Okay, I know that everyone and their brother is doing webinars these days, so who is good and who do you trust? This is a question that I also ask – seems like everyday with the offers we get.

So how do you know which webinars are good?

First, it truly helps if you know the individual giving the webinar and their expertise. Do they have experience in the field they are speaking on in their webinar? Too often, we are asked to pay money to listen to someone who just read a book and wants to do a book review rather than share real life experiences.

Second, if we don’t know the individual, do we know someone that does know the presenter? Here is an opportunity for social networking to work for you. See if the person is one LinkedIn or Facebook (these are the two primary business focused social media sites) and see who are their friends and Connections. If they have no one on there site – they are new to the business and that may be the signal for you. Also, read their information and bio and how many people have recommended them.

Third, contact someone that knows this individual and ask them about the expertise they have and do they know anything about the webinar. If they don’t know anything, that could also be an indication as to the level of expertise involved.

Finally, check the presenter out using Google or any other search engine. How many articles has this person written on the topic? What does the website look like – is it professional or just a common looking site without any professionalism?

An example of a good webinar who be my business associate – Ron Karr. He is a very knowledgeable sales person with both years of experience as a leading sales person and sales manager – he has written two books on the art of sales. I have worked with him on a couple of major projects and he is a sales professional. Most importantly, he gets results for his sales clients using his developmental processes.

He is doing a four part sales webinar with one session over the next four months. Take a look at the topics and if they are important to you – well I can tell you that Ron Karr is very good at developing sales practices. Check out the offer at his website by using this link to gather information on his four part sales webinars. Enjoy the information and the interaction with a true sales professional.

The Inner Game of Selling holds the key to a sales person’s real success. What the sales person is thinking about positions as a winner or a loser – depending upon the dominate thoughts. Since your thoughts control the inner game, they set the stage for your ultimate performance – good, bad or indifferent.

So how do beliefs enter into this discussion?

Beliefs are the thoughts that get placed into the subconscious mind. This is important because the experts in human performance have found that the subconscious mind actually controls most of what we do, say (particularly how we say things), word choices and decisions. And, the most alarming thing is – the subconscious mind just follows the orders of your thoughts – without judgment. Therefore, good and bad thoughts are embedded into our subconscious mind. Then words and actions are pushed out as commands with both good and bad results!

The cumulative effect of our beliefs create our mindset about everything – including our abilities as a sales person. I have heard more than once, people in sales state – “I hate sales or I hate selling.” What a mistake. The “I” makes this statement a direct command to the subconscious mind therefore placing real power behind the statement.

If you want to excel in sales (if you are in sales this should be a primary thought) then you must take control of your thoughts, self talk, and concentration of thinking about sales or selling. Make this a commitment to your success.

Now if you have not be paying attention to the quality of your thoughts and you feel that something inside is holding you back from superior performance, you may need some focused attention. There are three things you can do: Continue reading ‘Inner Game of Selling is About Beliefs and Mindsets’ »

This question is for everyone that is responsible for generating revenue and sales for your company.

“Is It Time to Revisit the Sales Basics?”

I was reviewing a basic sales seminar workbook that I was preparing for placing on a website for Internet based or online training purposes. Yet, as I continued to review each module of the seminar, I realized the information is very useful in today’s environment. With the changing of attitudes, smaller budgets (with believability factors being strong) and less relationship based selling in the marketplace, maybe it’s time to revisit the basics of sales training.

The really good basic sales training processes include a balance of inner game material for the mental side of selling with an excellent collection of outer game techniques. Some of the key components I picked up during this quick review was the amount of practice time needed to prepare for natural and smooth delivery of information to customers.

Additional nuggets from this review includes doing basic research into why customers buy from you? What are the true reasons that customers value your products or services? A very important issue was “what is an ideal customer?” This is a critical factor to think about as we all look for more business. If we know – I mean truly know – what an ideal customers looks and sounds like, then we could actively target prospects who have the same or similar qualities.

The last nugget came from a quote in the workbook from Vince Lombardi “Perfect Practice makes for Perfect Plays in a Game.” Now, I’m not really big on the word “perfect,” yet, I understand the more you practice, get it right, the simpler it becomes in front of others. We need to review the basics and the fundamentals on a regular basis to remain sharp. Just like the great athletes in any sport take the time to practice fundamentals during the off season, sales people need to practice with others before getting in front of customers and prospects.

