Tag Archives: sales skills

How to Refine Your Sales Pitch

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A couple of months ago, I attended a conference for sales leaders in Las Vegas, and it was like a trip back in time.  One of the main topics – both in terms of the speakers on the stage and on the lips of some of the executives, was, “How to refine your sales pitch.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about polishing your sales SKILLS – but in this day and age, I think that a highly rehearsed and refined “sales pitch” is about the bottom of the list for the skills to practice.

You see, a refined sales pitch is all about YOU.  You are the star of the show in the “refine your sales pitch” world, because the concept is that you’re going to dazzle the customer with your one-size-fits-all brilliance while the customer sits rapt, hanging on every well-rehearsed word.  I’m shocked that I even have to write this in 2024, but sales just doesn’t work that way anymore.  Sales today is all about helping your customers navigate the Buyer’s Journey, and the buyer is the star of that show – not the salesperson.  With that said, there are definitely sales presentation skills that you can and should polish, and we’ll dive into those skills now.

Listening:  Wait, what?  I promised that I was going to talk about sales presentation skills, and I’m opening with listening.  Presenting is about speaking, isn’t it?  Well, it is – but the content of your presentation should depend on the individual Buyer and what they have expressed as their dissatisfaction, their Motivation, and their definition of success.  If you aren’t asking the right questions, and capturing the right information from them, your presentation will miss the mark.

The best way I’ve found to help salespeople actively listen to their customers is to train them to have a prewritten list of questions that they plan to ask.  I usually start with a boilerplate list of questions, and then add to it based on my prospect research.  And yes, after 30+ years in selling, and I have no idea how many thousands of sales calls, I still have a written set of questions.  I do this because, if I have my game plan for what I’m going to ask next, my mind isn’t trying to figure that out while the customer is talking.  Instead, I can devote my mental energies to capturing what they are saying.  The biggest reason that salespeople don’t listen is that they’re trying to figure out what to say next.  Don’t be that guy or gal.  Have your game plan together before the call starts.

Correlation:  The sales skill that I refer to as “correlation” is the ability to hear a customer express a need and immediately match (or correlate) that to a product or service solution.  That’s where you truly become an expertise provider and not a peddler of products or services.  This requires mental agility, but it’s also something that can be taught.  A great sales meeting exercise is the old flash-card method.  Have each salespeople write their customers’ ten most common needs.  Then, remove the duplicates and put each need on a flash card.  One person flashes the card, and the others quickly state the solution.  This can be done one-on-one or as a group in sales meetings, but it’s a great exercise for learning how to quickly build your “mental slide deck” presentation.  The more you can present without having to go back to the bat-cave (and, your customer assumes, draw on the expertise of others), the more credible you become.

Enthusiasm:  Yes, enthusiasm is something that you should practice and employ.  There’s an old saying in sales: “If you can’t get excited about what you’re selling, your customer can’t, either.”  One reason I’m not teaching you how to refine your sales pitch is that a highly refined sales pitch works against your own enthusiasm.  I’ve been the customer in sales calls where the salesperson had obviously refined his pitch so much that he was delivering it robotically, with no excitement or enthusiasm whatsoever.  Instead, practice (with others or in front of a video camera) delivering parts of your mental slide deck with enthusiasm and passion.  Don’t feel like you have to fake enthusiasm in someone else’s language and words; instead, make it authentically you.

Sales isn’t about refined pitches now.  It was once; I’ll fully concede that.  If today’s customer wants to hear the refined boilerplate about your company and your stuff, they’ll read it on your website.  In fact, they’ve probably already done so as the part of their independent execution of their Buyer’s Journey.  They’re talking to you because you can offer something that impersonal Internet research can’t – so give it to them.  Listen to them, correlate their needs with the right solution, and do so enthusiastically, and you’ll go farther than all the salespeople who have learned how to refine their sales pitch.

