Once upon a time, “How to use sales intelligence” meant using your brainpower!  Don’t get me wrong, you still should use your brainpower, but today, “sales intelligence” means something additional. I’ve been talking for several months now about the need for you to adopt and use technology into your sales skill set in order to maximize your time with your customers.  I’ve mostly been talking about AI tools, with some CRM and social media sprinkled in, but let’s take a step back and talk about another aspect of sales technology.

“Sales intelligence,” in today’s world, means using tech tools to learn more about your customers, your prospects, your competitors, and even your own company, in real time.  Today, I’m going to talk about a couple of the most common – and important – tech tools you can use.  One is free, one costs – but you’re happy to invest in your career, right?  Let’s dive in.

Before we talk about these specific tools, what you should know is this:  These tools keep you abreast of change.  When change happens, money is made (or lost).  For example, let’s say that there’s a prospect company that you’ve targeted, but you can’t get in to save your life – your contact is stonewalling you.  That isn’t fun, and I’ve been there.  BUT – then you get an alert that your contact has changed jobs!  That’s change, and it represents opportunity.  To take advantage of these opportunities, you need to be abreast of change.  That’s where these tools come in.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator:

First, we’ll talk about the one that costs.  Full disclosure – I didn’t adopt this one early, but I have adopted it and I use the heck out of it. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a pretty powerful tool that lets you learn more about your customers and prospects, as well as connect with them. By leveraging its features, you can gain deeper insights into their targets, thus cultivating more personalized and impactful interactions, connections, and relationships.

With LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can (and should) track key updates and activities of their connections and prospects. This includes monitoring job changes, company updates, and shared content, which can offer talking points for initial outreach or follow-up conversations. Additionally, Navigator’s advanced search capabilities enable you to identify potential leads based on specific criteria such as industry, location, job title, and company size. With this info, you can create a database for targeted marketing and sales outreach, as well as stay on top of future developments.

Sales Navigator’s “Lead Recommendations” feature further assists by suggesting potential leads that align with the salesperson’s existing network and preferences. By providing these curated suggestions, the tool streamlines the prospecting process and expands the scope of potential connections.  Yes, I use it, and for that reason.  I’ve scored some wins that way and you can, too.

Moreover, the “InMail” messaging functionality enables direct communication with prospects outside of one’s immediate network, providing an opportunity to start dialogues and create relationships.  HOWEVER – be careful with this one.  People get carpet-bombed with InMails on LinkedIn.  If you’re going to use this, do it carefully and make sure that the messages are PERSONALIZED.

Sales professionals can also monitor company pages to stay on top of company developments and industry trends. This awareness allows you to tailor your pitch to address specific needs or business challenges that the prospect’s company might be facing.   Again – change represents opportunity.  And this can be opportunities to win or to lose.  If your contact is leaving, they can refer you to someone different.  Oh – and you ARE following your competitors’ pages, right?

To take it to another level, LinkedIn Sales Navigator helps you fulfill the “high, wide, and deep” relationship-building that should be at the core of every sales effort you make.  People change jobs a lot these days, and your approach should be to never be left without a contact when someone does change.

Google News Alerts

This is one of the oldest intelligence tools, but Google News Alerts remains a valuable intelligence tool for salespeople seeking to stay informed about their customers, prospects, and industry trends. By setting up customized alerts, you can receive timely updates that enable them to tailor your sales strategies effectively.

You can create Google News Alerts using specific keywords related to their industry, target companies, or even individual prospects. This proactive approach ensures that they receive notifications whenever relevant news articles, press releases, or mentions are published online.

Let’s say that you are targeting a specific company. You can set up an alert for the company’s name. This way, you’ll receive real-time updates on any developments, mergers, acquisitions, or product launches related to the company. This information provides you with conversation starters and helps you align yourself with the prospect’s current needs or challenges.  Admittedly, this approach works better as your prospects get bigger (because bigger companies will have more press releases and news articles), but don’t overlook it for prospects at any level.

Additionally, by monitoring industry trends and news, you can demonstrate you expertise, relevance, and value to prospects. You can engage in conversations based on recent news articles or reports, showcasing your understanding of the market and your ability to provide solutions that address emerging issues.  This works very well if you’re starting to penetrate a new market or vertical, or even if you’re working the same market you’ve been working for years.

