Closing Ratio

A simple way to evaluate your performance as a salesperson or as an organization is to determine your closing ratio. What percentage of your activities results in success? Over time, is there a trend upward or downward? Your closing ratio is a great barometer for the status of your career and your business.

Calculating your closing ratio is not rocket science. If you deliver ten proposals and close two of them, your closing ratio is twenty-percent. It is simple math.

I have a client who has increased their closing ration from seventeen percent to just under thirty percent over a five year period. Now, that is real progress. Getting there wasn’t easy.

The company made an effort to improve success and thus increase sales. Step one to improve results was to learn how to say no. In other words, they tracked and began to recognized opportunities that were winners and learned what opportunities they had little chance to win. They learned to pick their fights. Saying no to an opportunity is not always an easy thing to do.

Time is a precious commodity in business. Spending time on good projects and passing on long shots naturally improved the odds for my client. Losing is not fun. In reality, we lose more than we win, so winning more orders is great for moral and for your income.

Not everyone agrees with my argument. An associate recently told me that anyone with a closing ratio over ten percent isn’t trying enough. He thinks that if you make a sufficient amount of sales calls and proposals that you will lose more deals. I don’t agree with his logic.

Winning is more fun and profitable than losing. Figure out what works and what does not work in your world. Learn to say no to bad business opportunities and then keep score by measuring and tracking your closing ration.

Good selling.

We Went to a Picnic

I have been consulting with my marquee client for five and one half years. It’s been a great engagement. My client has become one of my best friends. I have been able to help him make his vision a reality. Over time, sales have soared and the company grew from fifteen employees to sixty five. A great company, a leader with a vison and a determined dedication to reach its goals.

The company manufacturer’s pollution control equipment. It is a great market. When we complete a project the result is clean air, clean water or both. The payoff is job creation, a cleaner environment and profit for the business. What could be better?

We design and build equipment for business, industry and municipalities all over the United States, North America and the world.

So then, where’s the problem?

We don’t do much business in Michigan, other than with the automotive companies. It’s our home state. This fact bothered me. What to do?

The answer to the problem was to reach out to the other major corporations, utilities and municipalities in the state. I was convinced that if we could get in front of environmental engineers at these huge organizations and tell our story, doors will open, we will be invited to compete for environmental equipment locally and book sales in our backyard. It sounds easy enough. It’s not.

We have two monster big utility companies in Michigan. They have significant needs for our type of equipment partially due to the need to replace older, poorly performing equipment and partially because of the government. A nudge from the EPA will gets everyone’s attention.

So, last year I started attempting to reach out to these utilities, locate decision makers in their organizations and get in the game. The problem was getting the names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of key contacts. Who to call? When I did penetrate the curtain protecting these people from me, they either didn’t respond or turned out to be the wrong person. I wasn’t surprised by the recurring outcome but I didn’t stop trying.

To my surprise, I got word from a colleague at another company that the big utility was hosting a picnic for their employees and vendors. This was exactly where we needed to be. I got the contact information for the organizer. I asked an associate to reach out and ask if we could attend. By golly, they said yes.

Our outside salesman and I went to the event, set up the display table and proceeded to meet people and tell our story. We identified and spoke to the right people. The outcome from the picnic is an open door for conducting lunch and learn presentations for the decision making engineers. And that’s where we find ourselves today. The door is open, the carpet is out and the decision makers are welcoming us to compete for their business.

Was this luck. No, I don’t believe in luck. That’s magic. I’m not on the magic team. My take on this is that it is a case where planning met opportunity. We had an opportunity, recognized it and went for it.

Will we book business from this event? I can’t say. What I can say is that we now are on the radar of the right people because we went to a picnic. And, the food was pretty good too.

When Sales Tank

So, you are moving along, growing your book of business and feeling pretty good about how things are going when your revenue takes a sudden tumble. What the heck? What happened?

If you are out there, I know this has happened to you. I have experienced and lived through this more than once in my forty years plus sales career. It is discouraging, but there is no reason to panic. Take a step back. Take a deep breath and find out why sales have fallen.

A few places to look…

Why do people give you money? This is your value proposition. It’s the reason that you get the purchase order instead of your competition. Have you stopped reminding your customers of why you should get their business? Or, has your value proposition lost its luster and needs an update. If you are driving business by being the lowest price you are vulnerable to let’s say…Amazon.com and a host of others. There has to be a compelling reason to buy from you. Feature your value.