How to Sell To Younger Buyers – Or, How to Close the Generation Gap in Selling

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Yesterday, I was at lunch at a popular local restaurant, and I observed a classic example of how salespeople can sell to younger buyers – or, more properly, how NOT to do it.  I observed two men walking in.  One appeared to be in his sixties, the other in his late 30s, both in embroidered company polo shirts from different companies (the uniform nowadays, it seems).  They were seated directly behind me, where I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation.  Immediately, I could tell it was a sales lunch.

The older man was the seller, and the younger man was the buyer.  And I could tell that the salesman was of the old-style “Good Time Charlie” type.  After they ordered drinks, the buyer asked, “So, you have a quote for me, right?”  And the GTC salesman said, “Yeah, we’ll get to that, but how about that Bobby Witt in the Home Run Derby?”  I’m not kidding.  The buyer asked for his price and he redirected to a sports conversation.  The buyer, being nice, said, “That was pretty awesome.  So were you able to get the specs I need?”  It got worse from there.

Here’s what was happening.  The salesman was selling in a style that has probably worked for him over the years – but has gotten obsolete in the last 5-10 years.  As I discussed in my Webinar, “From Hippies to Hipsters,” the Boomer generation typically builds business relationships based on personal aspects first, and segues that relationship to business needs later.  In other words, what the salesman was doing was probably the correct approach for a customer of his generation (although I’m finding that even Boomers are more interested to get down to business these days, for reasons I’ll discuss shortly). But the salesman had no idea how to sell to younger buyers.

Millennials and Generation Z’s tend to be much more protective of their time.  When in buying roles (or selling roles, for that matter), their impulse is to get business done FIRST.  They’re looking for a salesperson who can solve their problems and make their lives easier in a very time-efficient fashion.  If a salesperson is able to do that, THEN they get the opportunity to build a personal relationship and friendship.  In other words, the relationship dynamic is flipped on its head.

Why didn’t I mention Generation X?  Well, we tend to be fence straddlers between “personal first” and “business first,” and so we’re harder to generalize.  My own personal style has been more of the “business first” style, and for that reason, I identify well with the Millennials and Z’s.

One other aspect of this that is key is the concept of “work/life balance.”  That was a phrase that didn’t even come into popularity until the Gen-X’s were firmly entrenched into the workplace and into positions of authority.  Essentially, from Generation X forward, more and more people are identifying with the idea that “we work to live, we don’t live to work.”  In sales, this manifests itself into the concept that we need to get down to business NOW, because time I waste talking about baseball is time I have to spend later on catch-up work, and therefore time I don’t get to spend with my friends and family.

That’s where the Boomers reenter the conversation.  You see, many Boomers have watched us in the X, Millennial, and Z generations spending more time outside of work enjoying our lives and thinking, “Gee, I want some of that, too.”  In order to do it, they’ve reordered their business lives to get more done during the day.  Which means that, ironically, many Boomers are mirroring their younger counterparts’ buying styles.  Those Boomers don’t have a problem understanding how to sell to younger buyers.

One other thing to put in here is an acronym called NAXALT.  It means that:  Not All “X” (where “X” is whatever generalization you’re making) Are Like That.  Hence, there are Boomers who buy like Millennials, and there are Millennials who want to talk endlessly about football before they start talking business.  Your role is to figure out where your customers are, and meet them where they are.

Now, let’s go back to my lunchtime neighbors.  Good Time Charlie next invited the customer out to play golf on Friday, and the customer just laughed and said, “Man, if my boss thought I had enough time on my hands to play golf during a work day, I’d be fired!”  The conversation kept going in that vein, through drinks, through ordering lunch, and through eating.

Wanna know the saddest part?  The buyer wanted to buy.  I could tell.  He kept redirecting the conversation back to the quote, and buyers aren’t that insistent on knowing the price unless they are genuinely interested in buying.  But Good Time Charlie couldn’t see that there was a potential deal on the table.  Yes, I wanted very badly to turn around, tell them to pause the conversation, and quickly clue ol’ Charlie in.  But I didn’t.