Here are a few other tools that I think you should check out.  Some I’ve used, some I’m just learning about, but you should at least know about them:

1. HubSpot CRM: HubSpot offers a free CRM that’s intuitive and simple to use. This is the one that I use, and if you don’t have a CRM – get this one and get started with it.  It allows you to manage contacts, track interactions, and log important details about prospects and customers. The CRM also offers email tracking, which notifies you when an email is opened, providing insights into prospect engagement.  Confession time – I’ve personally used this feature to win deals.  There’s nothing like seeing an alert that a contact has opened an email of mine and then sending them an email saying, “Hey, I was just thinking about you.”  Once, this feature revitalized a project that had been in my dead proposal file for three years!
2. Crystal Knows: Crystal Knows is a personality assessment tool that analyzes public data to predict someone’s personality and communication style. It’s a useful tool for tailoring communication strategies and building rapport with prospects.  I haven’t used this – but you can bet that I’m going to learn more about it and give it a shot.  I’m intrigued.
3. Nimble: Nimble is a social CRM that gathers information from social media platforms and other sources to provide you with a comprehensive view of your contacts’ online activity and interests.  Again, this isn’t one that I’ve used yet. But the intriguing feature is the social media integration.  Look for more info on this one in a future Navigator.
4. Feedly: Feedly is an RSS feed reader that helps salespeople stay updated on industry blogs, news, and thought leadership articles. It’s an efficient way to keep a finger on the pulse of relevant information.  I’ve used this one a little bit, and I like what I’ve seen.  Again, this is really useful if you’re trying to penetrate a new industry.
5. Hootsuite: While primarily known for social media management, Hootsuite can also help salespeople monitor social media activity related to their prospects and industry, enabling timely engagement.  I’ve used this one off and on over the years, but the feature that I’ve used the most is the ability to pre-schedule social media posts.  As platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have added post scheduling, this app has gotten a little less useful for me – but the social media monitoring is useful and deserves a second look.

I know I’ve gone down the tech alley quite a bit lately, but that’s because it’s important and relevant.  I was asked the other day whether salespeople should use technology or develop their sales skills – and my answer was, “Yes.”  It’s not an either/or situation.  You need to do both.  Salespeople who know how to use sales intelligence tools will have an edge on salespeople who don’t – and if they continually develop and update their skills, they’ll be stronger still.

Next week, we’ll talk about a pure selling skill that you should incorporate into your approach.

I’m going to present two ideas to you right now that seem contradictory.  First – you should be using AI tools like ChatGPT to make you more productive, effective, and efficient as a salesperson. Second – you absolutely MUST be authentically you when you’re dealing with your customers and prospects.  You might be saying, “Troy, wait, WHAT?”  Bear with me for a minute.  It’s possible to do both.

As a salesperson, your success hinges on your ability to establish genuine connections with your clients. But in an age where technology is becoming increasingly integrated into our processes, how can you maintain your unique personality and authenticity? It’s possible.  You can absolutely integrate your own personality with AI and come up with a very effective result.  Here are seven ways.

1. Start with a Strong Foundation by Defining Yourself

Authenticity is the cornerstone of effective sales communication. People still want to buy from people, and whether you are engaging with prospective clients or nurturing existing relationships, your personal touch sets you apart. Start by laying a solid foundation of your personal brand and core values. Define what makes you unique as a salesperson – your tone, style, and values that resonate with your audience. This foundation keeps you centered as you integrate AI into your interactions.

2. Embrace ChatGPT as Your Intern, Not Your Replacement

My friend Chase Aucoin likes to say that “ChatGPT is the best intern you ever had. It’s smarter than you, has 20 Ph.D.’s, and has no street smarts whatsoever.”  ChatGPT can’t replace you.  In fact, rather than replacing your role, it augments your efforts and makes you more effective. You can use ChatGPT as a tool to streamline tasks, gather insights, and brainstorm ideas – it can even role-play an upcoming sales call with you, as I showed in my recent Webinar. When you are creating messages, provide the AI with your initial input, and then refine the response to align with your personality and communication style. This approach ensures that while AI provides assistance, your authentic voice remains front and center. More on this in a moment.

