You May Have an Ethical Responsibility to Make the Sale! (Continued)

And now, please return to “reader” and reality

In the previous post, cleverly disguised in the storyline of a self-proclaimed “fun-to-read” allegory (okay, so maybe “cleverly disguised” is a little bit over the top), I audaciously suggested that in some cases, a salesperson may, in fact, be morally responsible for failing to make the sale—a provocative concept that may be initially difficult to get one’s head around.

To comically illustrate my point, I placed you “the reader” into the role of an insurance salesperson who “didn’t want to pressure him” (your customer) into buying a policy, only to read about his freakishly untimely demise in the newspaper a few days later. Knowing that his wife and children would soon be headed down the road toward financial ruin, a “tinge of discomfort” came over you—a subtle indication that maybe, just maybe, you felt a little bit responsible for not making the sale when you had the chance.

Now, all kidding aside, professional selling is serious business. Strip the humorous bits out of the story (Skylab, idiot-proof multiple choice question, etc.) and you’re left with something that reads more like a Greek tragedy than a comedy. The sad reality is that this sort of thing really does happen.

Too often, sales are missed, that could have—and should have—been made. Missed, not because the customer didn’t have a genuine need for the product or service that was being presented, not because the customer “couldn’t afford it”, “wanted to think about it”, or “(fill in the blank)”, but missed for the simple reason that the salesperson lacked the inherent skills, knowledge, passion, or professionalism to properly compel the customer to take immediate action.

Ethical checkpoint

Let’s see if you agree in principle with the following statement:

To a greater or lesser degree—depending upon what it is that you’re selling—failing to make the sale could adversely affect your prospect.

Make sense? If you’re silently nodding you head in agreement, then you probably also agree in principle with the general premise of this article—that you may have an ethical responsibility to make the sale!

Okay, so let’s keep things in perspective. (I don’t want anyone looking for the highest ledge to climb out onto the next time they miss a sale...) Regardless of how skilled, knowledgeable, passionate, or professional you may already be, you’re certainly not going to make every sale. It’s just not possible. So relax. I am not implying that missing a sale here or there somehow makes you a no-good-horrible-unethical salesperson. However, I am suggesting this:

If you approach a prospect knowingly lacking in skill, knowledge, passion, or professionalism—just sort of “winging it” to make the sale—then that, my friend, is unethical.

Unfortunately, when a salesperson’s message falls short of the mark, leaving an otherwise makeable sale undone, the customer is left “at risk” in the future. Whether left “unprotected” (i.e., without insurance, a college fund for their children, a safer automobile, etc.), financially “exposed” (i.e., facing higher prices, expiring incentives, less attractive financing options, etc.), or otherwise “compromised” (i.e., their business is less competitive without the product or service, etc.), it is the customer that is most adversely affected when the sale is missed.

So where do we go from here? How can we fulfill the ethical responsibility we may have to “make the sale”, do it “without pressuring the customer”, and still avoid having to be “talked off the ledge” the next time we miss a sale?

To be continued…

Please Don’t Judge Me (or your customers!)

The Case for Impartiality in Both the Supreme Court and Your Sales Presentation

The appointment of a new judge to the Supreme Court of the United States is seldom a simple affair, often involving a collision of perspective between opposing political forces. Through the process of confirmation hearings, the inquisitors (Senate Judiciary Committee members) seek to validate amid other concerns, that the appointee will bring uncompromised impartiality to the decisions they render while sitting on the highest court in the land. (Trust me. If it was your case brought before the Supreme Court, the issue of impartiality would be of greatest concern to you too.)

Okay. So what does impartiality have to do with professional selling?

One of the most insidious forms of bigotry in professional selling is economic discrimination. Economic discrimination occurs when a salesperson makes an unfounded personal judgment about how much they think or feel a customer can afford, and then they alter their sales presentation to offer lower-end more moderately priced options.

