sales

Anxieties darken the skies

Look at what the world believes about selling, the world believes selling is about pitching and persuading. The way targets are set up are for example, how much did you sell this month? The problem is salespersons dive into pitching before creating an urgency for the product or service they are selling and this causes pipelines to clog, and sales cycles to slow down. Just imagine if the sales managers better understood the psychology of selling and trained their sales teams to listen to the buyers and understand the problem they are trying to solve. The better the salespersons understand what it costs them by not solving the buyers’ problems, the more likely they will change the way they approach sales meetings and presentations. 

A need is a necessity arising from a certain problem, a real problem; and a want is what people think or say they need. I think salesperson’s really need to learn how to listen to their buyers and not to pitch or persuade them before clearly understanding their needs. Contact me via e-mail for sales training and workshops.

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A simple buying process

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I love to simplify complex things and I think that buyers go through 3 stages before purchase:

⁃  Awareness: What’s the problem and what’s the desired outcome?
⁃  Consideration: How can we achieve these things?
⁃  Decision: Who are we going to do this with?

The first two platforms are a battle over ideas and as a salesperson you must come into buying meetings with good questions and ideas. Buyers usually do their research and will get the facts and figures online, so salespersons have to step their game. We have start getting salespersons to start having conversations instead of giving presentations - true storytelling with references and testimonials. Contact me via e-mail when you are ready for a sales training and storytelling workshops.

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Focus on things under your control

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Often, we focus on things that don’t matter and things that are beyond our control. In times of crisis, organisations often forget about their sales and marketing strategies because there’s so much else to focus on and this results in wasted time and wasted opportunities. For me it’s all about customer satisfaction, giving good advice and solving customer problems to improve their customer’s lives. 

 

I think knowing which things we should focus on is key to getting what we want. From my perspective, customer loyalty is truly satisfying and many of my customers have become real friends. Focusing on the human side instead of the sales and marketing side helps because visibility to attract new customers is key to expanding my customer base as I work in human-to-human industry. 

Think big, start small and start now!

I’m self-made as I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I was fortunate to be born in London to Jamaican parents with an expectation that I would be successful. My early sales and marketing lessons were learned in the inner city. I think that you are more likely to succeed in sales and marketing if you have certain personality traits, for example, being extrovert, assertive and it also helps to be emotionally stable to tolerate rejection.

This week I have been leading a Focus Group for a new womenswear brand, XIII.dk. I’ve always enjoyed selling straight to the consumer as there are more customers and you are directly in front of the decision maker. There’s a fast feedback loop when you sell direct-to-consumer (DtC), and you receive true comments without filter which enables you to learn very quickly and intuitively. This week was a wonderful reminder that selling DtC is way less stressful and more rewarding because you are changing the individual lives with the high quality clothing. 

Sales is a performance art

I love to have conversations, do you? In order to have a great conversation we need to know more about that person or persons. Asking open-ended questions is the key to keep the other person talking and from a psychological standpoint, when the other person is talking, they are sharing a lot of information about themselves. When I am speaking to people, I want them to feel comfortable with me and I want to hear their story and gather information, so when I begin to talk, it will have more relevance and impact.

 

One of the best things you can do as a salesperson is to listen, look at things from the customer’s point of view and learn how to ask good questions. In my experience, I have found that the average salesperson practices what to say, the best salespersons practice what to ask. This is because when you ask, you keep the conversation going and you focus on them and not yourself. We often think that selling is about talking, it’s not. Selling is about understanding and if you can understand your customers, you can have better conversations. Remember, when you are talking to the customer that it’s not a presentation, it’s a conversation. 

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Everyone thinks they are the best

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Mammals are naturally territorial animals and view strangers as a threat. In nature, unfamiliar creatures pose a threat when they encroach on an animal's territory. How do you build trust with new people? How good is your judgement about what to work on? The process, your skill set, and your ability is the secret to success.

 

Everyone knows that sales professionals need to ask lots of questions, but what questions should you ask?
-  Are they written down?
-  Have planned them out?
-  Are they sequenced?
-  Are you taking the client from where they are to where they need to be?