Watch for a coming announcement of our basic sales training online. It will cover all the basics and get anyone ready to sell more – even in today’s economic times.

I’ve been reading a lot about different selling systems or processes lately and several are acting like they have invented some new super effective selling process! Well, having been around good to great sales people for the past twenty years it is not that revolutionary.

The keys to their success are the same keys the best sales people have been using for years. It’s all about being somewhat bold, aggressive or provocative AND TAKING A RISK. In today’s environment, too many people are playing everything safe and risk free.

When I was learning about finance in college, one thing was made perfectly clear. No risk equals little gain or profit. Too much risk equals major loss potential. So, the right thing is to make a calculated or balanced decision – take some risk (or chance) and get a higher return.

Again, this is elementary finance, yet, it can be applied to the world of selling and have serious meaning. In this economic downturn, no one has a normal budget to operate, in fact, some budgets have disappeared. Decisions – if made at all – are going higher in the organization and are heavily influenced by the financial “bean-counter” types.

So what does this mean for today’s sales person? It means you can not continue to play safe and keep going to your friends in the customer or prospect organizations. You can no longer afford to maintain a “normal” course of action and take little or no risk.  Unless of course you are truly independently wealthy and have played the options market very effectively during the downturn in the market. But wait! Doesn’t that mean you are comfortable with taking risks and getting higher returns!

It is time to start asking difficult or hard questions of higher level decision makers. These questions can be effectively worded so it is not taken personally by the executive – yet, the questions must be bold and force thought. Thought is the key for the sales person. A thinking decision maker is not on automatic pilot with knee jerk responses – we have no budget for this, let me talk to others, we are currently satisfied with our supplier, vendor, provider.

As a sales person, it is time to think about what is happening in your customer or prospect’s business, what is costing them dollars even without a decision to change? You need to become a CSI agent for customer well-being. Find the source or cause of major pain to point out to the executive – even if they do not see it (This is difficult for some sales people to understand – customers sometimes do not see the problem unless it is pointed out to them.)

You can improve the quality and delivery of questions. It does require some practice time – winging it is NOT AN OPTION! If you can’t afford a consultant – get the financial types from your company or the local banker to practice your questions and handling of responses. If you do want some professional guidance, give me a call at 901-757-4434 and let’s talk about how to be bold and effective.

It continues to confound me that sales people do not totally understand what flexing their style will do for their sales results. It is a basic communication technique used to gain rapport with others. It is the key to effective communication.

Yet, every week I see sales people mismatching their styles with customers and then complain about the customer not acting upon their offer.

One sales person last week was a perfect example. An aggressive, direct and fast paced individual who usually takes no prisoners in their selling style is selling to a passive, yet friendly and slow paced customer. The sales person was talking business for the start, using logic to gain acceptance to ideas and statements. The sales person asked direct (and uncomfortable) questions to the customer and expected direct and compelling answers.

The customer was friendly and smiled some, yet, became visually uncomfortable with the barrage of direct questions. This person needed time to review the process and find out the answers to the questions. The customer listened to the logic driven explanations and was polite, but was not buying in to the pressure packed offers. Finally, the old “I’m not ready to buy anything today, let me think about and I’ll get back to you!” statement came from the customer.

The reality of the situation was the customer would use passive aggressive techniques to get rid of the sales person. Appearing to accept the logic and the pressure, while knowing that there will be not buying happening soon with this sales person.

Why does this happen? The sales person is selling the way the sales person would buy, rather than observing the style of the customer and selling to the customer the way the customer wants to be sold. This is not some type of rocket science – it is style in action – preferences of each person overriding the need for rapport and trust.

The sales person was not paying attention to the fact that this customer preferred indirect questions which in the customer’s mind are “safe” questions. And, surprisingly an indirect question will be answered with a direct and real answer. This customer needed to know that the offer was safe, “quiet” and smooth in implementation, would cause no issues for the customer in the future and that others would approve of the decision.

These are simple techniques to use, however, a sales person must take the time to learn about the styles and how to flex to the different styles effectively. This requires some training and development time, that will convert into major gains in sales results, rapport with customers and higher levels of trust.

