Build Your Business by Listening more!!

Listening is the key to selling

In today’s business world, unless you go into the sales arena with a strategy in mind, you will fail more times than you win with prospective clients, as they are busy with their own businesses.

When selling in these times, you must learn to ask the proper questions in order to gain the appropriate information that then leads to increased knowledge.

What are your best questions?
Knowledge is power, and as you ask great questions, listen to your client’s answers, you will discover a tremendous amount of information that will be pivotal in the sales process.

What are the top 10 questions that you will ask every client?
Once you fully understand the client’s situation, you will be able to make effective presentations which will enhance your personal credibility.

The fact is when you meet your client that you are prepared will impress your client because having prepared questions is a strong indication that you have spent time thinking about helping them with the issues that your questions uncover.

Asking great questions helps you and our client to define their needs, to define their desired outcomes, and to consider how to move from where they are now to an attainable goal.

These questions will give you the confidence to express your own ideas clearly, specific to the situation, and visually when necessary.

All of these factors will significantly increase the probability of making the sale.

Please contact us for more information on how we can help you "Build Your Business"!

Floodlight – Build Your Business
Kelowna – Ottawa – Kingston – Toronto
1-888-768-9415
http://www.floodlight.ca/

Why can't you get more referrals?

Another great video from Jeffrey Gitomer



Why can't you get more referrals? The definition of "referral" will surprise you, and at the same time make you understand why you don't get as many as you expect or ask for. The definition of "referral" is: Risk.
Do you ask for referrals?
Do you get as many as you think you should?
Why do people hesitate when you ask?
Why do people not give them to you, or put you off?
Why do YOU hesitate to ask?
Maybe you feel awkward asking because you really don't feel that you've earned the referral yet.
Here are a few questions to ponder if you didn't get what you asked for:
Did they like you enough?
Did they trust you enough?
What did you do to deserve it?
Did you deliver more than promised?
Did you serve them at the highest level possible?
What did you do that was memorable?
What did they risk by giving a referral to you?
Giving a referral is a risk. Is your customer willing to take that risk by referring you? Are they willing to risk a friendship or relationship they have by referring someone to you? Or more powerfully stated, WHEN are they willing - at what point in your relationship with them would they be willing to risk a friendship or relationship they have with someone else, by referring them to you? Here are a few deeper questions to ponder if you didn't get what you asked for:
What have you done to both earn the trust of AND reduce the risk of your customer? If "not enough" is the answer - then it's probably the amount of referrals you get.
REALITY: You are NOT going to get great (real) referrals without a high level of comfort, a history of performance, and deep level of trust.
Referrals are the highest percentage sales call in the universe. Would you rather have 100 cold call leads or one referral? Just checking. Referrals are not magic, but they sure make selling seem like it - you make more sales when you have more referrals. Everyone wants referrals, BUT few are willing to do more than ask to get them - and some salespeople don't even do that. There's a way to get more referrals than you thought possible - but there are some hitches, one of which is hard work on your part.
What's the best way to get a referral?
Don't ask for them; earn them!
PICTURE THIS: You walk into your best friend's house and say, "Mary could you do me a favor? I'm looking for some new friends and I was wondering if you knew anybody like yourself that you could refer me to, and oh by the way I'm going to be selling them something. And if you wouldn't mind doing an introduction for me, I'd really be a happy about that. And oh by the way, thanks."
Doesn't that sound ludicrous? Doesn't it seem imposing? Doesn't it even border on rude? And your friend may even agree to do this for you, but in the end when it comes time to put up or shut-up, their list will be very short. Maybe even empty. Yeah, yeah that's it. Empty. And you can be an even bigger jerk by calling them up pretending to like them, by saying "And speaking of referrals, how about those friends I asked you about the other day?" What I have just described for you is what 99.9% of all salespeople do when they ask for a referral. And it is obvious from the above example that they are 100% wrong! Anyone who asks for a referral doesn't get it. A referral isn't something that you ask for. A referral is something that you earn. Oh sure you can ask for them, but it makes everyone feel awkward and will oftentimes destroy a budding relationship.
Which brings me to my point.
When is the best time to ASK for a referral?
After the risk has been eliminated.
Sales managers tell salespeople to ask for referrals as soon as you make a sale. And sales managers are wrong. Real wrong. After the sale has just been completed is the WORST time to get a referral. You haven't delivered. There's no relationship yet. There's no proof of service yet. And trust is tentative. Start them thinking by asking, "Mr. Jones, if we deliver and exceed your expectations, who else would you insist get this?" Let him answer. Then ask, "If we are phenomenal, would you be willing to call a few associates and set up a three-way lunch?" Now the referral outcome is in your court. All you have to do is perform the way you promised. All you have to do is deliver.
Asking for the referral too early is playing the "greed' card.
Asking when you have eliminated risk and built trust is the "money" card.
My measure of success as a salesperson has always been by the number of unsolicited referrals I get. That's the report card of selling. People referring you behind your back. People referring you without asking. People calling you and wanting to buy.