When it happens (and unfortunately it happens all too often in many sales organizations), “unfounded personal judgment” forms in the mind of the salesperson before any interaction with the customer has taken place. Inappropriate opinions regarding the financial means of the customer are made by interpreting mostly visual things, like, the clothing they are wearing or the car they are driving—or at its unthinkable worst, their gender, age, or ethnicity.

Economic discrimination is widely known as prejudging a customer.

Not only is prejudging morally reprehensible, it is also an extremely costly practice for both the salesperson and the company. The salesperson who prejudges the financial capability of prospects suffers the negative results of lower overall sales averages and reduced earnings over the course of their career. From the company’s perspective, the negative impact of prejudging customers is exponentially multiplied by the number of salespeople engaging in this practice—to which the true costs in lost revenue may never be fully realized.

(Prejudging left unchecked in the organization will cause sales to be lost altogether. As customers figure out what’s going on, they walk out and seek the services of a competitor—someone who is willing to treat them in a more dignified manner. Not to mention the damage this will ultimately do to the reputation of the business!)

Prejudging a customer is not to be confused with tailoring the presentation!

There are times when changing your presentation is appropriate. There is little in common between the negative practice of prejudging a customer and “tailoring” the presentation to fit the established needs and wants of the customer. One takes place without the customer’s knowledge or input, while the other is done under their specific direction.

You ensure the highest ethical standard through top-down selling.

The only way to meet the highest ethical standard objective, and eliminate even the unconscious possibility of prejudging a customer, is to make every presentation using a “top down” selling model. Always introduce your very best products and services first, irrespective of price, to ensure that every customer is provided an impartial opportunity to make their selection. It is simply the right thing to do.

Closing argument:

Whether you have a case sitting before the nine Supreme Court Justices, or one of your customers is sitting through your next sales presentation, the value of uncompromised impartiality should be given equal weight. Wouldn’t you agree?

The Money Question

Economic Perspective in Perspective

I love working with talented sales professionals. One of my favorite training exercises is to work around the room and ask this simple question: How much is “a lot of money” to you?

Talk about fun! (If you’re a sales trainer you really have to try this one.) Although I have conducted this group training exercise countless times, I am always amazed by the scope of the responses. Invariably, the figures offered by a group in response to this “money question” tend to range all over the place—from fairly frugal (I couldn’t resist) amounts to darn right large impressive sums.

In fact, one small group of about a dozen salespeople from Greensboro, North Carolina, actually responded from a low of five dollars to a high of fifty-million dollars! No kidding. It was pretty remarkable. I remember thinking to myself (during an apparent flashback moment to the days of 50’s sitcom speak), “Gee-wiz! Could the disparity in these answers be any greater?”

“So what’s the point of the exercise” you ask? Well, here you go. The money question clarifies the importance of understanding your prospect’s economic perspective.

“Economic perspective” defined

Each of us has our own individual concept of what “a lot of money” means to us—a financial viewpoint framed by our unique past and current relationship with money.

For example, if you’re currently pulling down a double six-figure plus income, enjoy tooling around the neighborhood in your paid-in-full red Lexus convertible, live in a multi-million dollar equity-stuffed estate home—and your broker successfully convinced you to move your retirement money into safe haven investments just before the stock market went ka-boom… then you are most likely to answer the money question closer to the fifty-million dollar mark. Make sense?

On the other hand, if you recently experienced the misfortune of standing in line outside the unemployment office, only to enjoy an unobstructed view of your newly repossessed PT Cruiser being towed down the street right in front of you… it may be safe to suggest that five dollars may feel like a small fortune to you in that moment.

Fortunately, the financial experiences of most prospects probably are not quite as extreme as these two examples. But, with that said, it is extremely important to understand and respond in terms of your customer’s economic perspective (not yours) any time the subject of money comes up in the sales process.

Moving right along

When a prospect says something like “I don’t have a lot of money to spend right now”, for one, the statement in context may more closely translate into “I only have a few hundred dollars in my back account right now”. For another prospect, say a bit more “well-heeled” (sort of a throwback expression there, too), the same exact statement delivered in an equally impassioned way, may mean that they are trying to get along with only a few thousand dollars of currently disposable income. A rather big and important distinction, don’t you think?

