MAY 13th 2009 / Issue 23
SELLING TO
ACCOUNTS
MAJOR
SELF-DISCIPLINE The Key to Success
Listening To Customers
Earning the Right to Sell
NZ’s e-magazine for sales leaders
MAY 13 th / Issue 23
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4 THIS WEEK’S MUST READ SELLING TO MAJOR ACCOUNTS Richard Gee on the art of selling to the big players 7 SELF-DISCIPLINE John Shackleton explains why you can’t achieve success without selfdiscipline 9
NZSM CALENDAR
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TWO MINUTE TOP-UP LISTENING TO CUSTOMERS Some tips on how to really listen to your customer and earn the right to sell
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BOOK REVIEW THE NEW PARADIGM FOR FINANCIAL MARKETS: THE CREDIT CRISIS OF 2008 AND WHAT IT MEANS Legendary financier George Soros explores the origins of the crisis and its implications for the future
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ALES TRAINING S DIRECTORY
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THE CLOSE NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 2
I
’ve always been a firm believer that the results we’re getting in life are a result of what we’ve learnt and have put into action. Not getting the results you want? In my experience there are only two reasons for this…you either haven’t learnt how to achieve those results, or, you’re not doing the things you know you should be doing. So when I was fortunate enough to attend the two-day New Zealand Sales Managers Summit in Auckland two weeks ago, I was open and ready to take away some key lessons and distinctions that could help me improve my results. Consequently, by 10.40am on the first morning, I found my mind overflowing with ideas to help improve my career and businesses. Needless to say, after two days of learning from and mixing with some of New Zealand’s best sales and business minds, my brain was fried for the rest of the week! Interestingly enough, when I’ve attended training or learning sessions in the past, there are always people who come away learning nothing, thinking it was all a waste of time. “What’s going on here?” I would wonder… “I know more about this stuff
than they do, so how come they learnt less than me?” The truth is that good learners learn lots from everything, and bad learners learn nothing from anything. No wonder training is often wasted on the ones who need it most.
ABOUT /
Alarmingly, this inability to learn is seriously affecting our performance as a nation, with New Zealand plunging from third in the OECD for GDP per capita in the 1950’s to something like 23rd today. In other words, Kiwi’s now produce less value per hour than workers from almost any other developed nation – hardly the recipe for a strong, vibrant and financially stable country. The question is, how can we, as sales and business leaders, and managers of our workers, improve this result? What do we do when we have run out of workers, can’t work any harder, and have no money to invest in capital and infrastructure? To me there seems one obvious answer and it’s an answer that doesn’t cost anything except a change in attitude – quite simply we all need to become better learners.
sales managers, business
And speaking of learning, hopefully you’ll have learnt by now that one lucky NZ Sales Manager subscriber per issue will win two bottles of delicious New Zealand wine, courtesy of our friends at Wineplus. Find out if you’re this week’s Wineplus Winner below!
Short and sharp, NZ Sales Manager is a free e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, and industry news and information to forward-thinking owners and sales professionals. EDITOR / Richard Liew GROUP EDITOR / Trudi Caffell ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson ADVERTISING & CONTENT ENQUIRIES / Phone Richard on 09 523 4112 or email richardl@nzsalesmanager.co.nz ADDRESS / NZ Sales Manager C/- Espire Media, PO Box 137162, Parnell, Auckland 1151, New Zealand WEBSITE / www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
NZ Sales Manager is a Espire Media Publication
Richard
Maria O’Halloran
NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 3
SELLING TO
ACCOUNTS
MAJOR
W
hile the New Zealand business environment consists of mainly small to medium businesses, there is an important segment out there that can be called Major Accounts and Major Corporates. The art of selling to them requires a different set of thinking, if you are going to be successful. The traditional method of selling, which is highly successful, involves the use of communicating features and benefits about your product or service so that the buyer understands the benefits and will therefore invest in the price to purchase. But when you are selling and marketing your products
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Understand My Business! By Richard Gee
and services to a major account or corporate, this sort of approach doesn’t work and is too basic. Instead you require an intimate understanding of the major account/corporate’s business, and the key elements that they are interested in, plus a good relationship with the people who are involved in the major account. For the major account there are three levels of purchase decision making. Normal repurchasing is done by the repurchasing buyer, major management decisions are made by the management committee, and top level decisions are made NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 4
by the board of directors.
are recommending new product or service purchasing.
With these levels in mind, understanding who the people are within the business becomes very important. The key element is to help the person on the level you are dealing with look good to the person they report to, who is interested in understanding why the purchase decision was made.
Usually the major account/corporate will have developed some key performance indicators that they want from suppliers relative to their own particular interests in such areas as profit, return on investment, revenue gains, market share, cashflow, and various efficiency levels to do with cost savings.
