But when a prospect asks about your company, it can be tempting to launch into a whole history lesson about where your company comes from, its history, the products it produces, etc, etc.

Instead, you need to identify the real reason why the prospect is asking the question in the first place. Why do they need to know about your company? What specifically do they want to know? How will it benefit them from knowing about your company?

This type of question is known as a ‘universal qualifier’. What that means is the question is very generic and often far too general for you to know precisely what the prospect is seeking from you. Think first about why the customer wants to know about you. Is it that they want more confidence before they make a decision? Is the history of your company important as they want to check whether you are a ‘overnight success’ or have the stability to support them in the future? Do they want to know how many people work there, so they can see if they will have the back-up if things go wrong?

The truth is, you don’t know why they are asking the question, so one or two clarifying questions might be good to raise at this point.

You could say something like, “Of course I’ll tell you about us….may I ask what specifically you would like to know and why?”

What this does is narrow down the subject matter, so you both can see exactly where you need to start detailing the information you are going to share.

Find out the key reasons for the prospect wanting to know about you and your company. Then determine the points you should make to get the points across in a positive way.

The discussions could go something like this:

Prospect: “OK, tell me about your company”.

You: “Yes, of course…may I ask specifically what you would like to know?”

Prospect: “Well, the company we want to work with needs to be able to support our European operations, so you need to have experience and contacts that will help us in that area”.

You: “I see…so if I could prove to you that our coverage of the European markets will help your business objectives, that would give you more confidence, yes?”

Prospect: “Yes, we need that back-up and support. If you can give me confidence in that area, then I’d like to take this further.”

You can see here that, if the salesperson had not asked that clarifying question, they may have gone headlong into describing areas that the prospect has no concern about, like history or number of products they sell or their service coverage.

Be aware of these ‘generalisation’ questions. You will need to be more specific in the discussions, so you can get to the real point the prospect is seeking.

Happy Selling!

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Sales Training

www.mtdsalestraining.com

(Image by  J S Creationzs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have. Click on the image below to find out why your very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

What can you do to put a demonstration together to make a real difference? Watch this short video on making your sales presentation match your buyers needs.

Happy Selling!

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Sales Training

www.mtdsalestraining.com

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have. Click on the image below to find out why your very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

Over the last several decades, the sales industry has become focused on the consultative selling approach – and this is still as important today as it has been over the last 30 years. Your buyers still need you to provide that consultation of their wants and needs when you go into a sales meeting with them, so we as sales people must understand how vital the consultative selling process is to our continued success with our clients and customers. Watch the short video below to find out more about the 5 step consultative sales process that has stood the test of time.

Happy Selling!

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Sales Training

www.mtdsalestraining.com

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have. Click on the image below to find out why your very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

Well, in a way, yes, but when you consider what the brand says about your product and service, whether the client continues to purchase from you could be manifestly affected by the way the brand essence is depicted.

So, what is brand essence? It’s the feeling clients and prospects have when they have any contact with your name. In a sense, essence overpowers everything else a prospect may have about you. Your products may be the right things for your customer. But if the brand essence stinks, they won’t touch you with a bargepole.

BrandStoke’s ‘8 criteria for brand essence’ has some interesting ideas to contemplate when considering the message you wish to portray. Here are some examples:

• Focus: This is what you want the customer to focus on when they think of you. What do you want to be known for? How do you want people to think when they hear your name?
• Feeling: What components of your brand do you want to evoke the true feeling within the mind of the consumer? How do you want the emotional connection to be built?
• Individuality: What do you want the message to be to each person who you wish to be connected to your brand? What personality do you wish to be associated with?
• Consistency: Dependability is a brand attribute, so what would you like to be connected to in the customer’s mind? Delivery of the brand message is highlighted every time there is a contact point, so make sure the consistency is tangible.
• Credibility: Every experience the customer has with your brand identifies what you stand for. Engagement and credibility go together, so be aware of what the key messages are that you are trying to convey.
• Longevity: Is the essence of your brand designed to last or is it seen as a temporary, fashionable name? Longevity builds trust, which must be a key component in driving the name forward.
• Personal: There needs to be a personal connection that each consumer or user can have with the brand. Although brand essence is built up over time by others’ experiences, the way individuals feel will be echoed through social media and affect everyone else.
• Portable: Emotion is transferred across social media, so be aware of what is being highlighted by how transferable the image of the brand is. Your profile can and will be affected across variables like social media as well as other forms of brand transference

Everything you do will have an impact on the way the brand essence is built in people’s minds. Driving customer engagement through effective branding can have a profound effect on the way you as a salesperson of your products will be viewed.

