So what should we think about?  Anything. As long as it’s for a designated amount of time and you’re focused on it.  Pick an issue you’re having related to a certain aspect of the sales process (cold calling, gatekeepers, negotiations, a specific objection, etc.).  Write down the problem and desired result (i.e. goal).  Then lock yourself in a quiet room with a white board or put some ear plugs in and grab a blank piece of paper and start brainstorming ideas.  See what you come up with.

Also, don’t leave this to chance or try to remember to do this whenever you have time. Make the time. As VP of Sales for a previous company I set a recurring block of 15 minutes on me and my team’s calendars at the end of every day that simply said “Think” in the subject line. It was a visual reminder to just stop what we were doing and think about what we did that day and how we could get better tomorrow.  I was amazed at what used to come out of that time. Give it a try, see what happens.

As I walk the trade show floor and talk to different sales reps manning the booths it seems to me their goal isn’t to find new sales opportunities but more to see how many people they can scan into their system, register for their drawing or show a demo to.  I walk up, tell them what I’m looking for and make it clear that I’m actively evaluating solutions.  Then they “get all excited like Jo-Jo the idiot circus boy with a pretty new pet” and jump right into their pitch. They bring me over to show me a non-specific demo of their solution without tailoring it to what I’m looking for and then they hand me a brochure.  I purposely drop a bunch of ‘buying signs’ through the process and then wait for a minute after they’re done to see if they are going to close me….nothing.  Seriously?

Ask me when I want to schedule a follow up meeting. Ask for my feedback on what I thought about their solution compared to what else I’ve seen. Ask me when I’m going to make the decision and what my decision process is.  Ask me anything!!!  CLOSE ME!!  For some reason do we forget what the actual purpose of a trade show is when we get there?  This isn’t a marketing event ladies and gentlemen, this is a sales event.  Leads are hot when you are talking to them, they are not hot two weeks later after marketing puts together a list of all the cards and you get a task to make a phone call.  ABC!!!

If you attend trade shows or even talk to someone on the street or at an event that seems to be interested in your solution, don’t just take their card and tell them they will follow up later. Everyone has their smart phone on them.  Ask them to pull out their calendar and schedule a time to talk.  You don’t need to be obnoxious about it or rude or pushy.  If they are genuinely interested in the follow up they will have no problem doing it.  If they’ve just been wasting your time and trying to be nice they will avoid it.  Either way, at least you’ll get something from the experience besides the headache of “touching base” and “following up” for the next 6 weeks.

Let’s see if anyone closes me today on the floor.

The reason this came up and I’m writing about it is because this just happened to me yesterday. A guy put a in a web request for information about our services, we played e-mail tag for a while, finally got on the phone, had a good conversation about his needs, talked about the details of our program and even pricing.  He asked for me to send him in the outline of how the training would be delivered onsite and remotely and said he would talk to the other decision makers about which would be the better fit.  He even agreed to a follow up meeting the next week at a specific time that I sent him a calendar invitation for.  I sent him the information about an hour after we talked and soon after he declined the meeting request and sent me an e-mail saying “John, I have absolutely no interest.” Huh? Seriously? Was this the same guy I just spent 30 minutes on the phone with having what seemed to be a really good conversation? If you’ve ever seen the Dave Chappelle episode when Charlie Murphy tells the story about Rick James putting his dirty feet on his couch and then Rick James stares into the camera and says he didn’t do it and in the same breath admits that he did and then says “cocaine’s a hellofa drug.”  That’s what this was like (although no cocaine was involved).  The info I sent over to him didn’t include anything we hadn’t already discuss. He obviously determined he wasn’t interested somewhere during our conversation so why didn’t he just say so?  I guess it’s because no one really likes the awkwardness of telling people no directly but come on.  He’s probably the same type of guy that would break up with someone over a txt message. Grow up.

For you buyers, please don’t be afraid to hurt our feelings.  It’s ok to say no.  You might get a little push back from the sales rep trying to understand why but ultimately answering a few questions and listening to a potential justification of why you should reconsider is way less painful for everyone involved than stinging us along.  For you sales reps out there, next time you’re talking with a prospective client at some point in the conversation ask them “if there’s a point in this process where it’s obvious to you that we’re not the right fit are you comfortable telling me no?” It’s a weird question to ask and the answer is somewhat obvious.  However, letting someone know that you’re cool with them telling you no can save you and them a lot of time.