What are you doing differently than before? Have you stopped being a problem solver and turned into an order taker? That could be a core source of the problem.

Is your competition out hustling you and/or out smarting you? Better yet, do you have new competition that you weren’t aware of? Find out and if there is a new player in your back yard, learn who they are, how they work and where they are vulnerable. If your competition is taking your business because of effort, better sales skills or better product and industry knowledge, you have work to do. Fix it.

Has anything changed in your industry, your markets? You should know. Change is constant in business and in life. Nothing stays the same. Staying the course can become stale. Standing pat is not a good long term tactic. Be prepared for and recognize change. Then adapt.

I’m not asking you for excuses. Excuses don’t help. I am suggesting that there might be correctable reasons for a sales slump. Find them, fix them and recover your lost sales.

The Journey is not the Destination

I am a big fan of sales activities. One of my favorite sales trainers nailed the value of sales activities in very simple terms. “More sales calls equal more sales” and “No sales calls equal no sales”. It seems simple enough.

The sales landscape has changed a lot in the last forty five years. New tools and tactics have emerged to throw a wider net aimed at getting our message out and attracting customers (orders). The Internet, for instance, is a great sales tool. However, it is just a tool. No meaningful business to business sales are generated on the Internet. Ok, I purchased ink toner online last week. I would never buy a machine tool or a car online.

Companies invest a lot in their websites, literature, e-mail marketing, direct mail marketing, pay-per-click advertising, trade shows, and lunch and learn presentations and, finally, good old person to person sales calls. For many, these investments produce results. If they didn’t work, these tools and tactics would go away. But they do produce and are here to stay until the next generation of gadgets and gizmos emerge.

So, my question is: “Why do some salespeople thrive while others struggle to survive?”

It is easy to point to lack of activity, lack of product knowledge or lack of sales skills as the reasons for underperformance or non-performance. It also could be easy to decide that an individual salesperson is in the wrong profession, a bad fit. These are all good and viable reasons for failure.

What has me mulling this topic over is a salesperson who works for a client of mine. In spite of years of experience in the industry, a mastery of current sales tools, well documented sales activities and a great personality, he routinely under performs. He does not make his sales quota, ever, and once in a while doesn’t even sell enough to cover his expenses, let alone his base salary.

The logical thing to do is to fire him.

After some deliberation, I have decided that he has every reason to succeed. He may have me hoodwinked, but it occurred to me that this fellow spends a whole lot of time on his journey without reaching his destination. He doesn’t seem to understand that the only measurements of a salesperson are the sales he or she books and the profit margin earned.

I am going to try and get him on board with the program. If he needs sales training, so be it. If he still can’t close business, in spite of all of the things he does, he will have to move on.

Change

It is that time of year when I reflect on what happened in the last year and recent past and look forward to the future. From a high level view, the most dominant factor in our journey are the continual changes that face us. Change is relentless.

Embrace change? Should we embrace change? Maybe we should and maybe not. Not all change is good.

Over the last few decades’ pay phones disappeared. You can’t find a travel agent with a search warrant. You really don’t need a checkbook anymore to do your banking and to manage your finances. My new car doesn't even have a key. It has a FOB. What is a FOB? When I have computer or software problems I consult with my grandchildren. They know more than I do about technology. When and how did that happen? Yes, change is in the air and continues to happen.

My marquee client manufactures environmental equipment. Their systems help clean up air and water pollution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to enact and enforce pollution laws that are progressively strangling business and industry. Talk about relentless. The EPA has put business and industry under considerable pressure and continues to tighten down on polluters. Business and industry, in general, is not happy with these continual new rules (changes). On the other hand, my client is delighted by the new and ever stricter regulations. For them, this change is good, very good for business, it means money. So I guess the value of change is subjective.

I am looking forward to and planning my 2015 professional and personal life to the best of my ability. Markets, opportunities, technologies, processes, procedures and people continue to morph. I can’t stop change and don’t intend to try.

In my opinion, the best way to deal with change is to identify and attempt to understand changes and how they affect us. Once understood, we can deal with change, good, bad or indifferent and leverage it to your advantage and future success.