Happy Selling!

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Sales Training

www.mtdsalestraining.com

(Image by Naypong at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have. Click on the image below to find out why your very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

The infographic below explains each of the 4 main buyer types that every sales person is likely to come across during their sales interactions, and this infographic also shows you how you should approach and sell to each of these main buyers in order to help you close the deal.

Click here to download a full size version of the infographic above

Happy selling!

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Sales Training

www.mtdsalestraining.com

(Image by MTD Sales Training – please give attribution to MTD Sales Training if republished)

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have. Click on the image below to find out why your very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

I’m sure you’ll also agree it’s one of the least-enjoyable and time-consuming tasks that you would rather forego, if you had the chance.

We all recognise it for what it is…a necessary evil. But there are many salespeople who actually like and look forward to prospecting because that have strategies and mind-sets that support their processes, and they see that success comes with following procedures that create opportunities from prospecting.

Identifying strategic questions can be the first step in identifying who the best targets should be for initial prospecting. Many of the failures in prospecting come from the fact that the list of prospects themselves is poor. They might be out-of-date bought lists that creates no confidence in the call at all.

Here are some specific questions to ask yourself before you even think about setting prospecting goals:

• Who are our best current customers, and what can we gain from knowing this? This list may show who is the best target market for your services, by industry, client size, location, etc.

• Why do people buy from you? This will help you determine if the niche effect is specific to a certain type of buyer

• Who are our main competitors? This will help you see what specifically you are up against and what your target market may actually be wanting

• Why do prospects choose our competition? Why do we lose out? This will help us analyse where our losses come from and what type of customer we should be targeting

• Why have we lost business in the past? This will help you see if your new offerings will attract past customers or only new customers who are open to change

• Who almost became our customer but didn’t? These people will show us what little tweaks we could make to achieve success

• Who has given us referrals in the past? Would it be possible to get further business from them. Have they changed the way they do business, so the opportunities may be different now?

Answers to these questions will help us create a list of prospects that will give us confidence in building a great list. Targeting correct prospects will help us achieve our appointment goals and help businesses recognise that we are a prime source of help in aiding them to achieve their goals

Before I sign off, here are some more tips on becoming a great sales person:

• Is Your Prospect Satisfied With Another Supplier? Here’s How To Change That
• A Great Way To Keep Your Sales Pipeline Full

Happy Selling!

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Sales Training

www.mtdsalestraining.com

(Image by Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have. Click on the image below to find out why your very existence as a sales person is in doubt…

I thought it appropriate to discuss this from the opposite angle today. By asking the question ‘what makes salespeople fail?’ we get a different perspective and identify the consistent traits that occur in people who don’t achieve their goals and objectives. take a look at our top ten and see if you agree and (more importantly) can add to them.

1) They haven’t changed their prospecting methods to match the needs of today’s buyers.

Many salespeople still buy lists, pick up the phone and make their cold calls to people they know nothing about, trying to get them interested in a product they (the prospect) know nothing about and don’t know why they need it. No wonder these salespeople are crying out for tips on how to cold call more effectively…they get rejected more times than they can cope with.

2) They are too reactive.

Many salespeople who fail simply wait for their company to provide them with the leads, then blame the company for providing leads that don’t materialise into sales. They don’t think proactively or make their own leads work for them.

3) The main emotion that they rely on is hope.

They hope this deal will materialise after they have sent a proposal. They hope their website will bring in scores of enquiries. They hope their pipeline will fill up, even though they haven’t spent any time nurturing it. Hope, hope, hope.

