Sales people constantly ask me about prospecting techniques and methods. Yet the solution may not be techniques you need to employ, rather mistakes you need to avoid.

Below are five deadly prospecting mistakes that sales people routinely make.

These blunders can and have ended sales careers.

So take note of these five killers from the least deadly to the most.

And avoid them like the plague!

#5 – Poor Record Keeping

Most sales people overlook the importance of keeping good activity records. Prospects that slip through the cracks are often the difference between success and failure. Prospects you forgot to call, emails you
didn’t send or lost leads, are a fraction of what slips through your fingers.

If you are using post-it notes, an A4 pad, memory or the back of a cigarette packet for prospecting, you are losing money!

Even tools like Outlook and Access cannot handle the complexities of professional sales prospecting.

You must become an expert with a CRM, (Customer Relationship Management) program. Don’t look at it as an expense because it will pay for itself many times over.

Failing to keep good records is a major mistake you can avoid by having a system in place.

#4 – Selling the Product or Service Prematurely

The next prospecting mistake is to fall into the trap of selling the product or the service instead of the appointment.

Sometimes this is due to a poorly structured appointment setting presentation, other times it is deliberate.

Some sales people are looking for the easy sale; the person who says, “I’ve been waiting for you to call! Please let me to give you my money!” and this is a critical mistake.

When setting appointments you must remember your objective is to sell ONLY the appointment. You don’t want to be evasive, but you must help the prospect understand that the answers to their questions are the reason why a personal meeting is necessary. And again, do not look for the lay-down-sale. Find qualified prospects and then—-DO YOUR JOB!

#3 – Failing to Get and Use Referrals

With all the “tricks” out there for getting referrals, the easiest one is to simply ASK FOR THEM. It is amazing so many sales people still fall short in this area which is likely due to the sales person’s lack of personal belief in their product. If you do not deeply believe in what you sell, it is hard to ask for referrals, especially from a prospect that did not buy.

Then there is the sales person who makes the sale and wants to hurry and leave or quickly get off the telephone. Take your time after closing a sale.

Make sure paperwork and details are correct and ask for referrals from everyone including the “no-sales.”

Then, when you get referrals from the no-sale—CALL THEM.

A huge mistake sales people make is they are afraid to call referrals they received from prospects who did not buy.

Call all referrals without regard to their source.

#2 – The Smile & Dial Approach

The second deadliest prospecting mistake is to come on with the old school, smile and dial approach. On the telephone, in person or by email, many sales people still use the overly enthusiastic, insincere, pep-rally
approach.

Consumers today are educated and have heard the old sales pitch before and they are tired of it. Your approach should be relaxed, professional and sincere.

You need to lose that big phony smile and tone down your enthusiasm. There is a time when you will get enthusiastic such as when explaining benefits, but it is not during your initial approach.

#1 – Inconsistent Work Ethic

The number one deadly mistake in prospecting is to have an inconsistent work ethic. The sales profession is the most subjective business in the world. It is easier to fool yourself in sales than in any other
profession.

At the end of the day or week, you may honestly believe that you called on a ton of prospects, made a bunch of calls and sent out a gang of emails. But what you THINK and FEEL will seldom match with the facts.

You cannot judge your performance by your emotions; you must rely only factual data. This is another area a CRM will help. You have to know exactly how many prospects you called or flyers or emails you sent.

Then you must set prospecting activity goals and stick to them. If you say that you will make 30 prospecting calls a week, then don’t think you did—KNOW you did.

Also, immediately after a big sale or a good month, usually prospecting activity drops off dramatically.

Set clear prospecting activity goals and use factual data to ensure you consistently meet them. Avoid these five deadly mistakes and prospecting will become your friend not your foe.

Sean Mc

Yes, success in professional selling does indeed rely on a little luck!

That luck however, stands for Labour Under Correct Knowledge!

Selling is a profession and as in any profession it takes skill, education, practice and expert knowledge. A true professional sales person does not rely on the roll of the dice or hope and wish he or she has a good week.

A true professional depends on the knowledge and understanding of facts; on scientific data and laws all applied with learned skill.

