Focus Precedes Success (Part 2)

There are a handful of common things on which top salespeople put their focus regularly. I have picked out three of these areas for this article so that my readers can get started (or continue) putting their constant attention where they need to:

This is Part II in a three part series about FOCUS for Salespeople

II—Begin with the End in Mind
Stephen Covey introduced us to this habit in his book entitled “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” It is my belief that when a salesperson focuses on what the end result looks and feels like in any sales cycle, he/she will navigate the seas with a stronger purpose.

Note: Beginning with the end in mind is about the results that the customer gets with the use of your product or service and NOT about simply making a sale!!

This area of focus backs up what I wrote about Pre Call Preparation in my last post but it also requires that you start with a vision and a goal. So, if we are to take a look at three areas of dialogue on which top sellers focus their sales process, they would be:

1-A Look Back over Your Shoulder-(What got us to this point?)
2-A Current Overview (What is the “State of affairs?”)
3-What do you Want to be When you Grow Up? (What is the vision of the ideal future?)

This format allows us to “frame up” the things that got the prospective buyer to where they are and to define the things that are necessary to get them where they want to go. Again, it starts with understanding the past and current situation and then defining the path (with the customer) to the previously defined (and mutually desired) result.

As a salesperson, I often looked at the entire sales cycle as a series of gates that needed to be entered and closed before we could move to the next. Once a gate was closed, then we could proceed to the next step. I believed, as I still do (and teach), that every step of the sales cycle must have two clear things:

1-A clear PURPOSE for the call (as mentioned in my previous post) and
2-A clear

—you can’t always CLOSE the sale, but you have to always close the next step.

The difference that I have found between top producers and most other salespeople is that they define the END of their sales cycle differently. Most salespeople think that the final stage is when the contract is CLOSED. Top Salespeople feel that the sales cycle is not complete until they have received their TENTH referral from the client. This is based upon results! This one difference changes the strategy on most of the sales calls and changes the preparation and value-add initiatives on every interaction of the sales cycle!

Next blog post on FOCUS addresses the need for Constant Forward Motion—don’t miss it!

How to save time on every sales call

We’ve been looking at time management, and a big part of your day is the sales call, so let’s take a closer look at how to prepare for a more time-efficient sales call.

I’ve asked the question before: “What’s the purpose of this call?”

If you don’t have that question answered, in writing, the chances are, your call is not going to get the desired results — because you don’t know what they are. If you’re clear on your purpose, you’re going to be more focused on your sales call.

More focused on your sales call is better for you and your customer, because he wants this time-management stuff too. Because sales people take up his time. Asking yourself about the purpose of this call helps you design better questions.

To design better questions, you write them down.

You write them down, you practice them.

You practice them, then you are better at them.

You ask them better, they get answers.

They get the right answers, and they get the right answers the first time.

The right answers the first time give you more knowledge.

Questions for your sales call, part 3

Continuing our series on the questions you must consider on every sales call, we come to where:
•    Where should I focus my efforts?
•    Should there be any dialing?
•    Might it be networking?
•    Might it be in generating referrals from my existing clients?
•    Where should I focus these prospects that I’m trying to get to give me a call back?
•    Where should I focus their efforts?
•    Where am I going to focus mine?
•    Where am I going to focus my customer’s attention?

It’s all about prospecting: How visible are you to your marketplace? Where do they know your name from? Where do they know your face? Are you visible to them?

Asking the right questions, part 2

Continuing our mini-series on your six best friends – the five W’s and H:

When you’re going to make a sales call, you must be clear on the purpose of your call. What is the main message?

You may have about 4,000 words teed up, but they’re going to hear about five. So what’s that main message? What do you want them to remember when they hang up?

If you can’t identify it, chances of you communicating it are weak. So then you ask yourself another what: What will grab their attention?

Let’s think A I D A, the old marketing formula.

“A”, attention, what will grab their attention?
“I”, what will create the interest? The interest in our company the interest in me, so that …
“D”, the desire is there to potentially do the…
“A”, to create the action that I am looking for.