I don’t know how the conversation ended.  I’m protective of my time, too, and I had a Coaching client that I needed to meet with.  What I do know is that, if Charlie made the sale, he did so in spite of himself.

What makes inter-generational selling so difficult is that sometimes, salespeople must go against their own type.  The buyer was trying to clue Charlie in that he wanted a business resolution.  My guess (because I’ve seen this many times) is that, had Charlie gone ahead and presented the quote over their iced teas, that by the time the sandwiches came, they would have been having an enthusiastic conversation about the Home Run Derby.  And both parties would have had the result and experience they wanted.

And now you’re thinking, “But Troy, you already said NAXALT, what if Charlie had gone business-first and his customer had been one of those exceptions?”  I have a simple answer.  Your customers will tell you where they want to be, and where the conversation needs to go.  Tune in.  What the buyer wanted from Charlie wasn’t a well-kept secret.  He was virtually slapping Charlie across the face.

And yes, younger salespeople can run into similar issues when selling to older salespeople, just in reverse.  My advice to you, when selling across generations, is a simple three-point plan:

  1. Start your conversation with the general rules as your approach. In other words, if you’re selling to a Boomer, think “personal first.”  With X’s on down, think “business first.” (With Generation X, even though we straddle the fence, I suggest starting business-first because if you’re wrong, your course correction is easier.)
  2. Ask a couple of “flicking the jab” questions to see how your buyer reacts. For instance, if you as a personally based question and your buyer seems impatient, flip over to business-first, or vice versa.
  3. Adapt your own conversational approach to theirs. This might even mean having two separate questioning tracks prepared.  That’s okay – it’s better to have a “plan B” and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Whether you’re a more seasoned salesperson trying to figure out how to sell to younger buyers, or a younger salesperson trying to sell to older buyers, inter-generational selling can be a challenge.  But it’s one that’s easily overcome; just remember to meet your buyers where they are.

Which Sales Skill Should You Focus On Improving?

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I’ve had some interesting conversations lately with business owners and sales leaders who know that something is wrong.  They just don’t know what.  They haven’t kept their sales teams abreast of the way that selling is changing, they haven’t retrained and developed their people, and because of this, they are feeling a little lost.  And they want to change their results – NOW.

When people feel lost and want to change results, they look for the “magic button” that, if they can just find it and press it, will fix all their problems.  So, instead of, “Can you assess my issues and perhaps retrain my salespeople to update their skills,” they ask, “Can you teach my people how to (close/prospect/present/etc.).  In other words, they’re looking for the one piece of the skillset of successful salespeople in the current environment – and if their people can learn that ONE THING, they’ll return to success.  So, I’m writing this article to help them – and you.  I’m going to tell you what the most important skill that salespeople can possess is.

The answer is – all of them (sorry).  Salespeople need to be competent to excellent in every phase of the Buyer’s Journey, and if they’re not, sales will fall away.

First of all, salespeople need to understand what the Buyer’s Journey is, and what their role is in navigating it.

Then, the salespeople must be good at Motivating their prospects to enter a Journey, because without good Motivation skills, they won’t have anyone to sell to.  We used to call this skillset “Prospecting,” but I seldom use that term anymore.  What we called “Prospecting” is now elevated, and Motivating is really a better description of the salesperson’s role in this phase of the Buyer’s Journey.

Salespeople must be skilled at helping their Buyer through the Investigation phase, where the Buyer defines his or her needs and sources of dissatisfaction, as well as the Buyer’s Desired Future State.  Only by understanding the Buyer’s needs, dissatisfaction, and definition of success, can the salesperson deliver a targeted presentation of a solution.  If you can’t master this phase, you’re spraying and praying.

Presenting the customized, tailored Solution, using your expertise, is what guides the Buyer to the success that they are seeking – that’s why they began a Buyer’s Journey in the first place.  Salespeople need great presentation skills.  Not only is the presentation of Features and Advantages important, but salespeople should be skilled at illustrating the solution through customer success stories that engage, entertain, and show the Buyer why their solution is the best.

