What I Learned About Selling in 2008
This time of year brings smiles, joy, anticipation and temper tantrums…oh, the holidays! It also tends to bring reflection. As I sit here resisting the urge to ingest yet another useless, 550-calorie, oatmeal cookie, I thought I’d look back on the past year and share with you what I’ve learned about selling in 2008.
- Persuasion is dead. If you’re in it to convince and persuade, you need to call 1986 and ask if you can have your job back.
- Sales presentations should NEVER be presentations. When one gets out of presentation mode and into conversation mode, the whole game changes.
- The economy breathes and so do sales results. Those who embrace the ebb and flow of the sales arena and look at breathing times to exploit opportunities, always wind up at the top of the sales results list.
- For the most part, sales managers suck. Most sales managers don’t add value to their salespeople’s performance. It’s not their fault. They’ve not been taught properly.
- People pay money for things that make their lives better/easier. They don’t pay money for products, things, features or functions.
- Personal ACCOUNTABILITY is missing in the DNA of most salespeople. Those who have it are at the top of their game.
- LEAD GENERATION is still the biggest problem for most sales organizations. A lack of INNOVATION in generating qualified leads is to blame. (Stay with us in 2009 if you want innovation for lead generation.)
- Most salespeople worry most about what they can’t control and thereby ignore what they can control. (“Danger, Will Robinson!”)
- Most salespeople are smarter and better than they think they are or allow themselves to be. Are you one?
- Most SALES TRAINING SUCKS. Product training is WAY overrated. Sales process training is still about getting the deal and persuading someone to buy. Once the majority figure out there is a better way, look out.
That’s the list for 2008. We live in a great time. Relish the fact that selling is a great profession and will continue to be for a very long time.
Blog Authors
We love to hear from our readers. If you’d like to contact our authors privately to suggest story ideas or critique their writing, here is their information:
Bill Caskey: mailto:bcaskey@caskeytraining.com
Bill is a sales development leader and experimenter. His ideas about selling are convictions about life, money and meaning. He has coached sales professionals and executives for over 20 years. And his philosophies and strategies have fueled explosive growth in sales and profits for clients. Click here to learn more about Bill Caskey.
Bryan Neale: mailto:bneale@caskeytraining.com
Bryan brings 16 years of leadership, training, sales and sales management experience to Caskey. Bryan has trained in industries such as professional services, consumer goods, financial services, freight and logistics, distribution, and many other B2B industries. Click here to learn more about Bryan Neale.
Brooke Green: mailto:bgreen@caskeytraining.com
Brooke specializes in B2B sales teams in transportation, logistics and professional services industries. She has been a practitioner of Caskey for over 12 years. Brooke began her career in sales with no customer base, no leads, no experience, nor training. Using the strategies that she learned from Caskey, Brooke moved away from transactional selling to a collaborative, consultative approach that tripled her personal income. Click here to learn more about Brooke Green.
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THE TRUTH SETS YOU FREE
I got a call from one of my professional services clients, who said an 18-year client said he needed to check other vendors–said the price was getting too high.
Wow! Not an easy call to get–and he asked me what I would do. Here it goes:
Acknowledge the truth. You can’t MAKE HIM NOT CHECK them out, can you? Of course not. So go have a meeting and say this: “Mr. Client, I want to acknowledge your thoughts about looking elsewhere. That may be a good idea. After 18 years of a relationship, sometimes people grow weary — the relationship goes stale — nothing new — just the same old service. So I would encourage you to look elsewhere. It will be healthy.”
Then, follow that up with: “But I do have one question. Is it really the money (which he told him it was) or is it something different–like service or value or something we missed?” Then, I would suggest a brainstorming session with their senior managers to see how, or if, there is a way to reduce the fees. There may not be. But you at least have to be open to it.
Maybe they’re right. Maybe your fees have crept up too quickly. Maybe they aren’t getting as much value. But you can’t know that until you have an “exploratory meeting” at their site. You cannot be defensive at this meeting. It is a meeting based on finding the truth.
Go into it with high intent–really wanting to help the customer solve the problem. NOT trying to ‘keep the business.’ By surrendering you get stronger.
