Selling to Consumers | Sales Training Blog by Skip Anderson

Trade Show Magic

Do you want to maximize your effectiveness at a trade show?

Leave your booth. Visitors are more likely to visit your table or display when you aren't there. Once someone has entered your space, return to your space and engage the prospect in conversation. Apparently, people are intrigued by our displays, our table, our brochures and signs...but aren't so enamored with us. Therefore, step out of the way. Just for a few minutes.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Go for the Big Sale. Or Maybe Not.

Conventional wisdom tells us that salespeople should go for the big sale, the record breaker, the home run. And conventional wisdom is usually correct.

But once in a while, going for the "big sale" isn't the best selling strategy. Sometimes the more moderate transaction is in the best interest of the salesperson (not to mention the customer). Will going for the big sale offend the customer so they don't even make a small purchase? Will going for the big sale interrupt an ongoing stream of revenue from the customer (a big short term gain chosen over an even bigger long term gain)? Will going for the big sale effect the relationship with your customer, or your market, or have some other negative consequenceIf the answer to any of these is "yes," then maybe going for the big sale is not the right activity at the present time.

Only wisdom can tell us if going for the big sale is the best action. And wisdom isn't always developed through experience. There are many experienced salespeople who have little wisdom, and many new salespeople who seem to have born with it.

Going after the big sale is a great idea- most of the time.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Some Talking Points About Talking Points

Some talking points about talking points:

> Talking points provide consistency. If every member of your sales team uses the same talking points, they will provide a consistent message to your market.

> Talking points cab help create a perceived reality. Telling every single shopper that your fall collection of cashmere sweaters is "the new generation of cashmere" will eventually allow your product to stand out from all the other now generic cashmere sweaters available from other retailers.

> People typically react badly if they feel like they're being fed talking points- unless the talking points have been designed to resibate with that individual (or individuals) that they're being fed to. In that case, people love talking points, and might even remember them or share them with others.

> Talking points can help inexperienced salespeople know what to say. Almost anybody who can't think for themselves (yet) can remember to recite five talking points.

>Talking points lose their maximum effectiveness when you present more than five of them.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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When Selling, do You Make Ear Contact?

Everyone knows how important it is to make eye contact when selling face-to-face. Eyes, being the windows to the soul and all, are a powerful vehicle to connect with another human being. Since prospects are human beings, this works out to everybody's advantage.

But equally important as eye contact is ear contact. If eyes are the windows to the soul, than ears are the heartbeat of the soul.

Do you sell using your ears as much as your eyes? Are your ears a finely tuned instrument? Does listening play as important a role in your interactions with your prospects and customers as your eyesight? And your voice?

The next time you are interacting with a prospect in a face-to-face selling situation, pay attention to how well you use your hearing, listening for nuance in communication, listening for meanings rather than just words, and listening for unique speech patterns and your prospect's choices of words. All of the data your ears pick up can be used to better understand your prospect and his needs and buying requirements. And the next time you're speaking with your prospect on the phone, shut your eyes to shut of visual stimulation (or distraction) so you can zero in on the clues being presented to you aurally.

Eyes aren't overrated. But ears are underated in selling. What better way is there to engage your customers than by actually listening to them?

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Try Something New For a Change

After a while, the ebb and flow of our days becomes second nature to us and we are no longer fully aware of what we do or don't do during a customer interaction. Just like most human beings, salespeople become creatures of habit.

Habits can be good, like when we see a red light and automatically ease our foot on the brake. Or, they can be bad, like when we finish our customers' sentences for them because we already know what they're going to say. To keep yourself, your selling, and your perspective healthy, it's beneficial to shake things up once in a while. But because we're creatures of habit, we have to consciously seek new, different, and fresh ways of doing things.

When's the last time you checked in with a prospect or customer on the phone and said something fresh? Or interesting? Or do you always say the same thing, such as "I just wanted to check in with you after your visit to our showroom to see if you had any questions or to see if I could help in any way." Blah, blah, blah.

How am I supposed to feel good about dealing with you, Mr. Salesperson, when you don't help me along a little bit? I've been greeted a thousand times in a thousand retail stores in the same way. How interesting is that? I want to be surprised, delighted, intrigued, entertained. Show me something different. Or show the same old thing in a different way. Speak to me in a new language or with a new voice or from a different lectern.

Prospects and shoppers are bombarded with messages, most of it being meaningless drivel. What if, for just a day, you helped your prospects sort through the drivel and acted as a filter for them, instead of adding to the din. What if you were the protector from the drivel, instead of a contributor to it?

Set asude your brochures and your Powerpoints for a day. Really listen to your customers. Really notice what words are coming out of your mouth. Take note of your body language, your posture, your facial expressions. Today is a new day in the universe. Shouldn't we treat it like one?

  

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Why "3 for $99" is Worth Much More than $99 to a Seller

You sell products or services to consumers. Let's say you're offering a widget on sale this week for $33. And you sell some throughout the day or week this widget is on sale. That's good for business.

But what's even better for business is to offer those same widgets at 3 for $99. Of course, this makes sense because a lot of customers will buy three of them, thus increasing your revenue.

But here's the real reason to adopt a "3 for $99" mindset in appropriate nooks and crannies of your business-to-consumer sales operation. You are setting up an opportunity to say this to your prospect or shopper:

"You can do 3 for $99, OR, you can save even more money and get 6 for $198, do you want to do that?

I know this isn't feasible for all B2C segments, but for some, this concept will have an impact on a company's revenue. Assuming that my suggestion is feasible for your particular business, then depending upon the industry and the product or service you are selling, you will find that anywhere from one out of ten prospects to ten out of ten prospects will take you up on your proposal. Just imagine what this could do for your top line!

Here are some potential examples:

> Your a men's clothing retailer so you offer a certain collection of dress shirts at two for $75, but you offer to sell four for $150.

> You're a plumbing and heating contractor and you have a special on toilets sold in the home for (I have no idea what toilets sell for these days, especially when installed, so bear with me) $395 instead of $450, but then you say, "or you can do a second toilet and do both of them for only 790. Some consumers will reason that, as long as you're already there replacing a broken toilet, I might as well go ahead and get a new toilet in the guest bathroom as well."

> You sell dog treats in your pet supply store. A special section of premium treats are $1.49 each, but you post a sign saying "2 for $2.75." When your shopper picks up two and lays them on your counter to purchase them, you say "If you want, you can get 4 for $5.50 and save even more money, do you want to do that?" You're surprised but pleased when the prospect puts eight dog treats on the cash counter.

Of course, the magic isn't in the exact quantity or the exact price in these scenarios, it's the concept. If it makes sense with your product in your industry, you can utilize this selling strategy to easily upsell many of your clients / customers.

How have you used this strategy successfully in your business? Or how do you think it could be used? Please share your thoughts or pass along additional examples of the concept.

  

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Deciding: The Salesperson's Very First Step In Selling

A few minutes ago, I decided to take a break from what I was doing at my desk. I consciously told my body to move my chair back away from my desk, then I told my legs and arms to lift me out of my chair, and then I told my legs to transport me to the restroom.

Notice the word "decided" in the first sentence above. None of us will ever take a break from what we're doing at our desk unless we decide to do it first. The precursor to movement away from a desk is a decision made in our mind. In fact, it has to be made in our mind before we can execute the movement.

Successful selling is no different. 

> We can decide to be successful or we can decide to be unsuccessful (we can also decide to be tentative, to not put in too much effort, to wait and see what happens, etc. - each will bring a different result).

> We can decide to craft an effective presentation or we can decide to wing in (which may feel good to us, but will probably result in less success).

> We can decide to improve our sales closing skills or we can keep doing what we're doing ( in which case we will almost certainly get the same result)s.

> We can decide to become a better manager by improving communications with our staff, or we can blame our staff for not getting it (a sure-fire way to lose your staff, or at least its loyalty).

> We can decide to role-play a challenging part of our sales process or we can wait to see if it comes together over time (I don't want my surgeon seeing if his skills come together over time).

> We can decide to talk to our manager about an issue that concerns us or we can decide to not do that and instead gossip about it to anybody who will listen (thereby reducing the chance that something will be done about the issue).

Life is series of decisions, the results of which will show success or failure or something in between. Becoming either a top-tier salesperson or a short-lived one is also determined by our decisions - many of them - both big and small.

What decisions, big and small, do you need to make today?

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Four Tips to be More Successful at One Call Close selling

In my previous post, I compared one call close selling to "selling to a bucking bronco" (prospects trying to "buck you" off of them). Today we turn our attention to taming said bucking bronco. Please allow me to suggest four tips for more successful One Call Close selling:

1. Have a plan.

Although plans can change or adapt when necessary, it's always better to have a plan to sell successfully in place when doing any kind of selling, but especially to the one-call-close prospect. This plan would be in the form of a well-designed sales script or a detailed and proven step-by-step sales process. One thing that definitely does not work well is what I call "random selling," which is a conversation with the strategy piece missing. Nor does blathering on and on about your product work. If you don't have a plan, get one immediately, and if you need to, enlist the help of someone you trust to create a plan with you.

2. Learn how to handle objections, stalls, and distractions.

If you don't know what to say after a prospect says "Maybe I'll just get your business card and think about it" after you've asked your prospect to buy from you, you can't yet handle prospect objections, stalls, or distractions. But the good news is that you can learn. Start with creating and memorizing the answer to just one common sales objection. Practice it repeatedly for an extended period of time, even after you think you have it down cold. When you're ready to add to your repertoire, digest another answer to a common sales objection. Eventually, you'll develop a lust for your prospects' objections, because they will no longer make you freeze, stammer, or stumble, they'll make you shine and make you sell more.

3. Be friendly, kind, charismatic, genuine, and very, very human.

People dislike plastic, fake people. People hate plastic, fake salespeople. How you sell is a reflection of your values and your beliefs about selling, yourself, and your prospects and customers. These beliefs shine through your eyes, your behaviors and in what you say to your prospects. Let the light of you shine. People love to buy from people they like and enjoy being with (even if their time with the salesperson is only ten or fifteen minutes). If you're a likable person, you've got a leg up on other salespeople, sometimes even though the competitor's salesperson may have more experience or product knowledge. If you're not likable, find a way to become likable in a hurry. Otherwise, I suspect a sales career may not be for you. Likability is important in any sales career.

