TOP 5 SALES SKILLS FOR TODAY
GnuCreations October 2014
3
THINGS THAT
SALES WINNERS
DO
DIFFERENTLY
+
Which Sales Method is Right for Your Business?
Plus,
How to Overcome Your Dislike of Sales
Startup to Enterprise We work with small and large companies alike, helping them market their products and services online.
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CONTENTS
4 | WHICH SALES METHOD IS RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS? The right sales method can arm your salespeople with the mind-set, questions, and approaches they need to succeed.
6 | TOP 5 SALES SKILLS THAT ARE ESSENTIAL TODAY If you want to exceed your sales goals, it’s time to move beyond the selling strategies of the past and master these five sales skills.
9 | 3 THINGS THAT SALES WINNERS DO DIFFERENTLY Find out what sales winners do differently and outline exactly what you need to do to transform yourself and your sales team.
4 | HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR DISLIKE OF SALES Don’t dislike sales. Update your thinking to the 21st century. View sales as the catalyst to helping people and solving their needs.
Which Sales Method is Right for Your Business? The right sales method can arm your salespeople with the mind-set, questions, and approaches they need to succeed.
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very company has goals for their salespeople, but which sales method is right for your business? You can arm your salespeople with the mind-set, questions, and approaches they need to succeed with one of the sales methods below.
SPIN Selling
SPIN selling is a popular sales method developed by Neil Rackham. SPIN is an acronym for the four types of questions salespeople should be asking their clients. Situation questions Minimize the small talk and focus on understanding your prospect’s current situation. Here you want to understand the wider context before you zoom into the details. Problem questions Ask questions to uncover the problems that your product can address.
While it’s tempting to immediately talk about the benefits of your product or service, resist this temptation. Going straight to the sales pitch will only get you objections. Implication questions Instead of telling your prospects the problem that they have, get them to see the problem on their own. By asking questions that uncover the implications of their problem, your prospects will feel the pain that will eventually drive them to your solution. Need-payoff questions Once your prospects have uncovered the implication of their problem, ask them how their situation would change if their problem was solved. With careful questions, you can get
Instead of telling your prospects the problem that they have, get them to see the problem on their own.
them to state the need for your product or service even before you show it to them. Rather than telling prospects why your product or service is a good idea, the goal of SPIN selling is to guide them to make these conclusions on their own.
SNAP Selling
SNAP Selling is a sales method that aims to help salespeople understand the modern buyer. There are four components: • Keep It Simple: Today’s modern buyer is too busy to dissect complexity. Sales needs to make it incredibly easy for prospects to change their current habits and adopt what you’re selling. • Be iNvaluable: Modern buyers are overwhelmed. Salespeople need to be unique experts who stand out and showcase value. • Always Align: Selling today includes aligning business objections with core beliefs. It’s about making people want to work with you. • Raise Priorities: Frazzled buyers have a priority list. Sellers need to focus on what the prospect is focused on to win deals. In her best-selling book entitled SNAP selling, author Jill Konrath discusses three decisions a customer makes in choosing to work with you. The first decision is whether or not to allow access. Customers are already bombarded with interruptions and think of salespeople as a waste of time. In order to earn access to their time, Jill says it’s critical to convey relevant information in a series of 20-30 touches — via phone, email, etc. The second decision is
whether or not to initiate change. At this stage, salespeople need to paint a new story that exemplifies the value your business will bring them. The third decision is what resources to select. At this stage, prospects have to make a decision on which product to choose, how to justify their choice, and minimize risk. With the SNAP framework in mind, salespeople can more effectively reach busy prospects with valuable knowledge, connect their product or service with what’s important to the potential client, and make it easy for them to buy.
SALESPEOPLE SHOULDN’T LEAD WITH A SALES PITCH, BUT INSTEAD SEEK TO UNDERSTAND THEIR PROSPECT’S CONCEPTS. Conceptual Selling
Conceptual Selling is built on the idea that customers don’t buy a product or service. They buy what they think the product or service will do for them. With this in mind, founders Robert Miller and Stephen Heiman urge salespeople not to lead with a sales pitch, but instead seek to understand their prospect’s concepts. First, understand what your prospect wants to accomplish. Second, connect your product or service to that concept. This sales method divides the sales process into three stages. The first stage is Getting information: • Ask good questions
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Qualify the prospect early Understand the current situation • Build rapport The second stage is Giving information: • Relate your product or service to your prospect’s concept • Differentiate your product or service from the competition The third stage is Getting commitment: • Ask for a commitment after every sales call. • Get a higher degree of commitment as the sale moves forward. In the end, all transactions should be win-win for both the prospect and the salesperson.