"Unityyyy"

The best way to uncover the ‘pleasure’ side of any sale is through how and what questions you ask to the people in power.  Obviously one of the biggest challenges is getting an audience with these people in the first place.  However, once you do, make sure you don’t dive into your typical “doctor check-up” questions like: What do you do for this? How many of that do you have? How happy are you with your current solution? What could be better?  These are all necessary questions to ask at a certain stage of the sales process, but not to start with.  Start the conversation about something that puts them in the position to be the expert and gets them talking – THEMSELVES.  People love talking about themselves and if you can do your research and come up with some good questions about their business, their industry and their role you’d be amazed at what people will tell you. Make sure you never say something like “So tell me about your business.”  That’s insulting based on how much information is out there about companies these days.  Ask open ended questions about something you read on their web site or annual report that has something to do with how your solution can help them.  Also, a good way to think about pleasure versus pain questioning is to talk about “opportunities” (pleasure) versus “challenges” (pain).

To make the point even further, take a look at one of the more recent reports from Gartner entitled “Current States and Future Directions of the IT Industry.” In the report it talks about the changing priorities and focus of CIOs.  Over the past 2-3 years we have all felt the ‘painful’ effects of the economy which has forced many CIOs to focus on cost cutting and doing much more with much less (i.e. pain).  However, it’s pretty clear there’s a shift going on right now for CIOs and what their focus is going to be in the coming years. According to the report in the next five years a large portion of most CIOs compensation is going to be based not on how much they can save, but how much they can make. They are now being tasked with finding way to use technology to make money for the company and open up new revenue streams.  I’m not sure about you but this sounds a lot more pleasurable to me. So, in my humble opinion, if you want to keep talking about budget and cost cutting to CIOs then get ready to face the pain of discounts. On the other hand, if you can shift the conversation to talk about how your solution can help them find ways to make money either directly or indirectly get ready for a hell of a lot more pleasurable conversations and more enjoyable, longer term, less price sensitive, more competitive proof sales.  Good luck. Stay optimistic, it helps.

In speaking with executives nothing annoys them more than sales reps who call to touch base or check in. One VP even told me he eliminated a vendor from his evaluation process mainly because the rep was so annoying with their calls to touch base all the time.  What’s worse is that vendor was in the lead for winning the business!!  If you want to touch base and check in feel free to waste your time with non-decision makers and people below the power line. But, if you are speaking with ‘power’ think twice before you make that call.

I am now on a personal crusade to remove ‘touching base’ and ‘checking in’ from our sales vocabulary. Please join me in spreading the word. Make fun of anyone you hear in the office using these phrases. Put up signs in your cube to remind you never to say them again. Ask your friends and family to point out when you say it.

Here’s something to help rid the sales world of these phrases.  The next time you’re about to make a phone call make sure you finish this phrase: “The reason for my call today is…..”  If you cannot finish that sentence you shouldn’t be making the call.  Think about it. “Now be relentless. That’s it, I’m done”

The next time you go to a hotel ask what their occupancy rate is. If they tell you anything less than 100% ask for an upgrade and see what they say. The next time you go to buy clothes ask if there is an upcoming sale and see if they can give you the discount early. Whenever you’re buying something significant ask the person taking your money if there is any special promotions going on right now that you could benefit from.  And at the end of the day what’s the harm? Are they going to throw you out for asking? The worse they can say is no.  You’d be amazed at how simply asking the question gets you extra stuff that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Getting the extra stuff isn’t even the biggest benefit of adopting this type of mentality and approach.  The biggest benefit is getting used to asking for things that others might think would be uncomfortable. If you get comfortable doing this in your person life when it doesn’t matter as much then you’ll be much more comfortable doing it in your professional life.

