-productive behavior – picking up dry cleaning, knocking off early, etc.

Sometimes, words are just “extra.”  They are words that convey nothing but negative meanings, and are unnecessary.  Here’s the kicker – the valet service at the Palms wasn’t even slow. The valet didn’t really need to say anything.  It took a few more minutes than what I was used to at the other casinos, but not enough to be a problem.  His “busy” declaration said nothing about the service I was about to receive – but everything about the attitude of the employees.

It was the same at the restaurant.  I knew that the restaurant was “busy,” i.e. that they had a lot of customers.  I could look around and see that for myself.  What I really wanted to know was, how much longer was I expected to cool my heels before having my sandwich?  And was there someone (i.e. my waiter) that was looking at the situation?  In this case, the answers were that he didn’t care enough to find out.

What’s the advice here?  Don’t be “busy.”  Be engaged.  Be helpful.  Care about your customers enough to learn the answers to their issues.  If you never say “busy” to a customer again, it will be a positive.

Troy’s Truth of Selling:  “Busy” is a word that only conveys negativity to the receipient.

In today’s economy, I find that many business owners have shifted their concerns and sales effort from acquiring new customers to a bear-hug-like effort at retaining their current customers (which, by the way, is the wrong approach to sales development, but I’ll deal with that in an upcoming HotSheet).  The trouble is that most of them look for complicated ways to retain customers when in fact the best way to do it is dirt-simple, and should be instinctive.

Think about this – how much money does your company invest in customer satisfaction surveys, mailings, customer appreciation days, loyalty reward programs, and the like?  These, of course, can be helpful in different ways, but the all-time greatest way to gauge the quality of your customer relationships (and hence retain your customers) is much cheaper and simpler:

Try to sell them something else.
That’s it. Really.  Try to sell them additional items, higher frequency of service, a higher quality of item, or anything else that could be considered an “upsell” or “development” sale.

How does this retain customers?  Simple.  You can’t sell someone something without talking to them, and the “secret” to retaining your customers is TALKING to them.  When I say “talking” to them, I mean HAVING A QUALITY CONVERSATION.  Most purely “retention” calls aren’t quality conversations.  They go something like this:

Salesperson:  “Hi, Mr. Customer.  Great to see you.  I just wanted to come by to let you know how much I appreciate your business.  How’s everything going?”

Customer:  “Fine, good.”

Salesperson:  “Good, glad to hear that.  Hey, did you see that football game Sunday?”
And there it goes.  The salesperson, confident that he has assessed the customer’s satisfaction, reports to his boss that everything is great with the customer.  And it goes on that way until the day that the customer leaves, catching everyone by surprise.  Why did this happen?  It happened because the salesperson stopped DIGGING, and PROBING, his customer.  The salesperson became complacent, and maybe even a little fear-driven, to really dig into the relationship.  The reason why is that salespeople don’t like to hear negativity, and digging can produce negativity.
However, there’s a way around this.  Try this conversation on instead:

Salesperson:  “Hi, Mr. Customer.  Great to see you.  I just wanted to come by to let you know how much I appreciate your business.  How’s everything going?”

Customer:  “Fine, good.”

Salesperson:  “Good, glad to hear that.  You know, I really do appreciate your fastener business, but I’d like to take a stab at helping you with your cutting tool needs, too.  We carry a great line of cutting tools, and can supply them at he same level of service we’re already giving you.  It’s the same truck, the same delivery person, and the same invoice; you save costs by having to deal with less vendors.  Can we have that conversation?”

Customer:  “Whoa, wait a minute.  I do like working with you, but we have some issues with your delivery person.  He’s not always on time, and he’s let us run out of items from time to time.  It’s not often, but I’d really rather address this issue first.”

