Sales – The Chalifour Group

Sales Mindset

I can’t tell you how many books I have read or seminars I have attended regarding something to do with sales. I think I lost count at a million.

Sales does not have to be complicated or require endless training. What it requires is the correct mindset. This is certainly not a subject that can be distilled into a 500 word post but it can be clarified to the point where you can process it better and let it percolate. The mindset of sales is very basic. In it’s simplest form, it’s about them and not you. That’s it in a nutshell. There are far too many sales people that when on a sales call expound the virtues of what their company can do or how revolutionary their product is.

The potential buyer really doesn’t care about that. What they care about is themselves and the problems or challenges they are facing. In order for you to connect with them they need to connect with you first. Wrap that around your head…They must feel like there is a rapport and the only way to make that happen is to help THEM establish the rapport. If it comes from them then it will be far more solid and better established. The only way to do that is through questions, questions, questions. When you ask questions, unbeknownst to them, you are controlling the conversation, steering it and uncovering potential pitfalls.

The mindset shift that needs to be made is that the focus absolutely and unequivocally must be them. Let them tell you what they don’t like about their current situation, let them tell you how terrible it is, let them tell you how they need something different. When they start talking like this they begin to trust you and if you can commiserate with them, even better.

A mind shift to them is the only way you will be successful. Once you have made this shift then all the other sales techniques that you have learned will be much more effective and powerful.

Let’s talk if you want to hear more. I can be reached at (603) 783-9333.

Sales and Mediocrity

I had a conversation with a client recently about his sales department and his comment to me was “I’m not sure I have ever really managed my sales department effectively – I’m not really sure how to”.

Considering that the sales department or simply sales in general is the heart and soul of ALL companies this comment struck me as surprising. There are two main components in all companies. Producing and providing. Sales produces the need and purchase and the rest of the company provides. If the first part of that process is mediocre or passive then the rest of the company suffers.

It’s so very important that a company has a robust sales force complete with highly capable sales know how and a strong grasp of what they are selling. But just as important is the sales mechanisms that have in place. Goals, targets, volume, training, proper compensation, interaction and recognition. If you are leaving your sales to their own process then you have a mediocre sales force.

This is really something to think about and focus on. In today’s business climate it’s important to not only compensate correctly but also to challenge and recognize. Re-vamping a sales department is a huge undertaking but certainly one that pays dividends many times over.

Think about it…….

The One Minute Salesperson

Sales is an interesting career as it is one that is commonly learned not taught. Every salesperson needs to find their own approach rather than utilizing a cooker cutter method of selling. I recently read The One Minute Salesperson, authored by Spencer Johnson and Larry Wilson who give a perspective that far too many salespeople forgot. Their lessons are told through a parable about a young salesperson who took on the traditional way of selling, but, over time he found out this was not working and it was becoming stressful. He received several helpful tips from a well-known salesperson who focussed less energy but closed more sales. Below are my three main take aways from the reading.

1. Focus on helping people

It’s important to take a minute to make sure you’re helping your customers get what they want rather than selling them something you want. Johnson and Wilson added, “I just invest a minute when I am selling to ask myself: Am I more concerned with trying to get what I want? Or am I really helping other people get what they want” (p. 29). Sometimes it’s easy to forget what you are selling to your customer. Taking a minute to make sure you’re helping out the customer for the right reasons will only benefit both parties.

2. Have the right intentions

The successful salesperson told the younger man that once you stop caring so much at trying to get what you want and start helping the customer get what they want, it is a more enjoyable experience for all involved. Sometimes people try so hard to get something they want, such as a sale, that they create more of a hassle for themselves. Salespeople can get too caught up in making a sale that they forget their sole purpose; selling the customer a product or service that they want. Success comes when you help people get what they want and most likely you will get what you want in return.

3. Remember that you’re selling to a person so you need to be respectful

In treating people with respect can help build a level of trust between the customer and the salesperson and may even help sell the product better. Johnson and Wilson stated, “The other person, the one so many people call a customer or a prospect-is in fact, a person. If you treat him or her as a commodity, or as anything but a person, you reduce yourself to a peddler” (p. 18). People can tell when they are not being respected or are seen as anything but a price tag and they are likely to walk away.

