Are You Really Serious About Your Sales Success?

“School is never out for the pro.”

Cavett Robert

Last night I spoke at an event organised by the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management (ISMM).

As I started my speech I joked with the audience that by attending the event they were missing out on watching “EastEnders” (a popular TV soap opera for readers outside the UK.)  I then went on to congratulate them for taking the time and trouble to come to the event.  As far as I am aware watching TV soap operas doesn’t do anything to improve your sales performance!


In sales the more you learn the more you earn.  Despite the fact that it was a cold and dark November evening some dedicated sales professionals took the decision to travel to the event and invest in their personal development.

The ISMM arranges numerous events around the country every year with a great line up of speakers - even if I do say so myself!  Last night I was speaking with my good friend Sean McPheat (author of the very excellent book “eselling”).  Between us we have written a host of bestselling books, trained tens of thousands of sales people and spoken at sales conferences across the world.

Sean shared some highly effective sales techniques (if you don’t know how to reverse engineer your benefits then you really should have attended!) and I shared some powerful negotiation tactics that can tip the power balance in your favour.  An evening that helped those who attended to raise their game.

And what did it cost to attend the event? Nothing. Zip. Zero.
Just the commitment required to turn up and learn.

So what about you?  Are you really serious about your success?  What are you doing to continually develop your sales skills? If you aren't investing in your own development then trust me you are going to be overtaken by those of us who are.

Are you, for example, a member of your professional organisation?  If you are a sales professional then you should be a member of your professional organisation.  And in the UK that is the ISMM.  In addition to a host of other benefits the ISMM basically hands you sales development on a plate.

You get to attend great events, learn from great speakers, join webinars, network with other sales professionals and receive an information packed magazine called “Winning Edge” on a regular basis.  Just put the magazine in your bag and carry it with you.  And then as you are going about your business you can always invest a few minutes to read and learn. You can learn on trains, planes, when you are staying in hotels or between customer appointments.

You can find out more about what the ISMM offers here: 
http://www.ismm.co.uk/

In addition, load your Kindle or tablet with some good sales reading.  And download some good sales audio material so that you can listen and learn as you drive around.  Turn your car into a classroom!

To get you started here is an interview I did on the Voice America “Be More Achieve More” business radio show about my latest book “Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success”.  You can listen to the recording at the website, download the mp3 or get it from ITunes absolutely free of charge.

Here is the link:
Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success

If you are truly serious about your sales success then you need to invest time in your personal development.  If you don’t invest in your sales success then those of us that do look forward to stealing your customers from you!

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Selling
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:

www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

Do You Make These Seven Stupid Selling Mistakes?

How many sales are you missing out on?  How aware are you of the errors that could be costing you orders, commission and profits? 

In the course of training and coaching salespeople I see the same mistakes being made time and time again!  Review your performance against these seven areas and make sure that you are not making mistakes that are costing you sales. 

Seven of the most common mistakes that people make when selling are :

1. Not planning and preparing

As obvious as this may appear very few salespeople plan and prepare thoroughly enough.  Far too many salespeople go into a sales call without having fully considered what they are going to do.  Have you conducted background research on the customer?  Have you set very specific objectives for the call?  Have you got all of the information and materials that you may need during the call with you?  Have you anticipated what the customer may ask you?  By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.  The elite of the selling profession are properly planned and prepared before every sales call.

2. Not getting rapport

Psychological research shows that people are more likely to buy from someone if they like them.  Learning how to develop unconscious rapport with your customers is a powerful way of helping them to like you and to want to do business with you.  Utilising the technology of Neuro Linguistic Programming is a very powerful way to do this.  This approach is far more effective (and genuine) than pretending to be interested in what the customer is interested in.  Many people make the mistake of thinking that rapport is something that you “do” to another person.  True rapport emerges from the interaction between the salesperson and their customer.  You have rapport with the customer and they have rapport with you.  In this state communication flows easily and the salesperson is able to understand what the customer wants and needs more effectively.

3. Not listening to what is important to the customer

Having established rapport it becomes easier to properly understand what is important to the customer.  Far too many salespeople are focussed on themselves and their agenda.  You must get your attention where it should be - on the customer. 

It is only when you understand what is important to the customer that you are in the position to sell them anything!  Attempting to sell before having done this is a waste of time. 

Your job is to firstly understand what is important to the customer and then secondly to see of your products and/or services can help them.

4. Talking about your product or service too much

Sorry to be blunt but your customer isn’t actually very interested in you or your product or service.  What they are interested in is what your product or service will do for them. 