If you are dealing at the repurchase level, then you need to make the repurchasing buyer look good to the management level, who in turn want to look good to the board of directors with the efficient way in which they
It is the understanding of these within your major account that becomes important. Once you’ve understood the measurement performance of the corporate, then you can tailor your presentation about your new product
or service to show how it will meet the cost savings, return on investment, profit, market share, revenue gains, or particular areas of interest that major account or corporate has. Rather than features and benefits, ‘Understand my business’ becomes more important. Any proposals that are put to major accounts for solutions to specific problems need to show how you will meet the organisation’s goals, but most importantly need to show how much cooperation there has been with various levels within the organisation, for example with the repurchasing buyer and with the management team, in evaluating the problem and the solution being proposed.
Senior management committees and boards of directors primarily ask, “Have our people examined this, what is their recommendation, and how well has the supplier been working in with our people?” before making major investment commitments.
Make your contact look good, and your proposal is more likely to be successful.
Make your contact look good, and your proposal is more likely to be successful. During these presentations and consultation, you will very quickly learn about the many types of people who exist within
the organisation. These can be broken down into two major categories – influencers and decision makers. Influencers ask lots of questions, do the research, find out
NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 5
what is going on, and make recommendations to look good to the decision makers they report to. Decision makers ask fewer questions, but focus on the organisation’s key performance indicators, and want
The person who asks the most questions is the influencer and the person who asks the key pertinent questions is the decision maker. Make sure that you deal with both. to make sure that any decision they make has been thoroughly researched, and that the information that has been gathered is accurate.
In short, the person who asks the most questions is the influencer and the person who asks the key pertinent questions is the decision maker. Make sure that you deal with both, particularly in a lot of New Zealand companies where there is a family structure or a related structure between the people who participate in the organisation. In the New Zealand business market of approximately 248,000 businesses, around 200,000 businesses employ less than 10 people, 1,500 businesses employ more than 50 people, and the remaining balance employ between 10 and 50 people, giving a substantial major account customer base of around 47,000 for your representatives to use to upskill their selling methodology when calling on these major accounts and corporates. As an exercise, have a look at your top five accounts and see how much you understand about their business, and identify where the gaps are so that you can make a better presentation to help them make a decision next time.
This article contributed by Richard P. Gee, marketing consultant, sales trainer, interactive author. More details can be found on his website www.geewiz.co.nz.
NZSM / MAY 13 2009 / 6 TH
SELF-DISCIPLINE The Key To Success! By John Shackleton
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f there’s one thing that my coaching and my own participation in sport has taught me, it is this: You will never achieve any modicum of success without being self-disciplined. It would be ridiculous to think that you could go to the pool once and suddenly become a world-class swimmer. The acquisition of the skills and the development of the necessary fitness require a high level of consistent commitment over a long period of time. In sport, champions often start before they are 10 years old, train most days of their lives and don’t achieve their success until they reach their twenties or thirties, by which time they have dedicated most of their life to the attainment of their goal. I believe the same is true for success in any activity, however many people in business baulk at the idea of repeating an activity that they aren’t very good at, over and over again in order to perfect it. I’ve heard many people say after a couple of small failures in their job, that they don’t have what it takes to be successful. I wish I had a dollar for every sales person who has said to me that they don’t like cold calling or for every manager who says they hate presenting to large groups. Do you think a top athlete likes getting up at 5am on a cold winter’s morning and putting their body through a couple of hours of painful training? Do you think they like going to bed early most nights and having little or no social life? Do you think they like having to regulate
what they eat and drink so as to keep their body fat levels as low as possible? What they know is that if they want to win then they have to be disciplined in all the areas of their life that affect their performance. If you want to be the top salesperson in your company, a world-class communicator or a great manager you will need the same levels of self-discipline. You’ll need to have a commitment to learning the necessary skills and an extremely high level of consistent repetition of those skills. You will need to experience many failures in order to get good at something and then many more to become excellent at it. You will need to perform the things that you feel are painful until you perfect them and then raise the activity level so that the new task becomes painful. An individual who has learnt self-discipline and applies the skills to the attainment of their business goals is the type of person that every company is seeking to have on their staff. Now, let’s face it, everyone knows what self-discipline is and how it can be achieved but as usual just knowing something doesn’t ensure we can do it. Keeping ourselves focused and disciplined often takes massive effort but this ability is not restricted to the talented few; anyone can achieve these levels of discipline. Perhaps the reason we don’t stay focused is that we don’t understand what mental habits top sports people are constantly striving to achieve.