Throughout our whole lives we try to sell people ideas such as trying to get a colleague to go to happy hour with us or asking our parents if we can have a sleepover. Whether it has to deal with money or not, we are trying to make a deal with someone. Being a successful salesperson doesn’t exactly mean that you were born one but rather that you used all of the people skills that you learned throughout your life and applied them to sell your product or service. Johnson and Wilson explained, “When I want to remember how to sell, I simply recall how I – and other people – like to buy” (p. 44). By doing this, you are using skills that you already have such as knowing how you would react if someone was selling something to you. This can then be replicated when you try to sell something to someone else. “People don’t buy services, products, or ideas. They buy how they imagine using them will make them feel” (Johnson & Wilson, 1984, p. 49). If you were selling somebody a car, you don’t need to come up with a well thought-out robotic pitch, however, you should find out what the person is looking for in the car. After that you can find how the car you are selling can provide that. By simply using skills that we were born with, anybody can be a great salesperson. It is about getting to know the customer and what they truly want rather than learning pitches and following a script.

The first person who speaks, loses

This may sound like a very aggressive and perhaps even arrogant statement but the truth of the matter is that it is true. I have found myself in countless negotiations, some as simple as buying a car and some with international corporations. The bottom line is, most of the time less is more. We have written a number of posts on this very subject and it always comes down to the old adage that we have 2 ears and one mouth so we should listen twice as much.

There’s also the point when you simply need to shut up and let your latest comment distill and sink in. Far too many times as sales people or negotiators, we tend to throw out a conditional or assumptive close and talk past that close. It’s at that point that you need to stop talking and allow what you just said to resonate a little and perhaps even create a certain amount of discomfort. That discomfort is what progresses the sale closer to a close and agreement.

When you drop a statement in a negotiation that is designed to move them closer to a sale, it requires the other person to pause and think. That thinking process is critical to the progress of the negotiation. If you drop the statement and keep discussing the deal then you have thwarted any opportunity for the prospect to bring things closer.

Something to consider when dropping that statement and stopping is that if the person you are negotiating with is a seasoned negotiator, they will know this tactic and will not want to be the first person to speak. This is where your preparation is so important. At the point that the silence becomes a bit uncomfortable, change the subject. This is critical because it takes the pressure off them and allows them to redirect their thinking. Continue with some small talk and after a short period of time you should begin to steer the conversation back to the decision at hand and eventually drop a new assumptive close and stop talking. If this continues after several attempts then the best thing to do is call him out in a polite way and compliment him. Tell him that he is very good at what he does and try to put everything on the table and simply ask him straight up “what’s it going to take to make this happen right now”. He will respect you and probably give you the deal.

Do Not Talk Past The Close

I had an old employer who had built an amazing business, incredibly successful guy, and he loved to go on sales calls. He was actually quite talented at building rapport and getting the customer to want what we were selling. The only issue was that he loved to talk and often times when, as a salesperson, we should not be. Many times we would get a verbal yes for another meeting or to close the deal and he would begin to talk in circles unsure of where the conversation was going. It was often easy to tell that the buyer, on the other side of the table, was ready to be done with the meeting (Fidgeting, looking at watch, changing posture). This is quite common after receiving confirmation of your objective for new or out-of-practice sales people.

Just about everybody in sales has heard the expression “Don’t talk past the close”. But I have found that many people do not really understand what it means and more importantly forget what it means when in a pitch meeting.

Like I have said in the past your buyer is like an 8 year old boy and that means that the decision window is very small. You have to be able to recognize when the buyer has said yes and when you begin to lose them. Odds are if they said yes and you are still the one talking then you are talking past the close.

Every pitch should end with asking for the business and once there is a concrete yes (or something similar, typically it is not just a yes) then affirm the buyers decision to choose your product or service and get out of the office. The only time that you want to stay in the office is if the buyer is talking.

Two things can occur in a pitch meeting that can cause a sales person to talk past the close:

Nervously excited about closing the deal
Is oblivious to the fact that the deal is closed and that the buyer is losing interest

There is an old sports saying that goes “Act like you have been there before”. Don’t get me wrong you should be excited about your success as sales is a very difficult job and every victory must be celebrated but wait until you get in the car. You got the answer you wanted now leave before they change their mind. The second reason is sometimes tougher than it may sound and is why I always recommend two people for a sales call. When someone is performing a pitch it is easy to get lost talking and when you get to the end of the presentation you are in a word vomit. The counterpart to your team can recognize the buyers body language better as they are not focusing on the pitch and they are able to real you back in. (Post coming soon about how two is always better than one)

Just remember to be confident in your ability, once you get the answer that you are looking for get out of there and do not get sick with word vomit. It is far too common.

