C-Level, Relationship Selling Blog

The One Liner to Differentiate Yourself from Competition

What is the one thing a sales person can say to a prospect or client to set himself apart from others?

 

After the hello and pleasantries, ask what the issues /challenges /expectations the person in front of you is facing as it relates to the solutions you provide.  For example, I sell my sales consulting and sales training services to help sales people and companies make more sales.  So when ever I’m in front of someone that could be a prospect, I'll ask, “What are the issues you’re facing as it relates to revenue generation (or sales or business development)?”  I then sit back and wait for the person to tell me his or her story - all of it.  Most sales people, after the hello, want to tell their story.   For example, “Let’s talk about me and when we’re finished, you can talk about me.”

 

For more on this topic see my selling article “Be Distinct or Become Extinct Differentiating Your Company To Your Customers”

 

How to Create and Manage Large Accounts

Large Account Management requires knowledge of where the account is going in relationship to it's customers, competitors, industry and the economy.  This knowledge is housed in the heads of the profit-center leader and his or her staff.  So anyone that wants to manage a large account has to get to these leaders on a regular basis and learn issues, concerns, problems or target opportunities these people are thinking about.  The only way these leader are going to let that happen is if the vendor has established relationships with these C-level and senior executives.

The sad truth is that account managers believe they are high enough with their main contact – especially technical sales managers - and there is no need to go higher. The other travesty is that account managers feel that a relationship is knowing who the senior managers are and/or being able to say hello to them as they pass by.

What is even more disconcerting is that 90% of large account managers don’t know how to get to, talk with, and perform to the standards of senior executives.  If this seems unbelievable, ask any Sales VP or

CEO

how many senior level relationships their account managers have developed that can be leveraged for price advantage and/or against competition.  You’ll find it is very few.

So follow this link for the full guide on How to Create and Manage Large Accounts

Successful Selling's Critical Ingredient - Confidence

Confidence is a salesperson’s biggest asset.  Confident people exude confidence and others pick-up on it.  It opens doors because confident people are believable. 

 There are three ways to get confident:  (1) Prepare yourself professionally,  (2) Prepare for the situation, and (3) Prepare yourself mentally. 

 

 Preparing Professionally

 

Learning the correct behaviors of selling and making them into habits is critical for our success and our confidence.  Learning requires studying, coaching, trying, assessing, more coaching, correcting and trying again.  The process continues forever.

 

 Preparing for the Situation

 

Just as Tiger walks the course or takes practice shots from various locations before a match, you too must prepare for the situation. Without preparation you will feel nervous and uneasy.  This is fear, and fear destroys confidence.

Before a meeting I will fill out my sales call plan.  Based on my pre-call work, I know what I have to learn. I’m prepared to present. I’m also prepared to ask for commitment and to deal with objections.  This preparation is extremely effective making me feel confident.  The people feel this confidence and it becomes easy to move forward.  This preparation also eliminates anxiety which destroys confidence.

 

Prepare Yourself Mentally

 

Confidence comes from within - getting over self-doubt. Since we know we are capable - we can talk to people and we have sold before - our feeling of self-worth needs to be bolstered by positive self talk about previous successes.  Go into meeting or approach selling situations with positive thoughts and this will keep you confident. If you go in with the thought that you have nothing to lose, you’ve already lost.  You have no confidence, only failure, and you create your destiny - the eventual failure.

Positive self worth, positive projection and getting pumped up will lead to confidence.  This has to come from within, and the best way to draw from your strengths is to prepare yourself professionally and mentally, and prepare for the situation. 

 For the complete article see Successful Selling's Critical Ingredient - Confidence

Selling and Business Development in the 21st Century

In the 21st century selling will require Relationship Selling, Network Selling and Investigative Selling. 

 

Prospecting will require territory sales people to use the internet to passively draw potential buyers to them while they actively prospect for cross-sells in existing customers.

 

Building professional relationships are going to make a sales person be seen as a resource to protect or enhance buyers’ careers.  If one attains that status, these people will buy more and more from you and refer you to other as well. 

 

However, one has to learn how to use these relationships to get networked to others.  People will help you if asked, but rarely if they are not asked. So to make the process productive, what you ask for and how you ask for it will make all the difference between getting to the right people and getting to useless people for your initiative.  This process is Network Selling.

 

Finally, a sales person needs to investigate the critical drivers of an individual in order to provide what he or she wants to buy.  People buy for their own reasons.  Everyone is different and with out knowing their triggers, a sales person will flounder or worst yet, be annoying.  But if the sales person can make the connections between the desires and the deliverables, a relationship can be established and the cycle begins again.