Far too many salespeople spend far too much time talking at the customer about their product or service.  A lengthy one way speech about all of the features of your product or service usually results in a rather bored customer. Telling is not selling.

You need to focus your presentation about how the specific benefits that your product or service possess help the customer to solve their specific problems and help them to get exactly what they want.

If you don’t fully understand the customer’s individual and specific requirements then you shouldn’t be talking about your product or service at all.  It is only after you have this understanding that you are in a position to know if the customer may need your help.

5. Not understanding how much money the customer has to spend

If you don’t know what the customer’s budget is, you don’t know how much money they have to spend with you. You need to know specifically how much money the customer has available to solve the specific problems or challenges you have identified.

For a salesperson to be in a position to close the sale you need to know that your customer needs, wants and can afford your product or service.  Tackling the subject of money quite early in the call will also help you to separate the customer who is likely to buy from the customer who is just looking for lots of free advice at your expense.

A sale is not a sale until the money is in your bank account!  Make sure you understand what the customer’s budget is!

6. Not closing the sale early enough

If you aren’t closing frequently then you aren’t selling – you are having a conversation.  Research shows that firstly it can take several closing attempts to finally close a sale and that secondly the customer expects the salesperson to ask for the order.

Perhaps due to a fear of rejection salespeople don’t make sufficient efforts to close.  Instead they rely on carrying on talking about their product or service in the vain hope that the customer will eventually offer to buy something.

By trial closing throughout the call (“Does this make sense so far?”), you get constant feedback about the customer’s readiness to proceed. You can then move up to test closing (“If you were going to install this where would you site it?”) before moving onto the final close (“Shall we get the paperwork done then?”) and signing up the order.

You must be a strong closer if you want to prosper in today’s competitive world.  If you walk out of the sale without having closed you may find out that your competitor didn’t make the same mistake.

7. Not following up after the sale

How to lose sales and annoy customers in one easy step – don’t do what you said you were going to do.  Accuracy, or salespeople doing what they said they were going to do, was one of two factors identified by extensive research as being the most important contributors to customer satisfaction.

The salesperson that does exactly what they said they were going to do, follows meetings up in writing and delivers the goods is a rarity these days. 

If you always ensure you follow up you will get very happy customers.  A happy and satisfied customer is almost impossible for your competitors to sell to.   On the other hand an unhappy customer is very easy to sell to.  Make it hard for your competitors – follow up!

The commercial world may be getting more and more challenging.  However, far too many salespeople are making basic errors that are costing them business.  Please make sure that you aren’t one of them.

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Selling
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:

www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

What is the Difference between Selling and Negotiating?

There are two essential skills that you have to master if you want to prosper as a sales professional.  These are the skills of selling and negotiating.  They are inextricably linked together in the sales process and although the boundaries between them are blurred, they are two distinct stages and subtly different skill sets.

Selling is all about convincing customers to purchase a product or service, or to enter into some form of arrangement or agreement with you.  Selling can be defined as establishing a need or want to buy (and people tend to buy what they want rather than what they need), and then matching the benefits of your product or service to that need or want.  These benefits and how they help the customer to get what they want are articulated in your sales proposal or value proposition.

Negotiation is about agreeing the terms upon which the purchase, arrangement or agreement will take place.  This may include many factors such as volume purchased, delivery schedule and method, purchase frequency, amount of payment, timing of payments, service levels, product or service configuration and so forth.

To maximise your profit margin the golden rule is: sell first, negotiate second.

 The reason for this sequence is that the more convinced the customer is of the benefits of your product and service the more they are likely to be prepared to pay for it.  Selling is about communicating the value of what you have to offer.  The more value a customer perceives a product or service to give them, the higher the price they will be prepared to pay for it.

On some occasions selling alone may be enough.  You may be able to convince the customer to purchase your product or services without any negotiation taking place.   However, in the majority of modern selling situations, you will be drawn into negotiation.

If you allow yourself to be drawn into negotiation too early (and experienced buyers will attempt to do exactly this,) you are weakening your negotiating power and missing out on the opportunity to convince the customer of the benefits (and therefore the value) that your product or service will bring them.  To prevent this happening it is important to focus on three distinct stages in the sales process – these are in sequence: planning and preparing, selling, and then negotiating.

In the course of my work as a speaker, consultant and corporate trainer the situation with the majority of sales people is as illustrated below.   

A small amount of planning is conducted (in my experience far too many sales people do not plan and prepare well enough for customer meetings) and as a result of this the depth and quality of their selling is limited.  They will then frequently find themselves dragged far too quickly into the negotiation stage (which lessens their ability to communicate value) by the customer, who is deliberately trying to tip the balance of power in the negotiation in their favour.