Order Taker? Order Maker?

I have not blogged much in 2014. I have been busy and distracted by summer, my garden, coaching football and other non-work stuff.

I had lunch with a client last week. He owns an industrial distribution company.

Distribution is a great business. Distributors sell things that customers need and make some profit from every sale…very straight forward. Not too complex. That is, unless the distributor decides to raise the bar, create separation from competitors and leave them behind.

My experience in distribution is that some distributors and their salespeople earn their business by offering the lowest price to the customer. This strategy is a loser. It is a race to the bottom. Winning orders by being the lowest bidder results in slimmer margins and slimmer sales commissions. Is that really a win? Winners strive to make money and not to give products and services away.

A solid strategy to hold margins and separate yourself from price cutting competitors is to provide added value to your customers. If you are in distribution, consulting, manufacturing or any other business you can button down your revenue and profits by being better, providing more value.

My client runs a relatively small operation in a world of big box distributors. He can’t compete on price. But the big boxes can’t provide the comprehensive services that his organization delivers on a day-to-day basis. His customers get expert advice. His team helps the customer make the correct product purchase every time and guarantees it. He maintains a repair shop that fixes broken equipment, configures new equipment before shipping and can reverse engineer and fabricate parts for older equipment, keeping those oldies but goodies in service. When you call his company you talk to a seasoned product engineer. When you talk to the big box order desk you had better have a product number because, for the most part, there is little product knowledge at the other end. My client  delivers added value to his customers and earns their loyalty.

By pushing the differential advantage message, “We’re not a catalog, we are engineers” my client has kept his competition at bay and maintained profit margins in a business world racing to be the low price option.

My own experience as a salesman for a medical supply distributor is another example of how to maintain profit margins by providing added value. The tactic was simple. It wasn’t my original idea. I had a once in a lifetime sales manager who ate our competitions lunch and taught me how to do it.

As I called on doctor after doctor I asked for a moment of the doctor’s time…not easy to get. My reason was that I had something new to show him/her. I made sure to have something new and interesting in my bag every day. Since I called on the doctors twice a month, I just needed to come up with twenty-four cool things a year to maintain my access to the doctor, his office staff and their medical supply orders. After a while my greeting when I arrived at the offices became “Hi Dave, What’s new?” Mission accomplished. I did have to offer competitive prices, but I did not have to be the low bidder to earn business. And, my margins were solid on the new and innovative things I detailed to the doctors.

The easy way to do business is to sell on price. When you earn little in profit you can make it up in volume…I guess. That is nowhere I want to be.

If you want to maintain fair margins for yourself and your company and endear yourself to your customers, it takes a strategic value added plan and a little more effort.

Are you an order taker or an order maker? The choice is up to you.

Good selling.

Sell More - Make More

What a concept. Sell more and make more money.

My first real sales job was selling medical supplies to doctors. It was a straight commission job that offered a salary for 90 days and then a draw against commission. That suited me just fine. In fact, when I received the offer I went home and told my wife “You won’t believe this. If I sell more I make more money!” Holy cow. I couldn’t wait to get in the territory and earn. I hit the ground running and made a great living.

Most companies that I deal with have some form of performance incentive in their sales compensation plans.

The primary two companies that I regularly consult with have different, but effective, commission plans.

The first offers a base salary and commission on every sale. The base is enough to get by on but the combination of the base plus commissions make the performing salespeople very well compensated. The catch is that the salespeople have to sell more to earn more. The irony of it is that their job is to sell. That is why there are employed. If they do their job they are well paid. If not, not so much.

So, sure enough, one of the salesmen just wasn’t performing and complained about his income. When we tried to work with him and help him close more business he abruptly quit for a “better job” and more money. I am guessing that his job search began when we took notice of his poor performance, kindly confronted him and thus triggered his exit decision.

Now, fast forward two months. He decided that he had made a bad decision. He realized that he had walked away from a great opportunity and asked to come back. Bringing him back didn’t make sense. He couldn’t close business. He completed a lot of sales activities resulting in few sales for the company.

A lesson to be learned is that not every salesperson is created the same. Some “get it” while others do not, and all points in between. Selling is not for everyone. The man I have mentioned has a great personality, has a good work ethic, is intelligent and has all of the tools to succeed but probably needs to get out of sales and get into something more aligned with his abilities.