 

Selling is a performance, knowing the elements of your products or services is just a tiny part. I think it’s all about how well you ask questions and uncover the client’s needs and then design your questions to build interest in your products or services. Focus on what you can control, and you have control over your strategy, tactics, and planning. Contact me via e-mail for developing yourself and a review of how well you are executing your sales strategy.

I trust science

In general, scientists are motivated in their work by curiosity about the world and how it works. Behavioural science is the branch of science that deals primarily with human interaction and has a fundamental connection to sales, as salespersons ask a lot of questions, experiment and interact with buyers. 


Contact me via e-mail for a peer review of your sales process. I think that sales professionals who understand the core concepts of behavioural science are better able to engage their customers because they have:

  • Increased self-awareness

  • Improved emotional intelligence

  • Improved agility

  • Reduced social anxiety

  • Reduced fear in managing difficult conversations

  • Improved ability to assess challenges and opportunities objectively

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Don’t mistake courtesy for consent

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Some salespersons are busy going around and around but never seeing clients, so their progress is small. Many sales trainers forget to separate “knowledge” and how much time salespersons should spend in front of their clients in their sales training. It’s essential to teach salespersons that they should never mistake activity for achievement.

Do you have a systematic way of getting better every day?
It often takes more than a good idea to make things a success. All around us there are hidden forces which make it difficult for us to reach our goals, close a sale or convince others to adopt new ideas, often, an outsider’s expertise is most helpful in identifying these areas of improvement. I would like to offer you a free 30 minute consultation to help you maximise performance and leadership - for yourself and your organisation. 
Click here and book a free 30-minute consultation with me. This offer ends on 30th January 2022.

Asking better questions

I think that when you slow down and ask better questions, you will sell more effectively. The quality of your questions will determine the quality of the relationship you develop with your clients. If you ask them dumb, simple questions then that’s the relationship you are going to have. On the other hand, if you are asking deep, insightful questions - questions that make them say: “Nobody has ever asked me that” or “I’ve never thought about it from that perspective, let me think about it.”

When the quality of the questions is high, the client knows you are really trying to understand where they are coming from. It’s not about getting them to say yes, it’s about getting them to say, “That’s right, you understand.” Selling isn’t hard when you know how!

““If we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.””
— Tony Robbins

Consensus buying

More people are now involved in making buying decisions in the B2B world as the product or service being sold will probably impact more than one stakeholder, and in some cases more than one department. And the risk associated with this high-priced item you are offering comes with more risk; therefore, more people need to be in on the buying process. The challenge we face as salespersons is now, we must develop “consensus buying.” When I say consensus buying, I mean it’s difficult to get 5 to 10 decision makers on the same page. How do we control the narrative? It’s the salespersons job to find common ground and work towards a consensus.

 

All stakeholders have an opinion on what they should buy and for what reasons they should buy, and in many cases it’s all about self-interest as they are only looking from their own perspective. Now this gives the salesperson an opportunity to get people on board, build consensus and serve all these different interests. Therefore, good sales training is more important than ever before, contact via e-mail for sales training and workshops.

Dealing with rejection

A study by the Sales Benchmark Index concluded that only 13% are natural born salespeople, that means that 87% have to work at it, learn how to sell and rejection is part of the learning process. Most salespeople hate to be rejected, they hate how they feel after putting all that time and effort into that deal or relationship and then the client says no. Rejection is one of those things that we all know can install self-doubt, but when people reject your product or service, they are not rejecting you - don’t take it personally, stop being so egotistical, it’s about your product or service.

 

Would you like to learn how to shift your paradigm and view rejection as an indicator that something is not right? Rejection is an indicator that you are doing something wrong. I think that customers will reject you in sales based on three things: product, presentation (sales pitch) or price and it hardly ever has anything to do with you personally, so don’t get emotional when you lose a sale.

1. The product is not aligned with what they want or need. and the way to fix that is by improving your pitch.
2. The price, as maybe they can’t afford it.
3. A good presentation consists of you showing the customer how your product or service is going to help them increase their revenue, reduce their costs and/or expand their market share.