4) They blame everything else for their failures, without looking at what’s in their sphere of influence.

We often can see a failure a mile off; they’re the ones who blame other things for their problems (the economy, the competition, their boss, the products they sell, the leads, etc, etc) instead of thinking about what they can influence and affect.

5) They live in Pity City, instead of just visiting and passing on.

My trainers often tell me they deal with salespeople who want answers but then criticise every possible solution with the proverbial ‘Yeah, but….’

Many people have every right to feel pity for themselves because of what is going on within their company or because their competition are wiping the floor with them. But we need to see what can be done to progress, rather than living in a state of mind that keeps us trapped in feeling sorry for ourselves.

6) They don’t manage their time effectively.

Time is one of the most important things you have to work with. Too many salespeople don’t invest their time effectively enough. You can be really busy, really efficient, but it doesn’t always equate to effectiveness. Salespeople who fail don’t think hard enough how their time can be utilised to assist themselves and their clients

7) They don’t utilise their phone skills well enough.

The phone is a great ally for salespeople, but many think they should try to sell using it. Today’s modern buyer is very wary of making any decision, and it’s rare to find someone deciding to make a big change over the phone. The failure comes by not knowing the true use of the phone, which is to confirm arrangements, build interest and create desire.

8) They fail to engage clients

Many failures occur because salespeople are unable to describe what life will be like when the customer is actually using the product or service. The salesperson still thinks that waxing on about the features and benefits will make the prospect leap for joy and wonder how they had got by without the product. With no engagement, the buyer loses interest and stalls or brings up objections. They need to see how their business will be different, how things will be better, what problems will be solved. No engagement means no decision.

9) They don’t know how to split their time between hunting and farming.

Farming for new business from existing clients is important. So is hunting for business from new prospects. Knowing how to differentiate between the two, and what support existing users need from you, is vital to create good use of time.

10) They have forgotten how important it is to constantly learn, grow and develop.

Most learning in sales occurs in the field, in the real world. How many books have you read in the last 12 months that can make a real impact on the way you serve your clients? How many times have you shared learning experiences with colleagues or your boss and changed your approaches to make sure you develop your skills?

Many failures don’t take their skill development seriously and consider that things they learned 5 or 10 years ago will suffice in today’s world. Sorry…they won’t. Failing to recognise that sales is a developing business is the same as thinking that the buyers who were around 5 or 10 years ago are still here today.

These are my ideas of what makes salespeople fail. Add your own and let me know them. I’ll compile a list and publish them soon.

Before I sign off, here are some more tips on becoming a great sales person:

• 3 Ways To Mess Up A Perfectly Good Sale
• 3 Ways NOT To Handle The Prospect Who Is Shocked By Your Price
• What This Means To You Is….

Happy Selling!

Problems occur in many guises; they aren’t just restricted to what is going on when the customer is confirming their situation. Sometimes, salespeople face their own problems and they often become unsolvable…not because of the nature of the problems, but because of the mindset that accompanies them.

So what keeps the problems re-occurring? What makes them unsolvable? How can we have a different approach so the problems are less likely to be all-consuming?

There are three components that keep problems unsolvable. We know that the correct mindset is vital to find solutions to any problems, but we do need to identify what holds us back from solving them.

The first component that holds us back is assuming that the problem is all-pervasive. This means that it is thought as spreading to affect all areas of life. A salesperson may feel they have a problem with a certain type of client. They may have problems relating to or building rapport with them.

The problem then becomes widespread, where they see this trait in every client they meet, so the problem extends itself to other types of client. This is now seen as a real concern by the salesperson, and they can’t see a solution because it now occurs everywhere they look.

To overcome this, you must see each problem as an independent situation. What might be true with one client doesn’t necessarily apply to all clients. It could be very specific to one type. You need to view each client as an opportunity to personalise your offering. You can treat each client exactly the same (and get the same results every time) or you can differentiate your style to match and mirror the person you are dealing with.