I have never heard of a company telling a salesperson to “slow down, you are booking too much business”. That will never happen. I also know that companies are delighted to cut big commission checks to honor sales accomplishments. As sales and profits grow, so does the company.

The bottom line is that salespeople have dominion over their income. Compensation plans vary but one thing is certain. If you sell more you will earn more. It is fair to employee and employer alike and it is the truth.

Happy Sales to You - With a Little Help From Your Government

After polling some of my colleagues, the business climate seems to be improving overall. I have 2.5 active clients as of this posting and they are all tracking upward. Some of the reasons include, but are not limited to:

Focus: An understanding of who buys and why and sticking to the knitting

Effort: More activity, constant activity attracts more sales and revenue
Pent-up demand: Demand for products and services caused by the recession
Business support: I know that it seems like an oxymoron, but the Michigan government is a friend of business (for the most part). We need to get to know the agencies and programs for business development and support services.

Matchmaking

A good example of the government helping small business is the Pure Michigan Business Connect program that matches small business with big buyers. I have been trying like the dickens to get in front of a major corporation to pitch my clients. Two of the clients have been invited to and event that includes education, private matchmaking meetings with buyers and networking with the crowd. The event is organized by the state and is free to attend. Upcoming events feature the big three, Consumer’s Energy, Whirlpool and Meijer’s. This is an example of the state helping make things happen.

The MEDC – Michigan Economic Development Corporation – For Business

Talk about a helping hand to business…MEDC has programs that can help you in many ways. There are MEDC representatives in every part of Michigan whose job it is to meet with you and explain current business support programs. They are waiting for your call. My clients have benefited substantially over the years from the MEDC programs.

And, MEDC for People

I have spoken in the past about the MEDC’s Shifting Gears program. Shifting Gears helps people transition careers and secure employment. It is a wonderful program. One of my good friends, John B. was part of the first cohort quite a while ago. The current cohort is number 22. I am privileged to serve as a program mentor. As a part of completing the program, participants are obligated to perform an eighty hour, pro bono, internship. Most of them sign up for multiple internships. The internships help them get back into the business/employee groove and many times results in employment for them.

While You Are at It

Your City and County have economic development agencies and more people and programs to help you. And don’t forget Ann Arbor Spark, Tech Town, Macomb Oakland Incubator (Velocity), MMTC – Michigan Manufacturer’s Technology Center, SBT-DC – Small Business Technology Development Center and Automation Alley. They want to help. Check them all out and find a fit if you need to accelerate your business.

 

Is The Recession Over?

Is the recession over?

How’s the recession going for you? Officially it was over a few years ago. Word from the government and media is that we’re good. Are we?

I had a chat with the President of a company based in South Carolina the other day. He told me that his business has flat lined. He has not grown sales in a couple of years. He asked me if the economy had recovered in my world. My answer was “not really.”

As we talked we came to agreement on a couple of points. First of all, there are fewer opportunities for business now than in better times. The pie is smaller. Secondly, the best salespeople and companies are doing pretty good. They are just beating the competition with superior product knowledge, sales skills and lots of quality sales activities. We used to say that the fast eat the slow. This is still true.

I met with executives of a nonprofit manufacturing industry support organization a couple of weeks ago. They told me that a lot of regional manufacturers are really struggling because much of their legacy business has gone away and they don’t know what to do about it. The phone and fax have gotten quiet. Outside salespeople used to go on their milk runs and collect purchase orders. That has gotten a lot harder to do. Doughnuts aren’t the answer anymore.

What is the answer?

The answer is training. Ongoing training of you and your employees will empower you with an advantage over your competition. Sure, there is a lot of competition. I agree that the potential in many markets is smaller and tougher than it used to be. But I know, first hand, that companies can grow and prosper under difficult circumstances. That is if they work at gaining and maintaining a competitive edge.

How am I keeping my staff on the leading edge? We meet every week. They learn something at our meetings. They get regular infusions of sales techniques, product knowledge, industry knowledge and more. Sometimes I make the presentations, other times someone from engineering or production tackles a topic. I invite our suppliers to join our meetings. They teach us the details of their products, their competitive and differential advantages. They teach us who buys and why. This knowledge is power. My team just has to add a bunch of quality sales activities to win the day and make their numbers.