If you will learn the facts, the scientific data and the laws that govern your business, and practice and study to learn how to apply this science to your everyday activities; then you will make as money as you want, write your own paycheck and completely eliminate any risk.

In fact, you can work on a commission (even a 100% commission) and make it more dependable and consistent than if your worked on a set hourly wage!

S.O.S. = The Science of Selling

The Science of Selling, or SOS, is exactly what it sounds like.

It is about understanding the science; the numbers and the data about selling. What follows is a brief explanation of SOS and some tips on how to apply it to your particular sales situation.

However, for more detailed information on SOS you will find in other MTD training material.

The first step to develop an understanding of your SOS is to find out all of the numbers.

You need to assess all of the statistical data that surrounds your selling situation: your product, sales process, turn around time and your company or ndustry. You must find out your sales averages, all the averages: your closing average, the average sales amount, the average sales commissions
paid, the average length of time to close a sale, the average number of appointments to make one sale, the average number of calls to set one appointment, the average number of dials to make a call to set an appointment. You need data.

This information should not be too difficult to get as your sales management should have such readily available. If you have a history with the company you are now with, then you should be able to get most of this information from your own records.

If you are new to the company or to selling, then your company should have records and statistics of sales people with the firm in general. The key is that you MUST NOT invent, create or assume these numbers. You must base these figures on facts.

Selling is the most subjective business in the world and you cannot rely on what you think or feel. The amount of prospects you think you saw last week and what you feel is your closing average, will more likely be a lot different the amount of prospects you actually saw and your true closing average.

Once you have this real data then you can begin.

To best explain SOS and how you can apply it to your personal situation, let’s use a hypothetical sales person we will call Judith Rains.

Judith works for ABC Widgets and after looking over her history, she has gathered all of the information on her actual past performance.

Judith has found that her closing average is 20% or one out of five.

That is, when she counted all of the sales she closed versus all of the prospects she attempted to close, she closed 20% or one out of every five. It took her five sales presentations or demonstrations to make every one sale.

Now we know that there were times when Judith made three or four sales in a row and times when she lost a few sales in a row.

However, over a length of time, Judith knows that her average is 20%.

Judith also knows that when she makes a sale she earns a commission of £400 on the average. Once again, this is her average as sometimes she makes a big sale and earns £1,000 or more and sometimes she only earns £150, but her average is £400.

It therefore, takes Judith FIVE presentations or closing attempts to make one sale, in which she earns £400.

Now, here is an important question: If Judith makes one sale for every five closing attempts, and she makes £400 for that one sale, then how much does Judith make for every presentation, every attempt to close?

That is how much does Judith makes for every closing attempt even when the prospect did NOT buy?

Judith effectively EARNS ONE FIFTH of the £400 on every closing attempt whether she makes the sale or not. Every time Judith asks for an order, she earns 1/5 or 20% of the total £400 or £80.

So, Judith makes £80 every time he closes for the sale, no matter what the outcome!

Don’t’ Fight The Law!

The Law of Averages is no different than the Law of Gravity—they are LAWS and they will be true! What you need to do is find out all of your numbers; your closing average and the average sale amount and figure out how much you earn per closing attempt.

It is imperative to understand that this is actually how you are paid.

You must understand that every action, every sales activity has its own value.

You must understand that you get paid when you perform each one of these sales activities no matter what the outcome of each individual sale.

Judith must understand that at that critical juncture of closing the sale, £400 is not at stake, not at risk. When she is attempting to close the sale, NOTHING is at risk. If the prospect says, “No” Judith STILL makes £80!

If the prospect throws Judith out the door, Judith still made £80.

Equally as important, Judith must realize that if the prospect says, “Yes,” and buys the product, she still made £80 and NOT £400.

Usually, sales people go only as far as to get some vague idea of their overall closing average and they stop there. They then use this closing average to set their goals and base their work.

The problem with this is that the closing average is the end result of an entire sales process. However, to achieve consistent outcomes, you must have consistent input.

Your work ethic: the number of sales calls, the number or closes, the number of appointments, all sales activities must all be equally consistent.

When sales people go up and down and rich one week and broke the next, it is not due to bad luck, it is the result of an inconsistent work ethic.