It then ceases to become an all-pervasive, all-encompassing problem. Individualise out your problems, check the way it has to be approached and learn from each occurrence.

The second mindset that keeps problems unsolvable is the feeling that they are permanent. Many people assume that a problem can’t be solved because it always seems to raise its head in similar situations. For instance, a person may think that, because they haven’t been able to close the last four or five sales, then they will never be able to in the future. Their language often reflects this mindset by creating self-fulfilling prophecies that attracts negativity into their lives.

The way to overcome this mindset is to learn from every experience. the fact that five opportunities have failed to materialise means that changes have to be made. The only way this problem will become permanent is if we don’t learn from it and don’t change. Think what has brought about the results. what did you do to achieve these outcomes? So what needs to change in order to get different outcomes?

By assuming that problems are permanent, and you can never change, you will be stuck in a deep rut that will be tough to get out of.

The third component of the mindset that keep us trapped is that the problem is personal. This creates a change in the self-esteem of the individual. They feel the problem is all about them, affecting their whole thinking process. For instance, a person feels that the problem is caused by themselves, their attitude o their character. Pretty soon it becomes something they can’t control, and they believe that this means they have some sort of character flaw. With that mindset, they approach every situation with the idea that they can’t solve it, they’re not good enough, and never will be.

Remember that all problems are situational. It’s rare that a specific problem is unique enough that no-one has ever experienced it before. So don’t think you’re the only one who has ever gone through it. If you make a problem too personal, you will assume that it can’t be solved, and it will affect you as a person. Identify others who have faced similar problems and have overcome them. Look for mentors or guides who have overcome such problems before and follow their example.

Being aware that most problems stay unsolvable because of a specific mindset is the first key in solving them. These three components (pervasive, permanent and personal) keep the creative problem-solving mode under wraps, so be aware of what changes you need to employ to build better skills in this key area of sales development.

Happy Selling!

As time has passed, much of the development required by sales people has switched in its emphasis. The economic climate and the need to cut costs and overheads has changed the way that products need to be presented to achieve solutions.

Where previously we discussed how to present products, we now create images of the future when the product is in use. Where previously we discussed how to overcome objections, we now discover opportunities for the prospect to uncover where obstacles might occur before they come up.

So, how should we now approach our role as salespeople? Should we concentrate on technique, skills and knowledge? Or should we adopt a differing mindset that helps us build benefits and opportunities for the prospect?

One way we can think it through is by determining what is most important to the customer we are dealing with. Emphasis in the past has been on how we present the benefits and advantages of our products and why they are better than the competition’s. Now, we should help the prospect to see how they can improve or get better with our solution. Therefore, we should consider the customer’s mindset, and determine what is going through their minds before they make a decision.

The one question every buyer wants answered is “What solution will help me most to achieve my needs or desires?”

This question is going through the mind of the customer at every stage of the conversation and even before. When they are contemplating changes, whether it be new clothes or a new office location, they are always trying to answer the question of solving the problem. Knowing the problem that the prospect wants solving is the key to helping them make a decision.

Therefore, our emphasis when we are considering which direction to go with the sale should be on answering, “What problem is the prospect needing to solve? What benefits should be highlighted to the prospect that will help them choose our product? How will our choice improve their business opportunities?”

When we answer those questions, we laser in on what is most important to the prospect. You consider options that will be best for their business. You create conversations that focus on what is best for them, rather than us.

Approach every situation with that question in mind…what solution can I provide that will help this prospect achieve their needs and desires?

By thinking that way, your discussions will always assist the prospect to see the future involving your solutions.

Before I sign off, here are some more tips on becoming a great sales person:

• How To Leave A Voice Mail That The Prospect Will Return
• How To Get Referrals From The NO SALE

Happy selling!

Watch the short video below to find out more about this formula, and how it can help you to be a successful sales person.

Happy Selling!

Sean McPheat

Managing Director

MTD Sales Training

www.mtdsalestraining.com

Have you downloaded my latest report “The Sales Person’s Crisis”? Over 10,000 sales pros have. Click on the image below to find out why your very existence as a sales person is in doubt…