Me? I’m reading business and sales books in my free time. I have dusted off a handful of oldies, but goodies. The message of these great books is often remarkably similar. Once in a while there is a new idea or two…tasty nuggets of sales goodness. In reality, the truth is the truth, always has been and always will be. The fast eat the slow, the strong eat the weak.

What recession?

Dedicate yourself to learning and earning in 2014. It will work out for you. Let others deal with their recession? I don’t have a recession and you don’t have to either.

Don't Get Burned

Getting burned because of putting too much faith in a buyer is a recurring problem for many business and sales people (same thing).

Here is how it works: You (we) put a lot of time and faith in landing a big fish and it never happens. Unfortunately, many of us are faced with this too often.

We are, by nature, a positive and upbeat breed. We believe what people (buyers) tell us and tend to count on the things they tell us. When they don’t give us the promised or assumed order we are set back. Are the buyers liars? Not necessarily. A lot of things can happen to make your deal go south. The net result is that you don’t make your numbers or your commissions. If this happens to you often can lose your job or your business. When you forecast orders and profits that don’t materialize, at the very least, you lose credibility.

Let’s fix the problem. Getting let down by buyers won’t go away. We live in a word of rejection and have to deal with many crafty buyers. (Read Negotiate to Close by Gary Karrass) The answer is to work smarter. By taking control of the sales process you can mitigate the damage from losing orders that you depended on.

Ask more qualifying questions. Be very specific when talking to your buyer. There is nothing wrong with asking when the order will be released. Make sure you are working with a decision maker before going through the sales process. Understand their problem(s) and make sure that your proposal aces their needs. If your buyer can’t afford your solution you have just wasted you valuable time. If you qualify the customer and ask the right questions you will be able to correctly evaluate your chances of landing the business.

The next solution, the best solution, is to have more things cooking in your sales funnel. More sales calls equal more sales (Mark Thelen). If you are depending on one or two big deals to close, and they don’t, you are screwed. If you are sitting on ten or twelve big deals, and lose a couple, so what?

My advice is not to depend on a few pending sales to make your numbers. Work smarter and continue to prospect for new business while closing others. Using the word “funnel” to describe your sales pipeline is easy to imagine. You should follow the funnel strategy to keep your career moving. By putting many prospects in the top of the funnel you will have a strong and steady stream of sales to prevent you from getting burned by a deal that goes south.

Do Not Give it Away

Why in the world would you give away something for free when you could charge for it? I am talking specifically about giving away your time. Your time is a most valuable asset.

Any of your time that is not used wisely reduces your earnings potential.

I will take the way back machine to the years that I sold medical supplies. My customers were individual doctors in private practice, clinics and some hospitals. I learned important career changing lessons from  the experience and from my colleagues.

Start with the undisputable truth that more sales calls equal more sales. There are some underlying qualifying rules. You have to know what you are talking about and you must not spend time with non-decision makers or customers who do not have a need. Follow those three simple rules and you will validate the fact that more sales calls equal more sales.

I worked with some great salespeople during that time. They sold a lot of stuff and made a lot of money. In order to do that, they made it their business not to waste their selling time. They didn’t waste their time and they did not let others waste their time either. They kept small talk to a minimum and honored prime selling hours. Prime selling hours are defined as the time that your customers are available to buy.

Day after day we made sales calls took orders for medical supplies and then wrote up the orders for our employer to process. It was a manual system. Order pads and pencils were our order entry tools. This was before we had computer systems to input orders. The top producers never wrote up their orders during the day. It was customary for them to write up their orders in the evening and hand them in every morning. Anything else interfered with their selling time. These boys knew how to make money. They earned more because they optimized their time and honored prime selling time.

Another lesson that I learned is that hospital purchasing departments are open from 7:00 AM until 3:30 PM. If you tried to make a sales call on them after 3:30 PM there would not be anyone to talk to.  On the other hand, if you made your calls early in the morning there were few competitors in the room. Not everyone follows the rules of time optimization.

In the 1980’s I sold computer billing systems to doctors. Doctors are very busy people. If I wanted the undivided attention of a doctor the very best time to get it was at the hospital in the morning. We would meet in the doctor’s lounge for coffee early in the morning before they made rounds or did surgery. By the way, there were never competitors hanging around then either.