Typically sales people set their goals based solely on the number of sales as per their closing average. Therefore the sales person usually pays no
attention to the work ethic behind each sale.

As an example, a sales person with a closing average of 20% sets a goal to make five sales. He goes out and during the week he achieves his goal of the five sales and he did it by only making 12 presentations.

The sales person closed 5 sales out of 12 closing attempts.

When this happens the sales person jumps up and down feeling grateful for having such a good week.

However, the truth is that this sales person’s averages say that he must make five closing presentations for every one sale earned.

Therefore, if he wants to make five sales, he should make at least 25 closing attempts. You see, 5 out of 12 is a 41.66% closing average and though it may feel good, his closing average can not support that.

In fact, since this salesman should have done 25 and only did 12, he is in-the-hole 13 closing attempts. He is behind on the law of averages by 13 closing attempts. Now, what do you think will happen to this sales person over the following week or two?

Those 13 closes are going to catch up with him to bring his closing average back to 20%.

That means he must go through a period of no sales and when that happens the sales person believes he is in a slump or he is just
having bad luck. But it is not a slump and it has nothing to do with luck.

It is the result of his own action (rather inaction) and is exactly why the under-trained sales person lives on a mediocre rollercoaster ride of fluctuating income.

It’s Science, Not Sorcery

Rise up above the level of the wishful thinker and learn your SOS.

Figure out what you earn for every sales activity in your sales process.

Then use those numbers as goals. With our sales person Judith for example, we know that she earns £400 for every sale she makes.

When she sets a goal to make £2,000 does she set out to just make five sales? (£400 x 5 = £2,000) NO. No.

If Judith is a true professional who understand SOS, she knows that she actually earns £80 for every closing attempt regardless of the outcome. Judith forgets about the number of sales and sets out to make 25 closing presentations (£2,000 / £80 = 25).

She makes sure she completes 25 closing attempts regardless of what happens. Judith realizes that she will make her goal of £2,000 as long as she
completes the 25 attempts. Judith knows that if she completes those 25 attempts every week, week in and week out, that she will consistently earn close to £2,000 earn
every week.

She does not worry about who says yes or who says no.

She does not worry about the small sales or the big sale.

She does not have anything to worry about or to wish for and she does not depend on luck. Judith understands that she has nothing to lose and nothing to risk. Judith is a sales scientist!

Until the next time, take care of yourself and happy
selling!

Sean

I received an interesting question the other day through email.

Here it is:

“Hi Sean,

Scenario: I own a Virtual Business - where you are trying to get contracts for your Company based only on an email for positions/openings advertised. E.g. Writing Content for numerous online portals. An opening like this will get literally 100 of responses offering their company’s services to provide content.

Question: How do I ensure that:
a. My email gets read amongst the 100’s- i.e. choosing an appropriate headline/ amount of content in my email.
b. How do I ensure I get selected amongst the 100s of applicants?

Your help will be appreciated.

Thanks
C”

Here’s what I think:

Statistics show that a decent email campaign will result in your email being opened about 30-40% of the time and if you have a compelling offer about 20% of those opened will click through to your link/offer/web page.

The question is - “How do you get them to open it” in the first place!

Your headline and subject line should really create some curiosity for the reader to want to open it.

For example, take the following headline:

“Proven copywriter increases sales by 40%”

Is much better than:

“Copywriter for hire”

You need to put some kind of benefit in the headline.

I would also play on what the actual work is too. For example, if the advert asks for a professional PA service to save the client some time etc then your heading should be:

“Professional PA Services: Saves You Time And Money”

Make it as specific as you can.

Ok, now onto your sales copy in the content.

You will want to make sure that you stress the benefits of doing business with you. Make sure you answer the following questions in your reply:

What makes you unique?

Who have you completed work for? What type of work? Results?

Include case studies and quotes from satisfied clients.

How can you help them with their problem?

How do you do business? (make it simple for them to buy)

Give them a 100% guarantee and only receive money when they are happy - this for me is very important.

So, there are some tips. I hope they help you C?

Sean Mc

We often get asked to provide marketing consultant services as well as sales training and sales consulting.