See the difference in the two calls?  The second call included a pitch for additional items, but ended with an issue being raised by the buyer.  The buyer raised the issue because he wasn’t completely comfortable with the existing service level, an issue not exposed by the superficial nature of the first call.  At first blush, some salespeople might think that the first call went better.  They would be wrong.  The SECOND call went better, because now, knowing that an issue exists, the salesperson can work to fix it – thus increasing the probability of retaining the customer.  Also keep in mind that the retention of the customer was actually the WORST case scenario; the best case scenario would have been engaging the customer in a discussion on additional stuff.
“So,” you’re saying, “that sounds great, Troy.  But what if I’m already selling the customer everything I can?”  Good question.  In this case (and make sure it’s really true), you can still have an agenda.  That agenda can and should be to produce some gain.  Do I hear referrals?  Yep, I think I do.  Conduct a detailed business review and then ask for referrals.  Regardless, you should go into retention-customer calls with an agenda.  Here are five quick ways to build a good retention call:

1.  Sell an additional item.
2.  Sell a higher service level.
3.  Sell a price increase (really).
4.  Sell a higher quality item.
5.  Ask for a referral.

Each one of the above agendas will smoke out customer objections, and potentially result in greater profit and volume from current customers.  If that’s not a win-win, I don’t know what is.

Troy’s Truth of Selling: There is no better way to retain a current customer than to try to sell them something new.

Sometimes, you can get a column idea and a steak at the same time.

There’s nothing like getting real live inspiration for this column.  Such inspiration happened to me as I was eating out recently at a steakhouse.  It was one of the chain steakhouses that have sprung up all over the city, not one of our local gems.  But it was close, I was hungry, and they usually serve a perfectly acceptable sirloin.

I decided on one of their “summer specials,” a marinated sirloin with onions, mushrooms, and cheese on top (I think they called it their “Cardiologists’ Special”).  I dislike mushrooms, but liked everything else, so I asked the waitress if it could be fixed without the ‘shrooms.  She replied that it definitely could, she didn’t like them either, and in fact, that was the way that she ordered this particular steak.  Then, it started to go bad.

You’ve already guessed; when my steak arrived, it had mushrooms.  Since they were melted into the cheese, I couldn’t even pick them off.  Since someone besides our waitress had brought the food, and didn’t hang around to see if it was as ordered, I just slid the toppings off and started on the steak.  The steak itself wasn’t bad.

Five minutes went by, and finally, the waitress showed.  I told her about the mushrooms, and she immediately said, “I’ll have my manager talk to you,” and hustled away.  I should point out that at this point, I wasn’t upset at all – just mildly annoyed about the mistake.  I kept eating.  At about the time that I had finished most of my steak and potato (at least 10 minutes later), the manager arrived and said that she would “make it right for me.”

She asked if I wanted another steak (this was the first anyone had offered this).  I said, no, I’d already eaten as much as I could hold.  Then – this is my favorite part – she began to explain “how this happened.”  Apparently, the onions and mushrooms come pre-packed…blah, blah, blah.  I finally stopped her and told her that I didn’t particularly care how it happened.  I ordered it without, and it came with.  As the customer, that’s what I care about.  She then proceeded to tell me “how to order it correctly next time.”  NOW I’m getting irritated.  By the time she was done, she ended up knocking my meal off the ticket (I wouldn’t have asked if she hadn’t made me mad).  And I left agitated.  Now, let’s break this down and look at the mistakes they made, and things that YOU can avoid doing when something goes wrong:

Incorrect Order Taking:  When I asked if it could be fixed without mushrooms, the waitress rushed to say, “We can do that,” without recognizing that it would be a problem.  I’m the customer, and all I know is what I want.  I don’t know what you can do.  Had she told me that the ‘shrooms were part and parcel, I’d have ordered a different menu item and been perfectly happy.  The lesson is: Tell your customer up front what you can do well, and what you can’t.  Most of the time, your customer will adapt.

Slow Follow Up:  Our waitress waited entirely too long to see if our food was satisfactory and as-ordered.  Part of this was caused by the fact that someone other than our waitress brought our food (I hate that – if something needs to be done, the second person rarely takes care of it).  This was exacerbated by the long wait for the “manager.”  By the time she showed up, I’d had a chance to assume that they really didn’t care.  The lesson is:  Follow up on order satisfaction as soon as possible.  That means, “immediately.”