CustomerCentric Selling
CustomerCentric Selling seeks to turn salespeople from product pushers into collaborative consultants. This sales method hinges on eight tenets: • Have situational conversations instead of making presentations. • Ask relevant questions instead of offering opinions. • Focus on the solution instead of the relationship. • Target decision makers instead of users. • Promote product usage instead of relying on the product alone. • Strive to be the best seller rather than the busiest. • Close on the buyer’s timeline rather than the seller’s. • Empower buyers to buy instead of convincing them. Of course, every transaction should either enable a buyer to achieve a goal, solve a problem, or satisfy a need.
Top 5 Sales Skills that are Essential Today If you want to exceed your sales goals, it’s time to move beyond the selling strategies of the past and master these five sales skills.
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n a recent study, the RAIN Group identified the top five sales skills that are essential today.
1. Educate prospects with new ideas and perspectives The number one factor separating sales winners from secondplace finishers is that sellers educate buyers with new ideas or perspectives. In other words, buyers want to interact with sellers who bring value to the table. You can do this by sharing content such as: • Research • White papers • Articles • Videos • Webinars
While the content doesn’t necessarily need to be your own, it must be worthwhile content containing insights that matter. You should personalize the content to make sure the buyer knows you’re focusing on them—and investing time and effort in them. 2. Collaborate with prospects Perhaps the most overlooked strategy for sales winners is that they get buyers involved in the selling process. Indeed, sales winners collaborate with buyers almost three times more often than the second-place finishers. According to Insight Selling, there are five ways to collaborate with buyers:
You should personalize content to make sure the buyer knows you’re focusing on them—and investing time and effort in them.
1. Prepare buyers to collaborate. Set a meeting that opens the door for collaboration. For example, you can request a sales meeting with the stated purpose of sharing some ideas you think may be worthwhile, and you would like their help to think them through. 2. Ask the buyer for their thoughts and ideas. Get them talking about the roadblocks in their way. Then when they answer your questions, you can share stories of how the problems they see have been solved at other places. 3. Ask disruptive questions. Examples: Is inaction on the issue hurting your productivity and morale? If you know that you need to do something about it, why haven’t you all taken action yet? Ask questions that move buyers out of their comfort zone. 4. Shape the path forward together. Many sales teams have flexibility in the service or product package they offer. So allow buyers to have a hand in shaping the solution. 5. Define parameters. It’s usually best to provide a big-picture vision of what you think is best, and then allow the buyer to shape it with you. 3. Demonstrate potential ROI You must paint a clear, persuasive, and believable picture of the results you can achieve for your buyers. According to the Success Guide for Maximizing Sales in 2014, there are six ways you can demonstrate potential ROI: 1. Calculate the business impact. Use hard numbers to demonstrate the financial effects of buying your products and services. 2. Communicate emotional impact. Present the non-financial possibilities of your solution, such as increased prestige, less stress,
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and more time to focus on other things. Impact compared to the alternative. Discuss the impact on the customer of working with alternatives to you. What won’t happen? Ask the buyer what won’t happen if they don’t move forward. By doing this, you probe for consequences of inaction. Build credibility with similar impact. Buyers want to know if you’ve been there before. Share success stories and results you helped others achieve. Demonstrate impact tangibly. Paint a picture for buyers so they can see what is going to change for them if they buy your product or service. A before and after table or graphic can make all the difference.