Comfortably Uncomfortable

Listen up everybody, if you want to be in sales people have to like you. People buy from people they like and respect. Typically, a great salesman has the ability to captivate an audience with a story and garner the status “life of the party” wherever they go. This is because a good salesman has become comfortable in uncomfortable situations. They understand that in that brief moment of uncomfort that prosperity will soon come (prosperity does not alway mean money). Being comfortably uncomfortably is a trait that people are drawn to it demonstrates a level of confidence that very few people have. Nobody likes a pushy salesman but everybody loves a good listener with a relatable story.

Sales is one of the most difficult professions to be successful and one of the very few where your performance is tied into your pay on a daily basis. However, according to CNBC sales is one of the top 20 best paying jobs with average mean salary of $140,320 right behind that of a lawyer. One of the reasons it is such a tough profession is because you have to prove yourself and your product. You have about 30 seconds or less at the beginning of a meeting to build a rapport with someone then if that is successful you have about 5 minutes to demonstrate how you can make them more money or you are out.

We do this by making small talk, if it is an in person meeting be sure to comment on something in their office, find common ground. This does not mean that if your buyer likes to hunt in their free time that you have to be the worlds greatest hunter, you just need enough to get the buyer talking. When the buyer is talking you are doing something right… within reason.

For example, if I walk into my buyers office and he has six taxidermies on the wall, I may say something like “Some nice animals you have on the wall there, I myself have a 30/30 in the gun rack at home”. Just find common ground. If you can get the buyer talking about something they are passionate about, they will like you. Everybody is 99% interested in what they have to say and 1% interested in what you have to say. You just have to make sure that you capitalize on the 1% that you get to say, make it worth while. Read Johnny, your 8 year old buyer for more information on the 1%.

If you are unable to meet with the buyer in person and are tasked with a phone meeting, there are a couple avenues that I recommend. The first one is to do as much research as you possibly can. I was recently in a meeting, admittedly that I was unprepared for, luckily my business partner had done his homework. As we got to the ending questions, the dreaded trial close, the buyer began to backtrack and showed signs of hesitation. He expressed that he had recently been furloughed by his biggest contract due to Covid – 19 and wanted to wait to hire us until the contract was active again. My partner quickly was able to reference, based on his research, what he thought would be our buyers biggest contract (based on his website). Once the company named was mentioned the whole demeanor of the ending remarks changed as he respected where we were coming from. We ended up signing the deal. It is all about relationships and trust, the customer has to like you or they will not do business with you. You will be surprised how big a customers wallet opens when they like and trust you.

The second recommendation for an over the phone meeting is to bring up something that affects everybody; sports, weather, holiday, Corona, etc. This allows for instant common ground, not nearly as affective as personal common ground but effective nonetheless. Often times generic small talk can lead to personal common ground if you can ask the right questions.

All of these aspects are important for every meeting that you go into whether in person or over the phone. Just remember that the product is less important than the relationship, find common ground and be likable. If the buyer does not like you then you’re not going to be able to sell them anything. People buy from people they like and remember nobody likes to be sold but everybody likes to buy something.

I called the Vice President but still no decision…?

Sitting at your desk ready to make some calls and land some appointments but not sure who to call, general manager sounds important right? Wrong! If you are not calling the owner or someone with true authority then you are waisting your time and theirs. Sometimes these middle level employees are tasked with finding a product like the one you are selling so it is important to impress everyone you speak to but nonetheless they are still a gatekeeper.

Oh the dreaded gatekeeper, but this one is disguised as a Vice President or General Manager…? Yes, sure you have the traditional gatekeeper that is the receptionist or the Owners assistant but you also have another level of gatekeepers. Sometimes the first set, secretaries, will transfer you to the second layer, Vice President/Manager.

This second set of gatekeepers can be far worse than the first set as they do have some level of authority. The problem becomes that you do not know what level of authority they have. Often times in a company there are a lot of people that have the authority to tell you no but very few that have the authority to purchase or say yes. Two bad outcomes can occur when transferred to mid level management:

They automatically tell you no
They graciously have you in for a meeting, many meetings and string you along only to find out they can’t make the decision

Far too often when prospecting, sales personnel get put in the “friend zone”. They go out on sales calls quite often and are very like-able people but because they are visiting prospects so often the middle management actually becomes friends with them. Not to say they are taking advantage of you but ultimately if you don’t have a decision in 3 meetings they are probably not going to buy from you. Send them a birthday card or drop by once a quarter to keep the relationship alive in case something changes but until then don’t waste your time.