Not  Empowering Front Line Personnel:  As soon as she was aware there was a problem, the waitress immediately turned to her manager, rather than dealing with it herself.  That produces longer waits, and reduces the credibility of the waitress.  At most restaurants, wait staff is empowered to deal with re-orders and check adjustments.  The lesson is:  Empower your service and salespeople to fix the problem immediately, if not sooner.

Talking About Stuff the Customer Doesn’t Care About:  How many times do we see people, confronted with a problem, explain “how this happened” rather than “how we’ll fix it?”  I don’t care at all what happens back in the kitchen, and your customers don’t care what happens in the warehouse.  All they (and I) know is that our stuff is incorrect, and we expect you to deal with it.  Do otherwise, and it’s an excuse.  The lesson is:  Focus on fixing the problem, not blaming someone for it.

Blaming the Customer:  I didn’t really get irritated until she began telling me “how to order next time” so it would be right.  Her responsibility – and yours – is to make sure that the order aligns well with what your company does.  Your customer probably doesn’t know your processes, your chain of command, and your limitations – UNLESS YOU COMMUNICATE THEM PROPERLY.  The lesson is:  Explain to your customer what to expect up front, and make sure that you can fulfill those expectations.

The ironic thing is that I didn’t get irritated until they began “managing” the problem.  Am I mad now?  Of course not.  I got a free steak, and even got a column out of it.  However, if you don’t want your customers to write their own stories of your failure, you’re well served to learn the above lessons well.

Why has “Bar Rescue” been a wild success, and “Car Lot Rescue” a failure?

You probably know that I’m a sucker for sales-oriented, or more specifically business-oriented, TV programs.  I find it fun to see how much of “reality” actually makes it to reality TV.  For the last couple of years, one of my favorites has been “Bar Rescue,” on SpikeTV.  Bar Rescue, featuring John Taffer, a longtime expert in the bar and restaurant industry, has been a hit for Spike, and something of a cult favorite.

Spike recently tried to duplicate that success with “Car Lot Rescue,” featuring Tom Stuker, a consultant and trainer to the auto sales industry.  Stuker’s focus is on salesmanship, and good car lot business practices.  Spike even gave Car Lot Rescue a time slot right behind Bar Rescue, so it would have a good lead-in.  However, at this point, Car Lot Rescue appears to be dead.  Why?  I believe I know the answer – and it reveals much about both the TV show and the auto industry.

Bar Rescue was a very revealing show.  While the previews always focus on Taffer’s loud and bombastic style, the show gives viewers real insight into the science and solid business practices that make up a successful bar.  Taffer starts with basic blocking and tackling.  Inevitably, the failing bars have a cleanliness problem (something to think about the next time you decide to grab a burger in an obviously struggling establishment), and lackadaisical leadership.  Taffer works on these issues.

The fun, however, is the science of developing customized menus, drinks, pouring systems, physical layout and flow, and other things that typical bar customers don’t know.  Watch a couple of episodes, and you’ll be amazed at the science of running a successful bar.  It’s as sophisticated as any high-end business.  And Taffer’s methods WORK.  One of the most exciting parts of each episode is when Taffer designs a new concept for the bar – it’s not enough to shore up the fundamentals; he redesigns the whole establishment into something completely new, different, and exciting.  Then he re-launches it.

In contrast, Stuker is virtually a cartoon stereotype of a car salesman.  Loud, arrogant (at least on TV), with a big black cowboy hat, he looks precisely like the type of salesman that would cause many customers to turn away from driving into a dealership.  This would be all right if the show revealed intricacies of running a car lot that customers hadn’t seen.  Sadly, car lot customers are all too familiar with what Stuker teaches – get them in the car at all costs, don’t “let” the customer leave without talking to a manager, etc.  It turns them off on the lot – and they turn off the televisions.

Car Lot Rescue failed because there really is no peek behind the curtain.  It’s a rehash of hackneyed old tactics that customers didn’t like when they were invented, and like even less now. In watching it, I was struck by the fact that no one appeared to be having any fun – not the owners, not the salespeople, not the customers, and not Stuker himself.  Instead, it was a dreary look at a business that has itself gone dreary. It’s no wonder that it failed.