4. Make sure your time with the prospect creates sales momentum.

A sales interaction with a prospect, no matter how long or short it is, must create sales momentum to maximize the opportunity. Completing one phase of the interaction (even if that one phase is one simple question) should help propel the salesperson/prospect interaction into the second phase, and the second should propel the interaction into the third phase, and so on. The more momentum, the easier it is to complete the sale. Think about cleaning out your garage or cleaning the kitchen. Once you've started the project, you get into it, and you start digging in. Once you're halfway done, you want to get finished. You've just experienced task momentum. Help your sales process experience sales momentum. Momentum allows the sale to happen with far less effort than with no sales momentum.

Now, go tame that bronc.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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The Bucking Bronco of Sales: The One Call Close Prospect

Some of us who sell for a living have merely a single prospect interaction (a meeting or visit to our store or a stop at their front door) to complete a sale with that prospect. The solution for this predicament has been termed the one call close.

I think the prospect in many one call close scenarios is the bucking bronco of the sales prospect world. Even if we've been invited into a prospect's realm (or they've invited themselves into our realm, such as during their visit to our showroom), prospect's love to keep us at a distance, to throw us off track, and to delay a buying decision.

First, let's make sure we're on the same page regarding "one call close" selling. Here are some examples of a sales interaction that could be considered one call close opportunities.

>  You're selling art on a cruise ship. Your prospect will only be in your vicinity for five days. After that, he or she goes away forever.

> You're selling a consumer product in a retail store (pick a product; let's say it's golf clubs). The vast majority of visitors to your store end up not buying, whether it's buying today or next week or next month. Therefore, if you want to maximize your sales opportunities, you need to make the most of the prospect's presence in your store right at the moment they are in front of you.

> You're selling your product door-to-door in the residential market (pick a product; how about a package of discount coupons to the new auto repair shop in your community).

> You're selling custom closets. The prospect's current closet fell down in the middle of the night (it was a cheap product and also installed with insufficient care) and they need it replaced (and improved) right away so they've invited you to their home for a price quote (that doesn't automatically mean they're going to select you to do it, however).

Most of these prospects will become -- in part or in whole -- bucking broncos:

> They may avoid answering some of your questions. They do this by changing the subject, or giving one word answers to questions that would typically require longer answers, or by acting as if they are indifferent. 

> They may answer questions untruthfully, either intentionally or unintentionally. When you inquire about, let's say, their budget for a project, they may either lowball it (in hopes of receiving a greatly discounted price from you) or highball it (in an effort to not look cheap or unable to afford something, even though that may be the real truth).

> They may avoid allowing you to question them at a deeper level. Even though it would probably allow us to help the prospect more, they may not be willing to share information about their driving habits even though we'd like to be able to recommend a vehicle that matches their driving habits. Perhaps they think they're protecting themselves from us (side note: shame on "us" -- sales professionals and sales organizations -- for putting prospective customers in a situation where they feel they need protection from us).

> They may say they're getting other "quotes" or "visiting other stores" even though they've already received those other quotes or already visited the other stores. They often want to shut us down or put us on hold, even though they may still end up purchasing our product.

All bucking broncos buck. But they can be trained and worked with in such a way that they won't buck anymore. And when that happens, it's good for the bronco and it's good for the rider of the bronco. It's also good for the prospect and the sales professional selling to them.

Tame your bucking bronco prospects, and you'll be a better seller.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Get Off the Commerce Freeway Once in a While

Society if full of sellers, all busily pursuing their next sale And that's how it should be.

But not all the time.

Just like worker bees, we get on the commerce freeway, encouraged by our sales managers and our compensation programs and our personal debt to travel faster, and periodically even faster yet. Fast was last year's goal; very fast is this year's goal. Next year we'll be seeking to make sales super fast. In sales, fast is better, and more is even better.

But it's important we get off the commerce freeway now and then. We can seek a new perspective, see where we are and verify that where we're headed is the best place to be going. We can all benefit from reading a sales book, taking a sales assessment, attending a seminar, or connecting with others in our industry that we've meant to connect with, but haven't.

That brings us to sales training.

Yes, I have a sales training company, and yes, of course, I want every company to hire us to train their salespeople. But this isn't just self-serving to me or other trainers out there, it's to encourage you to find identify and repair gaps between management's expectations for sales performance and the current skill sets of those doing the sales performing (or lack thereof).

I love to ask clients why they are doing this or why they're doing that. Answers vary widely, but the most popular answers - by far - are either, "That's a good question; I'm not sure why" or "I don't know, we've always done it that way." A fresh pair of eyes can provide a company with often extraordinarily valuable insight about a company's everyday sales operations that can lead to increased revenue production.

Just like in so many areas of human achievement, the difference between being a winner and an also-ran is often very small. But when you implement those small changes, sales can grow and even explode.

Get off the commerce freeway once in a while and get on the on-ramp to the fresh perspective freeway. Stay a while. And visit it every now and then. You'll be amazed and what you'll see if you just allow yourself to look.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Selling: Think Speed Dating (8 Tips for Sales Success)

Your younger sister is single following her breakup with her boyfriend. She calls you one evening and says she's going speed dating. She's asking advice from her older brother or sister (you) for speed dating advice. What do you tell her?

This is not a speed dating blog. It's not even a dating blog. It's a sales blog. So what's up with that?

Speed dating is a simple process but it can have major consequences. It can have many twists and turns. So can selling. Some customers buy in a one-call close environment, wherein there's an element of time involved, just as in speed dating. Prospects are seeking potential solutions to their needs and desires, and so are speed daters.

Seeing that there are similarities between selling and speed dating, please see the seven sales tips below, which are disguised as speed dating tips for your little sister:

1. Be well groomed and appropriately dressed based upon the characteristics of the speed dating group (the prospect) and the venue. Few will be attracted to someone (connect with a salesperson) who is inappropriately dressed or groomed. Dress and groom as appropriate for the people you expect will attend the speed dating event (the sales interaction). I know this makes me sound like an old school dude, but if you're selling to a bunch of burly, tough Harley riders (not that all Harley riders are burly and tough in reality), then you'd better dress and groom yourself in a way that will resonate with those burly tough guys

2. Keep your eye on the clock. You only have so much time with each speed dater (with each prospect). Make sure you plan your conversation (presentation) appropriately for the time available.

3. Ask questions to draw out the other speed dater (the prospect). Asking questions isn't the goal; getting the other speed daters (the prospects) to engage in conversation with you and being comfortable with you is the goal. Nobody wants to spend time with another speed dater (buy from a salesperson) who hasn't engaged them.

4. Don't waste your valuable time by talking all about you (you, your product, or your company), but focus on the other speed dater (the prospect).

5. Use eye contact, facial expression, and body language to help connect with the speed dater (the prospect). If the other person is cautious, then you be cautious, too, but with an inviting subplot. Singles looking for partners (prospects investigating purchasing something) feel most comfortable with people who are similar to them. Be similar, but with an extra dose of charisma, humor, confidence, or something else that will set you apart from all the others in a positive way. Not that you should be disingenuous, but we all have multiple elements of our personalities which we can call upon for use in different situations.

6. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Position yourself in a way that the speed daters (the prospects) will have the best opportunity to be impressed with you, intrigued with you, or even like you. Use your strengths and find work-arounds for your weaknesses. You're not good at humor? Then don't try to be funny. You have the best smile this side of the North Pole? Smile away.

7. Help the speed dater (the prospect) feel important. Everybody on the face of the earth wants to feel important in some way. You don't have to pretend, just treat your speed dater (your prospect) as being truly important.

8. Know your limitations. Don't over-talk, be overly funny, or be overly anything. Be genuine, real, and nice while getting the job done.  Be genuinely interested, respectful and effective. That what speed dating (selling) is all about.

Full disclosure: I don't participate in speed dating and never have and really don't know much about it. The speed dating advice above is based solely upon my middle-aged imagination. Therefore, it should be ignored.

However, you can trust the sales advice.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper. He's a happily married non-speed-dater.

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Sales Success: It's All in Your Head

When I was losing weight, I would sometimes convince myself that my plan to lose weight would allow me to have a couple chocolate truffles here and a few doughnuts there. Intellectually, I know that chocolate truffles and doughnuts are not foods that are known for their nutritional value or for their ability to create weight loss. 

Yet, I somehow convinced myself that "just this once" was okay, even if "just this once" happened several times per week, and even if it didn't include truffles or doughnuts but instead included french fries or pork ribs. Although the weight I was carrying was in my body, it was allowed to stay there (and grow) because of what was in my head. 

As it turns out, I wouldn't lose weight in my body until I took responsibility for what was in my head. Crazy thinking leads to crazy behavior.

Selling can be like that, too. 

We know that there is a path to success in sales. We've learned this path either from others in our company (colleagues, mentors) or from our salespeople parents, or from books we've read, educational seminars we've been to, from our sales manager, or from our experience. Yet, our crazy thinking creeps up on us, and we start to believe we can take shortcuts, yet achieve the same level of success.

So we don't upsell, or make the number of calls we're supposed to make. We don't follow the sales script or follow all the steps as defined in our sales manual. We talk about features but leave out the benefits. We convince ourselves our prospects don't want to hear what we have to say, or won't accept the price increase the company has just announced.

So our crazy sales thinking sabotages our real world sales success. We become our own worst enemy instead of being our own best supporter and cheerleader. We move backward instead of forward.

Your head will tell you...

... whether to greet the next prospect in your store or office with sincere gusto or with dreadful monotony.

... whether you'll be able to sell your widgets at $1150 instead of the old price of $1000.

... whether to practice a sales script until you know it or dismiss it as unnecessary or unimportant.

... whether to work until 5:00 on Friday afternoon or sneak out at 2:00 (haven't you already done that the last seven Fridays?)

... whether to put in the little bit of extra effort to do this or that instead of choosing the easy way.

