Selling Success

2006-11-21T09:47:00.000-08:00

Systematic Selling - The Sales Success Framework

I'm sure you have heard the saying "sales is a numbers game". Most people in the profession of sales would surely not disagree with this old adage. You essentially "get out what you put in" when it comes to selling. The more touch points (dials, meetings, etc.) you make with prospects increases the probability of growing your sales pipeline of qualified opportunities. The more qualified opportunities you have in your sales pipeline increases the probability that you will close more business. And so on and so forth.

Today I offer a different perspective that I'm sure those in the sales profession will also agree with as a sales philosophy: "sales is a complex game". It's a simple adage but true. Think about it. Selling is a complex process of finding a target market, understanding the purchase drivers, identifying and qualifying opportunities, and managing the process to a successful outcome. I have obviously simplified this description. Let's evaluate further to understand some of the key steps and tasks a selling professional is responsible for on a daily basis to truly understand the complexities associated with selling.

The initial step in selling involves prospecting and research. The next step involves preparation and pre-call planning. Once you have determined a compelling story and are ready to reach out to your prospects then you are ready to begin contacting your target market through various methods (i.e. cold calling, networking, marketing, etc.). After identifying initial opportunities through various touch points (i.e. meetings, phone calls, etc.), then you move into the sales cycle management stage. Throughout this process, you are qualifying and assessing opportunities. On many occaisions it is necessary to involve other individuals at your organization to help you at different stages of the sales cycle. This makes it necessary to facilitate the "team pursuit sales cycle", which further adds to the complexity of selling. All the while, you are working towards preparing and presenting a solution (i.e. presentation, proposal, statement of work, etc.). Once a prospect agrees that your solution is the right fit, then you move into the negotiation, closing and contractual paperwork stage. Once the contracts are signed and the solution is ready to be delivered, then you shift into the new client greeting and kick-off stage. Finally, when the prospect is officially a customer (i.e. delivery of solution is occuring) then it becomes necessary to manage and build the client relationship for the purpose of client satisfaction, retention and expansion (i.e. up-selling and cross-selling).

One thing to keep in mind is that each major step described above has several sub-steps and all of this activity requires hours upon hours worth of time commitment on behalf of the selling professional. This "sales complexity" makes it necessary for a selling professional to be organized if he or she expects to be successful. It all becomes much easier for a selling professional if they employ a systematic selling approach. At Sales Integrity, years ago we developed the Sales Success Framework to address this issue. We realized selling is a complex game and the Sales Success Framework was created to help selling professionals make the most effective use of their time while attempting to simplify the complexities associated to the daily sales grind.

Within the Sales Success Framework there are six key selling principals to adhere to in order to truly stay organized as a selling professional, which in turn will strongly contribute towards a selling professional's success. In the next several blog postings I will address these six principals in detail to provide some insight into how to employ a systematic selling approach for the purpose of organization and success. For now I suggest that you write down all of the specific complexities associated to your sales position (i.e. daily tasks and activities that consume your time) and strongly consider how improving your organization skills through a systematic selling approach can help you succeed. As always, if you have any questions, comments or ideas, please feel free to contact me directly at sean.piket@salesintegrity.com. That's it for today. Thank you for your time and consideration. Make it a great day!

2006-10-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

Help Customers Buy - Don't Sell Them Anything.

I joined a client of mine today on an initial sales call with one of his prospective customers. I really enjoy field selling visits with my clients because I am always reminded of some very basic, yet overlooked, principals I learned and applied when I was a direct sales representative selling technology services and solutions. The most basic of these principals is this: help customers buy - don't sell them anything. Let me elaborate...

Do you enjoy "being sold"? Doesn't that phrase have a negative connotation associated to it? The reality is: nobody enjoys being sold. But...everyone enjoys buying something as long as it meets four key criteria: 1) they want it; 2) they need it; 3) it benefits them; and 4) they can afford it. Furthermore, everyone enjoys the buying process better when a well-educated sales representative makes it easy to buy from them. Do you agree? Let's break it down even further...

If you are selling a product or service you need to make sure all four key criteria stated above are met otherwise your probability of closing the business with that prospect is very low. Think about it. If the prospect doesn't want what you sell but they need it, it benefits them, and they can afford it then it really doesn't matter. They simply don't want it and that alone will block the sale. Has that happened before to you? It's frustrating as you know. Let's look at the flipside of that equation. Let's say they want it but they don't need it or it doesn't benefit them or they simply can't afford it. Still no sale. I think you get the picture. No matter which one of the four key criteria are not met, the sale will not occur as a result, even if the other three criteria are met.

So, which one of the four key criteria is most important? The "it benefits them" criterion. The reason being is that if you can demonstrate how your product or service benefits your prospects then they tend to want it, need it, and will find a way to afford it. When it comes to demonstrating how your product or service benefits a prospect, make sure it meets at least one of three tangible business benefits: 1) top-line growth (revenue/sales); 2) bottom-line results (profit/income); and 3) improved operational efficiency.