3. Tailor Your Messaging

One size does not fit all in sales communication. Embrace the flexibility that ChatGPT offers and tailor your messages to each recipient. Before reaching out, take a moment to understand the individual’s preferences, needs, and drivers. Incorporate this knowledge into your AI-assisted message to create a personalized touch that resonates with your recipient. The goal is to demonstrate that you’ve invested time in understanding them, building a foundation of trust.

4. Know When to Step In Personally

While ChatGPT can handle routine interactions, there are moments that demand the human touch. Complex negotiations, empathetic responses during difficult situations, and delicate discussions are best left to your expertise. Recognize when to switch from AI-driven communication to your personal touch.

5. Cultivate a Consistent Brand Voice

Your authenticity shines when you have a consistent brand voice across all touchpoints. Whether it’s an email, a social media post, or a chat message, ensure that your personality resonates throughout. ChatGPT can help maintain this consistency, offering suggestions that align with your established brand tone.  The key here is to teach ChatGPT who you are, how you communicate, and what tone you’d like to take.

6. Learn, Refine, and Repeat

Authenticity isn’t about flawless communication; it’s about real connections. Embrace the occasional imperfections that arise from using AI tools – and you WILL have imperfections. If a response doesn’t quite capture your voice, take a moment to revise and refine it. Emphasize that you’re human and learning, which adds a relatable layer to your interactions.  I always say that AI gives you 80% content – the other 20% has to come from you.

7. Be Transparent

When using ChatGPT, don’t shy away from disclosing that you’re employing AI assistance – like I did in writing this article. Transparency builds trust and shows that you value open communication. Most clients appreciate your efficiency in utilizing technology to enhance their experience.  Honestly, I hope you do, as well!

NOTE:  From here on out, it’s all Troy – no AI assistance.  So I let you peek behind the curtain and told you that I used ChatGPT to write this article.  Was it still in my voice?  I think it was; if it wasn’t, you wouldn’t be reading it.  Let’s open the curtain a bit more and I’ll show you what I did and how I did it, because maybe that will help you use this tool for your own messaging.

First, I knew I wanted to write an article about how to maintain authenticity with AI, because it’s a huge issue. I had a general idea of the point that I wanted to get across, and of the seven bullets above, six of them were in my head, but not the wording.  So, I prompted ChatGPT to see what I’d get.

A huge factor in success with ChatGPT is in how you prompt it.  Remember GIGO – Garbage In, Garbage Out.  Here’s the prompt I used:

I’m writing an article for my weekly e-newsletter. I’m Troy Harrison, the Sales Navigator. You don’t need to introduce me in the article, just telling you that for context. The audience is business owners, sales managers, and salespeople. The focus of the article is to tell salespeople how they can maintain authenticity and their own personality while using ChatGPT to help with sales communication. Can you give me about 600 words on this, please?

I took what it gave me, copied and pasted it (note – always use “paste without formatting” so you won’t get a gray box background), and then I hit “regenerate.”  Think of it as you would a doctor – it’s always good to get a second opinion.

From there, I mixed, matched, and deleted bullet points until I had a format that I liked.  Then I went through and added my own verbiage and commentary.  None of the bullet points above is verbatim from ChatGPT – all of them have been changed to reflect my voice.  For instance, ChatGPT likes “buzzwords” a lot, and I don’t – so I took them out and put my own plainer language in.  And the first paragraph was all me, because I didn’t like the way it introduced the topic.

I could have continued to refine the prompt to get closer and closer to my desired article, but honestly, I thought it would be quicker and better to just do it myself – but I’d encourage you, as you’re playing with it, to keep refining your prompts.

One other note – I always put a target word count in, no matter what I’m doing.  ChatGPT likes words even more than I do (mind-boggling, I know), and you might get a 1000 word dissertation when you’re looking for a two-paragraph email.  In fact, I had this conversation yesterday with a prospective client.

What’s the bottom line?  Well, it’s this.  I just created a 1200 word article on an important topic, made sure it was in my voice, and have it ready to send to you.  And it took me exactly 26 minutes. I’m a fast writer, but not that fast – this would have easily been over an hour had I done it without assistance.  Those extra minutes are minutes I can devote to other tasks – just like you can.