A few years ago I was prospecting this decent size account that my boss had worked on a few years prior. He warned me that the owner liked to talk and didn’t like to make decisions but as the cocky salesperson I was I figured it would be different. After about 6 months of driving out there, taking him to lunch, and bending over backwards to get his questions answered he finally agreed and signed the paperwork to offer our products. The only caveat came when I returned to do the install and introduce the new products, processes, and systems none of the employees knew that the decision had been made. It was introduced with much resistance (Because there was no owner buy in) and moving forward the sales team would quote both companies (My products and the competition) and sell whichever was cheaper. Safe to say that my commissions did not equal the time that I put into the account. Some prospects are just not worth it. But I digress.

Now it is tough to find out who the true buyer is because when you are working with a small company the Vice President may call all the shots but when calling on Morgan Stanley, where everyone who owns a suit gets a VP after their name, it becomes a bit more difficult. To find out who if person is a true buyer you have to use your sales reasoning to feel the buyer out as you are conversing and more importantly after a short initial pitch or fact finding meeting be sure to ask if anyone else needs to be involved in the final decision. This question is so valuable and far too many people fail to ask it. Who knows maybe the company has a silent partner that you have never heard of.

2 years ago I was called in to one of my accounts to do a “recap” on some material that we had gone over the month before. When I get to the account there is a gentleman there that I had never met, seemingly calling the shots (I had this account for 18 months at this time) and began to instruct me to perform a presentation. I stopped dead and said “excuse me sir who exactly are you?”. Well as it turns out he was the owner… nobody told me that the general manager (who I thought was the owner) had been given officer authority and was able to sign the documents. Always ask if there are any other decision makers involved as it is never fun to be blindsided.

When speaking with company personnel remember that there are many people inside that are able to say no to you but very few that are able to say yes. Do not waste time trying to get to the decision maker through the middle management. If you are confident in your abilities/products then you deserve to speak to the top. Conversely, if you are self conscious regarding your ability then you will think you are not worthy of speaking to the true buyer and next thing you know you are “friend zoned” by middle management, spending a fortune on lunches for commission that is likely never coming. Next time you are about to make a sales call and you are choosing between calling the General Manager and the owner, be confident and call the Owner.

The Knowing Doing Dilemma

Everybody needs training. It is not something to be ashamed of or something to shame. That is just how life goes. In fact, you are really hurting your company without implementing formal training (As I have discussed before). A recent study from the Association for Talent Development (ATD) shows that companies that offer comprehensive training programs have 218% higher income per employee. Pretty staggering statistic. So that makes it pretty clear that training is not something that should be looked down upon but rather awarded.

The truth is, it does not matter what you are doing even something as mundane as turning on the TV, someone once showed you how to do that task. Most skills are not inherent, they are learned. Sure, you may find that some people have innate skills that make them better at something but they still have to learn. Michael Phelps, for example, is an excellent swimmer and truth be told he probably has the correct body frame and special abilities that made him the swimmer he is today. With that said, he still would have drowned as a child if nobody ever taught him how to swim. Inherent skills are useless without proper training.

When we get into work related tasks the training becomes far more important, comprehensive, and beneficial (as shown by statistic listed above). After all, the success of the employees affect the success of the company. Training sessions can be long in duration and even lasts months at a time. If you have implemented training processes at your company or you work at a company where there are solid training processes then bravo to both of you. Give yourselves a pat on the back, because this is a critical step to the success of your career and your business.

Now to get to the crux of the blog post, Is it a knowing or a doing problem. A few years ago I was approached to work with a manager at a medium sized business in Maine. The manager was directly tied to the sales flow and interacted with customers on a daily basis. After reviewing their sales process it seemed that the process and their training was actually pretty solid. I told this to the owner and he assured me that I must be wrong because the sales numbers were drastically lacking. I decided that I wanted a closer look at the manager so I put on my customer hat and role played with the manager. I could not believe how proficient he was with the material and process that he was taught to perform. Some of the best word and thought track performances I had seen. Perhaps a little shaky, definitely not a natural salesmen but nonetheless should be performing well. This illustrated to me that the issue with this business was not the process or the implementation but rather the personnel.

Allow me to elaborate. When I am asked to come into a company and work with their employees I am always looking to answer one question. This one question is not difficult to answer and is actually quite simple. It can usually be evaluated in as little as ten minutes even if I am unaware of the context or subject for which I am implementing the process. The question, “Is it a knowing or a doing problem?”. This critical step in my process was established from that training consultation just a few short years ago. This is why it is so critically important to follow the ABLE mentality, Always Be Learning – Evolve. We will be having a blog post on this in the coming weeks but I think you can garner the general message.