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As you read the list below, score yourself out of 10 on each of the attributes. 1. COMMITMENT An athlete will often decide on a 3- or 4-year training plan to achieve a relatively small increase in performance. The key to their success is the discipline to stick to that plan. Commitment is doing what we said we would do, when we said we would do it, long after the mood in which we said it has passed. 2. A ‘DO IT NOW’ MENTALITY A sportsperson knows that they cannot make up for lost time. If they don’t go training, compete in the race or take the action NOW, that opportunity is lost to them forever. 3. A BELIEF IN ‘PAYING THE PRICE’ Because of their commitment to training all athletes know that there is no such thing as something for nothing. Anything that is worth achieving will require hard sustained effort. Instant success with no effort is either cheating or it does not exist. 4. CONSISTENCY A sportsperson keeps a training diary that logs every action they take, no matter how small, and what result that action produced. How else can they discover which of their actions are working and which ones are not and therefore what to modify in the plan? 5. CONTROLLING FEAR You will rarely hear a sportsperson say something like “That goal is too hard” or “I’m not good enough to achieve it”. You will usually hear “What do I need to do in order to get to my goal?” To an athlete there can be no
such thing as failure, only learning. If they have a poor performance or lose a race then they MUST learn from the event or they will never correct the mistake. 6. FAITH IN THEIR COACH Every sportsperson will decide whose comments and advice they will be using and whose words he will ignore. There are many people in this world who seem to enjoy finding fault in others’ efforts and achievements. An athlete has to develop total faith in their coach and in the coach’s training plan. Only then will they be able to give 100 per cent effort. 7. CONTROLLING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS How stupid would it be to stand on the start line and be thinking “This is going to hurt” or “I’m not going to win this race”! 8. FOCUS How much mental focus does an athlete need in order to perform at their best? What happens to their performance if they get distracted and are not concentrating? 9. DECLARING GOALS All sportspeople have stretching, well-defined, accurate goals that are constantly discussed and modified with their coach. 10. SELF BELIEF How well does an athlete perform when their self belief is low? How hard do the athlete and their coach work on that self belief?
Now add up your score and see what figure you get out of 100. Not only will this tell you how well you’d perform as an international athlete, it will also tell you which attributes you’ll need to work on to become indispensable to your employers or clients. John Shackleton is an international speaker, coach, author and performance expert. Visit his website at www.johnshack.com for more information.
NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 8
WED 13 MAY
NZSM CALENDAR SAT 16 MAY
SUN 17 MAY FRI 22 MAY Prospecting & New Business Development David Forman Auckland
MON 18 MAY Sales Planning David Forman Auckland Negotiation David Forman Christchurch (18-20 May) Sales Skills Level 3 EMA Northern Hamilton
SAT 23 MAY
Professional Selling Skills Core AchieveGlobal Auckland Advanced Serious Selling Geewiz Wellington
TUE 19 MAY
THU 14 MAY
FRI 15 MAY
Professional Selling Skills Core AchieveGlobal Auckland Key Account Management David Forman Christchurch Hit The Road Running Sales Seminar Top Achievers Sales Training Hamilton
WED 20 MAY
Professional Selling Skills Core AchieveGlobal Auckland Key Account Management David Forman Christchurch
THU 21 MAY
Sales Planning David Forman Auckland Sales Basics Geewiz Auckland Cold Calling & Prospecting Top Achievers Sales Training Auckland
Exceeding customer Expectations Geewiz Auckland Workplace Coaching & Mentoring Zealmark Group Auckland Sales Skills Level 2 EMA Northern Auckland
Territory Management Geewiz Auckland Hit The Road Running Sales Seminar Top Achievers Sales Training Wellington Telephone Sales Zealmark Group Auckland
MON 25 MAY
TUE 26 MAY
WED 27 MAY
Sales Management David Forman Christchurch Sales Development David Forman Auckland Sales Management David Forman Auckland (25-28 May)
Sales Management David Forman Christchurch Sales Development David Forman Auckland Presentation Skills David Forman Auckland (26-28 May)
Sales Management David Forman Christchurch Sales Development David Forman Auckland Advanced Serious Selling Geewiz Auckland
SAT 30 MAY
MON 1 JUNE
TUE 2 JUNE
SAT 6 JUNE
MON 8 JUNE
SUN 24 MAY THU 28 MAY
FRI 29 MAY
Professional Sales Coaching AchieveGlobal Auckland Sales Management David Forman Christchurch Sales Development David Forman Auckland Leadership With Results Geewiz Auckland
Professional Sales Coaching AchieveGlobal Auckland
WED 3 JUNE
THU 4 JUNE
SUN 31 MAY FRI 5 JUNE
RSN Seminar # 3 Rev Sales Network Auckland
Managing Difficult Customers Zealmark Auckland
Key Account Management David Forman Wellington
SUN 7 JUNE TUE 9 JUNE Key Account Management David Forman Wellington Advanced Sales Development David Forman Auckland Customer Service Zealmark Auckland Coldcalling Workshop Top Achievers Sales Training Auckland
WED 10 JUNE Sales Skills Level 3 EMA Northern Auckland Prospecting David Forman Wellington Advanced Serious Selling Geewiz Christchurch
THU 11 JUNE Sales Skills 1 Zealmark Auckland Sales Basics Seminar Geewiz Christchurch Hit The Road Running Sales Seminar Top Achievers Sales Training Auckland
FRI 12 JUNE