How to Fix Your Prospecting in a Single Day

Sales prospecting is a lot like exercise.

We all know that we need to do it, we usually have a good idea of how to do it, and we can be pretty certain of what the long-term results will be... and yet, that doesn't make it any easier.

The issue, of course, comes down to discipline. To enjoy that pipeline full of fresh, qualified sales leads later, we have to do some things that might be inconvenient or uncomfortable today.

The good news, however, is that the discipline you need to prospect isn't as hard as you might think. Here's how you can fix your prospecting problems virtually overnight.

First, set aside one day per week for prospecting. This might be the hardest part of the process, since it's going to feel unnatural at first, and there’ll be lots of other issues clamoring for your attention. But, unless the office is burning down behind you, put them aside for the day.

What you’ll get in return is eight or nine uninterrupted hours devoted to generating new leads and sales opportunities.

Honor the time you’ve set. Don’t give in to the temptation to schedule over it when business feels too busy. Seclude yourself from interruption and focus on prospecting.

Spend some of this time cold calling, networking and email prospecting. Sellers love networking events because they get face-to-face with potential prospects. While networking might give you good leads, it often doesn't produce the volume you need to hit your sales goals.

Once a month use a portion of your prospecting time for networking, then reserve the rest for phone calls and email prospecting.

Always have a list of prospects you want to call or follow up with. You may have met them at a networking event, gotten their names from a trade show, or simply have a list pulled from Netprospex.

On your prospecting day, call and email prospects from your list. Over time you’ll find that these contacts add a steady flow of fresh, new opportunities to your pipeline and expand your client base.

Contact lost prospects! I often wish there was a way to calculate the value of the missed opportunities that got away, only to never be followed up on again. Sellers are sometimes hesitant to reconnect with potential clients who didn't bite, but they can be a massive source of future income.

Think about it this way. How long did you spend deliberating on your last major purchase? And would you necessarily make the same decision next time?

Your lost prospects are the same way. Things change. Sometimes projects don’t go as expected. Their businesses evolve and grow.

Unless you burned the bridge by being rude or unprofessional with a lost prospect, this could be a hidden goldmine for you. Follow up with these contacts at least every six months.

Take advantage of your Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) software. That means both learning it and using it.

Just as it's incredibly important that you follow up on prospects that got away, you'll want to remember the details of what you talked with them about in the past, not to mention how long ago it was that you touched base.

It builds confidence when you can tell a prospect that you last spoke in March right before their cruise, and then ask about the trip. You have solid information you can use to restart the conversation.

It isn’t a cold call.

It’s a follow-up and your CRM allows you to differentiate yourself from other sellers because you took a moment to note that tidbit about your prospect.

Note bits of information like the cruise and their business situation. Schedule your next follow-up. Then monitor your CRM to see what calls you need to make.