Your sales and marketing efforts need to be aligned as far as lead generation is concerned.

When it comes to marketing your services you need to ensure that you concentrate on three elements:

FREQUENCY

CONSISTENCY

Your marketing mix, whether it be direct mail, telesales, online marketing or whatever always needs to ensure that it has those three elements to make sure that your messages come across in a professional manner!

Happy Marketing!

Sean Mc

Solution Based Selling

What is it and how to do it!

What is solutions-based selling?

And how do you sell a solution?

In answer, let me start with the word itself. Merriam-Webster defines the word solution as: “a. An action or process of solving a problem b: an answer to a problem…” Solutions based selling means providing answers to problems. A solution is the answer to a problem and therefore, before you can sell a solution, you have to identify a problem. If you wish to become a solutions provider and business advisor to your clients, you must first uncover the problem or problems and help educate the buyer to them.

To uncover problems your prospective client is having, begin by examining the benefits your product or service offers. However, don’t confuse benefits with solutions. A benefit is not a solution unless it solves a problem. If you are not sure what benefits apply to the customer, then ask questions to find areas your product can help. Examine the benefits.

Start with your benefits, but don’t stop there. Instead, consider the benefit and work backwards. Ask yourself, ‘WHY is this a benefit to the customer?’, and you will immediately find the problems. As an example, let’s take a sales person who sells the latest and greatest network printers that can fax, email, and do everything but make coffee.

The prospect has a separate stand alone printer and fax machine and both work fine. What is a benefit the network printer offers? Well the sales person knows that one benefit with the networked printer is the staff can send their work to the printer and fax it instantly with the click of a mouse, right from their workstation. So, she tries to sell the benefit:

“Mr. Prospect, with this printer, your staff can send faxes right from their own workstations!” That’s nice, but there is no motivation—because there is no solution—because there is no problem. They’ve been getting along just fine without the network printer.

However, let us take this benefit and work backward; asking what makes it a benefit. Then we can identify and uncover the problem and sell a solution!

The benefit: employees can fax from their desks. WHY is that a benefit: because the staff will save a lot of time and money. First, they currently have to print hard copy of each document costing tons of money in paper and ink. Then they must leave their desks and walk over to the printer only to then go to the fax machine (which usually has a waiting line) then manually fax the document, also waiting to make sure it went through successfully. If this process takes only five minutes; multiply that by every faxed document and that by every employee and you get huge amount of money literally going to waste. Bingo! That is a BIG problem!

So you do not sell the individual benefits, instead you first uncover the problem and offer a solution!

“Mr. Prospect, your people spend an enormous amount of time and money by having to print hard copy and go to both machines….” If the prospect does not readily see the problem, ask more questions.

“Mr. Prospect, do you know approximately how many faxes your staff sends out everyday?” “Well, if you multiply that by five or six minutes and multiply that by the average salary…”

Once you’ve uncovered the problem, present the solution…the answer!

“Mr. Prospect, with our network printer, you solve that problem because each employee can…”

How do you sell solutions? Uncover a problem, and then present the solution to that problem, with these simple steps:

1. Examine the benefits of your product or service.

2. Figure out why those benefits are indeed benefits

3. Identify the problem at the core of the benefit

4. Educate the customer about the problem

5. Offer the solution to that problem.

Happy Selling!

Sean Mc

Getting (and keeping) Your Mindset Right

Let’s face it; there are times when it seems everything is going wrong: You lose a few sales you thought you had in the bag. Sales you closed fall out of financing. Prospecting seems to become a nightmare and it feels like you are hearing “NO,” more times than humanly possible. No other business in the world can mess up your mind, self-esteem and confidence like the world of professional selling.

Now if you are a true professional who has invested time in study, training and effort, then these bad times should never last very long and you should have a very consistent flow of business. However, when one of those weeks or months comes along, when you are in the middle of the storm, what do you do? What do you do to keep your composure and your confidence? How do you keep your mindset focused and on track and remain positive?

If you have been in the world of selling for any length of time then you have heard the familiar rhetoric on how to handle these trying times: “Don’t take it personally.” “They are not rejecting you, just your products or services…” “It takes 10 NOs to get one YES.” “Each no gets you closer to the sale.” “When the going gets tough, the tough get going!”