... whether your prospect is a prospect or isn't a prospect (because it doesn't look like they can't afford your product or service, or they don't look like your typical customer.

... whether you learn or get stale, whether you energize yourself or bore yourself, whether you reach for the stars or don't bother reaching at all.

Sales success: It's all in your head. And whatever is in there will determine how successful you become. 

  

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Salesperson or Hustler?

Almost anybody can sell almost anything, If they lie.

Lying is not a sales technique. it is not a skill. It isn't clever or cool. It doesn't require intelligence or sales ability.

Lying doesn't (or shouldn't) count in selling. It's too easy. Anyone can do it. All you have to do is pick something about your product or service, it's warranty, your company, or yourself and either exaggerate something about it or make something up about it or say the opposite of what's real and true. Who can't do that?

I can't. And hopefully you can't either.

It's not surprising that the general public looks down (either some or a lot) on those of us in the sales profession. The reason they do is because some of us in our profession are not professional. They're liars. They're in it to win it, at virtually any cost. Those without a strong set of personal values or without a conscience are perfect for candidates for this behavior.

I've had the good fortune to work with many professionals in our field. I take pride in the people who have influenced me positively, and I'm thankful I've had an opportunity to influence others. There are many truly good people who earn their living selling.

I've also had the disappointment and even disgust of working with people who lie and feel good about it. One of them, I remember, called selling "a hustle." Some have become very wealthy via their dishonesty.

It's easy to lie about...

... Your product's capabilities;

... Services or items included that really aren't included in the purchase.

... Delivery or installation time frames.

... The future by promising things that cannot be promised or aren't real.

Some salespeople lie all the time. Some lie some of the time. Some lie big lies. Some tell white lies.

Enough is enough. Some salespeople never lie. There's no place for lying in our profession. Those who do it don't deserve to wear the badge of honor that hard working, ethical salespeople deserve to wear. I believe selling is honorable, but only if it's done in an honorable fashion. 

Otherwise, you're just a hustler.

  

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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The Good and Bad of Low Hanging Fruit

As salespeople, we are driven to make sales. Most of us are paid based upon our ability to do so.

So I don't blame a salesperson who pursues the easy sale. Sales to low-hanging fruit are just as valid as the sales we made to customers who required a great deal of work on our part. But sometimes salespeople get in the [bad] habit of merely serving the low-hanging fruit.

I visited retail store that is part of a national chain of computer stores last summer to look for a new laptop. I was in the store for about an hour looking at their selection of products. Nobody approached me during my visit. Most of the sales reps were busy with prospects. But I noticed one salesperson standing off to the side while looking over the mass of people that were in the store looking at computers.

I kept noticing him standing there. He would leave for a while, but would quickly return to his "post," continuing to stand and observe. I was wondering why he wasn't coming over to me to offer assistance (to SELL!).

After thirty minutes of my observations, I finally figured out what was up with this salesperson.

He knew the other salespeople in his department were engaged with shoppers. Rather than jumping in to engage another prospect (like ME!), he would carefully listen and observe the other interactions sales reps were having with shoppers, and he would watch prospects to try to ascertain when they were ready to make a purchase.

When he saw a prospect that had talked to another sales rep, but had been abandoned by that rep to work with another shopper, he would jump on the prospect and offer to help. But he would only do this if he thought the chances were very good that the prospect was ready to consummate the purchase.

This, my friends, was an example of a salesperson going after low-hanging fruit. During my visit, he walked several shoppers to the cashier so they could purchase their laptops and to show the cashier which salesperson to credit for the sale. This guy was brilliant to have come up with this sales strategy.

Oops. Did I write "sales strategy?" I meant "order-taking strategy."

This sales rep wasn't so much a salesperson as he was a retail clerk or order-taker, yet he was going to receive credit (presumably in the form of commission or bonus) for his actions. Maybe he was the top salesperson in the department. Or maybe he was the worst. The one thing I know is that he didn't sell during the hour I was in the store. But he received credit for several sales.

If you wish, call this guy clever, or ingenious, or saavy. Or call him a hack. You decide. Which was he?

Please weigh in with your conclusion. I want to hear what you have to say. Post a comment now!

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Knowing What to Do vs. Doing It: Successful Selling Requires Knowledge AND Action

As a long time sales manager and corporate sales trainer, and in the last six years as a business consultant and sales trainer for hire, I've worked with thousands of people who either want to improve their sales or whose boss wants them to improve their sales. What I offer is knowledge: how to sell, how to sell more, how to sell more efficiently, how to make more money selling...I'm lucky to have a lot of sales knowledge. And I'm lucky to be able to be paid well for sharing it with others.

I offer this knowledge in my writing, in my webinars and seminars, in my public speaking engagements, and through business consulting and sales coaching.I want salespeople, sales managers, and sales executives to have this knowledge.

So I share this knowledge with my clients and my audiences, and even in this blog. But I can't make people take action on it. Knowledge is one thing, but salespeople who want to excel must take action on that knowledge. Successful selling requires sales behaviors that yield the desired results. When sales knowledge and sales action walk hand-in-hand, success reigns!

Sales actions (behaviors) are determined by both knowledge and self-talk. Once knowledge is present, the salesperson's self-talk can either lift a salesperson to a new level of sales achievement or can act as a limiter of career and income growth.

So to all you salespeople out there: Gain knowledge! Take action!

> Read [books - blogs - articles]

> Listen [podcasts - speeches - manager - sales veterans]

> Participate [webinars - seminars - conferences - classes]

> Observe [other salespeople - yourself -customers] 

> Analyze [others - yourself - behaviors - strategy]

> Seek [mentoring - coaching - help - inspiration]

> Act  [do - move - call - write - do]

> Reach [beyond - farther - deeper]

> Commit [to yourself - to your employer - to your prospects and customers - to your career]

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Retail: Customer Service is Good but Selling is Better

Customer Service. Every consumer looks for it. Every retailer strives to provide it.

But the term is so overused and so under-executed that I have tired of hearing and thinking about it. In my own consumer life, there have been so many missed opportunities by individuals and stores where I have shopped to provide excellent customer service that I'm just about at the point where I want - no, need - to give noogies to every retail salesperson / clerk / customer service representative that I come into contact with. 

[Having said that, here are two recent examples of good customer service which were provided to me:

(1) The woman at the cosmetics counter at my neighborhood Walgreen's (it's often quicker to check out there than at the main cashier check-out) keeps a file of manufacturer's coupons for typical products sold at Walgreen's. I'm talking about Tylenol and toothpaste and Prep H and the like (I regularly buy two of those three items...you'll have to guess which ones). So when I bring a basket full of goodies to buy, she pulls out her little filing system and looks for coupons to give to me so I can use them. I don't believe anybody told her to do this, she simply does it to be of service to her clients.

(2) I stopped at a Holiday store last week. Although I've mostly given up donuts (even though donuts are one of the most desirable foods in existence), last week was it was a real treat to stop in the middle of the day and buy one. The chocolate glaze was sort of drippy and gooey and wet. When I bought the donut, the convenience store clerk brought me a couple wet wipes in anticipation of my need for one after I sat in my car and consumed my little morsel of sugar and fat.]

So customer service is a good thing in retail. But it should be a no-brainer for companies and individuals to take every opportunity to reach out to customers to make their lives more pleasant.

But if customer service is a good thing, selling is an even better thing for a retail business.

Selling is the art and science of getting prospects to voluntarily give you money in exchange for a product or service. Since all retail businesses are in business solely to get money from customers and then provide a good or service in exchange for that money, it puzzles me why more retailers don't have front-line salespeople who can and do sell.

> What if the clerk at Lowe's actually sold a barbecue grill to one out of ten barbecue grill browsers? What would that do for revenue?

> What if every clerk at Office Depot asked every single customer if they needed any printer paper as they checked out, then offered to carry a box out to their car for them?

> What if every clerk at Dick's Sporting Goods sold customers on the benefits of $120 sneakers instead of buying $49 sneakers?

> What if every clerk at the wine shop tripled the number of customers to whom they sell a case of wine instead of a couple of bottles of wine?

> What if the clerk at Home Depot sold an assortment of screws to every customer that bought a new cordless drill/driver?

Consumers want to buy things that make their lives more meaningful, easier, fun, and better. If retailers would just take a moment to figure out how to do a better job of that using PEOPLE to sell goods and services that accomplish these things (not just marketing, promotions, customer loyalty programs, merchandising, fancy displays, but the sales PEOPLE who engage their shoppers and customers), retail would be in a better place today.

Retail customers love good salespeople. They love to buy. They want and need things. When we use sales PEOPLE to sell these things, everybody wins.

-If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment-

Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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How's Your [Selling] Eyesight?

  
The tasks of everyday life require good eyesight.

Thankfully, my close-up eyesight is quite good. I can read my morning newspaper, see my breakfast eggs, and clip my toenails without any problem whatsoever (rest assured, I don't do all three at the same time).

But thanks to my nearsightedness, I can't see things in the distance. Road signs, a deer standing in the middle of the highway, and the visual glitz of Las Vegas would all be a mere blur for me if I didn't wear my spectacles.

I've been nearsighted since the seventh grade. My first pair of glasses was a rather geeky affair, a black plastic-rimmed thing (come to think of it, it was almost identical to the pair I have on my head right this minute). I lost those eyeglasses the summer before eighth grade. My father accused me of selling them to get money - I guess I had sales tendencies back then, too - although my dad's assertion was incorrect.

Selling requires good "eyesight," too. Most of us who sell for a living will achieve true success only if we see the current opportunities as well as select the proper path to get to make the long-term possibilities become realities. 

Two Sales Maladies: Sales Farsightedness and Sales Nearsightedness

Malady #1: Sales Farsightedness.

People with sales farsightedness tend to focus on the future at the expense of the present. They don't understand that revenue needs to be created now. There is an immediacy in sales that some simply don't comprehend.

Imagine if a cell phone company quit focusing on immediacy as it relates to their product development, not to mention their sales. With new technologies sweeping in and changing the mobile technology game every few months, companies that don't focus on the immediacy of getting things done today would get lost in the shuffle. They would soon fall by the wayside - becoming quickly irrelevant - and replaced by faster-paced companies who have figured out how to make new products today and sell them today, too.

