Ryan, a software sales rep, had been having a rough day. He’d been bombarded with questions from several customers and gotten behind on work he needed to finish before the end of the day. Then, he got a call from Wayne, a prospect who introduced himself by saying: “I’ve heard great things about your engineering software package. I saw a demo about a year ago, and was not in a position to purchase it at the time. But since then, it’s become very apparent that I need to integrate it into my system.” “Wow,” Ryan thought. “This will be easy. It’s about time something went right today.” Then, Wayne said: “I need to know about the cost, the tech support and how soon it can be installed.” Ryan immediately went into his pitch. He discussed tech support in detail, covered availability and other options, and explained that the price was $12,000, with 30-day terms. Wayne’s response was unexpected. He said that $12,000 was quite a hefty price tag and he needed a couple of days to think about all of this more carefully. He’d call Ryan back next week. Ryan did a double take. “What just happened?” he thought. “This sale was in the bag, a sure thing. He really needs it and now he’s thinking it over? He said he needed the software right away.” And that was the end of the call. So, what happened? Ryan got lazy, plain and simple. He thought Wayne was sold. All he had to do was give him the information he needed, then write it up. He got fooled into assuming the sale without doing the work. He never got Wayne to talk about why he was looking now, with what seemed to be a real priority about buying the software. The entire transaction was conducted at the intellectual level, without any real understanding of the true need. So, what happened? Ryan was lured into taking shortcuts. He mistakenly thought the prospect’s enthusiasm was as sure as a sale. No matter. You need the time to qualify the prospect and make sure he’s real before giving out information or making your presentation. In Ryan’s case, a couple of questions would have made a world of difference. He might have said: “Before we discuss pricing, help me understand why this software is so important. I want to make sure the application is correct for you. Would you mind if I ask you a couple of questions?” Of course, you’re digging in to find out what is really going on. It is so important to gather this information before you discuss price so you can truly have an understanding of not only why they want the software, but the consequence of not installing it. Once you give away your information – whether on the phone, in a presentation or in the form of a proposal – you have given up any form of control and are literally at the mercy of the prospect. Remember: It’s not about the sale; it’s about the process. Click here to share this post.

Tim, a software sales rep, had been having a rough day. He’d been bombarded with questions from several customers and had gotten behind on a proposal that he needed to finish before the end of the day. Then he got a call from Gene, a prospect who introduced himself by saying, "I’ve heard great things about your accounting software package. I saw a demo about a year ago, and was not in a position to purchase it at the time, but since then it’s become very apparent that I need to integrate it immediately into my system." "Wow," thought Tim. "This will be easy. It’s about time something went right today." Then Gene said, "I need to know about pricing and availability. And tech support is important, too. Tell me how that works." Tim went into his pitch. He discussed tech support in detail, covered availability and other options, and explained that the price was $8000 with 30-day terms. Gene’s response was unexpected. He said that $8000 was quite a hefty price tag and he needed a couple of days to consider the purchase more carefully. He’d call Tim back next week. Tim did a double take. "What just happened?" he thought. "This sale was in the bag, a sure thing, and now he’s thinking it over? He said he needed the software right away." And that was the end of the call. Diagnosis: Tim got lazy, plain and simple. He thought Gene was sold. All he had to do was give Gene the info he needed, then write it up. He got conned into doing a presentation without getting Gene to demonstrate why he was so excited about buying the software. The entire transaction was conducted at the intellectual level. Prescription: Don’t be lured into taking shortcuts. Don’t mistake the prospect’s enthusiasm for your product or service as a sure sale. Take the time to qualify the prospect and make sure he’s real before you make your presentation. In Tim’s case, a couple of quick questions would have made a world of difference. He might have said, "Before we discuss pricing, help me understand why this software is so important. I want to make sure the application is correct for you. Mind if I ask you a couple of questions?" Of course, you’re probing for pain and one of the most important things to find out is the financial impact of not implementing a solution. Having discovered the financial impact and, assuming it was significant, you will find that the cost of the solution disappears as an objection. Don’t take shortcuts! Don’t assume anything. Get the prospect involved at an emotional, not an intellectual, level. Use the system, qualify completely, and get the sale.   Click here to share this post.

