sales

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Learning by doing

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Why is experience in life considered to be the best teacher?
I think experience is one of the best teachers because when you do something you are actually involved in the whole process. And this helps you understand your behaviour and reaction towards a given situation. Learning by doing and teaching by experience can produce higher learning results and have a more lasting effect. Too many people in sales get a little bit of success and get carried away thinking they know it all, and don’t need to practice, study, plan, or review because they think they are already great. Sometimes that’s just the ego, but I think it’s imperative to remain humble. Do you think that happens in any other profession, sport, or activity?

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
— Aristotle

Everything is an opportunity

The most successful people have a thirst for learning, developing and maintain a high level of skills. My daily mantra is: “I will learn from every interaction.” I think selling is a matter of constant and continuous error correction and learning. The best salespersons I know have confidence and are humble enough to accept that there is more that they don’t know than what they do know. Everything is an opportunity, every won deal, every lost deal, every interaction, every presentation is an opportunity to evaluate and learn then adjust and do it better next time.

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
— Seneca

Sales has this weird paradox, for example, when you are in front of customers, they want you to be confident. When you are not in front of customers, you are pulling apart your interactions and generally behaving in an insecure way so that you can see the things that you should be seeing. This combination of confidence and confident vulnerability is the sweet spot where curiosity meet anxiety and is where you will fine tune your sales performance.

Don’t skip the steps

I think skipping a step is placing more value on the destination than the journey and this will compromise growth and learning you experience while you are on your path. I’ve worked with both transactional (fast moving consumer goods) and long-term major sales where the stakes are high (£€$) and what I’ve learned is you can’t be lazy with your process. I think it’s important remember to ask simple questions to figure out what the customer needs and not move too fast, as this will allow you the right to demonstrate the value of your product or service.


There is not a steroid for sales, there’s no magic pitch. Sales is a skill that you learn and develop, it’s a performance skill and it doesn’t matter that you know it, it only matter how well you do it.

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What's important to you?

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I think salespersons should be looking for a verbal commitment to ask questions and they should only sell to what your customers tell you. No one cares about the salesperson, you can be whoever you want, all that matter is your presentation as it all about the performance. Short presentations are best in my opinion because if you go on a monologue then your clients are not really listening. Good salespersons look for a way to make a connection with their customer, and build a conversation based on trust. If you want to achieve your goals of persuasion, start working on your verbal and non-verbal communication skills today. Contact me via e-mail when you are ready to build on your conversational skills.

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There are a lot of factors

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What separates an average salesman and a good salesman?
I think what separates them is the understanding that in sales it’s all about the customer and not about yourself. Most salesmen are trained to learn a bullet point pitch and closing related to the pitch, and they are not trained to understand why customers are not buying. Good salesmen know how to ask deeper questions which are not scripted. I think sales in general is about finding the customers pain points and guiding your customer through a sales process where your product or service metaphorically fixes their pain. I have been a salesman and nowadays I’m a consultant, and if you go through sales training or workshop with me, your sales team will learn the tools to communicate value. Contact me via e-mail for sales training and workshops.

Where do I apply my skills?

I think selling is both an art and a science. It’s all about leveraging quality content that’s visually engaging which is deep and consultative. It’s also important to pay homage to the science of selling and the need for buyers to be able to justify their decisions with logic. I’ve been analysed and various people have tried to pick my brain about my process. By me telling you what attributes you are going to need, doesn’t mean that you are going to have them. I don’t want to be dogmatic or stubborn about what selling is, as my process is a set of attributes that have worked well for me both personally and professionally.

Selling needs to be fun

We survive and thrive on the backs of people who do good. Unfortunately, we have too many sales managers who expect salespersons to do what they want and do it their way, and the only metric that is important to them is more activity. I think everyone is successful in their own way, and the salespersons who are consistently successful do it their own way. The highs are not as high, and the lows aren’t as low. If you find the way that works for you, you are going to be an excellent salesperson.

Fine-tune your sales processes

What makes your sales team run like a well-oiled machine?
In sales we always want to be the trusted advisor, and you only need two things to be a trusted advisor - trust and advice! And if you don’t have the advice part, then you are not the guide. If you’re hard pressed to pinpoint how your sales team is effective, you may need to rethink your strategy. It isn’t enough to give your sales team skills to boost sales, you may also need to equip them with the right tools to increase your revenue. I think every human being has the need for someone to show them the way. Contact me via e-mail to discuss a workshop for your sales team, for example, pipeline management.

Design your process

As salespersons when we are in front of clients if we don’t have a process, I mean a system of doing things via repetition or preparation, then we will stumble. Remember that your process does not have to be rigid. Have you ever left a meeting and then 10 minutes later you say to yourself, “Why didn’t I say this or that?” This is because when you have had time to relax and you are not under pressure, you can evaluate and reflect on what has been said – and boom, you had a better answer.

 

There is a huge difference between preparation and repair. Sales is a preparation or prevention profession, and for some reason we are all sitting around trying to repair stuff. Preparation takes a little bit of work, work which we don’t know for sure whether it will pay off or not, so we are really on a loose limb. Alternatively, we can put in a little bit of work and prevent falling into the trap. There is no doubt that you are going to succeed because you already have because you are reading this blog. Contact me via e-mail for an appointment when you are ready to design your process.