Companies want revenue today. They don't want to wait for tomorrow or next week or next year. Salespeople should want the same thing, too. Top sales performers speed up the sales cycle whenever possible. In sales, the closer to today, the better.

Some symptoms of Sales Farsightedness

> Failing to close business now, or soon. Settling for later instead.

> Putting effort into a written proposal, bid, or quote when the prospect hasn't asked for one, or one isn't necessary.

> Scheduling meetings (first time meetings or follow-up meetings) too far in advance.

> Waiting for a prospect to make a decision instead of helping him/her arrive at one.

> Thinking of only the long-term possibilities of a client, account, or prospect at the expense of the opportunities that exist today. 

> Allowing bad sales numbers for this month linger on to the end of the month. Waiting until next month to turn things around.

Malady #2: Sales Nearsightedness

Salespeople with sales nearsightedness always focus on the here and now at the expense of the future. They don't understand that some sales (and prospects) need to be nurtured over a period of time, and real wealth in some sales jobs comes from a long-term approach.

Thinking about the future implications of today's actions is a valuable asset for a salesperson, and indeed, any business person. A future sale is often a destination that cannot be reached without careful planning or strategizing today.

Imagine a mobile communications company who doesn't put sufficient resources into R&D. They will quickly be surpassed by competitors that have invested in product development to give them an edge once the future arrives. Salespeople need to do that, too. Some things simply take effort over a period of time.

Some Symptoms of Sales Nearsightedness

> Not taking careful notes about a client interaction today, and therefore forgetting important details about what happened with a prospect today when you need those details in the future.

> Not planning follow-up phone calls and leaving them to chance instead.

> Not having a long-term plan and working that plan.

> Treating every sales opportunity as a one-call close when that isn't always the case.

> Not investing in sales training, books, sales materials, webinars, or seminars to help sales results in the future.

> Being reactive instead of proactive when it comes to the future.

> Passing up prospects that are likely to offer future opportunities in favor of prospects that only provide a near-term sales opportunity.

> Focusing on the transaction instead of the relationship.

What are other symptoms of sales farsightedness and sales nearsightedness you can think of?

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Emotional Baggage: It's There, You Just Need to Find It

  
Customers need things. Thank goodness for that, because if they didn't, commerce would grind to an abrupt halt, along with salespeople's careers.

Consumers need books, TVs, furniture, education, massage, barbecue grills, security systems, trees, orthodontics, replacement windows, hair replacement, bass boats, facelifts, vacations to Italy, jewelry, and thousands of other products which we, as sales professionals, are always happy to sell to them. But when we focus on only our products, we can lose sight of the emotional foundation of these customers' needs.

And when we do that, we're missing opportunities to understand, to steer prospects in the proper direction, and to sell more.

Consider the homeowner in his sixty-year-old home who calls a window replacement company to provide a price quote for new windows for his home. What does this homeowner need?

New windows.

But what are the emotional foundation needs behind those needed windows?

Well, since shoppers are different, we don't know exactly, but we can imagine several credible scenarios:

> Water is seeping in the home through the window in his son's bedroom, and it's been doing so for twenty years. The water damage, although not yet severe (at least from what is visible without ripping the plaster and siding apart to inspect it), is starting to rear it's increasingly present and ugly head. This prospect has an interest in securing his investment in his home and not letting constant drips of water gradually devalue it.

> A homeowner has invested considerable money in his home since he and his wife purchased it eighteen years ago. They've adding a sunroom, completed several major landscaping projects, added a third garage stall and a storage shed in the backyard, built a fence around the yard, finished the basement, and so on. The one substandard part of the owners' home as one looks it over from the street in front of the house is its outdated and time-worn windows. Although the windows work fine, they don't look fine, and the visual appeal of the home he has painstakingly engineered over the years has a blemish that is looking bigger and more obvious with every passing year.

> Energy use is a concern to another homeowner. As energy costs rise, the homeowner concedes that replacing windows with a more energy efficient product would result in enough savings over the decades that lie ahead to warrant such a project. Saving X number of dollars per year has strong emotional appeal to this homeowner, especially when he looks back on the energy costs he's incurred in the last fifteen years that could have been far less had the windows been replaced fifteen years ago.

And so on.

So how do you reach (I mean really reach) your prospects when you're talking with them about their product needs, whether those needs are related to windows or the product or service you sell?

Immerse yourself in the before, the after, the underneath, and the beyond of your prospect and your product:

> Examine

> Explore

> Ask

> Fish

> Investigate

> Seek to understand

> Look deeper

> Broaden

> Notice

> Focus

> Notice clues

> Dig

> Magnify

> Pick apart

> Analyze

> Clarify

> Listen

> Really listen

> Listen to more than just the words being spoken. 

My wife and I need a new barbecue grill, so we've been having fun shopping for one these last few weeks. But nobody wants a new barbecue grill just to have a barbecue grill. They want a quick way to prepare food, a centerpiece for entertaining, a monument to testosterone and manliness, a place to create the best damned grilled steak in the neighborhood (if not on the planet)!

How's that for emotional baggage?

Now, if salespeople would just quit talking to me about this feature and that feature and talk about ME instead...

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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You've Got Some Explaining to Do (9 Tips to Explain Things More Clearly)

Part of a salesperson's job is to explain things. You might need to explain how a particular feature of your product works, or why the customer's shipment of the product has been delayed, or why your return policy is what it is.

But some salespeople can be notoriously poor at explaining things well.

A good "explainer" adds value to the prospect or shopper. A poor one bores the prospect or shopper. A proficient explainer adds clarity. A deficient one confuses. A great one builds sales momentum. A bad one kills sales momentum.

Here are 9 tips to become a better sales explainer:

1. Make sure your explanation is necessary.

If it isn't necessary, or it won't help the sales situation or customer, leave it out. Some salespeople explain things because they love to talk. The only good reason to offer an explanation is because it's necessary.

2. Don't use industry-specific terminology.

Every single industry has specific jargon that should only be used in-house. It's disrespectful to use terminology that the customer may not know. Either explain the jargon, or don't use the jargon. Usually the latter is better.

3. Check for understanding.

Checking in often is vital. If there's any indication whatsoever that your explanation has gone over the head of the prospect, back up and try again.

4. Look for body language and facial expression reactions.

Part of the value of a skillful explanation isn't just to share information, but it's to give the salesperson an opportunity to learn more about the prospect. A great way to do this is to analyze body language and facial expression. Is the prospect liking what you're saying? Or is she not buying it?

5. Verify understanding.

Explanations only have value if the they are comprehendible by the customer. Check for understanding often with appropriate questions such as, "Am I making sense?" or "Would you like me to go over that one time again?"

6. Use visuals.

Some people absorb information most efficiently by receiving it aurally, other through visual means. It often makes sense to present some kind of visual explanation in addition to a spoken explanation to make sure the information is registering in the prospect's mind.

7. Take it step by step.

Make information digestible by breaking it up into small bits. Big gulps of information cause explanation indigestion.

8. Use direct eye contact.

Direct eye contact is an indication to most people that what you're saying is important. Their reaction is, "I'd better pay attention!" Paying attention to an explanation is a good thing. In a face-to-face sales situation, look your prospect in the eye!

9. Speak at a pace appropriate for the particular prospect.

Rattling off a long explanation to a prospect who has a natural propensity for careful and deliberate communication increases the likelihood that the explanation is not going to have the desired effect. Slow down or speed up your speaking to meet the needs of the prospect.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Shhh...Relish the Silence

Many salespeople fear silence during face-to-face selling situations. If the conversation gets silent for too long, the typical salesperson pummels that divine silence with words, often in the form of gibberish, repeating what has already been said, or inane questions such as "Are there any questions I could answer?"

Unless you sell on the phone and you suspect the silence you're hearing is due to your prospect setting the phone down on the counter (without hanging up) and then going to mow the lawn or run to the market, silence in selling is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, I would argue that silence during a sales interaction should be cherished.

What's going on in the sales relationship during a period of silence? We can only guess, but there is one thing that we know for sure: a prospect who is silent is (thankfully) not telling you to take a hike, or to quit bothering her, or that he's not going to buy from you. A silent prospect is not calling you nasty names and not rejecting you. Are you starting to comprehend the joy of silence?

It's likely that silence from a prospect during a sales interaction means one or more of the following:

> Your prospect simply has a personal preference for some silence during a one-to-one conversation.

> Your prospect is considering your proposal, product, or your company.

> Your prospect is analyzing what you have presented.

> Your prospect is deciding whether to purchase or not, and if not, why not.

I recommend salespeople embrace silence. And I don't just mean after asking for the order. Don't interrupt silence. Leave it up to the prospect to end the silence. Relax. Salespeople don't have to be big talkers all the time. It's usually better to be a big listener instead, especially when silence is present. Don't be in a hurry. Take your time. When silence is present, it's there for a reason. Roll with it. Enjoy it.

Relish the silence.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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My Tribute to Dots (And The Act of Connecting Them)

Dots are great. They're little. And round. And dot-like.

I'm talking about the small, roundish mark that we're all familiar with, not the candy or the nickname for the name Dorothy (although those deserve respect, too). Look, here's one now:  .

Cute, isn't it?

But the thing I love most about dots is their potential. Dots can be accumulated to form something bigger and greater and of greater significance. Dots create images on my computer screen and on my printer. And where would i's be without dots? (And don't even get me started on the importance of crossing on your T's).

  
But this post is really about the act of connecting dots, which takes you into an entirely new realm of dot appreciation. And when you add the selling implications of connecting dots, well, you've got an opportunity - nay, a duty - to give dots and the act of connecting them a tribute.

Great salespeople connect the dots between their prospect's needs and the salesperson's ability to fulfill those needs, between a prospects desires and the salesperson's ability to meet those desires.

Dots are what our prospects dream, believe, want, and do. Dots are also what we dream, believe, want, and do. And great salespeople connect them.