Make your prospecting follow-up calls on your scheduled prospecting day. After all, these are your prospects. When your scheduled prospecting day rolls around, you have a list of people you’ve spoken to in the past combined with new contacts to call.

It does take some discipline to get your prospecting effort moving. But if you can get started and stick with it, you'll begin to see new accounts flowing in faster than you'd imagine – and that's bound to make your sales life a lot easier.


Written by Kendra Lee

It's that time of year: "Call me back after the holidays."

Great Sales Video from Jeffery Gitomer


It's that time of year: "Call me back after the holidays."

"Call me after the holidays is the second most-heard objection in sales (first being, "Your price is too high." Third being "I have to think about it."). It comes up year after year and salespeople get frustrated year after year, unnecessarily. Here's how to think about it and here's what to do about it...

Humbug. Salespeople hate holidays. It's an excuse for decision makers to put buying decisions on hold. But the worst of them are the Christmas to New Year, "Call me back after the holidays," and "Call me after the first of the year." Two of the most hated phrases in sales. (They still rank behind "We've decided to buy from someone else.")

Call me after the holidays is not an objection. It's worse. It's a stall. Stalls are twice as bad as objections. When you get a stall, you have to somehow dance around it, and then you still must find the real objection before you can proceed.

Here are 11.5 clever lines and winning tactics to use that will help overcome the stall:
1. Close on the stall line. "What day after the first of the year would you want to take (would be most convenient to take) delivery?"

2. Firm it up, whenever it is. Ask, "When after the first of the year? Can I buy you the first breakfast of the new year?" Make a firm appointment.

3. If it's just a callback, make the prospect write it down. Call backs must be appointed, or the other guy is never there when you call. Writing it down makes it a firm commitment.

4. Tell them about your resolutions. "I've made a New Year's resolution that I'm not going to let people like you who need our service, delay until after the first of the year. You know you need it."

5. Offer incentives and alternatives. Invent reasons not to delay. Bill after the holiday. Order now, deliver after the holiday.

6. Question them into a corner -- and close them when they get there. "What will be different after the holidays? Will anything change over the holidays that will cause you not to buy?" (Prospect's answer -- "Oh no, no, no.") "Great!" you say, "Let's get you order in production (service scheduled) now, and we'll deliver it after the holiday. When were you thinking of taking delivery (beginning)."

7. Agree. Then disagree. I know what you mean...lots of people feel that way. Most don't realize that the money wasted between now and the first of the year, will equate to a huge savings if they buy now. Are you sure you want to waste the money?

8. Get a testimonial letter. Ask someone who bought before the holidays and was glad they did to write you a two paragraph letter. Get one paragraph about the value they received and how they originally wanted to wait. The second paragraph should be about how happy they are about your service after the sale. Similar situations are more powerful than your sales pitch.

9. Drop-in with holiday cheer. Use a small holiday plant or gift to get in the door. (No one says no to Santa -- unless you live in Philadelphia. There they boo Santa.)

10. Create urgency. There's a product or delivery back-up after the first -- schedule now.

11. Be funny. Say, "So many people have said call me after the first that I'm booked until April. I do however, have a few openings before the first. How about it?" Making the other person laugh (smile) will go a long way towards getting past the stall. An alternative joke is, "What holiday?"

11.5 Beg. Pleeeeaaase. I'll be your best friend.

Reality check. The success with which this stall is able to handled is directly related to the quality of the relationship that's been built with your prospect or customer. A good relationship allows more liberty to press for immediate action. A weak relationship will mean you wait until after the holiday. Or longer.

Selling Breakthroughs - Kelowna Sales Training

Keep your customers satisfied to create lasting relationships.

The secret to making a successful sale is knowing what, why, how and when your audience wants to buy. Learn the processes and stages of both buyer and seller simultaneously to understand how to apply sales skills and behaviors that accurately match the buyer's state and motivations. Understand how to use your expertise confidently to positively influence outcomes and meet both the buyer's and your own requirements. A sale isn't over until your client knows that the solution to their business problem is you and your product or service.