The smart salespeople who are top producers and earners make the best use of their time. They don’t waste their own time and they do not let others waste their time.

This brings me to a friend of mine who started a business selling safety equipment. His systems needed to be engineered properly to work right. Early in his launch he learned his valuable lesson the hard way. In order to quote equipment and installation services he had to spend hours at the client site determining their needs. After his consultation he prepared a quote and waited for the order that didn’t come. He finally called and learned that his customer purchased the equipment on the Internet for less money. His consulting and documentation gave them everything they needed to cut him out of the business. Needless to say, he now charges for the consultation. His customer stole his time. That will never happen again.

Be aware of your time and how to optimize it for the greatest return. Do not give away something that is essential for your success.

Another One Bites The Dust

A pretty good salesman was terminated by his company recently. It took me by surprise.

I had met with this fellow a number of times and found him to be friendly, knowledgeable, a good listener and a hard worker. His sales skills were (are) top notch. He was terminated for lack of sales.
If someone can’t sell and won’t make an effort to learn to sell, they probably should be doing something else for a living. On the other hand, I tend to defend those who make an effort and work to grow as a professional salesperson.

Something Doesn’t Add-up

When a consummate sales pro gets canned for lack of sales it causes me to think that something else contributed to his poor performance. There are often critical success factors that are company issues and out of the control of the sales rep that weight negatively on results. Let’s explore some of those potential job killing factors.

Factors

Bad Marketing/Image

It is easier to open doors, book meetings and land business if the company, products and services are promoted to prospective customers. Going on sales calls stone cold is measurable harder than approaching someone who is aware of the company and is interested in learning more.

Bad Messaging

If marketing campaigns, materials and messaging are not good they can work against salespeople in the field. If they are real good they will help create interest. Bad messaging works against field salespeople.

Bad Products

If there is something better out there from competitors it puts good salespeople at a disadvantage. It is an uphill battle to overcome competitive disadvantages, particularly if the competition presents a plausible case. Representing out dated products, technologies, services, etc. can dampen results.

Bad Services

If the company isn’t responsive, misses key dates, ships defective merchandise and makes other fundamental customer service mistakes it sends a clear message to customers that the company doesn’t care about their business. Sustaining customers under less than stellar recurring circumstances is difficult at best for any sales professional.

High Prices

No one can be proud of being consistently the lowest bidder. Selling on price is not selling. What skill is involved with giving away profit dollars and working at low margins  for no good reason? That said, it is tough to prosper when your prices are always the highest. You can justify a premium price point if the value proposition is solid and substantial. If not, forget it.

Bad Company

Image, marketing, messaging, competitive products, good service and fair pricing are all the responsibility of the company. Salespeople fighting these and other factors have to fight extra hard to win. The truth is that there are some pretty bad companies out there. If you represent one of them you could be terminated for lack of sales in spite of yourself.

Conflicted Company

What seems to have happened to this skilled salesman was a result of mergers, acquisitions and organizational dithering. Administration of conflicting products, territories and salespeople created instability and a bad sales environment.

The Whole Wide World – It is Still Out There

The good news for my friend is that there are a lot of excellent companies out there who deliver quality products and services for competitive prices. Great companies value professional sales representation. He will find the right company to represent and be back on his feet in no time.

Value Added Selling

I have read a number of articles lately that promote value added selling. Positioning yourself as a valuable resource and someone who is good to have around is a great strategy for fighting off price cutting competitors. Being the low price option seems like a good place to be in the short run, but it will bite you in the long run. After all, profit is the reason for business and giving your profit away to land an order not only hurts you, but your industry as well. Think it over. If you know me, you know that I am dead set against being the lowest bidder. I fight to keep my pricing fair and work at building an image as a trusted advisor and a go to vendor.  Here are a couple of ways to establish your value.

Work at being a subject matter expert. If you know more about what you are selling than your competition you will win deals. Make continuing education an ongoing event in your life.

Don’t try to be everything to everybody. Get good in a niche and pursue your business in that niche. This means qualifying who you do business with and walking away from opportunities that aren’t in your sweet spot.