If your Solution works for the Buyer, it’s time to navigate the buyer through the Evaluation phase by presenting your price and terms in a fashion that is both definite and easy to understand.  The more complicated your proposal, the more fear the buyer will have.  The less definite you are in your presentation of price and terms, the more you invite negotation – and move farther away from the sale.

Finally, your closing skills help the buyer with the Decision phase of the sale.  Even today’s empowered buyers still need and want to be asked to buy – and if you forget this part of the Journey, all your work to this point will likely be for naught.  Part of this phase is the ability to handle and resolve objections, and to remove the Buyer’s fear.

My point is this:  Being a “great closer” or a “great presenter” is worthless if you don’t have the other skills.  That wasn’t always true; in pre-Internet days, if you were a great closer, you could browbeat your customers, make them bleed from the ears, and close enough business to get by.  Great storytellers and rapport-builders could also get enough business.  Even the old “hunter/farmer” sales mentality is obsolete now; salespeople have to be able to both initiate and maintain relationships.  Buyers are more empowered now, and that’s changed the landscape. Today’s salespeople have to be great all-around players.

Is that a lot of work?  Yep, it is.  I didn’t promise that it would be easy.  The best professional salespeople are tuning and improving their skills on a weekly basis.  Here’s a tip for both salespeople and managers:  Focus on one skill every week, and work to improve it.  Try things out, watch to see how customers respond, and use that feedback to figure out what works and what doesn’t.  Your customers are the best focus group that ever existed!

That’s a lot to improve.  I’m not quite done yet, though.  Today’s environment requires additions to the old skill sets.  To maximize your opportunities today, you need to be skilled and ready to use communication platforms that include phone, email, text, video, social media, and IM.  Can you write a persuasive text in 240 characters or less?  If not, you’re going to lose business to salespeople who can.  This is one place where AI (something else you need to be good at) can help you.  Type in what you want to say, and ask your AI app to condense it to 240 characters.  It works.  Just beware of “Chat crap,” and refine your result to eliminate it!

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is.  Let’s be honest.  The job of being a winning salesperson is more complicated than it used to be – and it’s not going to get any less complicated in the future.  This is a moment where you really have an opportunity to differentiate yourself, if you put in the work, learn new techniques and technologies, and keep yourself not only relevant, but vital.  My opinion?  It’s one hell of a fun time to be in sales.

 

How to Develop Your Selling Skills

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Last week, we talked about the need for salespeople to build and expand their selling skills in order to adapt to, and compete with, artificial intelligence.  This week, let’s talk about exactly HOW to develop your selling skills.  “But, Troy, I work on my selling skills all the time!”  No, you probably don’t, if you’re like most salespeople.

I ran a poll on the biggest LinkedIn sales group.  I asked, “On the average, how much time per week do you spend improving and practicing your sales skills, not counting time you spend selling?”  The results were about as I expected:  “Less than one hour” – 48%; “1-2 hours” – 32%; “2-5 hours” – 13%; “more than 5 hours” – 7%.  That old 80/20 rule really is looking valid on this one.  So, how should you be practicing?

My recommendation is this:  Pick one critical skill of selling, and work on it each week.  Next week, pick a different one, and so on.  That will keep you from getting bored and falling into a rut.  The critical skills are:

Prospecting:  Work on your approach.  There’s no prospecting approach that can’t be made better; in many cases, making it shorter makes it better.  Your initial approach statement should be 10-15 seconds – no more.  That goes for telephone prospecting (you do that, right?) or live, face to face prospecting.  Refine it, hone it, improve it, and test it.

Questioning:  The most important skill set in questioning.  Develop two new, great questions to ask a prospect.  Practice them, and more importantly, practice LISTENING ACTIVELY to the answers.  Repeat and refine.

Presenting:  You already know that I don’t like one size fits all presentations.  However, I do like a “modular presentation,” where you are prepared at a moment’s notice to present on different benefit/feature combinations, or aspects of your service.  Think of it as a mental “slide deck” where the slides can be rearranged, inserted, and deleted on the spot.  Practice one “slide” per week.