The ideal scenario is as illustrated in the next diagram:

The sales person plans and prepares for both the selling and negotiating stages thoroughly.  They, then enter the selling stage, spending sufficient time to understand the customer’s needs and wants and then articulating a powerful value proposition. They then make the transition into the negotiating stage, maximising profit margins by conducting an effective negotiation that is built on a firm foundation of planning, preparing and good quality selling.

If the foundation of planning and preparation is weak, the selling stage will usually be too shallow and short and will lead to the power balance in the negotiation being tipped in the favour of the customer.  The customer will then exploit their advantage and the sales person’s profit margins inevitably suffer as a consequence.

If you take the time to build a solid foundation of planning and preparation for your customer meetings then your ability to sell will improve, which will in turn lead to you feeling stronger and more confident in the negotiation stage.  The more confident you are feeling, the better your profit margin is likely to be.  And the foundation of confidence in both selling and negotiating is planning and preparation.

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Selling
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:

www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

5 Fatal Sales Traps That Stop You Dead & How To Avoid Them

Have you ever dug a big, deep hole and then been stupid enough to fall into it?
Countless people unwittingly dig fatal sales traps for themselves that kill off any chance of a sale being made.  Five of the most common traps that you must avoid if you want to sell more of your products and services are:

1)      Thinking about the sale too much

When you are in the selling process you must stop thinking about the sale.  My  book ‘Bare Knuckle Selling’ does stress how important it is to set solid objectives for every sales call.  However, once you have done this, put your objective out of your mind and concentrate on the customer and what they want.  Get the dollar signs out of your eyes, forget your objective and focus on the most important person – the customer. Help them to get what they need and the sale will take care of itself.

2)      Failing to probe

If you truly want to help the customer then you must probe their needs thoroughly. Failing to ask enough questions and failing to clarify customer’s requirements leads to sales proposals that are off target.  If your proposal doesn’t meet the customer’s specific needs, your chances of success are slim.

3)      Negotiating before selling

Selling is convincing someone to purchase your product or service. Negotiation is agreeing on what terms the purchase will take place.  If you start negotiating before you have followed the correct selling process then you are, quite literally, selling yourself short.  If the customer does not fully appreciate how much you can help them then they are unlikely to be prepared to pay what you ask.  Sell first, negotiate second.  If you sell well then you may not need to negotiate at all.

4)      Price dropping

Many customers, particularly trained buyers, will always tell you that your price is “too expensive”. Many salespeople immediately drop their price (and cut their profits) in an attempt to close the sale.  This only encourages the customer to ask for further price cuts.  One of the many counters to “It’s too expensive” is, “you are absolutely right, it’s not cheap.  Would you like to know why?” And then re-commence selling the benefits of your product or service to justify your price.

5)      Failing to follow up

A sale isn’t a sale until the money is in the bank.  Failure to do what you say you are going to do will lose you more sales than anything else.  Always do what you promised to do, make sure the customer gets what they want, and make sure they pay you for it. The selling process is far from over when the customer says ‘Yes’. Follow through and make sure you don’t lose the sale through poor customer service.

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Selling
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:

www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

3 Surefire Ways to Get Your Customers To Say Yes!

Master salespeople are adept at utilising powerful psychological strategies to influence people. Here are three from my personal top ten:

1)      People will buy from people they like

Extensive psychological research demonstrates the importance of ‘liking’ in persuading people.  Master salesman Joe Girrard (In the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s “greatest car salesman”) credits liking as one of the most important factors in closing sales.  The fastest and most effective way to encourage people to like you is to use the rapport building strategies of "postural echoing" or matching and mirroring body language and other observable behaviour.  People like people who are like them.  Matching the behaviour of your customers will enable you to establish deep levels of liking.

2)      People will buy if other people are buying

The impact of other people’s behaviour on our own is powerful.  We will view a specific behaviour as correct to the degree that we see other people doing it. It is possible to encourage someone to take a specific action by demonstrating how other people are taking that action.  Utilise this persuasion strategy by making frequent use of testimonials from existing customers, and by using stories about how existing customers made the decisions you want your prospective customer to make.  This strategy is particularly effective when people are feeling uncertain.  When people are feeling uncertain they are more likely to use the actions of others as guidance.