This course will help you:

• Accurately assess customer needs and establish needs awareness
• Present solutions based upon priority and big picture needs, not products or services
• Use the buyer's motivations for increased focus and creating opportunities
• Communicate as a problem-solver and a trusted partner
• Develop professional, long-lasting business-to-business relationships

Who should Attend:

Anyone involved in the selling process.

Format:

• A highly-interactive 1-day workshop.

Tools Provided:

• A Comprehensive Learning Guide
• A pre- and post-workshop skills assessment 
• Half hour with our sales professional one month after training

Detailed Synopsis: Selling Breakthroughs

The Selling Breakthroughs workshop. will give you the skills needed to transform selling products, services or ideas into selling “business solutions” are essential for salespeople at all levels.

The program will broaden your understanding and develop your selling skills to uncover the underlying business need, create a desire to act on solving the business problem or to take advantage of a business opportunity, make clientcentered sales presentations, gain commitment, and enhance the relationship by ensuring client satisfaction.

The program provides practical planning tools and processes, with case studies and practice sessions to learn and enhance your selling skills.

Unit 1 An Overview of the Selling – Buying Process:
In this overview unit we examine the process and stages that a buyer moves through in any buying situation. This enables us to appreciate the skills and behaviors required by the salesperson to support the buyer throughout the process.

Unit 2 Need: Establishing buyers’ needs and need awareness:
The foundation of any sale and worthwhile relationship requires a clear understanding of the buyer’s real needs – their situation, problems and opportunities. In this unit you will learn the importance of first impressions, and how to use appropriate selling and interpersonal behaviors to achieve strong and positive relationships. You will enhance your questioning skills to obtain appropriate facts and information, and to get confirmation, agreement and commitment.

Unit 3 Priority: Activating needs to priority:
This stage is the vital link between establishing needs and presenting a solution. We explore general and specific buying motives, and identify and establish the individual motivations and drives of our buyers. You will learn specific questioning skills that focus the buyer on their real situation, and help them clarify those needs that are priorities for them. You will become comfortable challenging the status quo.

Unit 4 Solution: Presenting a business case solution:
This Unit is designed to move you towards mastery of presenting a business case that meets the buyer’s specific product and service needs, demonstrates value, and is based on positive relationships. You will further enhance your questioning and listening skills. You will learn how to prepare generic and client specific product and service analyses, based on a complete understanding of features, advantages, benefits and end results. You will prepare a value-based solution, with a documented valueadded package, that effectively differentiates your solution. You will learn how to deal with various forms of resistance, including “price” issues, and positively sell on value and
relationship factors.

Unit 5 Implement: Closing and implementing:
Through an understanding of buying signals, stress and risk assessment, and closing techniques, you will learn how to support the buyer to implement their solution choice. Preparation of a checklist and plan will ensure both parties commit to and complete full implementation.

Unit 6 Relationship: Cementing the relationship and managing expectations:
This unit looks at our customers in terms of importance and worth to help us better allocate our time. Development of an expectation feedback system helps us monitor and evaluate results against expectations. Proactive follow-up will ensure an ongoing relationship based on trust and credibility.

For more information and to see how Priority Management can help you work smarter, call:

Donald Robichaud
FloodLight Consulting - Build Your Business
250-768-9415
http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/
http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/