To highlight how getting comfortable asking for things that other people might feel uncomfortable asking for in a business setting let’s look at getting access to “power.”  One of the biggest issues we see in sales is that reps consistently are selling to people below the power line. These are people who can say no all day long but can never say yes. Many reps avoid asking these people to be introduced to the people in power because they’re afraid of offend them or whatever. In our experience, sometimes simply asking them to introduce you opens the door to a much more effective sale. You have to ask it the right way and for the right reasons but simply having the confidence to say something like “You mentioned that these other 3 people were going to be involved in this decision. Could you introduce me to them so I can ask them a few questions and gain their insight so as I develop the solution I can make sure I address everyone’s needs?” Seems like a logical approach right? If they say no then it’s ok but I would just start paying attention and think a little harder about who you are dealing with and if they are actively blocking you for some reason.  On the other hand, if they say yes then you are in a much better position that you were before. Again, just having the confidence to ask the question and as Ben Affleck said in Boiler Room – “Act as if” you usually get way further than you would otherwise.  Go practice on someone today. Good luck.

You should be ‘closing’ from the start.  There are all sorts of things you can close for throughout the sales process.  Think of everything you want/need from the client in order to qualify them appropriately and get them the information they need.  All those ‘get’s are things you can be closing for.  As an example, when someone says “send me information” you can close them on a follow up meeting like this: “I’m happy to send you information.  When would you like to schedule a call to review your feedback and see if it makes sense to take the next steps?”  That is actually a relatively ‘hard’ close.  If someone says “just call me next week” you politely and professionally push back and say “what time next week?” and keep pushing until you get a specific day/time and then send them a meeting invitation so it shows up on their calendar.  The beauty of this is it flushes out the people who are not interested and it helps you practice closing during a stage of the sales process that is not nearly as critical as it is towards the end.

The two main types of closing styles are hard and soft and we need to make sure we’re effective with both.  The main reason is because using the right close on the right person at the right time increases our chances of success significantly.  On the flip side, using the wrong close on the wrong person at the wrong time could be disastrous.  As an example, if you use a soft close on a high level executive when asking for the order you could destroy whatever respect/rapport you had built throughout the process.  On the other hand, if you hard close someone below the power line you could turn them off completely.

Closing is an art form that takes practice. Here is a list of some closes you should know and try:  http://tinyurl.com/3ld6z9w.  Practice closing at every stage of the sales process and be conscious of the type of close you are using and who you are using it on.  If you don’t want to practice on clients then practice on your friends, family, waiters, retail cashiers, whoever. Once you start paying attention you realize how much you close for on a daily basis without even thinking about it. Now go get some coffee.

Here are a few ways I believe role playing can make a difference and I recommend you try out.  Depending on what you are role playing recording it (audio or video) is a very useful exercise to go through.  If you've ever taken golf lessons you know what I mean.  When they record your golf swing and show you what you actually look like it's horrifying but its the best way to visualize what you're doing wrong and how to fix it.  It's the same way with presentation skills training.  I took a presentation skills training recently and was blown away with all the little things I was doing wring while I was presenting.  They were things I had no idea I was doing but as soon as I saw them on the video (through a role play) i knew exactly what I needed to change before the instructor even told me.  Recording your cold calls is another sobering exercise to go through.  Have you ever had a hard time leaving your own voice mail call back message? You know when you have to re-record it about 35 times before you basically give up?  I go through that process every time I need to change my voice mail and I hate it.  The reason I hate it is because I listen to myself and want to throw up sometimes.  However, it forces me to go through the process and improve it to the point where at least I think it's acceptable.

So, here are a few roles plays (or something similar) you can do to help improve your results:

• Cold call yourself at the end of the day.  Don't listen to it until the next morning. When you do listen to it ask yourself if this is the kind of message you would respond to.
• Cold call your boss and ask for feedback.  I guarantee your boss will be more than happy to give you feedback (and will be impressed with your approach and desire to improve).
• Cold call your colleagues and have some fun with it but always give honest feedback.
• Send yourself an e-mail and read it on your Blackberry or iPhone. If it takes more than 4-5 scrolls to read it's too long.  Also look to see how your e-mail (if images are included) is formatted.
• Role play with your boss or colleague one on one before you are going into an important call. It's always good to visualize something going well right before you do it (i.e. visualizing the ball going through the hoop before you take the foul shot).
• Ask someone to record your next presentation that you have to do internally.
• Use your iPhone or whatever to record certain calls you make during the day.

Good luck and get better!