The manager from my story above demonstrates that the he knows the process but ignores it when with customers. This is the crux of every process implementation. When you are looking to implement change be sure to do so in a manner that allows for sufficient training. If the change is encouraged through constant training but your numbers are lacking, you can rule out the knowing problem. If it is not a knowing problem and the employee is resisting the change then it is a doing problem and you likely have a disgruntled employee on your hands, time for an Intimate Negotiation.

Basically, to break down the two aspects, a knowing problem simply means that the person does not know how to perform the task. Perhaps they were thrown into the job with insufficient training, or filling the shoes for somebody who quit. This is a good problem as it is a fixable problem. Likely, with a knowing problem you will actually have a happier and more productive employee once they have received the training that they so desperately need.

The alternative to this is the doing problem. This means that the person is aware of how to do the task the way it should be performed but chooses to do it differently. This could occur for a few different reasons; upset with a manager, thinks the process you are implementing is stupid or takes longer, or thinks that their way of doing things is ultimately better. This is not the mindset that you want for an employee, they need to get on your bus. These are the employees that we have to worry about, now they may not be gone altogether but it is time for an uncomfortable conversation. I recently posted a blog post on “The Intimate Negotiation” this is what I call the uncomfortable conversations that need to be had in the workplace. This could be between Employer and Employee or vice versa and even among peers. Take a peak if you feel that it may be time to have one of these uncomfortable discussions.

Bottom line is whether you are an employee or a boss be sure to ask this simple question to see what the status is on the job being done. If you are the employee resisting change, ask yourself why. Typically, people far smarter than any of us came up with the process you are being taught.

My sales department is very good… I think

Sales is not an easy profession. It requires training, diligence, patience and above all accountability. All these requirements culminate in a seasoned professional sales person. A sales department may have a handful of these seasoned professionals and some that are learning and some that are brand new. Many times the missing element to a successful sales department is a process and a structure.

I have been working with many sales departments that basically allow the sales people to do whatever they want and there is no accountability for time and process and laziness is ubiquitous. Eventually the sales person becomes fat dumb and happy meeting the status quo and there is no longer a drive or any ambition. They essentially become clipboard order takers – not good.

A company needs a hungry and ambitious sales force in order to grow and stand with or ahead of the competition. This is done with incentive programs, aggressive commission structures, contests and competitive processes. Do you have a sales board in your sales department? Do you have quotas set for the day, week and month? Are there contests sprinkled in from time to time, are you honest about the overall sales numbers? Is there accountability to the quotas with performance reviews, rewards and even discipline if necessary. Are you constantly monitoring production and sales pitches? Are there training programs in place to help educate your sales people about the product, value statements, features, advantages, benefits? Have you trained and educated your sales people on the products and companies they are selling against?

There are many elements of en effective sales department and creating all these elements into a process and then wrapping that process into an exciting and energetic program can help increase sales, commitment, loyalty and moral.

Everyone should work in sales. Here are 4 Reasons why.

If you are jumping into the workforce and you do not know where you would like to begin, start in sales. The lessons and skills you will learn in sales will stick with you through any career path that you decide upon. There are also an immense amount of sales positions available, 1 in 8 jobs in the US are sales focused. Here are some of the main reason why an introduction into a sales career is a good idea:

Learn how to take a defeat: Likely at the start of any sales career you will be doing the very fun art of cold calling. For those of you that are not aware, this means that you have a list of names and numbers in front of you that you have to call all day. Most cold calling sales positions will reach out to 50-100 prospects in a given day and you may not even get a result. Most of the time, if you are lucky enough to actually get someone on the phone, the prospect will tell you they are all set and not in need of your product or service. Hearing no that many times is dexterity that most jobs cannot teach you and will surely be helpful down the road.
Resiliency: It typically takes 8 calls to actually get your prospect on the phone. That is a lot of work and is why most people do not like to cold call. This teaches you to never give up until you speak with the prospect. This is an important lesson no matter what career you choose.
Develop Relationships: Almost every business is about developing relationships, you could have the best product in the world but if you don’t know anybody then you will never be able to get it to market. In sales you have about 10-30 seconds to build a rapport that will likely develop a relationship. Acquiring the skill to develop a relationship in a mere 30 seconds is a skill that will pay dividends for years to come.
Professional Demeanor: In a world of technology, being able to carry yourself professionally is a talent being aggressively scouted in the workforce right now. Whether on the phone, in person, on email, or in any form of communication it is important that you are able to walk the walk and talk the talk.

In any case whether you are interested in sales or not you should at least give it a try. If nothing else it is a great training ground for the rest of your career. In addition the top paying sales positions in each industry is well over $150,000 so safe to say there is a lot of money to be made in sales.