In short, the answer to maintaining a positive attitude when besieged by negative circumstance is usually to just THINK positively and things will get better. Positive thinking will solve the problem.

Well, I am as big a proponent of positive thinking and positive projection as anyone in the world. However, I also know that positive thinking followed by negative action, results in negative outcomes. I understand the critical role your thinking plays on your life and career. And while some people are able to “think” themselves out of the dumps; controlling their thoughts and uplifting their attitudes, others simply have a real hard time accomplishing this.

When sales fall off, income gets tight and spouses get nervous, for many sales people positive thinking becomes wishful thinking, then desperate thinking and finally delusional thinking.

As a professional sales person you need a few simple, tangible and quantifiable activities that will help you to get your head straight and keep it that way, even when your attitude is so deep in the toilet that you have a difficult time conjuring up a single positive thought. If you had a few simple, physical tasks that you could perform; no matter how awful you felt, that could lift you up, show you some positive results and get your head back in the game, then you will find it much easier to begin to apply more of that positive thinking.

What follows are three easy tasks; physical actions you can take that will immediately help you get your mindset right and avoid future doldrums, and you don’t have to have the psychological aptitude of Norman Vincent Peale to do it!

Set Short-term, Activity Targets and Next Step Goals

A quick and simple way to get your head straight when things get you down, is to set short-term, ‘activity targets’ and ‘next step goals’ and strive to reach them.

Although you have your big and long term goals, you need to have many incremental targets to help you stay focused. Set an activity target to call on two more prospects than you called on last month; or to send out 20 more emails or to set five more appointments. Set a goal to add ten more new qualified prospects to your database or to make 21 additional cold calls this month. The key is these targets must be short term, obtainable and easily quantifiable.

Usually the sales person’s only measurement of success is the end result of the entire sales process—the sale. Therefore when the sales are slow or late, all seems lost. However, if you have activity targets in between the sale; small next step goals to reach, then you can see tangible progress and accomplishments in between sales. Small successes will get your head on straight.

Bury Your Mistakes

That big proposal you had been working on for six months falls though and you know it was because you screwed up. Ok. Learn from that mistake, set systems in place so it does not happen again, and then MOVE ON!

I am not just talking about mentally trying to put the mistake out of your mind and trying to forgive yourself. I am referring to the tangible memories that linger in the psychical world—get rid of that stuff. If the sale is dead at least for a long time—then you have to forget it.

Get rid of the ad specs. You say you want to forget about that fortune 500 company sale you lost, but you keep that coffee mug with their logo on your desk. I am not saying that you need to feel bad or develop any animosity for that company, but stop reminding yourself of your failures. Every time you start to get a few NOs on the telephone, you sit back, a little call-reluctance starts to settle in, and then you look over at the coffee mug that is saying, “Yeah, you are messing up again!!”

Erase the marketing strategy you used for that company off of your white board and start fresh. Take that old proposal off of your desk and file it. If you are not going to do any business with that company any time soon then remove their web site link from your “favorites list” in your web browser. You want to keep your head straight and keep your spirits up? Then stop hitting yourself over the head with past mistakes and failures.

Use Science to Put Out the Emotional Fire

Finally, the most important and effective way to get your head right and keep it right is to use science to put out emotional firestorms and to help you see clearly.

Selling is the most subjective business in the world. It is easier to fool yourself in sales than in any other profession. As a sales person, you have to understand that your brain, your mind is not an objective witness to the facts, and will therefore always cloud your judgment. This clouding of judgment comes in many different forms. Based on your feelings alone, you will often find the number of prospects you THINK you called on does not usually match the number of prospects you ACTUALLY called on. The closing average you THINK you have is significantly higher than your real closing average. And your imagination will make you feel like you’ve lost many more sales than you actually have.

You simply cannot rely on feelings, emotions and assumptions; you have to rely on facts. You need to have factual data that will let you see what is really happing rather than what you think is happening. Scientific data will help you see clearly. You need to know the science, the numbers of your business. You need to apply S.O.S. – The Science of Selling. You can find a ton of training material on The Science of Selling at MTD Sales Training, but here I will give you just a few SOS tips that will help you get your mindset right.