What I’d really love to see is Car Lot Rescue, featuring John Taffer.  If Taffer could redefine a car lot the way he redefines bars, they’d have to fight the customers off with a stick. I know I’ve harped on this in my columns before, but if there is any business that needs a reconceptualization, it’s the auto dealer.  It’s amazed me – ever since I was in that business – that we live in a country that is completely in love with the automobile (and justifiably so), yet so ambivalent about the actual experience of buying them.  It really doesn’t have to be that way.

Why can’t car dealerships be a celebration of the automobile, the way the most successful bookstores (like Barnes & Noble) are a celebration of reading?  Why can’t the industry grab ahold of the incredible level of turnover in the sales department, and move toward a level of stability in the sales force?  Why can’t they (finally) begin establishing relationships with their customers?

Yes, I’m positive that this column will offend some in the car business.  I criticize because I care.  If there’s any industry that needs a “rescue,” it’s the auto industry.  The methods are out there, the ideas are out there, and it could work.  All it takes is some people brave enough to try.

Meanwhile, look at your own business.  What do your customers think and experience?  Are you doing the basic blocking and tackling needed to succeed?  Is it time for your own “rescue?”

Are you really a “relationship salesperson?” Most people who think they are…aren’t.

In the world of sales, we’re great at creating divisions between types of selling.  Service sales vs. product sales; hunters vs. farmers; senior salespeople vs. rookies; etc.  Few people, however, are talking about the real divide in sales.  That’s the divide between “transactional selling” and “relationship selling.”

Of course, if you ask, nearly every salesperson is going to describe themselves as a “relationship salesperson.”  Very few of them actually are; probably 90% of our profession works in a transactional mode.  That was OK when a salesperson was necessary to foster and facilitate the transactions.  However, that’s all changed – now every salesperson has to be a real relationship salesperson.  Few salespeople really are, because few salespeople really know what a ‘relationship’ means in sales. If you keep reading, you will.

We’ll dispense with “prospects” for a moment – those are people who don’t buy from you currently, and haven’t bought from you (normally) for at least a year.  Instead, let’s talk about the people who do buy from you – your customers.  You probably think that you have a ‘relationship’ with all of your customers.  You probably don’t.  There are essentially three levels of customers:

The first level is the occasional buyer.  Occasional buyers view every purchase as a new selling process, and the sales effort that goes into the purchases (from your perspective) is nearly the same as a brand new sale.  OB’s shop you every time; they compare offerings and prices, and at the end, they make their purchasing decision with no regard for past experience.  You win or lose each sale based on its merits alone.  However – and this is important – with an OB, one mistake in fulfillment typically costs you the opportunity for future sales.

The second level is the habitual buyer.  Habitual buyers buy consistently from you because you’re who they buy from.  There’s no loyalty or emotional bond; you’re simply the card in their Rolodex.  That’s not all bad, of course – consistent revenue is a good thing – but again, you’re always vulnerable to your competition.  You’re vulnerable if you make a mistake (again, one mistake can cost you the business), and you’re vulnerable to good salespeople who understand how to turn HB’s into a temporary OB, and then prove their value over you (which, by the way, is a great tactic to take HB’s away from your competitors).

The final – and by far the best – level is the loyal customer.  Loyal customers buy from you because they have an attachment to you.  They appreciate what you do for them, and they are willing to evangelize for you by providing referrals, testimonials, etc.  LC relationships can withstand the occasional bumps in the road, including a mistake on your part or a competitor’s approach. If you hadn’t figured it out yet, LC’s are what we should be shooting for with every customer.  How do we get there?

It all has to do with the value that you provide your customer on each sales call.  This is the divide between transactional selling and relationship selling.  Transactional selling actually facilitates and encourages OB’s and HB’s to continue in their pattern; the goal of the sales ‘touches’ (whether in-person calls or otherwise) is to get another order.  When the order happens, the salesperson is gratified and moves on, thinking that he or she has ‘advanced a relationship.’