Proposing:  Present price and terms confidently and in a way that doesn’t invite distrust or uncertainty.

Closing:  Practice getting comfortable with asking simple, to the point, closing questions – and then shutting up.

Handling objections:  Make a list of common objections, and then come up with your first, best response to each one.  Practice clarifying, isolating, and resolving objections.

As I said, rotate these around to stay fresh and incrementally build your skills over the long haul.  And practice.  Most salespeople don’t practice skills except in front of the customer.  That’s dumb.  In front of the customer, mistakes cost you money.  In your office, it costs you nothing except a little time and a little pride (if anyone else sees).

And here’s the mentality you should use in your practice.  Some of you know that I am a former and reformed wrestling fan (today’s product is just insulting to the intelligence, in my opinion).  Still, I like listening to podcast interviews of past wrestling personalities.  It’s mind candy for when I drive, and I drive a lot – but occasionally, something really profound emerges.

One such profundity came from a wrestler and wrestling trainer named Dr. Tom Prichard.  The host and Prichard were discussing a particular dangerous wrestling move that had been botched on a recent show, and could have caused paralysis or even death.  Prichard said, “People shouldn’t do moves that they don’t know how to do.”

The host agreed and said, “Practice till you get it right, right?”

Prichard said, “Nope.  Practice until you can’t get it WRONG.”

Wow.  That’s pretty profound, isn’t it?  There’s a big difference, as I thought about it, between “until you get it right” and “until you can’t get it wrong,” and it’s the difference between conscious thought and habit.  I encourage you to follow Dr. Tom’s advice.  Whatever technique you are working on, practice it to the point that you can’t get it wrong, and you won’t.  How much does that take?

It depends on you and your mental makeup.  Studies show that habits form at 21 repetitions.  Maybe it takes that much for some techniques; maybe it takes less than others.  I’d suggest that when you realize that you aren’t having to invest the same level of conscious thought to get through a particular technique, you’ve got it.  Then, when you’re in front of the customer, that conscious thought can be invested in paying attention to the customer, their reactions, and their words.

Because – even though they aren’t practicing the way you are – the customer is always the star of this particular show.  Don’t forget it, and keep working to develop your selling skills.

Can Salespeople Be Replaced by AI?

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“Can salespeople be replaced by AI in five years?”  That was the topic of the poll on LinkedIn.  My instinctive reaction was probably the same as yours – “Of course not.”  Then, I did a little thinking before I answered.  And I realized that, yes, a lot of salespeople could be replaced by AI – not in five years, but RIGHT NOW.  That’s because their skills aren’t really any better than your basic chatbot – and therein lies a problem for those of us who care deeply about the role of the professional salesperson.

In 2011, Selling Power Magazine interviewed me as part of a cover story on the future of selling.  I’ve always thought of myself as a very forward-looking person when it comes to our profession – but boy, was my crystal ball broken when I gave my responses to their questions, and I realized this when I looked back at the article.  If you click, you’re going to read a pretty long article, but if you care at all about the sales profession and your role in it, you’d better click.  I’ve written over 600 articles on selling and this might be the most important.

Here’s what I said.  In response to a question about what the future of the sales profession looked like, I said, “Midline salespeople of tomorrow will be displaying the same level of expertise ten to fifteen years from now that the superstars display today, and the superstars will be on a whole new level.  Staying on top will require a higher level of mental commitment.”

I was wrong, but I should have been right.  I’ve written about this before, but if anything, the aggregate level of sales ability has declined somewhat in the twelve years since I made those comments.  That’s because most salespeople of today spend less time and energy developing their skills.  They find a level and stick to it.  Midline salespeople are, at best, no better than they were in 2011.  Some of the responsibility for this rests on the salespeople themselves, and much of it rests on CEOS and sales managers who don’t foster a culture of continual sales skill development. Are there exceptions?  Yes.  Absolutely – I’ve encountered some remarkable salespeople (although I don’t think that “whole new level” has happened).  But they are exceptions.  By and large, the aggregate sales skills at each level have remained constant.