First, find out your averages; all of your averages: Your closing average, your appointment setting average, your average sale amount, your average commission, etc. You can not guess on these figures or make them up. They must be from actual past performance records. If you do not have such records, then your sales management should be able to give you the numbers for the average sales person with the firm, compiled over time. Use REAL numbers and rely on them not your feelings.

As an example, let’s say you feel that you worked really hard the last three weeks and sold nothing. Don’t’ panic and begin to let depression set in—look at the numbers. For instance, let us say that your closing average is 20%. That is, history shows that you close one out of every five closing attempts. And remember, as with any average, it is over a length of time, so there are times when you made four or five sales in a row and times when you missed several in a row. But when it is all said and done, it equals a 20% closing average.

Also, your company sales model suggests sales people make five closing attempts per week, thereby closing one sale every week. But you went three weeks with no sale.

As you check the records you find that you only made 9 closing attempts instead of 15 over the last three weeks. Well, guess what? There is no need to feel like some bad luck is on you; you simply did not do the work you thought you did. Nine closes with no sale is not a big deal as the next two sales will put your numbers right. If you did 25 closes (like you felt you did) then maybe there would be a problem. In this case, there is no need to feel bad, just get up and get in the numbers you need.

However, let us say that you check the record and you see that you did indeed do 15 closing attempts and you sold none. Now what? In this case you should not get sad. In fact, you should jump for joy!

Remember, the law of averages is as real as the law of gravity—it will come true. Your closing average of 20% will eventually come true. So, if you did 15 closes then the law OWES you three sales! If you see you invested the correct work ethic, then you have a big payday coming!

Think about it this way: You know that if you flip a coin 100 times, it will land heads 50 and tails 50 or very close to it. Over time it will average 50% for each side. Well, if you flip a coin and it comes up tails 22 times in a row, what does that mean? You can bet that the heads side will catch up and you will get a rash of heads landings. It is the same with selling. If the law owes you, you will get paid! But you have to look at the facts.

Another example of using your SOS to get your head straight is this: Let us say that you are making cold prospecting calls to set appointments and you are having one of those days. Once again, don’t let it get you down—-just check out the numbers!

Figure out your average sales amount; that is how much you earn on the average sale you make when you go to one of those appointments and close the sale. Then check out your closing average, and finally look up your appointment setting average.

For this example, let us say that you find that when you close a sale you make a commission of £500 on the average. Also, you see that it takes you five appointments to close one sale; a 20% closing average. Well, if it takes you five appointments to close one sale and on that one sale you earn £500 then you effectively earn £100 or 20% (1/5th) on each and every appointment you attempt to close. Of course these fractions add up until they make one complete sale and you get the £500, but you must understand that you effectively EARN one fifth or 20% on EVERY appointment, regardless of the outcome of that individual appointment!

Now take that a step further: Let’s say you find that it also takes you five prospecting calls on the telephone to set each appointment. And you earn £100 for each appointment. Then you actually earn £20 for every decision maker (DM) you talk to on the telephone regardless of what they say!

Imagine this: As the sales person in the above example, you earn £20 every time you get the right prospect on the telephone—no matter what happens after that. I come to your office with a huge wheel barrel filled to the brim with money. As you are making your cold calls, every time you get a DM on the phone, I am going to throw £20 on your desk for you to keep!! No matter what the DM says or what happened, you get £20 to keep every time you reach the DM.

If that were happening, would you get all upset because a few people rejected you? Would you even worry about it? If the prospect told to ‘get lost’ and hung up on you, would you become depressed waste time at the water cooler? Or would you start dialing the next prospect as fast as possible?

Please understand that this is not some psychological mind game to hype you up and make you feel good. This is fact. It is science. This is how you actually earn your money. So use science to put out that emotional fire to help you see clearly.

So how do you get your head on right in the face of hard times? Take Action!

1. Set activity targets and immediate next step goals
2. Bury all evidence of your mistakes and failures
3. Pour SOS on your emotions

Happy Selling!

Sean Mc