3)      People will buy if the decision is consistent with previous commitments

The drive to be and look consistent is a powerful motivator of human behaviour.  Utilise this strategy by getting your prospect to commit to something early in the selling process and then use it to leverage a decision later in the sale.  Far too many salespeople have far too many customers “thinking it over”.   Early in the selling process I get a customer to commit to “taking a look at what I have to offer and then deciding ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if you want to go ahead”.  At an appropriate time in the sale I remind them of their earlier commitment and ask them for a decision.  This bold approach results in far more closed sales.  It filters out timewasters, which maximises my selling time with people who are actually going to spend money. This approach is not for wimps. If you feel more comfortable wasting your time re-contacting all of the people who are allegedly “thinking it over”, then please don’t use it!

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Selling
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:

www.SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

Why Salespeople Don’t Make Good Negotiators

Do you think that sales people are as effective at negotiating as the procurement professionals they are facing across the buying table?  I’ve got some bad news for you.

In the course of my work as a speaker, consultant and corporate trainer in the areas of sales and negotiation I have spent increasing amounts of time working the “other side” of the buying table.  Over the last few years I have trained both sales professionals and procurement professionals in approximately equal numbers to negotiate. 

And I have come to a disturbing conclusion - in the majority of cases salespeople just aren’t as good at negotiating as they need to be.  As this concerning reality became increasingly apparent I spent much time and thought working out why this is the case and what can be done about it. My conclusions are as follows:

At an early stage in their career sales people are usually told to “keep the customer happy”.  They have been taught that happy customers are good customers and will go out of their way to placate unhappy customers.   Professional buyers know this and will deliberately make salespeople uncomfortable by appearing to be “unhappy” as a way of tipping the power balance in their favour. 

In addition selling and negotiating are two distinct skill sets.  Although selling and negotiating are inextricably linked there are distinct differences:

In selling we are attempting to persuade, convince, enthuse, justify and explain.  By contrast in negotiation we are stating our position, considering, making and weighing proposals and making demands for what we want.

In the majority of cases sales people are far less comfortable with negotiating than buyers are.   If salespeople receive sales training the majority of the time will be spent on the process of selling and very much less time (if any at all) will be spent on the process of negotiating.  Buyers on the other hand will usually only receive training in negotiation.  Therefore when it comes to the negotiation stage of the sales process - buyers have the advantage. 

Buyers will attempt to short cut the sales stage and pull the salesperson out of their selling comfort zone and into their negotiating discomfort zone.  The experienced buyer will increase the levels of discomfort as much as possible using psychological ploys and tactics.  The uncomfortable salesperson will often pay their way out of discomfort in the form of (at best) some form of financial concession or (at worst) a non-reciprocated “give away”.  They will literally pay their way out of discomfort with their employer’s profit margin.  For salespeople to become more effective negotiators they need to recognise this and get more comfortable with being uncomfortable!

Having spent countless hours running realistic and demanding negotiation simulations, I have often seen the salesperson’s selling comfort zone once again rearing its ugly head in terms of negotiation behaviour.  Salespeople will tend to do far too much information giving in the negotiation– driven by their predilection for persuading and selling.  In doing so, they miss out on gathering the necessary information that would enable them to make effective negotiation proposals.  They spend far too much time thinking about things from their perspective and not enough time where their focus should be – getting inside the buyer’s head, understanding things from the buyer’s perspective.  Professional buyers will tend to exhibit higher levels of information gathering, giving them far more knowledge and information that they can the use to their advantage.  In negotiation knowledge is power.

To successfully negotiate you need to understand – really understand – what the other person wants to achieve.  When you fully understand this you can create a deal that meets the needs of both sides.  If you fail to gather enough information (as sales people frequently do) your chances of securing a profitable deal is very limited.  Salespeople need to move their own agenda and objectives from the front of their mind to the back of their mind.  The buyer’s needs and priorities need to be in the front of the sales person’s mind – and they usually are not.

If this situation continues sales professionals are going to continue to be taken advantage of by the procurement professionals they encounter.  The sales profession must put more far more emphasis than it currently does on equipping sales people to be more confident and capable negotiators.

Simon Hazeldine MSc FinstSMM is an international speaker and consultant in the areas of sales, negotiation, performance leadership and applied neuroscience. 

He is the bestselling author of five business books:

• Neuro-Sell: How Neuroscience Can Power Your Sales Success
• Bare Knuckle Sellin
• Bare Knuckle Negotiating
• Bare Knuckle Customer Service
• The Inner Winner

To learn more about Simon's keynote speeches and other services please visit:

www.simonhazeldine.com

To subscribe to Simon's hard hitting "Selling and Negotiating Power Tips newsletter please visit:

www/SellingAndNegotiatingPowerTips.com

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