They connect the dots between adjacent lives. They connect the prospect's budget with our capabilities, their biases with our favorite products, their distractions with our ability to keep them focused, their reluctance to change with our need to earn a living. When we connect the dots, we connect our shared acquaintances, our shared geographic commonality, our shared beliefs, our shared experiences.

Salespeople who can connect their dots with others' dots help create customer engagement. They have stronger relationships with prospects, customers, managers, other departments, and their network of acquaintances.

Great salespeople connect the dots of opportunity with the dots of action. They connect potential with achievement.

Do you want to be more successful in sales? Get better at connecting dots. 

[Practice connecting the dots here ]

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Furniture Sales Training: Customer Engagement Creates More Sales

  
When we engage our customers, we enter a new sphere of opportunity. With engagement, relationships are both quicker to form and deeper. We find it easier to develop two-way trust and understanding. Shoppers are more likely to buy from a sales professional with whom they are engaged than from one with whom they are not engaged.

My wife and I visited a furniture store last weekend. While my wife and I enjoyed our shopping, we had a disappointing experience, both the from the shopper perspective and also from the sales trainer perspective.

Here's a script that shows an approximation of the conversation we had with our furniture salesperson:

* * * * * * *

Salesperson: "Welcome to XYZ furniture gallery."

Skip: "Thanks" (while feeling the cushions on a sofa).

Skip's Wife: "Thank you." (while sitting down in same sofa).

Salesperson: "That's one of my favorite sofas. I just love it."

Skip's Wife: "Oh, okay."

Salesperson: "Do you need a new sofa?"

Skip: "Yes, we need a new sofa. But we're not looking to buy one today, we just happened to notice it as we were walking by."

Skip's Wife: "We do need a sofa but we're not going to buy one today. It's not a priority right now."

Salesperson: "Oh, okay! I don't know if you have been in before, but we're a custom order store. We can custom order any of the sofas you see in our store in any of our fabrics. And we have free design services, I don't know if you knew that or not."

Skip: [pleasantly] "Yes, we've been in before and yes, we did know that."

Skip's Wife: "Okay, great!"

Salesperson: [smiling] "Okay, my name is XXXXXX, just let me know if you have any questions."

Skip's Wife: "Okay, we'll do that."

Skip: "Okay, that sounds good."

* * * * * * *

Did the salesperson identify why we were visiting her store? Did she get us actively involved in the buying/selling process?

This scenario is repeated in thousands of furniture stores and other retail venues each and every day. Sadly, there was little or no attempt to engage the customer. Despite the high cost of getting a prospect into a furniture store (or any store), these opportunities are wasted over and over again at retailing establishments across the land.

What could have this salesperson done differently to engage my wife and I? What would have turned this encounter into an engaging one instead of a typical, bland, uneventful one?

Here are three ways to help your retail salespeople become engagers:

1. Focus on the prospect, not the product.

We sometimes forget that our prospects are real, live human beings with real lives, worries, concerns, joys, priorities, goals, biases, questions, needs, desires, perspectives, etc. If we drill down far enough, we can usually see that prospects are not coming into our stores for our products, they are coming into our stores for their lives. Our products are merely one possible route to make their lives better or more interesting or more healthy or more fun or more fulfilled.

2. Ask important questions.

Questions engage prospects and shoppers at a much higher rate than statements do. Questioning is a skill, and salespeople who possess the skill are worth their weight in gold.The quality and quantity of questions asked of a customer will help determine to what degree the shopper becomes engaged in conversation with us. Every salesperson should receive intensive sales training on the miracle of appropriate questioning.

3. Hold off on statements.

Telling is not selling. It is part of selling, but it is not selling. Yet, many salespeople view their role as that of being a "teller:" Telling about their store, telling about their sale, telling about how they work, telling about financing, telling about features of their product, etc.

To create engagement, we need to consciously hold off on telling early in the encounter in most cases. Unless what we have to say is stunningly interesting to our prospects (and it almost never is), it's probably all stuff they've heard before, and it serves as an anti-engagement tactic rather than a path to engagement.

* * * * *

Put an end to trite retail selling! Enter a new sphere of sales excellence. Engage your prospects!

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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What a Difference The Right Person Makes!

This post is about selling, customer service, managing, and relationships. and virtually all relationships.

I regularly visit two dry cleaners.

Dry cleaner #1: The front desk person always has a smile on her face, calls me by name, acts excited to see me, and we chat it up for a couple minutes every time I'm there.

Dry cleaner #2: The front desk person doesn't make eye contact with me, says thank you (but with no emotion behind the statement), and hurries to get me out of there.

Which customer experience is more satisfying?

Of course, dry cleaner #1 provides the experience I want as a consumer. Having the right people with the right behaviors in the front line of your company's work (receptionist, front desk, selling, installing, delivering, etc.) can make or break your customer service ratings.

Take this out of the retail setting. Isn't this the experience you want with supervisors and employees at work? With family members at home? With friends and colleagues and roommates and fellow committee members? Engaging others is a key to not only selling success, but all kinds of relationship success.

Selecting the Right People

> Have your job candidates role play during interviews.

> Ask experiential questions that ask for specific examples of how they handled this situation or that situation previously in their career.

> Ask what their proudest job achievement is. Use testing to hire the right personalities, the right strengths, and the right attitudes.

Getting the Right Behaviors

> Getting the right behaviors is easier when you hire the right people.

> Train your people , and when you're done train them again.

> But before you can train them, you must have complete clarity of your training objectives.

> Make sure managing and training are interlocked, each working toward the same goals.

* * * * * * *

Questions for discussion:

> What can you do differently to be the "right person" for your job?

> If you manage and hire, what do you need to do differently to hire the right people?

> And where are you falling short on training and managing those right people?

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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The Quest for Customer Engagement: Are You Overlooking Opportunities?

Sadly, customer engagement is being ignored in so much of business-to-consumer selling that in many respects we have nowhere to go but up. In many sectors of B2C selling (not to mention marketing and customer retention), customer engagement is virtually nonexistent.

I define customer engagement as the prospect's/shopper's/customer's active involvement in the buying/selling process, as opposed to participating in a passive way, i.e., as an observer.

Customers long to be engaged. They have a desire to be raving fans, to be in relationships with providers of services and goods of all types, to have productive relationships...indeed, customer engagement is a win-win for both the seller and the buyer.

While almost every salesperson, sales manager, marketing executive, and business consultant agrees that customer engagement is a good thing, many sellers don't have their finger on the real pulse of their prospects or customers. This makes it difficult to engage them except in the most shallow way. If we could allow - and encourage - the tendrils of engagement to infiltrate every phase in our selling processes throughout each customer's life cycle from cradle to grave, we will sell more.

We would be served well if we would open ourselves to seek new and better strategies for customer engagement. Sometimes it doesn't even take much. To help get your C.E. creative juices flowing, here are some ideas:

Hotels: Engaging Your Customer

If you work at a front desk of a hotel and, upon a guest's arrival, ask him "From where are you arriving?" that's a good thing. But it's even a better thing if the hotel front desk representative builds upon the guest's answer to that question. What does the front desk associate say if the guest says he's from Portland or Charlotte or Kingston or Brussels or Minneapolis?

When I tell people I'm from Minneapolis, I often get silence in return. True, many who live on the coasts or the southern U.S. view Minnesota as flyover country, and have never been to Minneapolis-St.Paul. But if you want to engage me, you'll talk with me about the Minnesota Twins' new Target Field, or our two great full-time orchestras, or our healthy theater community, or the beautiful lakes in the City of Minneapolis, or hunting and fishing in the northland, or the massive and beautiful Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness bordering Canada. I'd even settle for a mention of the largest shopping mall in the United States, our Mall of America.

"What's one thing I should know about Minneapolis (or St. Paul) that I should know?" would be a great question for a hotel front desk associate to ask me as I'm checking in or out, even if they don't know anything at all about Minnesota. Knowing me, I would provide five or ten things about MSP that I think everyone should know. When the customer opts in the discussion, that's engagement.

After your visit to a Hyatt or Marriott or Hilton hotel in, say, Dallas, how about if your local Hyatt or Marriott or Hilton hotel contacted you in Minneapolis (or wherever you live) and provided you with a special weekend rate for a weekend getaway at a local hotel in your area? That would get you another opportunity to engage with the brand, and it would prevent you from visiting Priceline when you and your spouse do want a weekend getaway in the city. What's more, Priceline puts only one issue on the table (price) and consumers increasingly view Priceline hotels at each level as being mostly generic. Generic is bad for business.

> If you're a landscape contracting company working in the residential market, maybe you should provide training to do-it-yourselfers in the areas of design, paver installation, plantings of green material, etc. This is a non-traditional view of selling landscaping design services, but some people aren't going to spend $20,000 or $50,000 on a backyard redo, while they may spend $550 to have a designer visit the house and give a preliminary sketch and then go to several hours of classroom instruction on how the homeowner can begin to turn the plan into reality.

Engaging this group of customers might even lead to more traditional business as the do-it-yourselfer realizes he has bitten off more than he can chew, but getting them to interact with your designer or lead installer or manager in a classroom setting gets the prospect actively involved, which is worth it's weight in gold.

> Banking does not have the reputation for being a "fun" industry in the mind of the consumer. Money is serious business, but the consumer experience can still be (and I would argue it should be) fun. So how can banks make it fun for consumers?

As long as banking is only about money, it will likely be a staid and dour environment. But when banking sees its opportunity to be about people, the fun can enter the mix, and fun is engaging.

Banks hand out deposit receipts left and right. But why are these slips of paper so boring and non-engaging? Of course, the customer wants and needs all the vital information on their receipt. But couldn't they be colorful? Fun? Advertising or promoting something of civic importance on the back?

What about an invitation to play an online banking game that the bank has developed to engage gamers (a really fun, well-designed, cutting edge game where the player gets to make loan decisions maybe, or catch the counterfeiter)? Gamers aren't only young anymore. They're well into their thirties, if not beyond (a valuable market segment for banks I should think).

What about making your bank cool and brightly colored with stunning contemporary lighting and a huge tile or carpet dollar bill on the floor in the middle of the lobby so little Johnny can jump on George Washington's face or examine the details of the bill (or chase his little sister around it).