Now here’s the rub. (Sorry, that one’s really old school.) Unless you happen to be intimately knowledgeable about the details of your prospect’s financial situation before you begin working with them (i.e., you remember reviewing their tax return before being fired from your former position as an IRS agent, or you successfully hacked into their computer last night and stole their identity... that sort of thing), the minute they mutter one of those ambiguous statements about money, you’re probably going to default to using your own personal economic perspective to decipher what you think they are saying—and that could cost you a sale. (Especially true, should you be the salesperson who provided the five dollar answer in the Greensboro session…)

The money question training exercise demonstrates the importance of understanding economic perspective as it directly relates to closing sales. When the subject of money comes up, make sure that you’re clear about what the prospect is actually saying, before you launch into some ill-conceived objection-handling mode, before you drop down to presenting a less expensive item, and before you decide to call it a night and beat a path home in your PT Cruiser.

Disclaimer: The selection of automobile brands or models used within this article was completely random and included for rhetorical purposes only. Thereby, no implied endorsement for any vehicle is made by the author… well, maybe with the exception of the Lexus convertible.

The Six Little Things for Sales Success

It’s Not the Big Things That Make the Big Difference

In most sales organizations, the productive salespeople generally spend their time doing pretty much the same things on a daily basis. They prospect, make presentations, seek referrals, attend meetings, and… okay, they also spend time fixing the paperwork they screwed up on their last sale and calculating the commissions they’re about to make on the next— but that’s a subject to tackle on a different day. For the purpose of this article, we are going to focus on the more productive activities and refer to them as the big things.

Although primarily engaged in the same “big thing” sales activities each day, it is interesting to note that the results can vary greatly between two apparently equally capable, equally committed, and equally experienced salespeople. How can this be? Why is it that some sales professionals seem to consistently outperform others, given the same opportunity and similar levels of dedication?

The answer to this question is found in the details so to speak. It’s not the big things that they are doing that make the big difference— it’s the little things! More specifically, it probably boils down to five or six little things that the most successful salespeople in the organization are doing slightly better than anyone else that makes the biggest difference in their production results.

For example, there is a subtle, but very important “results distinction” between a really good presentation and an exceptional one. Although the “closing rate” difference may appear to be nearly insignificant in the short term, over time, the ever so slightly better presentation will ultimately generate more sales. Or, apply the “slightly better” concept to referral acquisition. Initially, gaining a few extra referrals each month may not seem like a big deal, but once again, when the sales results are tabulated over time, say the course of a year, some of those “no big deal” extra referral leads will have been undoubtedly converted into additional sales.

Okay, so here’s where it gets really interesting. A slight skill distinction between top sales professionals in just one or two key performance areas may best serve to determine the order in which they are called to the podium during the annual awards event. However, take that same small skill distinction multiplied by five or six key areas of performance and the exponential effect in sales production is not only impressive, but you’re also likely to be looking at the organization’s next sales director.

The principle of the six little things formula for sales success exemplifies the value of continuous improvement. If you are willing to set aside a few minutes every day and dedicate that time for your own professional development (i.e., polishing your presentation delivery, working on your referral acquisition techniques, etc.), in other words, striving to continuously improve your key performance skill set to ultimately do five or six little things better than anyone else— you will be well on your way to being one of the most highly compensated and promotable sales professionals in your organization!

The Great Sales Crusade

King Arthur on Leadership

(Adapted from the book Success Through Total Empowerment, first publication Copyright 1999, Kenton W. Davis)

Whether you believe that he really existed, or simply enjoy the romantic legend, King Arthur’s leadership style and the concept of his legendary round table offer us timeless lessons in human motivation.

According to Phyllis Ann Karr, author of The Arthurian Companion, the “Round Table” is fabled to have had a total of 150 seats, in which once seated, there was “no order of precedence”. Everyone had an equal voice in the matters of the day, and rank went unobserved. Empowered by the authority of the table, the knights rode out to do “good” throughout the kingdom. It is written that, from here, quests, missions, and even the Great Crusade, all started.