Relationship selling views the account strategically, and works to convert an OB first into an HB (it’s rare to skip that level from OB straight to LC).  A real relationship salesperson works to improve the customer’s condition on every sales call, through providing value in the call itself.  Relationship salespeople provide information, referrals, advice, counsel, and expertise – whether it’s tied to an order or not.  Does your customer have a need?  If you can fulfill it, great.  If not – can you help your customer find someone who can?  What best practices do you see that you can bring to your customer – even if it doesn’t involve another purchase?

Relationship selling also works to deepen the relationship and expand the pool of contacts within the customer.  Here’s a quick litmus test for your ‘relationships:’ if you want to speak to your contact’s boss, do you get resistance?  Relationship salespeople don’t, because the contact understands the salesperson’s need to meet more people and be a better vendor.  The contact also trusts that the salesperson will use that contact for mutual benefit.  Transactional salespeople encounter resistance because they haven’t broken the natural territorialism and haven’t established trust.

The real danger is in mistaking the first two types of customer (OB and HB) for the third type (LC).  You only really have built a relationship with your customer when they have reached the Loyal Customer level.  That’s because there are factors that are external to your performance on each order and transaction that keep you in place with the customer.  Most salespeople are smart enough to know that the Occasional Buyer isn’t a strong relationship; however, they kid themselves into thinking that the Habitual Buyer is.

If you’re wondering how to distinguish the HB’s from the LC’s, put the relationship to a test.  Ask for referrals.  Ask for testimonials.  Ask one of the all-time scariest questions ever:  “How vulnerable are we to our competition?”  And if you’re scared to do these things, then you already know they’re not a Loyal Customer; you just haven’t admitted it to yourself yet.

Transactional selling is becoming obsolete, because customers can research, compare, and complete transactions without the intervention of a salesperson (the Internet again).  However, relationship selling – done right – will never become obsolete.

The secret to selling success in 2013 may be found in an ancient Latin phrase.

I was talking, a few days ago, with a friend of mine who asked me if I had any curriculum on “identifying buyer types.”  He had worked with a philosophy before that placed buyers into four different “types” for the purposes of knowing how to sell to them.  It was all part of the salesperson’s “game plan,” he said.  Now,this guy has been very successful over the years.  I respect him.  But I can and do disagree, from time to time, with people I respect.  This was one example.

I told my friend, “I have a very simple method of determining the number of buyer types that there are.  Simply count up all the people, and then multiply by one.”  I explained that my process is centered on dealing with people as INDIVIDUALS, not “types,” and that, for me, it has been more successful.  This, however, led me into an internal dialogue about how much head-baggage salespeople can carry into a sales call.  Canned presentations, fake rapport tactics, buyer identification tactics, and so forth, can really trash a call before it gets a chance to thrive.  And I returned to a concept that I discuss in my book, Sell Like You Mean It!  There are two words that most salespeople don’t know, and every salesperson should.

They are: Tabula Rasa.  That’s a Latin phrase meaning “Blank slate,” and it’s the foundation of high school and college debate (which I participated and excelled in), as well as legal proceedings.  It’s also the foundation of today’s successful selling.  Stick with me.  Essentially it means that the debate, proceeding, etc., begins with no presumption whatsoever, and that concepts and contentions become “fact” as they are stipulated to, proven, or agreed upon.
One of the key skills in debate – and law – is the ability to see and react to what is happening.  That’s an essential skill of selling, too.  Here’s how this manifests itself in selling.

When we walk into a sales call with highly structured presentations, manipulation techniques, and other strategies of the kind, we remove the individual characteristic from each sales call.  Essentially, we treat one customer like the next – even though they aren’t.  While a salesperson is trying to pigeonhole his buyer into one of four boxes, the customer is trying to express an individual need – and usually failing.

A tabula rasa approach is much better.  With this approach, the salesperson has two objectives:

 First, to learn about the buyer and the buyer’s individual needs and situation.  Second, to improve the buyer’s condition through the sales call itself. The salesperson does so by lending his/her expertise to the buyer’s situation.  What the salesperson recommends, presents, and proposes, is not preplanned – instead, it is the result of the questioning phase of the sales process.  The salesperson reads and reacts.