I'd play cool music in my bank. I'd serve chocolates to people waiting to speak to a loan officer or give kids a token to play a video game every time they make a deposit or accompany their parents who make a deposit.

But where is the fun in banking now? It's all but absent, but with some creativity and people-oriented employees driving the process, banks could be a community-oriented center that people want to visit.

> You manage a retail store that sells clothing to tweens and teens. What if every Monday night you picked a customer to play their specially-created iPod playlist over the music system for an hour? I know, there would be legal and rights issues, but there are lots of teenagers who would jump at the chance to put together a playlist just for the retail store, and would be enthralled to hear their playlist played at the cool clothing store at the mall. Then, offer ten friends of the iPod owner to come in and receive a discount if they purchase during the iPod hour.

Retail stores are more than POS systems and merchandise; they're opportunities for richer, deeper, broader engagement of their customer base.

What assets do you have that could be used to better engage your prospects and customers? What can you do to supercharge your customer engagement?  What can you start doing differently than the same old same old?

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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What Great Salespeople Do

Great salespeople:

> Excel

> Inspire

> Enjoy

> Ask

> Achieve

> Sell

> Love

> Smile

> Act

> Persuade

> Entertain

> Lead

> Engage

> Learn

> Improve

> Analyze

> Like

> Mimic

> Bond

> Believe

> Laugh

> Understand

> Feel

> Relate

> Listen

> Maximize

> Plan

> Seek

> Thrive

> Create

> Deduce

> Overcome

> Leverage

> Investigate

> Close

> Synthesize

> Reflect

> Celebrate

> Help

> Desire

> Focus

> Work

> Perceive

> Invest

> Initiate

> Thank

> Enlarge

> Know

> Resist

> Nurture

> Assert

> Move

> Envision

> Call

> Respond

> Conclude

> Present

> Compete

> Customize

> Evaluate

> Persist

> Reach

> Coax

> Sole

> Thrive

If you want to be a great salesperson, just do those things!

What's missing from the list? Is there anything on the list that shouldn't be? Comment and let the world know!

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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The Carnival of Trust - April 2010 Edition

I've been asked by Charles H. Green of Trust Matters to host the April 2010 edition of The Carnival of Trust. I appreciate the invitation and the opportunity. Thank you Charles, and thanks also to Ian Welsh for his help with the project.

As a sales trainer and management consultant, I believe trust is at the very core of productive sales relationships, whether those relationships are ongoing, long-term relationships (as in the relationship between an insurance agents and her accounts), or very short-term (as in the relationship between a one-call sales sales representative and his prospects).

I've selected eleven articles for the April 2010 Carnival of Trust. There's some fantastic reading here, so let's get going:

1. To Sell is to Serve by Mike Plumstead at The Marketing Corner.

Mike asks by asking a question: "When was the last time you saw a movie praising the sale profession?" Mike suggests that sellers be an honest advocate for both the company that employs them and the customer. What a novel idea!

2. What Do You Sell? A Lesson In Personal Branding by S. Anthony Iannarino on The Sales Blog 

Anthony uses the Tiger Woods situation to discuss personal branding. He talks about the importance of staying true to your brand promise. This is a great read.

3. Marketing Strategy: For God's Sake, Sell Ethically by an "unnamed ex sales guy" on Tony Vi.

The author suggests that, instead of "buyer beware," sellers would be wise to practice "seller beware." He calls for banks and other entities to restructure their selling policies for the sake of long-term sales growth over short-term gains.

4. Profits, Ethics, and Trust by Vineet Nayar at The Harvard Business Review.

Although this post is over one year old, I wanted to include it in this month's Carnival of Trust because Nayar talks about something near and dear to me: "In addition to what a company does, it is equally important to focus on how it does it."

5. The Cultural Commandments: Germany by Richard D. Lewis at Cross Culture

Lewis takes a look at what he calls "Traditional German Culture" and should be helpful for those selling in Germany. He talks about Germans seeing themselves as being direct and honest, which requires directness and honesty from anybody dealing with them.

6. Articulating Value - Trust, Integrity, Commitment and Love in Business at Sales Training Drivers

This is a bold article that dares to suggest that love be a part of selling to customers. I love it!

7. Is it Better to Be Truthful or Interesting? by Ian Brodie at The Selling Professional Services Blog

Ian tells the story of how he disagreed with an online contact about the value (or lack of value) of Twitter as a business generation tool. Read the story, but Ian concludes "It's better to be truthful." And, it helps him sleep at night. Three cheers for sleep!

8. Touch Me by Vaughan Bell at Mind Hacks

I love psychology. And this is an article about a study that looks at the emotional significance of brief physical touches from another human being. In my sales training seminars, I frequently say "We are human beings selling to human beings, so let's be more human." Touch is human.

9. The Habitual Consumer by Steve Martin at Inside Influence Report

Read about the study that gave stale popcorn to cinema customers. Some at less than normal, but some ate just as much stale popcorn as they do when the popcorn is fresh and hot. How does this influence organizational and business leaders seeking to promote change within their organizations? 

10. The World's Greatest Salesperson! by David Brock at the Partners in Excellence Blog

David writes about OgilvyOne's contest to find "The World's Greatest" salesperson. The contest has some individuals upset. There's been a lot of discussion in the sales community about this contest. This contest has promoted conversation about what selling really is and what it isn't. It's a healthy discussion we need to have. Read David's article then add your thoughts to the comments section. The comments are fascinating, too.

And finally, one more. But before the next article, I want to thank everyone for submitting posts to this month's Carnival of Trust. There were many great submissions and I enjoyed reading all of them.

11. Speed, Trust, and the ROI of Relationships by Liz Strauss at the 1to1 Blog

Strauss knows relationships. She's one of the relationship gurus of our time. How do relationships effect a company's bottom line?

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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Have I Been Spammed by a Kindergartner? (How Not to Sell Via Email)

 
Here's an email I received the other day. It illustrates how not to sell via email (and is included here exactly as I received it):

MY NAME IS MARC BATKE I LIVE IN CALGARY ALBERTS CANADA.I WORK WITH ONE OF THE TOP INVESTMENT BANKERS IN THE COUNTRY HIS NAME IS KURT SOOST. WE ARE CREATING A #1 SALES PERSON NETWORK IN DIFFERENT INDUSTRIES,WE ARE GOING AFTER PEOPLE THAT WANT TO BE MORE PROACTIVE AND PREVENTATIVE ABOUT THEIR HEALTH.IF YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED THEN PLEASE SEND ME A SHORT E-MAIL OR CALL ME TOLL FREE AT 1-(555)555-5555  EXT # 216

This is probably just spam, and not a legitimate sales email. But nonetheless, it offers an opportunity for analysis. And those who know me that it's difficult for me to pass up an opportunity to analyze something.

So, with this in mind, here are the problems with Marc's email from a successful selling point-of-view:

1. It is all in upper case text.

This makes it difficult to read and doesn't follow accepted conventions of email communication or common sense. MOST PEOPLE KNOW UPPER CASE TEXT IN AN EMAIL SETTING IS EQUIVALENT TO SHOUTING IN A CONVERSATIONAL SETTING.

2. The email is all about the sender, not about the recipient.

Marc, if you're going to market via email, don't make the communication about you and the "top investment banker" you work with. As a consumer, I don't care about you or him. And no recipient would. I only care about me. Send an email about me and what you can do for me.

3. Alberta is misspelled.

If you really live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, you should really know how to spell your province. I know how to spell Minnesota, after all. I'm just sayin'...

4. Make it clear what you're offering or selling.

"We are creating a #1 sales person network in different industries" and "we are going after people that want to be more proactive and preventative about their health..."

Huh?

5. Don't "go after people."

Really? You're "going after people?" Gee, sounds great to an email recipient! Where do I sign up? Thanks for "going after" me, Marc! I'm anxious to be associated with someone who "goes after people" via email. That's just what most people want, a salesperson who proudly announces "We're going after people" to his prospects.

6. It's simply too confusing.

So Marc, you're working with an investment banker...okay, I get that.

But you say you're creating a "#1 sales person network." Hmmm...I'm not sure what a "#1 sales person network" is and I'm not sure why an investment banker would be creating one.

And you're creating a #1 sales person network in "different industries." Whoops...you totally lost me there. Why different industries? And you and your investment banker buddy or boss are looking for people who "want to be more proactive about their health?" Why would an investment banker be looking for people who want to be more proactive about their health? This is simply way too confusing.

Do I smell MLM???

You lost me [press delete button].

7. It has a weak call to action.

"If you might be interested" is very weak, especially when it's not clear what I'm supposed to be interested in.

"I need four people in your industry and already have three. If you think you could possibly be the fourth person to join us, call me directly at my office before April 12 at 1 pm Eastern and we'll talk" would be much stronger.

Marc, please mail me $2500 for that advice because I'm "going after" business people who write poor sales emails.

8. It's a generally accepted principle of writing that one places periods at the end of each sentence, and a space after each period.

I count three missed periods, one missed comma, a comma used where a period should have been used, and a bunch of missed spaces after periods.

My third grade daughter knows you put periods after each sentence and a space after each period. Why don't you know this, Marc? In fact, my daughter knew this in second grade. Come to think of it, she knew this in first grade ("grade one" for you, Marc, in Canada).

Hold up. Wait a minute. Hmmm. Marc? Are you a...kindergartner?

Now I get it, Marc! Okay, look, log off of mommy's computer now, and go tell her you've been using her computer to send poorly written spam sales emails.

And tell Mommy the caps lock is on.

NOW GO HAVE A TIME OUT.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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The Race to Sales Competence: A Case for Sales Training

 
Like it or not, all sales organizations are participants in the race to sales competence.

How many sales leads will your organization, whether a sole-proprietorship or large sales department, burn through because your sales people are incompetent (or, at least, less competent than they should be) at selling? How many marketing dollars will you invest in various initiatives to get your phone to ring more or to get more customers into your brick-and-mortar location(s) when those dollars would be better spent getting your sales team to sales competence?