Many of today’s organizations may need to conduct their own Great “sales” Crusade of sorts. With the economy struggling, high unemployment, and consumers cautious about their financial future, sales are definitely harder to come by these days. And with sales down, bottom-line revenues are suffering causing the operating budgets of many businesses to be stretched dangerously thin.

All this adds up to an enormous amount of pressure being placed upon sales teams to produce. More specifically, the weight of this responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of the sales manager, whom is ultimately charged with leading their team north of sales targets irrespective of the challenging market conditions.

Now imagine for a minute that our legendary hero King Arthur faced a similar crisis in his kingdom. Say, something along the lines of… the treasury was running dangerously low, an unusually large number of peasants and serfs couldn’t find a field to work, and Merlin’s confidence in his magic was shaken from the resulting unrest spreading throughout the kingdom. How would the beloved king of English lore have handled this situation? Would he have withdrawn to his royal chambers and attempted to single-handedly solve all the problems of the realm?

Not a chance. In fact, if King Arthur had ruled autocratically from the throne, he would have likely been “done to the turn” back in the day (which would have seriously messed up this colorful legend). Instead, when confronted with challenging times, King Arthur would summon all the great knights of the land, from near and far, inviting them to join him at an enormous round table in the status of equality. There, he would openly seek suggestions from his dignitaries as to what they would (or could) do to collectively solve the crisis in the kingdom.

Under pressure to meet sales targets, instinctively, average sales managers often withdraw to their office, close the door, and attempt to formulate the master “sales survival strategy” by drawing on their personal experience― a very anti-Arthurian thing to do (dangerously limiting the probability of mapping out a successful strategy, thus increasing the odds of their own personal turn on the spit in the future!). Instead, they should take a page out of King Arthur’s leadership book and invite their sales team members to participate in a roundtable session.

When you summon your sales team members to participate in a genuine roundtable session, where they are truly seated with “no order of precedence”, where problem-solving, idea-swapping and general brainstorming is encouraged, where the suggestions made are incorporated into the direction the team is moving, where no idea or suggestion is considered “foolish” and everyone’s opinion is respected, the results can be nothing short of magical. You will have tapped into the power of King Arthur’s legendary participatory leadership style and trigger intrinsic motivation within each team member. This will then serve to motivate them to overcome the current market challenges, to reach and exceed their individual sales goals, and to help the entire team meet the collective sales objective.

If your sales organization needs to go on a “sales crusade” to turn things around, send your team members off with the weapons they will need and the additional inspirational strength and courage to slay the “economic dragons” they will confront along the way. Make full use of King Arthur’s “Round Table” strategy for success!

Selling Through Personal Integrity

The Highest Ethical Standards Approach for Success

In a business era flooded daily with negative news of ever-widening “widespread corporate fraud”, the discovery of new Ponzi schemes, and seemingly endless consumer scams, today’s consumers are becoming increasingly cynical toward anyone selling anything— and can we blame them?

The short answer is “no”. From the consumer’s perspective, to blindly trust today’s salesperson is risky business. After all, it is hard to argue against the fact that a large portion of the financial mess we’re dealing with today can be traced directly back to one recurrent moment— the point at which someone sold something to someone.

Now, admittedly, it does sound a bit extreme to imply that “salespeople" are somehow responsible for triggering the recent economic collapse, and that is certainly not my intent. However, it is reasonable to suggest that consumers are fairly upset about the rampant lack of personal and professional ethics in today’s business environment, and that they place some of the responsibility for the current financial mess on salespeople in general.

Whether the consumer’s anger is sustained in the direction of failed corporations like Enron, for promoting and “selling” $90 stock shares a day before they plunged into worthlessness, or redirected toward someone like Mr. Madoff, the former Chairman of NASDAQ turned “salesperson”, who swindled his investors out of billions, or currently focused on the countless mortgage "salespeople”, whom overzealously promoted sub-prime lending practices that ultimately hurt millions of homeowners, one thing is certain:

It is going to be much more difficult to earn the trust of the consumer in the future!