4. Listen to your sales prospects Buyers tend to buy from people they like. They listen to people they like. They take advice from people they like. If you are doing all the talking, you will not find out what is important to the buyer. In Insight Selling, the authors present five keys to talking less and generating more customers. Approach sales conversations like conversations: Aim to get a full picture of the prospect’s world before offering a solution. Balance advocacy and inquiry: While you don’t want to talk too much, avoid giving a prospect the third degree. Ask open-ended questions: Examples: “Tell me about what you do in this area.” Or, “What expectations do you have?” Become overly conscious of your air time: If you’ve gone on for more than 2 minutes without a good reason, stop talking. Practice your conversations: Nothing is better for getting good
at something than practicing. Find a way to practice, and you’ll find yourself talking and listening the right amount. 5. Understand your prospects’ needs The RAIN Group suggests 21 questions you can ask that will help you round out the picture of your buyers’ needs. 1. What’s going on in your business these days? How have things changed? 2. What are you up to this weekend? 3. It was good to hear the short version of your background at the meeting, but since we’re out for lunch, I’d love to get the long version. What’s your story? 4. I have to say, I really like the way you don’t just have your values up on the wall like every company, but you have all the comments from your team about what the values mean to them. How did you all come up with that? I’m guessing you learned a lot about your company and team. Anything stand out? 5. You mentioned you want to retire in a few years. What are you thinking of doing then? 6. Why isn’t this particular technology, service, or product working for you right now? 7. Many of our clients are reporting problems with areas A, B, and C. How are these areas affecting you? What do you think about them? 8. What’s holding you back from reaching your revenue (or profit, or other) goals? 9. What goals and objectives do you have in general? For this area? 10. (Assuming they set the meeting) Why did you ask me to talk with you today? 11. (Assuming you set the meeting) As I mentioned earlier, I’d like to share with you a few ideas that
have helped our clients succeed in the X,Y, and Z areas. Before we get going, by the time we’re done with this meeting, what else might you like to cover? What will make the meeting successful for you? 12. If you could overcome these challenges, what would happen to your company’s financial situation? 13. If you were to make this happen, what would it mean for you personally? 14. How would implementing these changes affect your competitiveness in the market? 15. How do you think the board of directors would evaluate the success of this initiative? 16. If you don’t solve (insert the particular challenge here), what kind of difficulties will you face going forward? What won’t happen that you want to happen? 17. If you were to wave your magic wand and it’s three years from now, how will this all look different? 18. (In early sales discussions) You mentioned you’re not having a good experience with your current provider. If you work with us, what are you hoping will be different? 19. (In later sales discussions) Given all we’ve talked about, what do you see as being different if we were to move forward together? 20. What does success look like for you…your business…this project…our work together? 21. If there were no restrictions on you—money, effort, political issues and so on do not exist— what would you change? Can you tell me why you say that? Of course, the most powerful sales conversations tend to balance inquiry (asking questions) with advocacy (talking, educating, giving advice).
3 Things that Sales Winners Do Differently Find out what sales winners do differently and outline exactly what you need to do to transform yourself and your sales team.
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ver the last twenty years, the way people work, live, shop has fundamentally changed, and consumers have a lot more information about everything. Because of the Internet, buyers know more about products and pricing than ever before. Today’s buyers are also harder to reach, buying cycles are longer, and more decision makers are involved in every sale. Given these changes in buying, it’s no surprise that traditional sales approaches aren’t working as they once did. The RAIN Group recently studied more than 700 business-tobusiness purchases and compared the winners to the second-place finishers. What they found is that “not only do sales winners sell differently, they sell radically differently than the second-place finishers.” In their book Insight Selling, Mike Schultz and John E. Doerr
share the surprising results of their research and introduce a simple three-level model based on what buyers say tip the scales in favor of the winners. Level 1: Connect Sales winners connect with people and connect the dots more often than the second-place finishers. Regarding connecting with people, it’s trendy to dismiss the value of personal relationships in sales. Schultz and Doerr, however, make an argument for the contrary. Their research shows that “sales winners make strong personal connections at more than double the rate of second-place finishers.” Sales winners also connect the dots. Schultz and Doerr write, “The core concepts of solutions in sales remain a necessary component of
Today’s buyers are harder to reach, buying cycles are longer, and more decision makers are involved in every sale.
success, but emphasize diagnosis of need less and building and demonstrating understanding of need more. To understand need, you generally must ask questions. The authors recommend asking disruptive questions to push buyers out of their comfort zones and into the learning zone. • Why did you settle on this strategy? • How do you see this situation panning out? • What have you tried that hasn’t worked? • Have you considered…? • What will happen if you don’t act? These types of questions influence the way buyers think, and can make them open to your solution. However, you still need to convince them that your solution is the best. Level 2: Convince Sales winners tell stories to convince buyers to act. Below are the key points to include in your story. 1. Connection-Establish Credibility. Establish credibility by demonstrating keen insight into the buyer’s world. “You can do this with an overview of industry trends influencing buyers, an overview of technology issues that change the game, or an overview of any relevant issue that gets the buyer saying, ‘They get it,’ or ‘They get us.’” 2. Dissatisfaction-Name the Adversary. The adversary can be lack of results, slipping market share, wasted time, or any idea whose time has passed. 3. Desire-Establish the Destination. Sales winners
know how to develop and present a compelling ROI story. “If your sales team can’t talk dollars and cents with buyers, then its success will be severely handicapped.” 4. Dissatisfaction JourneyJourney to the Depths of Despair. To help buyers feel dissatisfied with their current state, “weave back and forth between their undesirable current state and desirable future state.” Describe what companies (or the buyers themselves) have tried that failed. Then remind them of the possible new reality that seems out of their reach.