As a principal of your organization, you clearly understand the importance of sales in the organization. You are wearing too many hats to play sales manager, as well, but do you really know how they are doing? If they aren’t hitting their revenue goals, do you know why? Is it a viable reason? Do they have a battle plan to change that?You have two challenges when your sales force prepares for battle:Challenge No. 1Like any kind of warfare, you have a distinct advantage when you can tap good and reliable intelligence. Here’s the problem: Your salespeople don’t get enough accurate intelligence about their prospects. As a result, their pipelines are filled with flaky opportunities. And your sales managers don’t have enough guts to call them on it.Here’s the litmus test: When your salespeople submit their forecasts, do you or your managers “adjust” them down for realism? It’s typically easier for salespeople and their managers to discuss why they didn’t win business, instead of asking themselves the right questions before going to battle.Here are some of the right questions:1. Can we win and should we pursue this opportunity?2. If yes, how do you know? What is the reasoning? A guess? A hunch?3. Which strategy should we adopt to ensure that we win? Why?To begin, ask your salespeople: “How much does it cost to win a new account?” Calculate the actual costs associated with generating a lead, a contact, an appointment, a proposal and a sale. Now, add in the opportunity cost of missed business they could have won if they weren’t wasting time on business that won’t close quickly.If you’re like most selling organizations, the cost per pursuit is several hundred or thousands of dollars. Multiply that by the number of opportunities you chased and didn’t close in the last 12 months. Staggering, isn’t it?Before your salespeople charge off to fight the next battle, ask them: “If this was your money, would you spend it?”Challenge No. 2Your salespeople don’t do enough planning work before going to battle. Before going into battle again, make sure your salespeople can answer these questions (honestly):• What are you trying to sell and, most importantly, why? Sounds simple enough until you actually try to quantify it.• Is the project funded? What if there’s not enough? Who has discretionary use of the funds? Who can get more? Are we speaking to the right person here?• What is the sale worth to the organization? Does the ROI justify the investment of time, money and effort?• Have we sold this prospect anything in the past? Who? What? Where? When? How? Why?• How many contacts have you already had with this prospect? How many phone calls, face-to-face meetings, etc.? Do you have a clear next step?• Do you have an organizational chart? Do you have an inside coach?• What has been (or will be) your sales strategy?• Where are you in the selling process? Here is a checklist:1. Were you invited in, or did you beg for an appointment?2. What were the prospect’s reasons for seeing you?3. What were the challenges, problems and frustrations you identified in the interview?4. How important is it to the prospect to fix those problems?5. How committed is the prospect to fixing those problems? (Time, effort, money, willingness to fail.)6. What agreement have you and the prospect reached concerning the decisions that will be made each step of the way?Few salespeople understand the cost of pursuing sales and often fill their funnels with bad business. Fewer think through winning strategies before going into sales “battle.”Ask your salespeople these fundamental sales questions before committing resources to a battle you cannot win.Successful sales professionals qualify vigorously and religiously before committing time and energy, so their closing ratios are 90 percent or better.So, what are yours?Greta Schulz is a sales consultant for businesses and entrepreneurs. For more sales training tips and tools, or to ask her a question, go to www.schulzbusiness.com or email greta@schulzbusiness.com. Click here to share this post.

Have you ever tried to pick up a pencil? Have you ever tried to take a drink of water? No you haven’t.  You just do it. Lack of commitment is the failure of most salespeople, and even their clients. “I tried” is the lamest excuse I have ever heard. I’d like to share an example that illustrates this point, using the example of advertising.   There are approximately 120,000 salespeople selling some form of advertising in America.  Each of those sales people will make “prospecting calls” to an average of three business owners per day. One business owner out of 12 will say, “Well, maybe it does make sense for my business. I’ll go ahead and buy a small schedule and ‘give it a try.’ And if it works, I’ll use your station/ paper product/ (fill in the blank) on a regular basis.”   Sounds pretty good, right?   This is perhaps the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Let me share a similar example with you to prove my point. Let’s say you are in Vegas standing at the roulette table and you think, “I’m going to place a small bet on black and if I win, I’ll start betting on black on a regular basis.”  Sounds a little ridiculous, don’t you think?   There are thousands of business owners who will be making a decision to “give it a try” today. Most of them will experience poor results. Will they be disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No. They will not be surprised because they have “given it a try” before, with very limited success.   Why would business owners do what they have done before and expect different results? Because bad salespeople have taught them to do this. Not every product or service works this way. But if you’ve ever heard the old adage “over promise and under deliver,” it gives the same result.   “I’ll give it a try” or “let me test the waters” is the signature of an uncommitted customer. I think we would be hard pressed to find these customers experiencing a high degree of reward from their efforts…because there is none. With risk comes reward. Show me a committed and focused client, and I will show you success in the making.  