Advanced Sales Development David Forman Auckland
SAT 13 JUNE
NZSM / SUN MAY 14 13THJUNE 2009 / 9
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All this is offered with our compliments! This original presentation is for SME’s with 5 - 100 employees. It’s straight- forward, practical and illustrated. It details strategies that you can begin to apply immediately to your business. An EZI-KAIZEN handbook is also available for your reference. Award winning presenter Clive Littin has been training and Coaching for twenty four years. He is available for follow-up Coaching to ensure your speedy application of these EZI- KAIZEN strategies if required. “Clive Littin presents in a dynamic, engaging and easy interactive style. He knows his stuff.” - M.B.S. Regional Manager. Clive will meet you on your turf, for an initial, no-obligation discussion. clive@getacoach.co.nz Tel: 021 82 00 16
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Auckland 1746 NZSM / MAY
13TH 2009 / 10
Listening To Customers Earning the Right to Sell By Brian Tracy
D
on’t get caught not listening to your potential customer. This is critical to your sales success.
Paraphrase Your Customer’s Words The customer is only sure that you have been listening when you paraphrase what they have said and feed it back in your own words. This is where the rubber meets the road in effective listening. This is where you demonstrate in no uncertain terms to the prospect that your listening has been real and sincere. This is where you show the prospect that you were paying complete attention to what he or she was saying. Paraphrasing is how you prove it.
Question For Clarification When the prospect has finished explaining his or her situation to you, and you have paused, and then questioned for clarification, you paraphrase the prospect’s primary thoughts and concerns, and feed them back to him or her in your own words. Use The Right Words For example, you might say, “Let me make sure I understand exactly what you are saying. It sounds to me like you are concerned about two things more than anything else, and that in the past you have had a couple of experiences that have made you very careful in approaching a decision of this kind.” NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 11
Feed It Back Accurately You then go on to feed back to the prospect exactly what he or she has told you, pausing and questioning for clarification as you go, until the customer says words to the effect of, “Yes, that’s it! You’ve got it exactly.”
how your product or service can solve their problems or achieve their goals until about seventy percent of the way through the sales conversation. Until then, you have not yet earned the right. Until then, you don’t even know enough to begin an intelligent presentation without embarrassing yourself.
Earn The Right To Sell Be A Good Listener Only when you and the customer have completed a thorough ‘examination’ and have mutually agreed on the ‘diagnosis’ are you in a position to begin talking to the customer about your product or service. In general terms, this means that you can’t pull out your brochures and price lists and begin telling the customer
The more skilled you become at listening, the better people will like you, trust you and want to do business with you. The more they will want to get involved with you as a person and the more popular you will be with them. Excellent listeners are welcome everywhere, in every walk of life, and they eventually and ultimately arrive at the top of their fields.
Brian Tracy is the most listened to audio author on personal and business success in the world today. Visit his website at www.briantracy.com for more ideas on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy.
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NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 12
BOOK REVIEW
The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means By George Soros Scribe Publications
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n the midst of the most serious financial upheaval since the Great Depression, legendary financier George Soros explores the origins of the crisis and its implications for the future. Soros, whose breadth of experience in financial markets is unrivalled, places the current crisis in the context of decades of study on how individuals and institutions handle the boom and bust cycles that now dominate global economic activity. “This is the worst financial crisis since the 1930s,� writes Soros in characterising the scale of financial distress spreading across Wall Street and other financial centres around the world. In a concise work that combines practical insight with philosophical depth, Soros makes an
invaluable contribution to our understanding of the great credit crisis and its implications for the US and the world.
$27.43 from Fishpond.co.nz
NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 13
NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 14
“Hel
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It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. Sir Edmund Hillary In the next issue of NZ Sales Manager…
Why do people say Yes? The 6 principles of influence Rewriting the dictionary Why is “selling” still a dirty word? Sales Forecasting Part ONE: WHERE TO START? Plus: Will you be the next NZ Sales Manager Wineplus Winner? Find out in the next issue of NZ Sales Manager - Wednesday 3 June 2009!
Have you subscribed to NZ Sales Manager? It’s free!
Simply visit www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz to get a copy of NZ Sales Manager delivered straight to your inbox every third Wednesday! NZSM / MAY 13TH 2009 / 16