Use this technology.

Get better at it – it’s a skill.

Always put your own voice in.

Succeed.

Repeat.

And that’s how to use ChatGPT and still be authentically you.

This week’s Navigator is inspired by one that I wrote twelve years ago, and actually incorporates part of it.  That post was called, “When Salespeople Get Older,” and it was inspired by a true story – you’ll read that in this article.  When I read my Google Analytics this month, I was shocked to find out that it was my most-visited page on my website, and that in fact it’s been one of the most visited pages on my site for a long time. It seems like a lot of people want to know how to manage a long sales career. What makes that resonate so much?

Well, being “of a certain age” myself, I think that there are a lot of us right now who are looking ahead at our careers, working hard to stay relevant, and at the same time, there are a lot of managers out there working on keeping their more seasoned salespeople ahead of the learning curve.  And, yes, there are a lot of salespeople who are now thinking about a well-deserved retirement.  For the record, I’m not one of them – I’m having WAY too much fun now to think about retiring! Still, this is a topic worth discussing.  How do salespeople stay relevant in the present, finish with a flourish, and retain the fruits of our labors?  Within this article will be (hopefully) great advice for salespeople in every phase of their careers.

Sales can be a tough career – mentally, emotionally, and even physically.  As you probably know, I worked in the car business for three years at the start of my career. In that time, I worked for three different dealerships (one long engagement, two short ones) before pointing myself in another direction. Since then, I’ve rarely crossed paths with people from back then; the car business tends to be a bit insular. But there are many, many people who have a long sales career in that business.

On the morning that inspired “When Salespeople Get Older,” I had received a resume’ from the owner of one of those dealerships.  He didn’t remember me; I only worked for him for a few months (his dealership was the one that convinced me that the car business wasn’t my long term gig). That guy had, at the time, a pretty profitable business. He had a great house, a ’58 Corvette (which I still would love to have), and was making money hand over fist – which is why the tenure and tone of the resume’ was so shocking. Since selling out over 10 years previous, he’d bounced from job to job, mostly in one year or shorter engagements, and in a downwards direction. His “job objective,” as stated on the resume’? “A stable living for my family and some means for retirement.” It made me sad, even though I didn’t particularly like the guy. But here’s the kicker; this is the career trajectory of entirely too many salespeople.

Entirely too many salespeople peak many years before they retire, and then they ride a spiral of unsuccessful short engagements to – where? I honestly don’t know.  Many salespeople tend to peak, in terms of performance, about 15-20 years into their selling career. Then they hit the wrong side of the bell curve, and go downward faster than they went up.

My question is, “why?” I still sell, after 33 years, and to be honest, it’s more fun for me now than it ever was. Part of that is because I’m self-employed and doing something that I truly love, but part of it is that the zest for the sales call has never left me. I’ve interviewed enough of the previous types of salespeople to know that this is the key issue. For many of the salespeople that are on a downward spiral, something happened – some event or turmoil – that knocked the pins out from under them. Psychologically, they’ve never been able to recover. For others, they simply stopped learning and growing at some point in the past, and they’re just trying to coast and collect. Let’s talk about how to make you NOT be one of those people.  Here are a few ways to keep your sales career vibrant and productive until YOU decide that it’s time to ride into the sunset.