Unfortunately, none of these events has served to enhance the ethical image of today’s professional salesperson. In order to repair the damage and earn back the consumer’s trust, the successful sales professional of the future will need to apply nothing short of the highest ethical standards approach for success.

The next several posts will be part of a series called Selling Through Personal Integrity, which will detail the specific steps you can take to build a strong foundation of trust with your customers and ensure your continued success as a sales professional.

Stay tuned for success!

Your True Selling Motives Revealed

The Eyes Are the Windows to the Soul

Your customers will see your true selling motives— guaranteed. From the moment they meet you, they are measuring everything you say and do. With the skill of a police sketch artist, they quickly begin to form a “values composite image” of you. By the time that they are finished, this mental image, and the resulting “gut feeling” they develop from it, will determine whether or not they trust you enough to do business with you. It’s just that simple.

The celebrated phrase “the eyes are the window to the soul”, helps to explain how your customers will make this important evaluation. While you are making your presentation, your customers will be peering right through those “windows” of yours, searching for clues that will help them evaluate your motives.

If you’re thinking about making a sale, mentally calculating how much money you’re about to make… good luck. It is highly unlikely that your customers will ignore the two giant dollar signs that appear in your eyes, suddenly trust you, and end up deciding to buy from you. Conversely, if you’re focused on representing the best interest of your customers, setting aside any thoughts of personal financial gain, the reflection is very different. Your customers will see how much you truly care, trust will develop, and they will be far more likely to buy something from you.

While you’re working with your customers, some of them may be conscious of the “values assessment” they are conducting, perhaps even providing you with verbal clues that they are sizing you up (i.e. questioning how long you have been in the business, asking if you are paid by commissions, etc.). However, most will simply decide whether or not to trust you based on the unconscious “gut feeling” they develop.

If you want to make more sales today, and enjoy a corresponding increase in earnings throughout your career, first do a little personal reflection. Decide what is really important. Suspend any thoughts of sales quotas, commissions, or other compensation, before you meet with your next customer and focus completely on representing their best interest. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Desire and Drive

The Essential Components of Success

Throughout much of my career, I have been directly responsible for the initial recruitment, selection, training, and career development of many successful sales professionals. From entry level positions, through the strategic leadership level, I have learned that the greatest predictor of long-term success has little to do with how “experienced or talented” one is when first venturing into a new opportunity. Instead, I have discovered that the essential components for long-term success simply boil down to one’s level of desire and drive! When people possess a true desire to help others, along with the drive to do whatever it takes to reach their objectives, any potential experience or talent deficiencies are quickly overcome.

At the most fundamental level, experience can be defined as: the total accumulation of lessons learned. It represents nothing more than the depth of someone’s accessible potential in any given moment, with the operative word being potential. Without the desire and drive necessary to do something meaningful with their potential, the level of one’s “experience” is rendered quite worthless.

There is a popular maxim telling us that “knowledge is power”. I have a slightly different opinion. Yes, knowledge is important, but not necessarily powerful. In its purest form, knowledge represents little more than the ongoing collection of interesting information. Rather, it is the application of knowledge that becomes powerful. This is exactly where desire and drive step in. One must have the necessary desire and drive to continually apply their knowledge before it becomes powerful!

Take a look around you. All of us know someone who fits the profile of the classic underachiever. Although they may possess all the knowledge they need to achieve greatness, they default to the comfort of complacency in exchange for average performance and results. What’s missing? Desire and drive!

My recruiting and development philosophy is simple. If you possess enough desire and drive, it will take you anywhere you want to go. Experience and talent will ultimately follow.

Extrovert vs. Introvert

Which is Better Suited for Sales Success?

Interestingly enough, when the question is asked, “Who do you think makes the best salesperson, the introvert or the extrovert?” most often the response is, “Why of course, the extrovert.” However, this age old belief may not necessarily be true.

The extrovert has long been typically viewed as the personality type best suited for sales. They are often described as “the life of the party”, the one most likely to strike up a conversation. On the other hand, the introvert is most often seen as the “quiet, more contemplative” one.