Notice that you are not selling anything. You are educating your prospect and helping them buy as a result of that education. They will naturally want to buy if you adhere to this process. The best way to educate your prospects is by telling a story or two of how current customers (preferably ones similar to them) are experiencing tangible business benefits as a result of implementing the solution you are recommending for them. Don't push features, functionality or sell "wow factors" associated to your product, service or solution. Simply educate your prospect on tangible business benefits associated to your recommended solution and it becomes a "no brainer" decision. Now that's helping customers buy, not selling them!

Back to the initial sales call I joined my client on today. My client is in the business of providing process automation and workflow solutions utilizing fax, imaging, and document management technology. We met with a credit management services company (financial services). This company is the classic example of a prospect that will experience tangible business benefits as it relates to my client's solution if they choose to buy. The prospect has very manual and paper intensive processes that are costing them a significant amount of time and money on a daily basis. They desire to minimize or alleviate the pain associated to this issue. This desire caused them to want and need what my client provides. Now it was up to my client to tie that desire to tangible business benefits to improve his probability of helping this prospect buy his solution.

My client did an excellent job of asking questions about the prospect's wants and needs. Then he mapped those wants and needs to tangible business benefits the prospect agreed to: shortening collection cycles (money in the door sooner - top-line growth), streamlining processes (improving operational efficiency), and minimizing intensive use of paper and manual labor (dramatically reducing costs - bottom-line results). Notice the focus is not on technology or what is being sold, it's about helping the prospect achieve their goals by helping them buy what they want, need, and benefits them specific to their interests and desires. Now the next step is to discuss budget and make sure the prospect can afford it. Remember - you need all four key criteria to be met in order to improve your probability of closing the business. More on the topic of handling the budget/price issue in a later blog posting!

Well that's enough for now. If you have any questions, comments or requests please feel free to contact me directly via email at: sean.piket@salesintegrity.com. In the meantime, on your next sales call make sure you structure your line of questioning and positioning of your solution to align with your prospects wants, needs, benefits and ability to afford what you are offering. As long as you tie your solution to top-line growth, bottom-line results and/or improving operational efficiency then you will be very successful in sales. Thank you for your time and consideration. Make it a great day!

2006-10-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

Introduction to Selling Success Blog

My name is Sean Piket. I am the founder and CEO of a company named Sales Integrity, Inc. Sales Integrity is a sales outsourcing, consulting and training firm. We specialize in working with emerging-growth technology companies to help them build, deploy and/or manage their sales department. Our entire focus is on helping our customers profitably grow revenue and in turn grow their business. I am starting this blog to provide insight, tips and useful information as it relates to selling success - whether for the selling professional, leader, organization or anyone responsible for selling activities and results. Your comments, questions and feedback are highly recommended. I would love to hear from you to get your perspective on selling success.

Everyday we encounter different, yet exciting, experiences with our customers. We have the benefit of being able to work directly with business owners, sales executives and managers, sales reps (both inside and outside), strategic partner and alliance managers (and in turn the partner organizations they encounter), and marketing professionals to name a few. Needless to say, we continue to learn new and effective methods that contribute towards selling success. On the flipside, we also learn what not to do when it comes to selling. Knowing what not to do is as important (if not more important on some occaisions) than knowing what to do. I will get more into this topic and provide specific examples in future blog postings. In the meantime, I just wanted to get this blog started and provide an overview on what's to come in future blog postings.

On some occaisions I will address topics that will be tailored more to a business owner or sales executive trying to tackle issues related to: sales hiring, sales rep retention and turnover, sales skills improvement, cost of sales, sales compensation, sales territory models, sales quotas, sales and marketing integration, lead and opportunity generation, customer retention and growth strategies, sales pipeline management and forecasting, selling processes and methodologies, and leveraging sales-focused technology (i.e. CRM systems, Proposal Automation, etc.), and many other relevant topics to this audience.

Other times I will address topics more tailored towards practitioners of the selling trade: inside sales reps, outside sales reps, enterprise sales reps, solution-focused sales reps, transactional-focused sales reps, account managers, pre-sales engineers, customer service-oriented reps, partner account managers, etc. The topics will include: sales careers and jobs, prospecting, networking and relationship marketing, pre-call planning and preparation, telephone selling, effective communication strategies and techniques, managing the sales cycle, selling processes and methodologies, handling objections and selling challenges/complexities, effectively closing business and opening new client relationships, selling to senior executives, negotiating, strategic and large account management, cross-selling and up-selling, proposals and presentations, effective meeting preparation and management, and many other relevant topics to this audience.

Time to close for now. If you have any suggestions for me or would like to direct me towards a topic of particular interest to you then please feel free to contact me directly with your suggestions or requests at: sean.piket@salesintegrity.com. Thank you for your time and consideration. Make it a great day!