I know readers of this blog sell everything from appliances to fine art to RVs to cabinets to clothing and beyond. Regardless of the product or service your company sells to consumers, how much valuable time is being wasted by not getting your salespeople sales-competent? How many wasted marketing dollars will you spend before you decide to invest in teaching your salespeople to convert those pricey leads to sales? How many customer objections will continue to be answered ineffectively? How many opportunities for customer engagement will fall into the no-sale abyss? How many random sales interactions will replace strategic sales interactions with those leads you've so carefully (and at great cost) cultivated? How many sales of $1400 that could have been $1900 (or sales of $14,000 that could have been $19,000) will you allow to happen before you recognize your current position in the race to sales competence?

Someone is in first place in the race right now - it's either your company or a competitor. Someone is doing a bang-up job of presenting their products so they resonate with their prospects. Someone is closing sales at a far higher rate than someone else. Someone is likable and engaging and assertive and hard working and highly energetic while the also-rans are plodding along in the middle of the pack (or worse) in the race to selling competence.

Every day that passes means more missed opportunities for sales and missed opportunities for larger sales. What is the cost of not committing to sales competence today? You know your key metrics. You know what dollars are being made in promotions, marketing, and advertising. You know what commission plans you've tried, at times only being frustrated that the desired results haven't been achieved. You know how much time and energy of your sales team is being spent every day, every week, every month, and every year working with prospects that could have become customers, but didn't because the you're not winning the race.

What would a closing rate of 85% instead of 65% do for your company's bottom line (or 50% instead of 20%)? What would a 25% increase in your average ticket do for it? What marketing dollars could you save if your sales team sourced 15% of their own leads instead of 0%? 

This is real money. It's real potential profit. It's a real race.

But the real race is against yourself. What will it be? Marginal sales success? Or winning the race to sales competence now?

Sales training can help your team become sales competent.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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Customers: Complex and Marvelous Creatures

We're blessed with two nice zoos here in the Twin Cities area. I love going to the zoos with my daughter when we walk and talk and observe and drink in all the wonders of wildlife.

And trips to the massive Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in far northern Minnesota (and Quetico park in Ontario, Canada just adjacent to it) always produce wonder. There is something about seeing a moose swimming in the water, but seeing zero human beings that same day that recalibrates something within you that helps you maintain your sanity.

Wildlife is full of complex and marvelous creatures.

And customers are complex and marvelous creatures, too. They never cease to intrigue me. I observe them in a state of wonder, trying to understand and learn about their wide array of behaviors and the motivations behind these behaviors. An entire field of study has developed over the history of mankind to study these creatures' behaviors (psychology). Sometimes puzzling, sometimes humorous, and sometimes frightening, customers display a diverse range of behaviors.

Like wild animals, customers can surprise you. Even when you think you have them figured out, they can behave in surprising or even shocking ways. You can try to predict their behavior, but customers and prospects are wild by nature - you never know what can happen. Aggressive one moment, in retreat the next, entertaining the next, customers are fascinating.

Sales training can provide you with wonderful tools to deal with these intriguing creatures. But these tools are only half the sales survival story. The other half is to develop a sense of wonder about, and respect for, these beings. They pay our salaries and give us clear purpose in our careers. We must study them as a scientist studies natural phenomena if we are to make progress in understanding them and successfully taming their varied instincts. How do they think? Why do they do what they do? What motivates them? What behavior is going to happen next?

And to make selling all the more wondrous, each customer is different.

Behold the mystery, complexity, and individuality of these marvelous creatures we call customers*.

* And prospects, too.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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Micro-coaching Your Sales Team

Sales coaching is one of the keys to developing a high-performance sales team. Unlike sales training, sales coaching is more individual in nature than typical sales training.It's also a prescriptive measure, while sales training is proactive. Both are important, and each can build on the other.

Micro-coaching is my term for a particular style of sales coaching that can pay big rewards. Micro-coaching is completed in very small episodes throughout the day, week, and month. Brief bits of sales coaching increase the number of "touches" between the coach (usually, the sales manager) and the subject of the coaching (the salesperson). By definition, these micro-coaching session are brief, so what you gain in frequency you lose (by design) in length.

Micro-coaching expands the number of pats on the back, suggestions, observations, questions, goal-setting, examination, preparation checks, micro-role-playing, reminders, and other touches that are shared during any given time period. The increased quantity of these touches help build rapport and trust between the two parties, and also help create sales performance improvement. The consistent, on-point, focused micro-coaching conversations help keep the employee consistent, focused, and on-point.

Note: Micro-coaching has little or nothing in common with micro-managing (which, in my opinion, would be more accurately called micro-controlling rather than micro-managing...but that's another blog post).

There are times a longer coaching session is in order. Identifying ongoing weaknesses, developing a development plan, or developing a strategy for a particular client would be better accomplished during a private coaching session that's perhaps one hour in length or even longer. But micro-coaching can be dispersed easily throughout the day, even though all the players' schedules and plates are full. Micro-coaching is easy to fit into virtually any day.

Here are 20 examples of micro-coaching that can be accomplished while you walk by your salesperson on the way to the restroom at the retail store, or walk past their cubicle in the call-center, or when you both meet at the water-cooler, or on your way back into the office after lunch:

1. Michael, please don't forget to call me with your sales numbers after your appointment tonight, okay? I can't wait to hear how it went.

2. You're looking great today! It's great to see you in those ironed pants! (perfect for an employee who you previously talked to about wearing un-ironed, wrinkled clothes to work).

3. I listened how you added-on the widget to your sale to that last customer. That was FANTASTIC!

4. Stephanie, just a quick reminder: Don't forget to acknowledge the objections of your customers. Can you make that work?

5. Sometime today, I'd really like to ask you to observe how Rachel handles getting the paperwork signed. Watch her a couple times and let me know what you you think, will you do that?

6. Dan, it's time for a smell check...come over here and let me see if your clothes smell smoke-free (appropriate for someone who you have talked to previously about smelling like cigarette smoke).

7. I've got a lottery ticket in my office for you if you sell a widget this afternoon.

8. I really like how you're learning to self-edit your comments after the shopper asks you a question. I really think the shorter, more precise responses are working for you.

9. Becky, I know it's hard for you being on the bottom of the sales pile this month, but I want you to know I believe in you. I'm sending positive energy your way!

10. Jose, don't hesitate to look your customer directly in the eye when you tell him you can't meet his price. Eye contact works!

11. I can't wait to see what you do selling our new line of eco-friendly widgets. What do you like best about them?

12. I heard your last greeting. Just remember Stephen, you've heard that greeting over and over again, but your prospect has never heard it before. Make it sound fresh every time, okay?

13. Do I detect a little extra confidence in your selling today? I love it!

14. It's important that you don't have soda out on the sales floor, John. Will you please take your soda into the break room and leave it there?

15. You've always been so accommodating in the past, which I really appreciate. I'm wondering if I could ask you to stay a couple hours later tomorrow night so we could finish changing the signage, and while we're doing that, I'd like to share a couple ideas for you on how you might be able to improve your closing.

16. You're one of the most organized salespeople I've ever seen, Rox. It's really impressive what you do.

17. Patty, don't be afraid to hand the product X samples into your customers hands. I noticed this morning with that customer you asked them if they wanted to see the samples. I think I might just hand them to them without asking. Does that make sense?

18. Annette, you're so darned good at selling, I'm just wondering how much better you could really be if you'd just learn to be quiet after you ask your closing question! You've got to get that down for once and for all!

19. I loved how you did the sales script just now - very impressive, Lori.

20. Megan, we've been talking about getting you to do a better job of matching your prospect's pace. How do you think you did with that last prospect?

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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This Prospect Will Make Or Break Your Sales Career

 
Your effort will make or break your sales career. So will your knowledge and skill and ability to add value to your prospects' lives. So will your ability to create trusting and genuine short-term and long-term relationships with prospects, customers, managers, and suppliers.

But, perhaps more than any of the factors above, this prospect type will have more to do with your career success than any other:

The "on the fence" prospect.

This is the prospect that could fairly easily either become a customer or a no-sale. They have an interest in your product, and your company, but they also have an interest in perhaps buying from another company or buying another product, or an interest in not buying anybody's product and keeping their money instead. They are hesitant, or cautions, or not completely convinced. They've given you time to present your product and its features and benefits, they've communicated forthrightly about their needs and maybe even asked good questions. They've expressed interest and perhaps excitement about your product and about owning it, or using your service.

Yet, there they are: on top of the fence, swaying first to the "no sale" side of the fence just a bit, then over to the "customer" side a bit, and then back again, but they remain squarely on the fence.

Ultimately, though, a prospect cannot stay on the fence forever. The default decision for fence-sitters is to remain a non-customer, since buying a product requires that the fence-sitter tip to the "buy" side and off the fence. Make no mistake about it: fence-sitters are non-buyers until they get off the fence and into your customer (meaning "people who have bought from us") list.

I see many salespeople who spend tremendous amounts of time working with prospects who are simply not going to buy. Persuasion is a good thing in selling. But just as Glenn Beck is simply not going to persuade supporters of Dennis Kucinich that Beck has the "correct" political viewpoint, and Rachel Maddow is not going to persuade Texas Governor Rick Perry that she has the correct political views, a salesperson is simply not going to persuade a prospect who is dead-set against buying to buy.

I also see a lot of time and energy wasted by salespeople on prospects who are definitely going to buy. In the areas where my client companies work (one-call close, B2C selling, retail), salespeople need to do their best work with people on the fence, let those who are definitely going to buy buy, and let those who definitely not going to buy not buy.

So here's my sales training tip for the day: The prospects whom you deal with in the next year who are on the fence will make or break your sales career in the next year.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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How to Sell More: Embrace Failure

For sales success to mean anything, we have to be given the opportunity to fail. The more we have the opportunity to fail, the more lucrative winning at sales can be. Celebrate sales failure. Embrace it. Commit to failing, because you can only succeed in a sales career if you also have the ability to fail.

The clerk at the neighborhood convenience store fail in the sales arena because customers come in and buy candy and beef jerky and toilet paper and ice regardless of what the clerk does. The clerk has little impact on whether the shopper will or won't buy, or will or won't buy more. [Not that these employees couldn't have an impact - they could. But this is not the modus operandi of convenience stores I've been in.]