When I was asked how the Internet is changing the game, I said, “The Internet can take orders and distribute content [thus taking up functions once designated to salespeople], but what it can’t do it discover customer needs.  It can’t build relationships, and it can’t prospect on its own.”  Well, I was wrong about that one, too.  AI bots can do a rudimentary job of discovering customer needs at present, and that will only get better as time and technology marches on.

What about the other two components of what I said – relationship building and prospecting?  Obviously, AI cannot build a true, interpersonal, face to face relationship.  However, AI can do an excellent job of REMEMBERING what was said and has transpired (because it can feed directly into CRM systems) and from a business perspective, it can make excellent use of a customer’s time.  That’s a threat to, but not a replacement for, traditional sales relationship building.

Can AI prospect?  That’s a tantalizing thought, isn’t it?  Most salespeople dislike prospecting (full disclosure – I’ve never been in love with it myself).  I can envision a time when an AI bot is able to prospect through email, LinkedIn, and even the telephone.  In fact, the technology for email and social media is already here, and I’m willing to bet that if the phone prospecting tech doesn’t exist yet, it will shortly.  Imagine an AI bot that dials a prospect, engages in a voice to voice conversation using prospecting and sales best practices, and even sets appointments.  Heck, take it a step further and imagine it doing so in the same voice as the real salesperson who would handle the live appointment.  Or how about an AI bot that sets Zoom sales appointments and then carries them out in a hologram?  This kind of thing would have been science fiction five years ago – now it’s a coming reality.

Don’t misunderstand me – I still think that a well-trained, skilled, passionate, and engaged salespeople can do all of those things BETTER – but too many salespeople are not well-trained, skilled, passionate, and engaged.

Now that I’ve told you two areas where I was wrong, allow me to tell you one area where I was right – or will be soon.  When asked, “How do salespeople keep social media from being the tail that wags the dog?” I responded, “Social networking is a strategy for marketing promotions and relationship management.  It is not a prospecting tool [OK, I was a little wrong about that]. A lot of those functions are going to slide down to the lowest-paid person who is competent to do them.”  Given the level to which AI apps like ChatGPT write social media posts, I was right on target – ChatGPT is definitely cheaper than even an administrative person.

Where I went wrong, I went wrong for two reasons.  First, I anticipated a higher level of sales skill development on the part of the average salesperson.  Second, I didn’t see AI coming.  Shame on me.  Apps like ChatGPT have the capability of being game-changers, and they also have the capability of being harnessed (by skilled salespeople and managers) to increase the effectiveness of a company’s sales force.

How to avoid being replaced by AI

So if the answer to “Can salespeople be replaced by AI?” is “yes, it’s very possible,” then the question for we human salespeople is, “How can we avoid being replaced by AI?”  Here’s where the wicket gets sticky, because this requires some serious engagement and effort on our part.  Here’s a three-point plan.