 

Most salespeople blame the product or the price for being rejected, and both of these can be fixed with a great sales pitch (presentation). It’s never really about the product unless you are selling to the wrong market but if you know who your target market is you know it’s not the product. And if you are targeting the right people in the right market segment and in the right demographics then you’ll know that it isn’t really about the price. If you are being rejected the indicator is that one of those 3 are broken and it’s most likely it’s the pitch.

A golden opportunity

When there’s too many options the brain locks up! Have you heard the term, buyers regret? Buyer’s regret is where buyers would rather not decide than decide and be wrong. When there are more options, this provides a golden opportunity for salespersons to help the customer and become that trusted advisor. The opportunity to explain things to the buyer and help guide them into a buying decision, now salespersons are more valuable than ever. In other words, it’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell in today’s market, and good salespersons are more valuable than ever because there’s more options.

 

As a salesperson you are not just selling a product or service, you are selling the way to build their business and different ways they can use it. What if you start getting more creative about how your product or service can help the company increase revenue? What if you start getting more creative about how your product or service can help the company reduce expenses? What about if you can help them expand their market share in ways that they haven’t thought about? The fact that you can give them ideas, positions you as the expert, the person with insights who adds value in the conversation.

Listen to your buyers

It’s a good idea to slow down at the beginning of the BTB sales process in order to speed up at the end. Instead of pitching and persuading, start with the problem the buyer has that they may be fully or only partially aware of and solve it. And you should do this by exploring 2 major topics:

  1. What are the problems you are trying to solve?

  2. Are the problems big enough for the buyer’s to want to solve them?

 

Sales managers train their teams to come in and pitch and that’s the wrong way around. From the salespersons perspective the 1st phase is listening to find out what’s most important to the buyer. And the 2nd phase is all about how you help them get that. It’s not specifically about products or services. How can you pitch when you don’t even know what the problem is? Unfortunately, most sales managers are teaching their team to lead with persuasion and let the customers try to figure out the benefits. I think that's like asking the customer to do your heavy lifting for them.

The value trinity

In my experience CEO’s only care about three things:
- How can you help them increase their revenue?
- How can you help them reduce their costs?
- How can you help them expand their market share?

You can sell the features and you can sell the benefits; you can sell the advantages and you can sell the gain, that’s exactly what everyone else is doing. But if you can’t align your features, benefits, advantages or gain to increasing revenue, reducing costs, or expanding market share people will shut down.

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Selling to do good

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When I think about all the salespersons that I have trained over the years, they tend to forget the listening part really quickly. After they have done enough sales presentations and they know what’s facing them and can predict where the conversation is going, they “fall asleep at the wheel.” They forget that it is for their benefit, find the buyer’s needs and fulfill them. I think the greatest benefit of listening is the impact it has on the buyer.

 

Great selling really starts with great listening and understanding what the clients need really truly are. It’s essential to listen and make the buyer feel that you hear them and understand their problem. If the buyer feels understood, then they will be open to building a trust relationship with you and this will put you in a position to influence their choices and decisions. I think when you really listen to the buyer, you will discover their problem at a much deeper and profound level and that’s where the magic happens.

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Understanding the source

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Selling is not hard when you know what you are doing. Sales is a skill and you really need to know how to do it because it’s a skill that will be with you throughout your life. I recently worked with a sales team on 3 key areas:

  1. Attitude - How do you maintain a positive, possible attitude? Taking full responsibility for what you are doing, keeping an expectant attitude in place. How do you manage your attitude when things take a dip and go wrong?

  2. Competence – This is all about selling and understanding the methodology. How do you get buyers to really listen and learn about what the problem really is so you can go about a decision evidence model?

  3. Execution - Doing the things at the right time with the right people.

 

These things in combination are what drives the results you are going to get. The “old school” pitch, persuade and close the deal is the wrong starting point for the modern salespersons. Commit to helping the buyer make the best possible decision that benefits them, and tell yourself, “I’m at my best when I sell in this way.” I think you should always give buyers the room they need in order for them to really understand what they need, want and why from you.