Throughout my career, I have seen both of these personality types successfully develop into outstanding sales professionals. So, which personality type is actually better suited for sales success? The answer is neither.

The stereotypical strength of the extrovert, the ability to strike up a conversation with just about anybody, about anything, can easily work against them when it is time for the customer to make an important decision. They will likely have a fairly easy time “networking” potential customers, but they may have a more difficult time “closing” them. They may have to work harder to present themselves as a knowledgeable expert and slow down a little bit to compensate for the widely unfair “fast-talking salesperson image” that they are often tagged with.

The stereotypical strength of the introvert, their perceived intelligence and credibility, certainly works in their favor when presenting the facts and figures, but can cause challenges in other areas. They may appear too quiet or come across as “aloof” in their interactions, which may make “relationship building” with the customer more difficult and compromise sales in that respect. Remember, people buy from people they like. The introvert may need to work on their “likeability factor” in order to be most effective.

Whether you consider yourself an extrovert or an introvert, it will have little affect on your probability of success as a sales professional, as long as you realize that your greatest strength may also be your greatest weakness. If you are conscious of “who you are”, then you can work on developing some of the traits of your counterpart personality type to achieve balance and maximize your success potential.

Become Their Assistant Buyer

Your New Sales Job Description

Rather than seeing your job as a salesperson, “selling to people”, start seeing the work you do differently. Stop selling to your customers and start representing them instead! Become their assistant buyer.

Becoming your customer’s assistant buyer fundamentally changes your job description. You are no longer responsible for bringing in revenue for your company. Instead, you now work for your customer. Your primary job description now reads: To help my customers select the products and services they need, at the best possible price, while always working to represent their best interest!

When you adopt the role of assistant buyer, you figuratively move around to the customer’s “side of the table” and become integral in the decision-making process. When you truly begin representing the best interest of your customers, the negative customer-salesperson polarization that typically develops when someone is “selling” something disappears, giving trust a chance to develop. And, when that happens, you’ll no longer be selling to your customers; you’ll be making decisions with them.

When you change your job description to that of an assistant buyer, you may be surprised at the sales results that follow. Everybody wins! The customer wins, your company wins, and you’ll win too!

Growing Your Personal Sales Income

More on Presentation Mastery

Your sales compensation may be based on salary, hourly pay with production bonuses, straight commission, or a combination of “any of the above”. Regardless of how you’re paid for the sales you make, it is a safe bet that your earnings will somehow be either directly or indirectly tied to the total sales revenue and bottom line profits you generate for your company.

Make sense? Then you’ll also agree with this next statement: Sales professionals who consistently produce more total sales revenue and bottom line profits for their company will earn substantially greater incomes over the course of their career.

Okay, easy enough to understand. Now, there are really only three ways to increase the number of sales you’re currently making and grow your personal sales income, and here they are:

Increase Your Presentations
Simple! Increasing the number of presentations you make (assuming that the quality of your presentation remains consistent), will logically increase the number of sales you make and your personal sales income will grow accordingly.

Increase Your Closing Percentage
Also simple! When you increase the number of sales you make in relationship to the number of presentations you make, guess what goes up again? Your personal sales income!

Increase Your Average Sale
And lastly (drum roll), still simple! When you increase the size of your average sale per contract, your personal sales income will surely increase as well.

Here’s the bottom line: If you focus on improving your results in just one of the three areas we have discussed, you will undoubtedly make more sales. However, what would happen if you focused on improving your results in all three of the areas we have discussed? Wouldn't it dramatically increase the number of sales you’re currently making and therefore dramatically grow your personal sales income?

Interestingly enough, you only need to do one thing exceptionally well to substantially improve your sales results in all three of these areas and grow your personal sales income. Yes, that’s right, just one thing. The answer is master your presentation!

Most likely, you can readily see the correlation between improving your presentation skills and the positive effect that it would have on your average sale and closing percentages. What may not appear so obvious, at least at first glance, is how improving the quality of your presentation will actually increase the number of future presentations you will make.