  1. Get better at your job. The key for salespeople in this environment is to constantly learn, develop, add new skills, and shed old techniques that aren’t working anymore.  Unfortunately, few salespeople do this.  When I interview salespeople on behalf of my clients, I always ask, “What’s the most recent sales book you’ve read?”  Ten years ago, I got a good answer more than half the time.  Today, it’s rare that I get one at all – in fact, about half of the salespeople I interview have never read a book on selling.  When I ask a follow up question about how they develop their skills, they answer that they really don’t.  Sales is a profession of constant change and constant development, and if you don’t care enough about your profession to get better at it, you are replaceable.  Don’t be that guy or gal.  Invest in yourself.  Read books.  Read articles.  Watch YouTube videos.  Attend training programs.  And then practice, practice, practice.  Next week we’ll talk about what it really means to practice and learn sales techniques. Get better and do better.
  2. Embrace technology. Yes, this article is partially telling you how to combat a new technology, but those who do not embrace it will find themselves steamrolled by it.  I’m constantly amazed when I see salespeople (and worse, sales trainers) fighting the use of tech like CRM.  I have actually seen a “sales trainer” recommending that salespeople ditch the CRM and instead use paper note cards.  The 1990s called, and they would like their mentality back!  Today, salespeople must embrace and use tech of all types.  CRM, social media, video conferencing, and IM’s are all tech that salespeople should not only be conversant with, but competent in.  Not only that, you should be ready and anticipating the next trend.  There’s a reason that I refer to “AI” in this article for the most part, and not “ChatGPT.”  ChatGPT is but one AI app, and who knows whether it will be the most prominent in five years?  Remember MySpace?
  3. Flip the script. We always like to think about the “Sales process,” and what we want from the process and what activities we will be performing to get there. I want to challenge you, and I’m taking this challenge myself.  Stop thinking about “Sales processes” and instead think of the “buyer’s journey.”  Think about the act of selling from the perspective of the person buying, evaluate the steps from the buyer’s point of view, and work to help them achieve what they want.  It’s a change in thought and terminology, and as 2023 progresses, I’ll be helping you get there with articles, videos, and even training.

Make no mistake about my outlook.  A great salesperson will always be better than AI.  A good salesperson will always be at least as good as great AI.  I’m a 100% passionate advocate for personal selling by human beings to human customers.  If I sound pessimistic in this article, it’s because I’m concerned.  But as I said, I’m here to help, and I’ll be doing so through the Navigator and through my YouTube channel.  If you’re a salesperson, start reading, watching, and practicing.  In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about how to practice and about how to view sales from the perspective of the buyer.

And if you’re a business owner or sales manager, I can help you, too.  In addition to the free resources above, I can train your salespeople to be irreplaceable.  I can help you hire great salespeople.  And I can coach you to manage the very best sales team in your market.

The future might look spooky, but it doesn’t have to be.  This is another challenge to our profession, and we can and will overcome it and be better and more valuable to our customers than ever before.

Five Outdated Sales Techniques That Have Only Gotten Worse With Age

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I’ve been going back lately and reviewing some of my past articles; as Jeff Foxworthy once said when listening to his old material, “There’s some good stuff in there!”  Some of these articles are pretty relevant today as-written; others will do with a little updating.  I’ll put updates, where necessary, in italics.  This one focuses on outdated sales techniques that should have been retired long ago.

Some outdated sales techniques are not like wine or cheese – they don’t get better with age.

I was listening in on some sales calls with a distributor of high performance auto parts, along with their Inside Sales Manager.  A customer had called in to ask about a particular engine wiring harness.  The salesperson explained that, yes, the harness would work on his engine just fine.  Right as the customer was about ready to buy, the salesperson said, “However, it’s not designed as a stock replacement harness; it won’t work on your original 2000 Camaro.”

The customer stopped and said that what he wanted was a stock replacement harness for his Camaro, and the salesperson explained that this harness was designed to swap the engine into an older car and wouldn’t support all the functions of the Camaro’s system.  The customer thanked the salesperson and hung up, and the Inside Sales Manager came unglued.  He referenced one of the worst outdated sales techniques you can use, and if you’re using them, you’ll want to STOP now.