1. Fall Back in Love With Selling. What I find, in talking to them, is that they literally can’t remember what they loved about selling; they have too easy a time focusing on the negative things that have happened. This typically leads to call reluctance (low quantity of activity) and poor call performance (low quality of activity), which leads to repeated failures. Since selling success is so mindset-dependent (I can’t think of any other discipline in business where enthusiasm is so critical to performance), a poor mindset equals a declining career. Worse, motivation is so individually based, it’s extremely difficult for others to re-energize a salesperson who has lost their zest for the job.
2. Keep Reminders of Successes. One common thread of many of the people I’m describing is that they can’t remember details of past successes very well; they are able to focus on recent failures. So, here’s my advice to you: start keeping reminders of your success NOW. Keep a journal, and make sure to put in plenty of details about WHY, and HOW, you are successful. Basically it will be your own training and motivation manual, and it will help you get back on track. I still have trophies, letters, and awards that I won 20 or more years ago.  Why?  Because every now and then, looking at them puts me back in that place and mindset when those trophies were placed into my hands.  They are very personal to me, to the point that I don’t take pictures of them or share them on social media, but they’re important.
3. Never Stop Learning. There are few things more gratifying to me than giving presentations or Webinars and seeing salespeople in their 60s, 70s, and even beyond who are still involved, still engaged, and still want to do better and learn more so they can be a better help to their customers and be valuable to their companies.  Those are people who are still in love with sales.  I talked to a salesperson last week who is 78 and learning how to use AI.  In fact, he sent me a short follow-up email thanking me for our conversation.  About 80% of it was written with ChatGPT.  He’s just starting with it, but I guarantee you that in a few months, he’ll be really good at it.  That’s a guy who still loves this profession.  Continuous learning not only helps you to stay relevant, it keeps you excited about what you do.  Stagnant salespeople stop learning – and that infects every part of their game.
4. Don’t Fall For “Toy Motivation.” I am a bit of a contrarian in my profession, because I break with a lot of the old ways of managing and motivating salespeople.  One of those ways is called “Toy Motivation,” and it’s still being practiced today.  The idea behind “Toy Motivation” is that the manager finds out what “toys” the salesperson really wants – a new Cadillac, a jet ski, a boat, whatever – and then influences the salesperson to buy those things as soon as humanly possible. The idea here is that in the short term, the salesperson lives beyond his or her means, which makes them “hungrier,” and therefore motivated to sell more.  What it usually does is lead to financial disaster – which can be one of those events that knocks the pins out from under a salesperson.  I’ve seen this many times. Frankly, I find it immoral for a manager to knowingly urge a salesperson to make bad financial decisions, and even more immoral for a trainer to influence a manager to do so.  A pox on all their houses.  While you are saving reminders of the successes in your long sales career (see #2 above), don’t forget to save some of the actual fruits of your labors as well.  Make good financial decisions, and if a manager tries to influence you otherwise, find another job where you are respected as a human being.  I have no leeway on this one.

And finally, if you truly lose your zest for selling and can’t get it back, find another way to make a living. It’s a big old business world out there, and there are many rewarding spots for people other than salespeople – and your long sales career can give you a leg up in any discipline. There’s no shame in leaving the profession; there are other ways to have success.

When I started my first sales management job in 1998, my boss, Darren Pearce, told me that I had the most fun job in the building – if I did it right.  “Troy, your job is just to produce success and be a hero.”  I’ve never forgotten that.  I hope none of you forget that, either.

“Your price is too high.”  “Your competitor has a lower price than you do.”  There are many, many ways to handle this objection.  All of them – except one – are LAME.  They cost you money, time, and business.  And worse, damn few salespeople are willing to execute the one way that works.  Maybe you should be one of the few and the proud.  No more preamble – let’s dig into the most common objection in selling and how you can sell through (not around) it.

Most of the time, the first step that salespeople take, upon hearing the “price objection,” is to soil themselves.  Then and only then will they start saying a bunch of stupid sh….uh, I mean “stuff,” that costs them money and is usually futile in winning the sale.  Let’s look at a few representative samples and then we’ll talk about the one strategy that works when your customer says, “Your price is too high.”