Contact us about learning how to flex your style. Check out our Flexible Selling website and gain some insight into why it is important to understand your own style, how to recognize others’ styles and then use the most effective techniques for rapport and trust building. Call us at 901-757-4434.

Yes, selling is all about effective communication. Just ask any sales person who has failed to say the right things or said the wrong things to a customer or prospect. Delivering the right message that the customer can understand is the goal of effective communication.

Sell to people the way they want to buy.

People want to buy solutions to their issues or problems, yet, few sales people take the time to learn how to recognize this key. They go into presentation style – using their style only – and then are amazed that the customer or prospect is not signing up. The reason again, people want to buy they do not want to be sold.

What does this mean to the effective sales person? Continue reading ‘Selling is All about Effective Communication’ »

There are two 2 word phrases that cause adults who are sales people for break into a cold sweat. The first phrase is “role play.” I have seen people actually hid behind a wall rather than engage in a role play exercise. This is some serious fear and sweat!

The second two word phrase is “Cold Calls.” Again, the fear and anxiety of making cold calls is high. People just do not like to make cold calls now or in the past for that matter.

Truth is cold calls are tough and getter harder – thanks in part to technology. I remember when I started in business back in the 80’s I could pick up the phone and call a prospect and actually talk to the decision maker. Those were the best days for cold calling since you could talk to someone. In fact, in the late 80’s when I moved to a new city – Memphis – I was able to build my business from the zero to six figures in one year using cold calling techniques.

More truth, I wasn’t even good at cold calling back then. When looking back at the techniques I used, well, I could have upgraded my skills and I probably would have done much better. I won then because I never gave up and kept doing it every day and every week.

Now, what is causing all the cold sweat? There appears to be five reasons. So here are the big five reasons: Continue reading ‘Cold Calls Causing You a Cold Sweat?’ »

Yesterday I gave you my top three of Dumb and Stupid Sales Questions. Today, I will provide you with my runner-ups that are also Stupid and dumb Questions that should not be used by sales people.

First I want to share why asking Stupid or Dumb Questions is really bad for your sales success. There are several reasons and here are a few of the critical reasons.

1. You will not differentiate yourself from the other inexperienced or bad sales people. You will be just like the thundering herd of sales people who ask bad questions and bore the customer or prospect.
2. It will be more difficult to transition into the really good questions that help a customer or prospect. When the customer hears the same old questions or dumb questions, you lose rapport with the buyer – who often start asking about price so they can tell you that your price is too high – and you will believe the buyer and leave. The buyer accomplishes their mission of getting rid of the boring sales person.
3. Poor questions lead to the customer or prospect taking control of the interview or conversation placing you back in the commodity bubble. Again, when the questions become boring or common, the buyer loses focus and interest. When this happens they take back control by asking questions they want asked without you having the insight of their responses and information. A bad situation gets worst and you lose.

Okay, it’s time for some more stupid and dumb questions: Continue reading ‘Dumb Questions to Ask a Customer – Part Two’ »

After listening to a series of questions from a salesperson recently, I wondered how many other salespeople have this disease – Asking Dumb or Stupid Questions with Customers or Prospects. And, after talking to a few at a sales meeting, it appears there are more than I thought asking these questions.

So here are three questions I hear often:

1. Continue reading ‘Dumb Questions to Ask a Customer – Part One’ »

Here is some valuable information:

“Knowing What to Do is Separate from Actually Doing It!”

I am continually amazed by comments from leaders of organizations who announce “my people know what to do.” And, then when asking questions about the outcomes and results – I get non answers or corporate speak. (Corporate speak is the sterile response to a tough question that contains no emotion, no action and no commitment.)

Why does this happen? Because the “knowing-doing” gap is in action or really inaction. The Knowing-Doing gap is a fatal condition that allows people with excellent information and knowledge to limit their actions or worse – take the incorrect actions.

I had a sales manager tell me that he was concerned about his team. They kept telling him – usually when they lost a potential sale or customer – they knew they did something wrong – even though they were trained to do it correctly. He told me that he was hearing this too often and he knew he had to take action or his team could fall short of their goals. Continue reading ‘Knowing What to Do is Apart from Actually Doing It’ »