  1. “Never answer the question the customer didn’t ask!” is what the Sales Manager yelled at the poor salesperson.  He said, “If you hadn’t volunteered that information, he’d have bought.”  The salesman was a rookie, so I stepped in.  “If he’d bought,” I said, “that harness would have come right back to you as a return, and the customer would have been upset.  What’s your win there?”  As the manager stammered, I said, “Or worse, he’d have tried to cut into and modify the harness to make it work, it still wouldn’t have worked, and then he couldn’t return it OR use it, and he’s out $1,000.  How does that help anyone?”  “Never answer the question the customer didn’t ask” is an old canard that’s built around “get the order at all costs, and to hell with what happens afterward” transactional sales.  It’s old and outdated.  Your role is to help the customer reach a succesful buying decision.  So here’s your new rule:  If it’s information the customer needs to know in order to have a successful result, give it to them, whether they asked or not.  I’m reminded about the old trope that salespeople shouldn’t be “Free consultants;” another old saw that I disagree with.  My thoughts on that are in this video.
  2. The “take away” close.  The way this one works is that, at closing time, you say something like, “You know, you really shouldn’t buy this (for whatever noble reason).”  The idea is that the customer now wants it so badly that he will then justify why he should buy (and deserves to own), and in so doing, sell himself on the product.  Here’s the problem.  If you’ve been selling correctly, you’ve built up a lot of trust and credibility with the customer.  Based on that, when you use the “take away,” one of two things will happen.  First, the customer will believe you because of the credibility and trust – which means that you lose the sale (or you end up having to re-close, which makes you a liar).  Second, the customer sees right through the tactic, realizes that you’re lying, and walks.  Neither is good.  Just play the close straight.  Only take it away if you’re really going to take it away; i.e. it’s not a good purchase for the customer. Or, I would add, bad business for you – I’ve taken offers away more than once if they wouldn’t result in good business for me.
  3. Never ask a question to which you don’t know the answer.  This is the old “lawyer’s technique,” and basically it means that the salesperson is scared to death of being surprised by the answer to a question.  There are two problems with this philosophy.  First of all, you must ask questions to which you don’t know the answer to properly discover and interpret needs – and be prepared for surprises and for the call to go in directions you hadn’t anticipated. Second, by the time the lawyer gets into the courtroom, the witness has already been questioned – numerous times – and the lawyer already knows what the witness is going to say.  That’s not the case in a sales call.  Not asking questions to which you don’t know the answer means that you’re fearful. Drop the fear and do good customer discoveries – that’s the best way to sell today. It always has been the best way to sell – and always will be.
  4. The salesperson should seek to control the customer and the sales process.  First of all, any salesperson who believes that he has “control” over the customer is fooling himself.  The customer can always remove themselves from the process.  Whatever control we have is more aptly referred to as “influence,” and is shown by the customer allowng or asking us to direct parts of the process.  Seek influence, rather than control, by respecting the customer’s intelligence, showing your expertise, and working side by side for a successful result.
  5. The Up Front Contract.  Essentially this is a technique where you open the sales call with a closing question designed to lock the customer in with “intent to buy if things are right.”  This can range from the car salesman’s “Are you here to buy a car today?” to “If you like what you see today, is there any reason we can’t move forward?”  The problem with this question is that it occurs at the start of the selling process, before you have built any trust or equity with your customer, and before you have earned the right to ask a closing question.  At this point your customer knows nothing of your offerings, your pricing, and many times their needs haven’t been defined and matched to a product or a service – and you’re asking a closing question?  Ridiculous.  And if the customer says “yes” to the question and later says “no” to moving forward, the only thing you can do is whine, anyway.  Don’t worry about the buyer’s intent until the buyer has a reason to have intent.  If they are seeing you, they are Motivated to enter a buying process – but that’s all.
  6. I’m going to add a sixth technique, which I call the “Good Time Charlie.”  Good Time Charlies hardly ever focus on customer needs and solutions; instead they focus on being the customer’s buddy, buying lunches, drinks, sports tickets, etc.  They seldom know much about their product, and beyond the personal level, they know little about their customers.  GTC’s were becoming obsolescent – but the events of 2020 have made them obsolete.  If you are one, or if you employ one, it’s time for that person to update their skills.  It’s never too late to do so.

All of these outdated sales techniques have one thing in common – they are designed to maneuver and manipulate customers into places that they don’t want to be.  If you’re using them, the ‘70s called and they want their sales techniques back. Even the customers of the ’70s didn’t like these techniques – they just didn’t have an alternative.

Today’s customers do have alternatives.  The ability to buy nearly anything over the Internet allows customers to eliminate salespeople from their buying process at will – and if you use any of these techniques, they will eliminate YOU.