What will grab their attention? Do you think it will be something about you or something about them?

What will pique their interest? Do you think it’s something about you and your company, or something about them and theirs?

Planning your sales call – and asking the right questions

If you’re a true sales professional, you take six of your best friends with you on all of your prospecting efforts.  They go with you before, during, and after, and they live with you. They are:
•    Mr. Who
•    Mr. Why
•    Mr. What
•    Mr. When
•    Mr. How
•    Mr. Where.

Let’s start with who.
•    Who are you calling?
•    Who are they?
•    Who are they in the decision-making process?
•    Who are you going to reference when you call to make that person somewhat interested in taking your call?
•    Who’s important to your success?
•    Who’s an influencer on your success?
•    Who are the decision makers?
•    Who are you going to engage with?

Four magic questions

Preparation before the sales call is the focus on today’s 10 Days of Christmas resolution for next year.

There are four questions that, when asked internally (and answered) before every call on a prospect, customer, or client, yield greater connections, greater calls, and thus, greater sales and profits.

What are these magic four questions?

1.    What is the purpose of this call? Seems like a simple question doesn’t it?  In fact, I ask this question repeatedly to salespeople every year on ride-alongs and field observations.  The most common answer that I get is, “The purpose of this call is to make a sale.”  Now, although I agree that the purpose of the sales cycle is create a customer and a profit, the purpose of every sales call is NOT to make a sale.  In fact, when one thinks that the purpose of every call is to make a sale, the conversations tend to be focused on the product, not the customer.

2.    What do we know? Another simple question designed to help us to identify and inventory the information that we have about the prospect, customer, or client and their current situation, needs, structure, buying process, etc.  We cannot send in salespeople half-cocked with little-to-no information about the account anymore.  In fact, especially in the B2B sales world, there is NO EXCUSE today for a salesperson to be under-prepared for a sales call.

3.    What do we need to know? This list is easy to make and yet rarely created in advance.  There are a variety of things that we need to uncover and discover throughout the sales process and if we understand in advance what these are, chances of making sure we cover all of these bases is better.

4.    What do we need to get “out on the table?” The answers to why someone buys come from their motivations.  Those motivations are often hidden and rarely offered up voluntarily by the prospect, customer, or client.  With the proper focus and questions, however, they will often come up in the conversation.  It is very important to get these motives “out on the table” from the other party because when they say it, it is fact!  When you say it, it is suspect because you have an agenda — to make a sale.

Action Step

Create a process by which you will have to answer these four questions out loud or in writing before every sales call on the phone or in person.  Once these four questions (and subsequent and answers) become part of your routine/your habit before each and every call, you cannot help but win more often!   Challenge a colleague or your manager to hold you accountable for solid answers to these questions.

This is the NUMBER ONE thing you can do to be more effective in 2010!

Photo by billaday, via Creative Commons 2.0

Seven extra minutes preparing for every sales call this year

As we continue our 10 Days of Christmas countdown — and 10 resolutions for the new year — remember this truth:  Time spent preparing for the sales call creates the success of the sales call.

This has been my contention for years, and it’s more true than ever in today’s challenging selling environment. Many salespeople are getting fewer opportunities than ever.  Thus it is even more important to build the habit of thorough pre-call preparation before every call.

Whether you sell over the telephone or in person, the majority of the pre-call preparation needs to be focused on the value you will bring from the point of view of the customer.

The word to focus on is “THINK!”

Idea:  As we head into the beginning of a New Year, it is an opportune time for you to have deeper conversations with your customers about their goals for the upcoming calendar year.  A great way to engage the customer might be something like this: “Help me understand what it is that you MOST want to accomplish in the upcoming year?”

Action Step

List a series of topics (and corresponding questions) that you would like to see covered on each of your sales calls.  Where would you like to see the conversation go?  What answers from the customer would best help you build your case of value?

In my experience, if you do not decide in advance where YOU want to go, then the customer will often take you to where THEY want to go… and too often that means discussing price!

Photo by Calsidyrose, via Creative Commons 2.0