Strengthening your muscles

What motivates you?
What fires you up?
What gets you going when the going gets tough?

The answer to these questions is different for everyone, just because it works for one person it doesn’t mean it will work for another. Humans are emotional creatures, and we seek patterns, and we are adept at finding them whether they exist or not. Nowadays, we are always hearing about passion, purpose and finding your “why”, and the brain needs that, as we need something to fall back on. Today, our number one problem is “Why now?” as it is far safer to wait, but as sales professionals we must learn how to sell around that.


So much of sales is not about what you know, it’s about how well you do it - in other words, it’s all about the performance. You must be able to get yourself to do things when you don’t feel like it. The people who only follow their feelings are misunderstanding what’s going on in our brains, as our subconscious doesn’t really care about tomorrow. It cares about right here, right now - it wants food, it wants rest, it wants to have fun – and it will take over and hijack our prefrontal cortex. Good salespersons have learned how to get motivated without getting upset, they have learned how to take feedback without taking it personally or as an attack on their identity. Would you like to learn how to regulate their emotions? Contact me via e-mail and let’s schedule an online meeting.

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Each buyer is unique

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Success in sales depends largely on the salesperson’s ability to adapt his or her skills and pitch when selling to different personality types. With just a little bit of communication, observation, and research, you can use your knowledge of these decision-making styles to build better and longer lasting customer relationships and increase your close rate.

 

What are those personality types? 

The four types of buyers whom I have met the most during my sales career are as follows: management, user, technical and economic buyers. I use the acronym M.U.T.E
- The management buyer is all about seeing the actual solution being implemented and how your solutions can be used.
- The user buyer is the person who is concerned with the overall customer experience and the impact of the buying experience and ease of purchase.
- The technical buyer relies heavily on measurable and quantifiable data before engaging in a purchase and wants proof that your product or service performs as stated.
- The economic buyer is focused on the ROI and stay within or under budget, this type of buyer takes into consideration examples of work done for past and current clients and seeks case studies that prove the ROI of a solution. 

 

By identifying your buyer’s personality type and what motivates them, you can tailor your sales presentation to meets their needs. I can teach you how to put all of these four types of buyers on a grid and figure why they would buy, and more importantly document the reasons why they are holding back from buying. Contact me via e-mail and I’ll guide you through the process of addressing those reasons for not buying and fine tuning your sales presentation.

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Unlocking growth

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The job of a salesperson is straightforward, their job is to listen to understand what’s the most important thing for their buyer and then help them get that. Unfortunately, most technology today is not built to provide your buyers with the experience they want and need, just image if your sales team could unlock their performance and become top sales professionals and deliver essential insights to their buyers in those critical moments. This may be the difference between winning and losing because if you don’t partner with buyers and guide them through their journey, you will lose deals to competitors. 

 

We will be selling in digital, virtual, and online spaces more often in the future, and these spaces are noisier and more polluted than ever. This digital pollution costs both you and your sales team time, attention, and productivity, also it affects your ability to reach and engage with the decision makers who matter most to your sales success. How do you fight through it and reach the right people? How can you grow relationships, reputations and revenues? For answers contact me via e-mail and let’s have a meeting.

“The architect of the universe did not build a staircase leading to nowhere!”
— Burrellism
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Nurture and give

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Why are brands with clear and consistent messages far more likely to close the sale than the ones who pursue a matrixed approach?
Brands with one major promise are far more likely to be successful because they focus their efforts on discovering the most important thing that the buyer is concerned about. And I think the odds of winning the sale are far higher if you focus on that one thing. Framing your message takes discipline and it’s important to take a courageous strategy. You don’t necessarily have to give people more information, just help them to solve their emotional needs.


What is the right approach to account-based marketing?
The job of a salesperson is straightforward. The job is to listen to understand what is the most important thing that the buyer wants and then help them achieve it. Values will get you through the door; risk mitigation will get you the deal.