So, how will improving the quality of your presentation lead to more future presentations? It will happen through an increase in the number of quality referrals you will be able to acquire. When you deliver a masterful presentation, your customer is far more likely to reward your professionalism by providing you with a high-quality referral to go along with the sale you just made. It is a simple matter of trust. The more professional you are― the more trust your customers will place in you.

Mastering your presentation creates a cycle of success that leads to substantially increased personal sales income, regardless of how you’re paid for the sales you make!

The Kitchen Table

Separate Yourself From The Competition

Years ago, people conducted most of their household business at the kitchen table— not anymore. In today’s day and age, with the advent of cellular phones, wireless internet, and laptop computers, people are doing business wherever they feel comfortable. And yet, in many present day sales training programs, the salesperson is still trained to “move to the kitchen table” after the warm up.

Perhaps nothing screams more loudly to a customer that I AM HERE TO SELL SOMETHING TO YOU than to suggest that everyone ought to move to the kitchen table right after the warm up. You see, consumers are not stupid. Salespeople have been inviting them to their kitchen table for decades. They know why you’re doing it and you ought to stop it!

How about this: Instead of suggesting the kitchen table as the place to sit (or accepting their pre-conditioned “they see you as a salesperson” offer to use the kitchen table), why not separate yourself from the competition out there and genuinely ask them where they would actually be more comfortable? Why not suggest their front porch or back deck on a nice day or let him sit in his favorite chair if that’s where he’s most comfortable?

It you are really serious about “relationship building/selling”, you need to allow your customers to select the place in which they will feel the most relaxed while you are making your presentation. It will work to your great advantage. Your customer will know right from the very beginning how important they are to you and realize that there is no need to be guarded. The key is to keep your customer in control of the process throughout, and they will reward you handsomely for the consideration.

Granted, at some point in time, it may be appropriate to move to a table to complete the paperwork. That’s entirely okay. The distinction is that the decision will have already been made. By the way, most of us can handle doodling numbers and jotting down cost breakdowns without the specific requirement of a kitchen table.

Think about it for a moment longer. Do you really want your image to be stereotypically lumped in with all the poorly trained salespeople out there that can’t wait to get to the kitchen table and work over their customers? Or, would you prefer to be viewed differently— demonstrating that you don’t need a kitchen table to be a professional?

A Study in Cancellations

Preventing Buyer’s Remorse

If you want to find the salesperson in any organization with the highest cancellation percentage, look for the one that boasts most loudly about how great they are at “handling objections” and “closing” their customers. Unfortunately, those that define themselves as “great closers” often have the highest cancellation problems as a percentage of their sales as well.

One of the catch phrases you may hear in business when a customer seemingly cancels a contract for no apparent reason is that they had “buyer’s remorse”. This term is, at best, a weak attempt by the salesperson to shift the responsibility for a cancellation away from them and put the onus on their customer. This really makes no sense. What reason would a customer have to feel remorseful (i.e.; guilty, regretful, etc.), provided that they have made a decision to buy something based upon receiving all the information they would need to make an intelligent decision in the first place?

Cancellations, plain and simple, are frequently a byproduct of poorly executed sales presentations bolstered by hardcore closing tactics. Incompetent salespeople tend to rush through their presentation to get to the “handling objectives and closing” phase, missing countless opportunities to establish buyer need, build maximum product value, and strengthen the overall “buyer commitment” toward retaining the product or service they just purchased.

Realistically, regardless of how good you are, there will undoubtedly be some circumstances beyond your customer’s control that will cause them to cancel an agreement from time to time— an unforeseen financial emergency for example. If you have done your job well, however; thoroughly establishing the benefits of your product or service before your customer says “yes”, it will be far less likely that they will experience any “cancellation remorse” after you have made the sale.

The bottom line is this: Let go of hard core closing tactics and finger-pointing at your customers when a cancellation comes through. Instead, spend more time mastering your presentation and polishing your delivery. You'll not only close more sales, but you will also have far fewer instances of “buyer’s remorse” to have to explain away in the future.