INVITE CUSTOMERS TO BECOME ACTIVE PARTICIPANTS IN THE PROCESS, NOT PEOPLE WHO PASSIVELY LISTEN TO SALES PITCHES. 5. Breakthrough!Introduce a New Hope. Show buyers what others have achieved when they made a change. 6. Results—Communicate Results, Create the Feelings. Schultz and Doerr argue that, “the better you can build a custom ROI case and show previous similar results, the more confidence you’ll build that the buyer can achieve them.” 7. Action—Invite Collaboration. Sales winners always recommend a next step. Many sellers try to move too quickly to make
a sale. At this point, the next step will be to invite further discussion and collaboration. Level 3: Collaborate The RAIN Group found the top two factors that most separate sales winners from second-place finishers are (1) “educated me on new ideas and perspectives” and (2) “collaborated with me.” Across all stages of the selling process, there are five common traits among sales winners who collaborate. 1. They prepare buyers to collaborate. The idea is to invite buyers to become active participants in the process, not people who passively listen to sales pitches. 2. They ask the buyer for their thoughts and ideas. “When buyers answer your questions, you can share stories of how the problems they envision have been solved at other places.” 3. They ask disruptive questions. Sales winners ask buyers to think and push them out of their comfort zone. 4. They shape the path forward together. “When buyers have a hand in shaping the solution, psychological ownership and their commitment to seeing it come alive grow.” 5. They define parameters. “It’s usually best if sellers provide a big-picture vision of what they think is the best path and then allow the buyer to shape it with them.”
How to Overcome Your Dislike of Sales Don’t dislike sales. Update your thinking to the 21st century. View sales as the catalyst to helping people and solving their needs.
“Done well, selling today is helping people identify and address their needs in order to achieve their goals.”
I dislike sales. I dislike the perception of sales and the quotas. And most of all, I dislike the idea of being pushy. I’m hardly the only one who feels this way about sales. Many people equate sales with making people buy things they don’t want, don’t need, and can’t afford. For most, the proverbial used-car salesman comes to mind.
But is there a better way to think about sales? And can this thinking actually make those of us who dislike sales better salespeople? The answer to these questions is a resounding “yes”. There are three key steps to thinking about sales in a way that can help anyone become a better sales person. 1. Sales is entirely about helping others. Author Scott Edinger writes, “Done well, selling today is helping people identify and address their needs in order to achieve their goals.” In this way, sales is not about getting people to buy things they don’t want or need, but about showing your customers how they can benefit from your products or services. And who among us wouldn’t want to be seen as helpful? 2. How you sell is a vital part of the value you create for the customer. According to Edinger, “The most successful salespeople don’t ‘pitch’ and they don’t ‘close’. That is, they don’t prattle on about how great their offerings are, and they’re not pushy.” What they do instead is demonstrate an understanding of a customer’s needs and craft a
compelling solution to the need. Most salespeople think that the best way to demonstrate understanding of a customer’s need is to summarize and repeat what they heard. However, the authors of Insight Selling suggest that a sales person’s questions—and the way in which they’re asked—can actually demonstrate understanding. Consider this: Researchers at the University of Memphis asked more than 100 students to think aloud as they tried to figure out what was wrong with a number of broken devices. They found that the questions the students asked as they thought about the device and what could be wrong with it were strong indicators for demonstrating understanding. The students who were most knowledgeable about the actual workings of the devices were prone to ask questions that started with why, why not, how, what if, and what if not. So if you use questions in the right way, not only can you learn what’s going on, you can demonstrate your understanding of a customer’s need. Of course, you must also offer a compelling solution to that need. One of the best examples of this was of a sales rep from a leading IT firm. Her job was to sell her company’s IT services in a highly competitive market. If you would attend one of her sales presentations, you would immediately notice how little she talks versus how much she encourages the client to speak.
Her objective is to help clients see why their current state isn’t good enough and how her products and services can put them on a new path. She asks insightful questions and substantiates her claims with hard numbers. Her sales presentations last only 45 minutes because she doesn’t spend any time talking about features or benefits that aren’t relevant. At the end, she simply offers a free business value analysis. How she sells her product is key to her success and the major reason she is one of the top five sales reps in her company. 3. Sales is the job of every employee—so we might as well get good at it. In his book To Sell Is Human, Dan Pink indicates that more than 40% of our professional time is spent selling—not only selling the company’s products or services, but selling ideas and customer experiences. Whether you are in customer service or IT, you are selling in some capacity by resolving some problem a customer has or identifying some opportunity for improvement. So we might as well get good at it. In a previous article, I wrote about the top five sales skills that are essential today. Read it and decide what skill you will start putting into practice today. Don’t dislike sales. Update your thinking to the 21st century. View sales as the catalyst to helping people and solving some of their most critical needs.
FINAL THOUGHT
“More than 40% of our professional time is spent selling—not only selling the company’s products or services, but selling ideas and customer experiences.” - Dan Pink
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