The 7 Paradoxical Sales Principles

The 7 Paradoxical Sales Principles

1. To win more sales, stop selling. When people feel like they're being sold, they react negatively and put up barriers. Focus on helping your prospects achieve their business, professional and personal objectives – not making a sale.
2. To speed up your sales cycle, slow down.  The more quickly you push to a close, the higher resistance you encounter. Go one step at a time. When your prospects know you want to help them make the right decision, not a rash one, the process moves faster.
3. To make decisions easier, offer fewer options. When you increase the complexity of the decision, you decrease thelikelihood of winning the sale. To help your prospects move forward, give them less to choose from. Keep it simple – always.
4. To be more natural, prepare like crazy. Today's customers suffer no fools. If you're not ready with the right message, questions or presentation, you'll stumble or be stilted in your meeting. When you do prepare, you can be your best self.
5. To get bigger contracts, start smaller. When you pursue the "whole shebang", decisions are more complex and costly, making it much tougher to get approval. Reduce the risk by starting small and proving your capabilities. Then, it's easy to grow.
6. To speed up your learning curve, fail fast. It's inevitable that you'll make mistakes. So don't wait till you've figured out the "perfect pitch" before moving forward. In sales, there is no failure - just lots of opportunities for experimentation, learning and growth.
7. To differentiate your offering, become the differentiator. That's the biggest reality in today's market. Your products, services or solution are secondary to your knowledge, expertise and the difference you make for your customers. Ivest time in yourself.

by Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies.

Qualifying Questions - The Critical Skill

Qualifying - The Critical Skill
Communications - Questioning Skills
Written by Kelley Robertson


For many business people selling is not usually one of their favorite tasks. Salespeople are often viewed as greedy, unethical and unscrupulous - determined to close a sale at any cost. Yet, a business cannot survive without generating sales so selling skills become a critical competency.

Selling is an honourable profession and everyone who operates a business should learn some fundamentals. From my perspective as a business owner, sales trainer, and consumer, the most important skill to learn is how to effectively qualify your prospect.

The most common mistake sales people make is to immediately launch into a product presentation or “pitch” when they first meet their prospect. They extol the virtues of what they sell and tell the prospective buyer how good, fast, reliable, inexpensive or easy to use their product is. They talk, talk, and talk hoping they’ll convince the buyer that their product or service is of value.

The problem with this approach is that the “pitch” seldom addresses the issues or concerns of the buyer. Because their needs have not been addressed, there is no compelling reason for them to consider using your machines or to change vendors. If you really want to give prospects a reason to buy from you, you need to give them a reason. One of the most effective ways to do this is to ask a few well thought-out questions to uncover what is important to the prospect. Here are a few examples:

“I notice you currently use XYZ Company. How long have they been your supplier?”

“What do you like most about them?”

“If you could change one aspect about your current arrangement, what would it be?”

“What are the most important issues for you?”

“What have your experiences been with ABC Organization?”

“How many…do you sell in an average week/month?”

“Who is your primary customer?”

“Where do you see your greatest challenge?”

Notice that each of these is an open-ended question which means it begins with “who”, “what”, “where”, “why”, “when” or “how.” These types of questions encourage the prospect to open up and share information of what their needs and wants are. An important note here is to be cautious you don’t inadvertently turn these open questions in to close-ended ones by saying something like;

“What are the most important issues for you? Timeliness of service? Income?”

This is a very common mistake that now gives the prospect an answer. I don’t know about you, but selling is hard enough without making it even more difficult. Never assume you know how they are going to answer. Ask your question and wait patiently for the answer. Even if you have been in the industry for ten years or longer and think you’ve heard it all, don’t make the mistake of assuming you know what the prospect’s needs are. Let them tell you, rather than you telling them.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in sales is that people will tell you ANYTHING you want to know. All you have to do is ask. Most people love to talk about themselves and want to share information about their current situation, their challenges or problems, likes and dislikes. But, in most cases, they need prompting. This prompting comes from you in the form of asking the right questions in the proper tone and manner.

It amazes me how few salespeople actually take the time to learn about their customer before they launch into their presentation. I recall interviewing several companies for a training initiative I once worked on. The first two salespeople I met rambled on at great length about how good their companies were, how long they had been in business, how they could help me, and so on. Not once did the salespeople ask me what I was looking for. Nor did they address any of the issues that were floating through my mind. Finally, after thirty minutes, I called the interviews to a close. From my perspective, they had just wasted half an hour of my time.

If you really want to begin differentiating yourself from your competitors take the time to learn about your prospect’s situation. By doing so, you’ll begin to give them a reason to do business with you instead of someone else.