The Likability Factor

“The Warm and Fuzzes”

Your customers buy you first, then your company, and lastly the products and services you sell. You are the most important factor that determines a sale. More specifically, although professionalism, experience and talent are all essential to sales success, the most important factor is, “Does the customer like you?” To put this point into greater perspective, think about this question: When was the last time you bought something from someone you didn’t like?

If the first image that popped into your mind was the time when you walked away from that obnoxious, pushy, fast-talking electronics sales guy and found someone else to help you (or a similar vision), then you get the point. It’s fairly clear that people buy things from people they like. Now, in the event that you’ve always thought that “people buy things from people they trust”, you’re also right. However, have you ever trusted someone you really didn’t like?

If you want to become instantly likeable in the eyes of your customers, simply listen more than you speak. It is human nature to like someone who is really willing to listen. So listen carefully to what your customers are saying. In return, you’ll be rewarded with many more sales as a result!

Just how important is the “likeability factor”? Well, considering the recent studies published by the Journal of the American Medical association and others, it’s quite important. What they have found suggests that doctors who are well liked by their patients may be statistically sued less often for malpractice than their equally skilled but less sociable colleagues.

The Art of Listening

Active and Passive

There is a huge difference between hearing and listening to what someone is saying. Hearing is passive. Listening is active. If you want to become instantly likeable and make more sales— if you really want to “connect” with your customers— learn to “actively” listen to what they’re saying.

While passively listening, our thoughts may be wandering, thinking about our response to what the speaker is saying even before they’re finished. Or in the extreme, wondering what the daily lottery numbers are likely to be.

Actively listening means, remaining intently focusing on what is being said without mentally working on constructing a response. It is represented by a high degree of eye contact, nodding to indicate understanding, and pausing for reflection before responding to what has been said. It means completely immersing yourself in what the speaker is saying, seeking to truly understand.

Only through active listening are you able to achieve the deep level of communication required to virtually guarantee maximum results from each customer interaction.

Never Shortcut the Presentation

People Reject What They Don't Understand

Many sales are lost, not because the product or service didn’t fit the customer’s needs, nor as a result of an inferior product line— and regardless of what they say, not because the customer couldn’t “afford it” or “needed to think about it”— but because the salesperson lost the customer somewhere along the way. They confused them. And, when a customer is confused, they will not buy, because people reject what they don’t understand!

Customers are providing you with a clear indication that your message lacked clarity when you hear something like this: “Well, you really did a great job and you’ve given us a lot to think about. We’ll talk it over and get back to you”. After all, what are they suppose to say to you? They probably won’t be so candid as to say, “You know, we were actually ready to make this decision right now, but frankly, you confused us when you were talking about that drop-interest financing option. We’re going to need some time to see if we can figure out what you were saying before we make a mistake that could cost us money.”

To the uninformed, the “we need to think (or talk) about it” response is an “objection”, so they leap into the objection handling mode and hope that that last seminar on closing they attended was worth the money. It seldom dawns on them that it may be something else— that they may have simply confused the customer or failed to make a compelling argument for buying their products or services.

If something is missing, or seems vague, customers simply will not buy. This is one really good reason why you should never shortcut the presentation. Clarity is important. Customers need to hear the full story in order to make a truly informed decision. If you shortcut the presentation, skipping over points that later you find out may have been important to your customer, it will be tough as nails, if not impossible, to effectively rewind the presentation and straighten out any confusion you may have caused in your effort to speed things along earlier. Basically, the customer awards you a single opportunity to get it right. You don’t want to waste it by attempting shortcuts.

Salespeople often have a tendency to speed through the presentation to get to the more exhilarating part, the close. Rushing through the delivery (essentially shortcutting the presentation) is a dangerous practice that risks confusing the customer; which in turn leads to substantially lower closing percentages, lower sales averages, and higher cancellation percentages.

The solution is to slowdown. Always keep in mind that no matter how many times you’ve given the presentation, it is the customer’s first time hearing it. Make sure that your message is clear and your customers will have less to “think about” at the end of your presentation!