 Greta Schulz is president of Schulz Business SELLutions in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is the best selling author of "To Sell is Not to Sell". Greta does corporate training for fortune 1000 companies and she has an on-line training course for entrepreneurs. For more tips go to: www.schulzbusiness.com click on Caffeine   Click here to share this post.

An excited Corey recently came to me with this story about a large client he’d been working on months and months. His manager warned him that the relationship was strong between the client and the current vendor so it was a long shot. Corey was persistent and kept going and going and going, a bit like the energizer bunny when one day he came to me barely able to breath;   “Greta!,” he said. “I did it! I got ‘em!  The big one I was working on!”    After congratulations and back slapping, I asked a few key questions.  “Corey, wasn’t that the prospect working with your largest competitor?”   “Yep!” he replied.  “They sure were and that’s the best part!”   I then asked how they were going to handle the situation when the incumbent (who’d had the account since the first Bush was in office) found out he’d taken it and then counter offered to keep the account.   “They’re so mad at him,” Corey answered. “The service has gone down and they told me it was time for a change.”   Having received a promise that the initial order would arrive within the week, Corey left the prospect’s office with a handshake and then indulged in a rousing “YES” once he got to the privacy of the parking lot.   Three days later, there was a message on his voice mail.   “Corey,” spoke the voice of his “new client”.  “Call me ASAP.  We’ve got to talk.”   From the tone of his voice, Corey knew there was a problem.  He immediately called the client and asked if there was something wrong.  The man told Corey he was sorry, but the incumbent vendor found out about the potential loss of business and came back with a counter offer. Lots of promises. Better service.  And, of course, a significantly lowered price.   Predictably, the incumbent kept the business. Corey tried to call back to see if he could offer any other concessions, but the client was too embarrassed to even return his calls.   So what happened? Typically, salespeople hate bad news.  They don’t want a potentially unpleasant conversation with a prospect, especially when it feels like things are going well.  They often put blinders on when their guts tell them a situation could be on the horizon.  And they’re rather quietly pray that it won’t happen, rather than take steps to head it off at the pass.  BIG MISTAKE!   You’ve got to deal with potential problems when you see them coming.  If something can go wrong, or if you gut tells you it might, deal with it right then.  In this case, Corey knew it was a possibility.  So what could he have done that might have changed the outcome?   At the end of the process, when the client agreed to move forward, Corey should have made this move:   “I’m glad we’re going to be working together.  Between your needs and what we have to offer, it seems to be a good match.  But I’m curious—when ‘ABC Competitor’ finds out you’re making a change and comes back offering to beg, borrow and steal to retain your business, what will you do?”   By taking this step, you’ll have a much better chance of saving the account.  Bring it up when you’re there rather than later when they’re too embarrassed to discuss it.  If they’re switching for a legitimate reason, this discussion helps solidify the decision.  If they say, “Well, I’d have to look at it,” then you’ve never really sold it in the first place. This will also allow you to have a conversation right there and then about that bringing up the reasons they were leaving their existing vendor. After you leave it is much less effective to have this conversation.   Greta Schulz is president of Schulz Business SELLutions in Palm Beach, Florida. She is the best-selling author of "To Sell is Not to Sell". Greta does corporate training for fortune 1000 companies and she has an on-line training course for entrepreneurs. For sales tips go to: www.schulzbusiness.com     Click here to share this post.