1. “My price is high compared to what?” This is one of the oldest and most annoying sales tactics in the book. Your price is too high compared to what your customer expected to pay, or wants to pay.  It’s designed to make the customer feel dumb for not knowing what an appropriate price should be, and it makes the salesperson and the customer into adversaries.  That’s never a good tactic.
2. “My competitor offered a lower price? You know they’re just lowballing and they’ll raise your prices later, right?”  Bad idea. First of all, you are insulting the customer’s intelligence, because you’re saying that they are too dumb to know that they’ll get a price increase later.  Secondly, are you going to guarantee that the customer’s prices will never go up?  If so, great!  If not, then you’re only debating on who will increase prices more and sooner.  That’s very, very shaky ground to be on.
3. “My competitor offered a lower price? Well, get their offer out and let’s compare apples to apples.”  If there is any phrase in selling that is like fingernails on the blackboard to me, it’s “apples to apples.”  It’s lowest common denominator, low- IQ selling, and it’s one of the oldest, most hackneyed phrases in the book.  There are many reasons why this is a stupid thing to say.  First of all, you’re saying, “Well, let’s make us just like them.”  Considering that you’ve spent your selling time until now saying that you are different than your competitors, why would you want to then level the playing field with them?  That’s dumb.  You aren’t an apple.  They are.  But even more importantly, this is again an insulting tactic because you’re telling the customer that they’re too dumb to read the words written on a page and interpret them correctly.  Customers don’t buy from salespeople who make them feel dumb.
4. “I want the last shot at the price.” What you’re saying here is that the numbers on your proposal mean nothing until all the other competitors have checked in – and then your price will be determined by theirs.  Make no mistake – if you don’t know how much your stuff should cost the customer until you know what your competitors are charging, you suck at your business.  Would you let your competitors walk into your office and write your price manual for you?  No? Then don’t let it happen here.
5. “Bid.” I’ve talked about this before and even made videos on it.  But “Bid” is a word that should be banned from your vocabulary.  “Bid” implies multiple vendors, and it also implies that the only determination will be numbers on a page.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.  Stop saying “bid.”

There are, of course, many more dumb things that salespeople say when the customer says, “Your price is too high,” but you should have the idea by now.  But that leaves one big question.  What, then, should you do in the face of that objection?  Well, there’s really only one good strategy.

Your approach, from the beginning of the Buyer’s Journey, should be that you fully expect to be the highest price, that you’re worth it because you are by far the best solution for your customer’s needs, and that if you are not the highest price it is purely by accident.

This works.  I once worked in an industry where the company that was by far the biggest, most successful, and most profitable, had that entire attitude.  For that matter, they walked with such swagger that everything they did told the customer that the customer was flat-out dumb if they didn’t enthusiastically pay that higher price.

And they kicked everyone’s ass and are now the 800 pound gorilla of their industry.

But this is the key.  From the moment they engaged the customer, every action they took and every impression they gave sent the message that they were the elite.  They dressed better, they sold better, their service trucks looked the best, their plants looked the best, and they had attitude.  And if the customer asked if they would be the cheapest, they said, “no, and if you are looking for the cheapest, I wish you well.”

Oh, and they did in fact fulfill those promises about their service experience.

Now, I don’t recommend that you necessarily be arrogant about your sales approach – but can you adopt part of that method?  Definitely.  But it requires completely evaluating every part of your process.  You must provide a better experience at every stage of the Buyer’s Journey than your competitors.

Dress better.  These days, that’s not hard, given the ever-declining standards of what constitutes “business dress.”

Understand the Buyer’s Journey and where you are in it.

Ask better questions and more of them than your competitors.

Give presentations that are tailored to the customer’s needs.  No one-size-fits-all slide decks.

Be direct with your price – no waffling or uncertainty.

Close in a confident and welcoming fashion.

Then make sure that the purchase and service experience is elite-level.

Rinse and repeat.

I’ll be 100% frank with you.  I never thought I “won” a sale if I was the lowest price.  In fact, if customers asked me if I’d be the lowest, I’d respond, “If I am, I’d like the opportunity to re-quote.”  They laughed.  And then, more often than not, they paid a higher price when they said “yes.”  Did everyone?  Nope.  No sales tactic works on everyone. BUT – and this is important – the customers who did buy ended up being great customers and great relationships, and didn’t leave the moment a competitor came in and undercut me.

So, how do you handle it when the customer says, “Your price is too high?”

First, from the start of your involvement with them, be so much better than your competitors that your customer knows that you really don’t care – that you deserve the higher price.

Differentiate yourself by asking more and better questions so that your customer knows that you are, in fact, different from your competitors.

Be confident and forthright with your pricing.  Make it feel like it’s both set in stone and a great value – not because it’s cheaper, but because that they are still getting amazing return on investment even at a higher price.

The price objection starts in your customer’s mind – not on a piece of paper.  Set the paradigm from the start and you will hear it less, and you will sell more.