Does that mean that the salesperson goes into a call and just wings it?  Far from it.  The salesperson has  a game plan – but that plan consists of the questions he/she plans to ask.  The rest of the call is dependent entirely upon the answers to those questions, and the needs expressed.

This sales call approach places burdens that are demanding and different upon the tabula rasasalesperson.  Those burdens are completely in line with the changes in the selling world.

First, the salesperson must be an expert questioner.  The ability to read off a list of questions and write down the answers doesn’t make you an expert.  The salesperson who succeeds with this approach is the salesperson who can formulate excellent, deeply probing questions on the spot – with the pathway of the call determined by the answers.

Second, the salesperson must be an excellent listener.  Most people say they are – few really are.  This salesperson must be able to capture information and the information behind the answer – and then drill down appropriately.

Finally, the salesperson must be an agile thinker with the ability to craft presentations on the spot that speak directly to the buyer’s needs and situation.  Further, the salesperson must be able to interpret the information given by the buyer and use that information to create the presentation.

This type of tabula rasa selling isn’t easy.  In fact, it’s demanding as heck; much more demanding that memorizing lists of questions, presentation statements, and canning yourself up.  But it’s incredibly rewarding, both in terms of the effectiveness of your sales calls and in terms of the fun you’ll have in selling.

What does “credibility” really mean?

A while back, I was interviewed by a writer for a trade magazine regarding the most desirable characteristics in sales.  She asked me what the #1 characteristic a salesperson needed to possess to succeed with his or her customers.  I know that she was expecting me to say, “Trust,” but I didn’t.  I said, “Credibility.”  She was taken a bit aback, and said, “What do you mean?”

I replied that my definition of credibility is this:  Credibility means that people believe what you are saying because it is you that says it.  They don’t feel the need to check your sources, research your facts and claims, etc.  Credibility means that, in the customer’s mind, “Troy said it.  That’s good enough for me.”  The writer asked, “Isn’t that just another word for trust?”  I replied, “No, not at all.  Credibility works at a higher level than trust.  Trust is simply one of the prerequisites for credibility.”  I explained it to her, and I’ll explain it to you.

In professional selling, trust means that the customer believes that you would not intentionally steer them wrong, and that you have their best interests at heart. That word, “intentionally,” is a big deal.  “Trust” means that the customer allows for you to make mistakes in your verbiage, in your claims, in your references, and in your recommendations – and if the customer allows for these mistakes, that means that they will back-check at least some of those potential mistakes.  You cannot have credibility without trust, but you can have trust without credibility.

See the difference?  Credibility means that they don’t back-check you.  Can we agree, then, that credibility is a much higher level of dialogue with the customer?  Let’s talk about how to achieve it.

First, achieving credibility means taking something of a sales Hippocratic oath:  “First, do no harm.”  In sales, that could mean, “First, make no false statements.”  This is a big problem for salespeople for a couple of reasons.  The first reason is that salespeople want to be seen as experts – even if they’re not.  Now, I’ve said before that becoming an expertise provider should be the goal of every salesperson; part of expertise, however, is realizing what you don’t know.  The salesperson who decides to “wing it” and gives a false answer forever calls his claims into question.

The second reason is that salespeople fear giving the “I’ll get you that answer” answer to a question because it can slow down the selling process.  Well….maybe it does, and maybe it doesn’t.  The advent of technology means that we can be far more prepared with resources to answer questions than we used to be.  I once sold for a distributor of bearings and power transmission products that represented and stocked over 150 product lines.  If I needed technical information on all of them, my car wouldn’t have been able to store all the catalogs and technical documents I needed!

Today, however, we can carry all those documents – or access to them – on a smartphone.  Think about it for a minute.  What if you carried all your technical information on micro-SD cards (or whatever memory source your phone takes), labeled, so that if you had a particularly tough question to answer, you could simply load the proper document on your phone and give the CORRECT answer?  That wouldn’t slow the process and your customer would respect your efforts.  This, by the way, is one way that even rookie salespeople can generate credibility very quickly.