Focus on the customer’s business problems and promote solutions to solve them. Make sure that everyone you meet and do business with is better off for the experience. You will establish and maintain a reputation as a valuable vendor.

Get organized and stay organized. Get and use a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software system. There are many useful apps for your smart phone. Evaluate and employ other useful tools of the trade.

Stay in touch with your prospects, customers and influencers on a regular basis. Use e-mail, mail or an occasional phone call in between sales visits to keep your name in front of them. Make sure that they know how important they are to you.

Don’t lead with discount prices when selling. Establish the value that you bring to the table and fight for your price point. It is a good strategy in the long run.

A Day of Celebration

What does July 4^th have to do with selling? The answer is everything.

America is known as the land of opportunity by people around the world. For centuries they have flocked to our shores to take advantage of the freedom America offers and for the chance to prosper in our free society.

Given the opportunity, many immigrants chase their American dream and succeed. Professionals, entrepreneurs, skilled laborers and others know what to do when they get here. Yep, this is the place to make your dreams a reality. All it takes is knowledge, skill and effort. Much of what is needed is here for the asking. America is a platform for excellence, prosperity and happiness.

Like many others, my background is diverse. My ancestors came to America from different parts of Europe, different cultures. America is truly the melting pot of the world. With little exception, we all arrived here from somewhere overseas.

That brings me to the sacrifices made over the centuries by brave people who fought for our rights as Americans. There are few American families who have not been touched by war in one way or another. The sacrifices made by our founders and by our brave servicemen and women have made it possible to maintain our freedom and be what we can be.

Celebrate Independence Day. Celebrate our freedom. Honor those that went before us.

Your reward as an American is waiting for you. If you work hard you will prosper. So, you are now free to go out and sell something and make money. Go for it.

Good selling.

The Odds Against Making a Sale

Beating the Odds

Odds are that you won’t make the sale. Odds say that your prospect won’t even talk to you. How’s that for a negative opening line?

It is a fact that salespeople lose more orders than they win. The odds of making more sales and earning more money improve when some sales fundamentals are faithfully practiced.

There are many barriers standing between you and booking business. That said; let’s lay out a few things that you can do to make your chances of success better and cutting the odds.

 

1.      Know your buyer

Does your buyer clearly have a need for your product or service? Is there a budget to buy from you? Is your buyer a decision maker? If you can answer all three questions with a yes, you have increased your odds of success.  This is known in sales lingo as qualifying the lead. You will enjoy more happy outcomes if you are good and faithful at doing this.

 

2.      Know why they will give you money

There must be a reason for the buyer to give you money. What is it? Most sales are made when the seller solves a problem for the buyer. If the problem hurts more than the cost of the solution you are on to something. The easiest way to get to the bottom of the value proposition is to ask the buyer a bunch of relevant qualifying questions. The answers will help you make the case for your offer that will resonate with the buyer. We call this step solution selling or consultative selling.

 

3.      Know what you are talking about

Buyers like to buy from experts. It gives them some security. If you really know the application you are pitching you might even get the order without having to be the lowest bidder. The good news here is that you can invest in yourself and can become an expert on your target buyer’s needs and how your offer solves those needs.  Bingo. A knowledgeable salesperson should beat out novice competition.  In sales, knowledge is power. Power up

4.      Tune up your pitch

The words that you say and how you approach a buyer really matter. Get your story straight, make it short and compelling. Feature the value you provide. If you get the buyer’s interest early (within seconds) you will cause them to ask for more details, giving you all of the time you need to sell. You need to fine tune and practice your opening remarks. This opening statement is referred to as an elevator pitch because you have to get it out and over in the time it takes for an elevator ride.

5.      Ask questions and listen

It seems contrary to logic, but listening is the best sales skill. If you ask probing relevant questions and let your buyer answer, you will learn what the buyer’s problem is and what will cause them to give you, or someone else the order. One fundamental rule is to make sure that the buyer is the first person to talk after you ask a question.  And while you are at it, don’t forget to ask for the order. Break this rule and you chances of making the sale are diminished.

Selling is difficult. Make it easier on yourself by following a few simple rules.

 

Good selling.

 

I Went to a Camper Show

A couple of weeks ago. on a snowy winter's day, my wife and I went to a camper show at the community college arena.