Proposing and closing is a high-stress moment in selling.  I’ve been there and I understand.  If you’re not just a little amped up when you put a proposal forth, you may need to check your commitment to selling.  I’ve been in selling for a long time, and I still get excited!

That means that when the customer says “no,” (and you will always have customers that say “no”), we have stress to manage.  One of the worst ways you can manage that stress is by insulting the customer’s intelligence.  A friend of mine described such a situation to me recently.  She turned down a salesperson, and the salesperson’s response was, “Well, obviously, you just don’t understand what I’m offering.  What questions can I answer?”  After a moment’s shocked silence, she said that the biggest question he could answer was how quickly the meeting could end.  NO SALE.

Look, it’s possible that the customer doesn’t understand your proposal.  Whose fault is that? YOURS, champ!  Not theirs.  A sale happens when need, solution, and timing are all present.

The customer has to have a definite need.

Your solution has to solve the problem – by the CUSTOMER’s agreement and standards, not yours.

And the timing has to be right.

Which means that if the customer said “no,” one of three things has happened:

1. The need wasn’t present, important, or you didn’t discover the right need. Most of the time, this is the case – too many salespeople do only rudimentary questioning.  Ask comprehensive questions to discover needs, and then confirm with the customer that you have assessed their needs correctly.
2. What you are selling didn’t solve the needs. Once you have discovered the needs, your presentation must be centered around their needs, not a one-size-fits-all “here’s how we are awesome” slide deck.  And once you have shown your solution, you must confirm that the customer agrees that this will solve the need.  A great question to ask:  “How do you see a win from making this purchase?
3. You are hitting them at the wrong time. A friend whom I greatly respect always says, “you have to be there when their window is open.”  He’s right.  Ask timing-based questions; for instance, “When would you like to implement this?”  Know you’re at the right time; that way, it won’t surprise you.

And if you do all of those things, customers will still say “no.”  Nothing is perfect in selling.  But when they do say so, instead of telling your customer that they just didn’t understand all the ways you will rock their world, instead you should simply ask your customer why they are saying “no.”  Don’t whine.  Just ask.  Then let the conversation go from there.

You might not win the sale.

But you also won’t get booted out of the office because you expected them to say something that no customer has ever said.

Don’t sell stupid.

Want to fix stupid?  Contact me and let’s talk.

There’s a youth movement afoot, and if you’re not on board with how to sell to younger buyers, you’re going to get run over by it. Purchasing power and corporate leadership is shifting.  Most of the time, I hear salespeople and sales managers bellyaching about how “different” the “new generation” is in terms of their purchasing habits, rather than trying to figure out what those habits are and how to adapt our selling methods to them.

Younger buyers may have different buying habits than you’re used to, but they ARE buying, and what you don’t understand about trends in purchasing is costing you money.  For the last couple of years, I’ve been talking to people at conferences who want nothing more to demystify the art and science of selling to younger buyers (for the purposes of this article, let’s just say that the dividing line between “younger” and “not younger” is 40).  Well, I’m here to help.  Let’s stop bellyaching and start learning.

The skill of selling to younger buyers can be summed up with 4 C’s: Concision, Connection, Collaboration, and Consideration.