Another way of generating credibility is getting in front of particular problems.  If there is going to be a problem such as a delayed delivery, incorrect product spec, etc., the credible salesperson finds out about it before the customer, and communicates with the customer as soon as possible – rather than just letting the delivery happen incorrectly and letting everything hit the fan.

A third way of generating credibility is never throwing your team members under the bus to the customer.  This is difficult, but it’s the most common way I see that salespeople blow any potential for credibility.  You win as a team, and you lose as a team – and when you lose, the credible salesperson says, “we messed up,” not “they messed up.”  Take the lumps for everyone else – and then, fix problems in-house and behind closed doors.

Finally – and I know that this will hit some of you hard – credible salespeople stay at their jobs for a reasonable period of time.  I talk to a lot of salespeople who change jobs on a frequent basis, and it hurts your credibility, both in the interview process and in the selling process.  If you’re going back to your customers on an annual basis and saying, “Guess what – I’m selling something different now!”, you’re not going to have any credibility whatsoever.

Gaining credibility requires more than sales skills.  It requires discipline in your actions and your conversations.  It is, however, worth the effort, because it’s the highest level of business relationship you can achieve.

Many companies claim to be “sales organizations.”  Few are.

In my years of experience in working with (and for) companies large and small, I have discovered that there is a common element to the most successful businesses.  The most successful companies have asales culture.  A “sales culture” is a philosophy that permeates the company, from the corner office to the loading dock, that says, essentially, “We are a sales organization, and everything else we are able to do is a product of our ability to profitably sell our products or services to our customers.”

This isn’t a philosophical statement; it’s reality.  The only difference is whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.  It’s reality because no matter how good your products or services, if you can’t persuade someone to exchange money for those products or services, there’s no reason for production or service to exist, and hence your business will cease to exist.  An acquaintance of mine attempted to make a go of it as a financial consultant, and to be frank, he was the most brilliant financial guy I’ve ever met.  He’s now working for someone else as a CFO – because despite his brilliance, he was unable to make a single sale.

It’s easy to define yourself as a “Sales organization;” it’s harder to live it.  That’s because your company culture is the sum total of all of the messages – spoken and unspoken – that you send your employees.  Your culture is defined by the things you say, the people you hire, and the actions you take.  For instance, I once worked for a company that constantly claimed that the sales managers were the most important department managers in the company; yet, when it came time to promote department managers, the sales managers never got a look.  That let us know where we really stood.

The most successful companies both acknowledge and embrace the idea that they are first and foremost a sales organization, and that culture flows from the top.  It flows from the top because it must.  Despite the protestations of those who advocate bottom-up leadership, the reality is that any corporate culture is set not by the employees at ground and field level, but by the overriding philosophy of management.  That’s you, by the way.  So, let’s assume for the moment that you have decided that your company needs to accept and embrace a sales culture.  How do we go about that? Here are two quick ways.

Set the mission:  First of all, whatever your mission statement, throw it away.  I know, it’s something that you’ve put a lot of thought into and probably has some great phrasing.  It’s probably also something that your employees couldn’t remember if a gun were put to their heads.  Let’s replace it with something simple like this:  “We are a sales organization, and we grow profitably by Acquiring new customers, Developing current customers to greater profitability, and Retaining profitable business.”  Use this as the mantra that guides your company’s decision making.

Reinforce the culture:  As you’ve probably guessed, it’s not enough to have some meetings, say “we are a sales organization,” and call it good.  Cultures happen because they are reinforced, directly or indirectly.  For this to work, key decisions must be made based on the new mission statement:  “Does this decision help us to acquire, develop, or retain customers?”  That doesn’t mean that non-sales departments starve; that new machine for the plant may be completely justified by its benefits in product quality.  The raises for the production staff may be appropriate to reward them for their part in acquiring, developing, and retaining customers.  It does mean that your company has one universal criteria for spending, personnel allocations, and any other key decision making.