What's your superpower?

I think that it’s important to focus the client on the problem you solve, not the price or the features or benefits. Too many salespersons are reactive to what the client wants instead of being proactive and guiding them through this transition that they are going through. Every salesperson has a superpower, mine is my empathic listening ability, the ability to understand things from the buyer’s perspective. How to present things so it’s all about them and not about me or how smart we are, but how I can help them.

Consistency is the key

The only way to get someone to do something consistently is when they have a reason to do it. It’s important not to assume that what is important to you is important to your customers. As a salesperson you will have to build an intrinsic desire for your customer to fix the problem that you have identified by reminding them that you are there to help them understand what the process is, so that they don’t fear deciding. “Here’s what’s going to happen, here are some of the pitfalls and I’ll guide you around those. If you just trust the process, you’ll come out on the other side with a successful outcome.” I think it’s a good idea to serve others by asking questions that will assist them in making a wise buying decision.

Ask questions and listen

Listen without an agenda and sincerely focus on how your product or service can best serve your customer’s hopes, dreams, and goals. It’s a good idea to listen with mindfulness and then respond with a question instead of thinking about what you are going to say next while your customer is talking. I think of listening as a meditation, just being present and jotting things down in my notebook. In my experience, it’s a best practice to get as much information as possible before trying to answer, as building win-win relationships means remembering that it is not about what we want but what the other person wants.

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
— Zig Ziglar

Design your process

Your role as a salesperson is to present your product or service in a clear, concise, and truthful manner. When you are already selling into an account, educating them about a new product or service is great idea. When selling to a new account you must establish a business need, otherwise the buyer’s will just be curious and interested in learning about your new product or service. Remember that it’s not a good idea to talk someone into something, listen to what they want as making sales is about asking questions and building a trustworthy win-win relationship.

“A man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still.”
— Dale Carnegie
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We still have to do it

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It still fascinates me when I see and hear salespersons fall into the pricing trap, and nowadays even more salespersons are falling into the features and functions trap. Sales is a performance-based profession and how well you do it in the eyes of your clients is all what matters, as your clients are the receivers of all your communication – written, oral and visual. It’s all a performance, not just the words, it’s the tonality, inflections, the timing, it’s the whole sequence of things and at this could seem overwhelming at the beginning of the process.
How well do you do it?

How well do you do it?

What impact does having empathy have on sales?
I think that when you have empathy you know what your clients and your team are thinking, and if you know what they are thinking and feeling, you will have better information about what they care about both logically and emotionally. When you know what motivates your clients and team, you will know what to show them and what questions to ask them. To have that type of empathy, you must listen deeply and not think about what you are going to say whilst listening. Stay curious about your clients and what obstacles they are facing, simply ask yourself, “If I was them, what would I care about?” Contact me via e-mail when you are ready for a flexible process for your team. A framework which provides guidelines for where they are and where they want to go.

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Show me what could have been better

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What is the key to a performance-based profession?
I think that in sales it’s all about how well you perform in the eyes of the customers. The customers are the audience, and they are the only thing which matters in the big scheme of things. The customers are the receivers of our communication, and all communication is performance regardless of whether it is written, oral or visual, it’s all a performance. 

 

How well do you perform?
It’s not just the words, it’s the tonality and inflection, it’s the timing, it’s a whole sequence of things and it may seem overwhelming at the beginning, but we still must do it. The repetitions, the feedback, that learning cycle which we all must go through if we want to move from good to great. Contact me via e-mail if you are ready to speak to someone who has no emotional attachment in your deals.

Give good service

There is no substitute for good customer service! The real work begins after you have made the sale, now is the time to render good service. I have found that excellent service leads to multiple sales as one good customer properly taken care of, will open doors for you, you can’t open by yourself. Take care of all the details: Sales, service, follow up, contact, etc. Ensure that you keep in contact after you have made the sale as this will make a tremendous difference in your results.

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Trust the process

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Have you ever been in the situation where you are presenting to potential client and you can see that they just don’t seem to “get it”?

Would you like to know how to share your story in a way that builds trust and interest with your ideal clients without sounding like you’re just bragging about yourself?

Would you like to know how to teach in a way that opens up your listeners to new perspectives and helps them visualise what it’s like to be successful with you?

Would you like to how to talk about your products and services in a way that gets your audience taking notes and leaning in, instead of feeling like you’re being pushy and selling them?

Would you like to know exactly how to structure a great talk and stories within that talk so you can create sales with confidence every time you speak?

Contact me via e-mail to schedule a meeting about the right framework for driving growth for your business.

Seeing things from another perspective

Buyers think about desired outcomes, for example, “I have a problem that needs to be solved.” Now, if all products are solutions or platforms, how do you present that to a buyer? Ask questions that will enable the buyer to quantify the impact of change on their organisation, team/dept., and also on them personally. Take time to personalise this for the buyer as one size does not fit all. Here’s a great discovery question:

Dear buyer,
By doing business with my company, what will this do for you both professionally and personally?