• Concision: Concision is the art of being concise in your communication. One complaint I hear all the time is, “Troy, younger buyers just don’t want to talk to people in person and they don’t want to see salespeople!”    Younger people are in face to face contact with other people all the time.  We are social creatures, and that trait is not generational.  However, younger buyers want you to get to the point – to be concise.  A younger buyer doesn’t want to sit and talk football for 30 minutes before they discuss business.  If you are in front of them, that means that you need to get to the point and give value for the time spent. Forget the old “fish on the wall” fake rapport tactics – you’ll get tossed out. Ask good questions and make to-the-point, targeted, individualized presentations that improves the buyer’s condition in the time you spend with them.  Hack:  Prepare five great questions about their business to open every new sales call.
• Connection: Younger people are the most connected generation(s) that the world has ever seen, and this is due of course to technology. It’s not unusual for younger people to have friends literally all over the world.  Have they met all of those people face to face? Probably not – but through technology, they have fostered connections.  That means that they have a larger business network than could have ever been dreamed of decades ago.  That also means that they want to be connected with YOU.  How much do you use LinkedIn?  Hint – just putting up a rudimentary profile is not “using” LinkedIn.  If you aren’t posting, commenting, and engaging with other people, they’ll see it.  When you approach a younger buyer, they are likely to check you out on LinkedIn within 24 hours.  If your presence is found wanting, you will be less likely to become a business connection to them.  Staying off of business social media is an outdated strategy.  Hack:  Set your browser’s home page to LinkedIn, so that every day when you fire up the computer, it’s staring you right in the face.  You’d be amazed at how much you can get done in 15 minutes a day.
• Collaboration: Studies show that the average buyer today has completed 57% of his or her buying process before ever seeing a sales rep.  Younger people are researchers, and when they bring knowledge to a sales call, they expect it to be part of the conversation.  More than that, they want to be active partners in the purchasing process – hence, collaboration.  A salesperson who doesn’t respect the buyer’s journey is going to lose out.  Worse, a salesperson to takes it upon themselves to explain to the buyer why everything they have learned is incorrect will mightily anger the buyer.  When the younger buyer comes to the table, expect that buyer to be current on the offerings of your competitors and how they compare.  Are YOU that current?  Hack:  One of the first questions you should ask a buyer is, “What have you done thus far in this purchasing process?”
• Current: There are still many salespeople out there who are technophobes.  If that’s you, you are setting your own expiration date.  Being “current” means being up to date on the technology that affects your customers’ buying process and communication needs.  In today’s world, if you don’t know how to use video conferencing platforms, social media, IM, and text, AT A MINIMUM, you’re limiting your potential for success.  Why do you need to be comfortable in all of these platforms?  Because you need to meet your customers where they are – and they might be in a number of different places, in terms of communication.  I have one client that is nearly impossible to reach by phone, but if I text him, I have a response within minutes.  If I refused to text (as a salesperson told me last week that he did), I’d never get ahold of him.  Hack:  Ask your customers (not just the younger ones) what they prefer for communication.  Then communicate the way they want to.

Are younger buyers different?  Somewhat, for reasons both cultural and technological.  But they are still people, and they are still individuals.  By now, you should have noticed that none of my four C’s put all younger people in one bucket.  The real art of selling to younger people is to recognize who they are as individuals, be adaptive to meet them where they are, and respect their skills, processes, and abilities.  We’ll delve into this topic a lot more as 2023 continues, but the four C’s should give you a good starting point.

No Customer Ever Video

Okay, who likes to be lied to?  Raise your hands.  You in the back – put your hand down.  You look stupid.

I see salespeople and marketers who lie every day to their customers and still expect to sell to them.  In fact, they begin their relationships with a lie and still expect to sell to them.

That’s stupid.

When you use a tactic like beginning a cold email with “Re:,” to attempt to fool your prospect into thinking you had a dialogue with them, not only will they delete the email – they’ll delete any chance of buying from you.

Why? Because you are a LIAR.  And – I know this is shocking – people don’t like to buy from liars.

So, what is a salesperson to do when it comes to cold email prospecting?  Well, there are a few pointers I can offer you.

First – understand that return rates for emails are low.  The rule of thumb for direct mail used to be a 1% to 2% response rate.  I think that would be a high rate for email prospecting; if you’re going to send out prospecting emails, be prepared to send a lot of them.

Second – rather than lying in your subject line for attention, think clickbait.  In a business sense, your prospecting should be problem solution oriented.  What problems can you solve for them, and how can you communicate that in as concise and impactful a way as possible?

Third – your email itself should also be concise and impactful.  Get your message across with as little fluff as possible.  You want to make good use of your client’s time, so give them the meat of the matter in something that only takes them a few seconds to read.

Fourth – no attachments.  Attachments are the kiss of death; they get your email sent to the spam folder.

Fifth – everything should be brand consistent.  I don’t just mean your company’s brand, but also your personal brand.  That’s why deception is bad; unless you are a liar by nature, lying in an email just to get attention is the wrong path.

There’s more to prospecting, of course, but those are topics for the future.

Don’t sell stupid.  If no customer has ever said they like it, don’t do it.

#saleshack:  Work with me.