But a real estate agent, kitchen designer, or door-to-door salesperson truly leaves a fingerprint on the results of the sales interaction. Failure (or at least mediocrity) is common in these disciplines, so the successes are all the more important. Here, the salesperson really helps to determine the outcome of the interaction.

Sales training won't help the convenience store employee much, or the discount clothing retailer or the grocery store employee. But it can help those who have the possibility of failure avoid failure by helping the salesperson to embrace failure, and in the process of doing so, embrace sales success.

Managers: design a system in which your salespeople can fail. If you do, success will be more likely.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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Brochures Don't Sell. People Sell.

Brochures, flyers, catalogs: They're all part of the weak salesperson's selling arsenal, at least in the face-to-face (F2F) selling realm. While these pieces can be helpful in marketing a business or a product, they are rarely much help to a salesperson in selling a product or service. 

The most effective tool a salesperson has in his selling arsenal is the salesperson.

A human being has the capacity to be infinitely more engaging with another human being than does a piece of paper, and an engaged prospect or shopper has a higher likelihood of becoming a customer than a non-engaged prospect or shopper. A brochure cannot ask questions. A catalog cannot leverage subtleties of personal communication preferences to have a greater impact. A flyer cannot keep an individual's interest like a human being can. A leaflet cannot become a trusted advisor.

RESIST the temptation to hand out a brochure...

> when a prospect asks you a question;

> when a shopper asks if you have one;

> when a browser asks if you have any information;

> when you're presenting your product or service to your customer;

> when you are handling an objection;

> when you habitually reach for one;

> when you don't know what else to do.

INSTEAD, do this:

> ask a question;

> then ask another one;

> listen;

> show the actual product;

> tell a story;

> paint word-pictures;

> take out a pad of paper and take notes;

> present;

> explain;

> smile;

> invite the prospect to touch your product;

> clarify the issue;

> review;

> ask for the sale;

DON'T BE A DISPENSER OF FLYERS. ENGAGE INSTEAD!

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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The Selling Process: A Primer for Business-To-Consumer Salespeople

Just about everything in life has a process:

> There's a process for getting registered for kindergarten.

> There's a process to get accepted into college.

> There's a process for changing the oil in your vehicle.

> There's a process for paying taxes.

> There's a process for having a baby.

Successful selling has a process, too. Think of the selling process as a GPS for your sales interaction. GPS will get you to where you want to go, as long as the unit knows your destination preference. A well-conceived selling process will also get you where you want to go with your prospect. Although there are always exceptions to rules, a step-wise progression consisting of doing the right things and the right times will yield big results in sales.

A PRIMER: THE SELLING PROCESS FOR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER SELLING

1. Find your prospect.

If you work in a retail store or have leads provided to you, you don't have to find a prospect to sell to. But otherwise, one of the keys to selling success is to find individuals who are open to spending time with you discussing their needs for your products or services.

Door-to-door selling in a residential neighborhood is a process of finding someone who won't slam the door on your face and will answer your questions (at minimum) or indicate they have a need for your product (better yet!). Selling insurance or real estate or other products or services that aren't sold at retail or door-to-door (D2D) require strong prospecting skills (or a nice marketing budget) in order to have enough people to talk to about your product. Selling on the phone requires a phone list of viable prospects or current customers to upsell.

Once you have your prospect, it's time to find out more about them.

2.Investigate Needs and Desires

Purchases are not random acts. Consumers buy to fulfill needs. Clients are complex and marvelous beings, and the better we understand them and their needs, the better we can position our products and services, and our company, to fulfill those needs. This leads to the prospect or shopper to become a customer or a client.

The depth with which we understand the prospect's needs will help determine our success with our prospects. Merely a superficial understanding will yield less results than an understanding of depth and an appreciation of nuance and detail in the customer's thinking. Therefore, we ask questions to uncover needs, and we discuss those needs and desires to develop a rich and thorough understanding of them, even if we have limited time with our shopper/prospect.

Most sales training will tell you that identifying and understanding consumers' needs and desires is one of the keys to a successful sales career. But many salespeople don't spend enough time on this step of the selling process because they're so anxious to talk about their product or service, or show the shopper something. Ask good good sales questions. Then ask more questions. Investigate.

3. The Presentation

Now is the time for the focus to be on the product or service, the salesperson, or the salesperson's company. This is where we match up our product to the shopper/prospect's needs.

We explain the features of our product. "Features" are details and facts about the product, ideally with the individual consumers' needs in mind. A feature might be any of the following: It's available in 17 colors; you can get an extended warranty; It's available in large or small; It is manufactured in the USA; we custom design all our products for our customers; It's 1.1 carat; It has side airbags; etc.

We also present the benefits of the product or service. "Benefits" are what the features will do for the prospect/shopper. This is where value enters the mix.

A benefit could be any of the following: So you can match the color of the widget to the color of your decor; so you can be protected over the next three years should anything happen to your new computer, therefore saving you time and money and frustration; so you're helping to keep Americans working and not frustrated with products that are made overseas with less quality craftsmanship; so the item is the perfect size for your needs rather than having to buy a widget from stock sizes that might not be right for you; so your fiance will have a diamond that is over that important 1 carat threshold that so many engaged women hope for so your fiance will be thrilled; so your not only protected with the front airbags in a crash, but also protection to the side can help minimize head injury and even death during a crash.

4. Closing the Sale

Everything we've accomplished so far is like the plans for a wedding: the proposal, the shower, the selection of the wedding date, arranging for the participants in the ceremony, acquiring a location, buying the cake and flowers and scheduling the musicians, creating and mailing invitations, selecting the attire, purchasing the rings, preparing the vows, etc.

But closing the sale is like the wedding ceremony itself. It is what all the previous steps have led you. Without the wedding ceremony, all the wedding preparation is a waste of time. Without closing the sale, all the previous sales steps have also been a waste of time.

Closing the sale first consists of a trial close (or test close) that is designed to verify that you have been on the right track with your prospect/shopper. An example of a trial close question is "Are we on the right track?" Another is "Today you were hoping to find a brown widget that would let you do this and that. Do you think this brown widget would let you do this and that?" If the shopper/prospect says "yes," you've successfully completed the trial close. If the response is "no," you've got to return to the "identifying needs and desires" or "the presentation" step of the selling process.

There are many different methods for closing the sale, the simplest being a direct question: "Do you want to go ahead and purchase it?" A salesperson can give alternates: "Do you want to go with the Hitachi or the Sony?" or assume the purchase: "When do you want this delivered?"

Closing the sales is absent from many salesperson's repertoire in the B2C selling sector, and therefore their sales success is limited.

5. Handling Objections

An "objection" is a stated reason why the customer won't or can't purchase from you.

Many of the objections a salesperson hears from a prospect are automatic responses that are not valid. Consumers have developed these responses over many years of dealing with salespeople or seeing others (parents, for example) deal with salespeople. Many other objections are outright fabrications. The remaining objections are valid objections. It's the salesperson's job to find out into which of these categories the objection fits.

Once that determination is made, the salesperson's job is to navigate through these objections in an attempt to arrive at a closed sales transaction despite the objection. The salesperson does this by asking questions, providing new information or reviewing information already presented, investigating the objections, understanding the objections, exploring the objection with the prospect, and asking the prospect to buy again.

I've developed the 3A method for overcoming objections. It can be used as a template for a great many sales situations to help the salesperson successfully handle objections and move on to the sales transaction.

In our wedding analogy, think of the objection as an absent priest, pastor or rabbi from the wedding ceremony, or a lost wedding ring or a pipe organ that won't work. Handling these events are like handling objections.

6. Acquire referrals and testimonials.

While many business-to-consumer sellers skip this step, it can be helpful for many in the B2C sector. Happy customers are often willing to share the names of friends and family members who could use your products or services. Testimonials are positive statements of endorsement you can use in your selling process or in promoting yourself to others.

* * * * * * *

Download the free sales eBook by Skip Anderson, "27 Can Do Steps to Sell More"

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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10 Favorite Responses to the Dead End Prospect

My definition of a "dead end prospect" is a prospect with which you've completed your selling process, handled any objections, and, despite your best efforts at doing a bang up job selling, have reached a dead end, without any clear reason why the prospect isn't buying.

The dead-ender almost always is a result of the salesperson missing something (or several things) during the selling process. As salespeople, we should always want to know why a potential customer is removing themselves from the "potential buyer" category and placing himself in the "not a buyer" category. Usually, during the sales interaction, you're able to drill down enough to understand why.

But a dead-end prospect is one that catches you off guard, that surprises you, that hasn't given you any answers as to why he's not buying, and suddenly declares he is not interested. These are those few shocker prospects that leave you scratching your head and without a sale.

Here are my 10 favorite responses to the dead end prospect in a one-call close or big ticket retail environment [all assume that you've had a productive and positive sales interaction up to this point]:

1. "Hold it please! Let me write down what you're saying [grab a pad of paper]. What was it you were looking for today?" [This is really starting the selling process over again, and works well because in most one call close or retail scenarios, the prospect is the one that initiated the interaction with us in the first place].

2. "I'm not surprised you would say you're not interested, as lots of our customers said they weren't interested at first. But after I was able to understand the real reason why they were saying that, it created better communication between us. How can you and I communicate better about this?"

3. "What are you thinking?" [Said in an inquisitive manner not an accusatory manner.]

4. "Is it the money, is it me, or is it something else?"

5. "Hmmm. I'm just wondering what it is I'm missing here. Will you help me out?"

6. "Let's talk about it for a few minutes, would that be okay? [then be silent]"

7. "What changes would allow you to become interested instead of not interested?"

8. "John, were you interested when you called me out to your home to discuss getting a widget? Were you interested when we were talking about your need for a widget an hour or two ago? So please help me out here so I can understand."

9. [Via Brian Tracy:] As you're leaving the home, or they're leaving your retail establishment, you suddenly say, "Terry, what's the real reason you didn't purchase today?"

10. "I'm so sorry Becky! Tell me what I missed?"

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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