The Benefits:  There are numerous benefits to aligning your company around a sales culture.  The biggest is this:  Sales focused companies tend to produce excellence in every department.  The reason is simple:  Companies with a strong sales department cannot stay bad or mediocre in other areas; if they do, those sales gains will quickly be lost through customer dissatisfaction and attrition.  As noted earlier, good sales departments tend to lift other departments through necessity.  This is not true of other departmental objectives; an excellent production department seldom creates pressure on other departments to up their games.

On the whole, organizations that center their culture around the process of profitable growth tend to achieve that growth, year after year.  It’s not easy, but the results are worth it.

Salespeople who are “actively engaged” are the most productive.  Here’s why.

Here’s a fun little stat to start your Thursday.  Gallup, on a quarterly basis, surveys employees to learn how many are “actively engaged,” “disengaged,” or “actively disengaged” in their work.  The specific quarter never seems to matter; the percentages tend to be consistent within a few points.  Typically, only 30% are “actively engaged,” meaning that they feel an emotional connection to their workplaces and are likely to be highly productive.

50% are “disengaged,” meaning that they go through the motions.  20% are “actively disengaged,” meaning that they are actively working to hurt the company that they are working for.  In my experience, that’s a typical distribution of salespeople, as well; the “actively engaged” people are the top performers.  However, one thing that I find in selling is that many salespeople will say that they are engaged without being engaged.  If you’re wondering if you’re really “actively engaged” or not, here are some characteristics of an engaged salesperson.

They Maximize Customer Contact:  You know what your customers’ and prospects’ “window” is.  The “window” is that space of time where your customers are available to be contacted.  For most in the B2B world, it’s 8 AM to 5 PM weekdays.  Whatever your “window” is, the engaged salesperson works – CONSTANTLY – to maximize meaningful customer contact during those hours.  That means dedicating yourself to setting appointments, optimizing your schedule to minimize drive-time and other distractions, and spending as much face time as possible with your customers and prospects.  Here’s another stat from my own surveying.  Most salespeople spend less than 8 hours per week eyeball-to-eyeball with customers.  The best will get 15-20.

They Make Every Call Meaningful:  I’ve been talking about something that I call “The Purpose Driven Sales Call” for years.  Most sales calls are agenda-free, and value-free, for both the salesperson and the customer.  When I was in the industrial sales business, we called them “P.R. Calls.”  Even on those calls, there was some potential value attached, since my customers had to deal with a salesperson (me or a competitor) to place their orders.  Since the Internet has allowed customers to order without us, the P.R. Call is obsolete.  The engaged salesperson makes sure that every call has an agenda attached, and that agenda will be based on a “win” for the customer, and a “win” for the salesperson that will allow the salesperson to advance the relationship.

They Don’t Have to be Told Twice:  Recently, a client came to me with a concern.  It seems that one of his new salespeople hadn’t built a LinkedIn profile.  As you know, I’m not a believer that social networking is the be-all and end-all of selling, but let’s face it – in today’s world, if you don’t have a quality LinkedIn profile, you’re a long way behind the times. It seemed that this client had instructed his new salesperson that a LinkedIn profile was a basic part of his job, and that the salesperson had neglected to set one up for six weeks.  To me, that’s a concern; salespeople shouldn’t have to be told multiple times to use important sales tools.

They are Self Reliant:  I’ve always viewed the salesperson as an independently functioning business generation machine.  This relates a bit to the point above, but entirely too many salespeople have to be told to prospect, given leads, handed this, and handed that.  Don’t get me wrong – resources like marketing campaigns, etc. are nice – but if those aren’t available, the engaged salesperson finds ways to make things happen on his/her own.

They are Constantly Focused on Growth:  This is probably the underlying characteristic of the engaged salesperson.  He/she wakes up in the morning asking, “What can I do today to grow my business?”  and ends the day asking, “What did I do to grow the business?”

As I said above, most salespeople – unfortunately – simply go through the motions.  The truth is that engaging yourself isn’t that much harder, it’s far more rewarding, and it’s a heck of a lot more fun.  Be honest with yourself.  If you’re not fulfilling the above points, today might be a good day to start.