 

For more and the complete article see ”Selling and Business Development in the 21st Century”

C-Level Relationship Selling: Sales Managers Must Teach C-Level Selling and Use Effective Listening to Cross-Sell and Territory Sales Will Skyrocket

 

Sales people are hindered cross-selling because they are out of their comfort zone.  Some would argue that it’s the money. 

 

Anyone who has been involved with my coaching knows I strongly encourage prospecting extensively in existing accounts.  It is the easiest place to get more business.  So if sales people are uncomfortable or don’t like the money they get from the cross-sell, what is an astute sales manager to do?  I suggest “Effective Listening” which relieves the burden of promoting products / services and emphasizes interviewing and listening for key words and phrases. 

 

If a sales person uses his contacts to get to the senior executives, and then asks questions to elicit remarks that reflect challenges, problems and unmet opportunities, relative to the sales person’s total solution portfolio, he will learn a lot about other opportunities ripe for cross-sells. 

 

For example, one of my clients sells civil engineering and construction services.  Many of the people are very knowledgeable with environmental engineering and are connected to some powerful people in government agencies or corporations.  To get these people to sell roads, buildings or other engineering services is not going to happen and if it did they’d botch it up.

 

Now if this environmental person was conditioned to ask and trained to listen for problem words and phases, he could spot trouble areas and then report them to a sales manager who would assign an expert to assist.

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This being said, however, sales management has to set up training with the cross-sell services to teach people the keywords and phrases (not how to sell their service) and second, management has to have a process of assignment and follow-up. 

 

So what about the money piece?  This will go away if the team can close.  The biggest motivator for sales people is getting the order. It is a real rush and very satisfying. 

 

Sale managers have to get out of their routine. Telling sales people they have to cross-sell more, doesn’t make them do it.  Showing them how and enforcing the training does.

 

For examples and the full article – seeC-Level Relationship Selling: Sales Managers Must Teach C-Level Selling and Use Effective Listening to Cross-Sell and Territory Sales Will Skyrocket

 

C-Level Selling Requires Hiring Super Sales People and Sales Managers

Hiring successful sales people and sales managers requires a scientific process, not a resume and interview ritual.  You’ve probably been fooled many times from a great impression at the interview, and then the person didn’t cut it.  S/he either quit, got fired or worse yet, s/he is still with you under producing.  Well these mistakes can be avoided, along with all the lost customers and associated expenses for training, salary, etc., by using my recruiting process.

  

There are certain elements present and/or absent and/or mixed in proportions that determine selling and sales management success.  So in order to hire super sales people companies must:  Measure the amounts of each element; determine what mixes and what doesn’t; decide what can be changed or improved in the time allotted to change it; analyze findings; Interview candidates that tested positive and make your selection. 

                                      

This science is 96% accurate for selecting successful sales people for any industry.  That’s better than 9 super sales people for every 10 you choose.  Selling success means the person is an over-achiever and/or a top producer on your selling team.    Think of all the sales people you’ve hired and determine how many of them stayed with you and turned out to be top producers.

 

For the more click this link for the full article C-Level Selling Requires Hiring Super Sales People and Sales Managers

 

Bonus Tip:  Free White Paper “The Modern Science of Sales Person Selection”.  Just click this Free White Paper for Hiring Sales People link .  Sam Manfer improves sales and Business Development for companies determined to win-over more accounts despite competition, price and market conditions. 

10 Tips for Developing C-Level Relationships

How would you like to be in a selling position where there is no competition; price is not an issue; business you never thought existed keeps rolling in; and budgets are created to buy your offerings.  Well, if you develop professional relationships with senior managers especially those responsible for P/L in your existing client base, these dreams will come true. Better yet, you will increase your sales and market share tremendously. 

 

Most sales people (including you or your people) meet regularly with their main contact and make an occasional stop in purchasing or say a quick hello to the boss.  They spend no time broadening their learning and presence in an upward and outward direction.  Consequently, the sales person never gets know by the top people - the ones with the influence and/or the power to approve your sale.  Since these leaders don’t know you, your company is considered one-of-the-bunch of good suppliers – at best.

 

Here are some tips to get to the leaders and skyrocket your selling performance.

 

1.  Use your Golden Network to Get to the Top.  These are your contacts that have benefitted from you, your services, and/or your company in the past.  They can be internal or external

 

2.  Make your meetings about the senior exec. S/he is giving you an opportunity to listen and learn about her or him.

 

3.  Initial meetings (believe it or not) are your best and only opportunity for the senior exec to open-up and explain his situation to you.

 

For more detail and the other 7 tips see the full article 10 Tips for Developing C-Level Relationships