We had been discussion our plans to take a real vacation this year and camping was one of our options. I saw an ad for the show in my morning paper. There was nothing much to do and going to the camper show sounded like a pretty good thing to do.

The showroom floor was busy. There were a lot of people and what seemed to be an equal amount of salesmen in the building. Not a saleswoman in sight.

When we arrived we were approached by a salesman who engaged us by asking questions...a good sales tactic. When I told him we were looking for a summer rental he pointed to a couple of campers down the aisle. I turned around to talk to him and he was gone. When he realized that I was not a buyer he moved on. No money there for him. Good move on his part. He qualified me quickly and moved on to find a real buyer to invest his time in.

As we walked through the maze of campers we were approached by another salesman. He didn't abandon us when we asked about rentals. He provided us with the information we needed, gave us his card and asked us to call him. As we started to move on he told us that if we wanted to rent a camper for this summer that we had to reserve one now before they were all spoken for. That may have been true, but I really got a kick out of his "act now" closing technique. Good job salesman!

The third salesman we encountered started out with questions. Again, this is an excellent way to sell. He asked me what I would be pulling the camper with. When I told him that I didn't have a vehicle that could pull a camper he immediately countered with "That is great. The best way to buy a camper is to purchase the camper you want first and then buy the correct vehicle to tow it." This young man took what I told him and spun it and me like a pro. Any answer I gave him became a positive reason to make a buying decision.

I was delighted by our experience. I am not sure how going to a camper show morphed into me enjoying a clinic on selling, That was exactly what happened.

I did not buy or rent a camper. Attending the show helped us decide that camping might not be the best vacation option for us, but it was great to see sales professionals in action.

As we walked down the last aisle we came upon an impromptu sales office with six desks on each side. These was a salesman sitting at each desk sitting across from couples who appeared to be filling out paperwork. Everyone on both sides of al of the desks were leaning over the desk. Very intense. The only thing that could have enhanced the image was for the salesmen to have green visors. What appeared to be a sales manager (pit boss) walked from desk to desk helping make the deals a reality. I really would have loved to have listen to all of those closers working. Were they using the act now close, the little decision close, the assumptive close or the just ask close? Were they trial closing or using a mix of all of these methods to get to yes? I'm not sure of the answer, but one thing is for sure is that business was being done at the camper show.

It was great to see professional salespeople in action. It made my day.

Next: A free lunch at a time share event. wish me luck.

You Don't Always Win

The percentage of prospects that buy from you after your sales appointment and closing attempts is referred to as your closing percentage. Prospects don’t all buy every time in spite of your best effort to convince them. The reality of selling is that no one has a 100% closing ratio. At the height of my personal success selling medical insurance billing systems to doctors, my personal sales closing ratio was less that 50%., and I was looked on as a leader in my industry. My best salespeople closed 20% - 25% of the deals they chased and they made a lot of money. You just lose more than you win in sales. That is how it works.

If They Say No

I was taught early in my sales career to take responsibility for my failures. It was good advice that has served me well. If a prospective customer says no to my offer after a focused sales sit down I only have myself to blame for the failure. If you are faced with no, take a deep breath and try to figure it out what happened and fix it.

“No is not no, it is non-yes.” Mark Thelen, My favorite sales trainer.

Objections

Objections are a term for the reason or reasons the prospect does not want to buy your product or service.

Overcoming objections is a deliberate method to answer and neutralize reasons the prospect rejected your closing offer. If you can get them to state the objection or objections to a purchasing decision you have a fighting chance to neutralize them and ask for the order again.

 

• Ask them why they are not buying.
• Confirm the objection. Ask them to confirm what you have heard.
• Put the objection in perspective. “How often will your objection issue happen every year?” If the answer is once or twice, you can overcome the objection with the many other positive reasons that your prospect has already agreed to.
• Look at your notes from the sales interview. If you were using the trial closing technique, you probably have all of the fuel you need to overcome, answer and ask for the order again.
• Offer a solution to the objection. “If you can’t pay the full amount today, why not take advantage of our 90 days same as cash option?” Wait for the answer. If they accept your counter offer you have made the sale. Congratulations.

Objections are normal, particularly when there is a lot on the line. Learn to deal with and handle objections. There are only a few objections that you will hear over and over again. They may be slightly different, but over time (hopefully not much time) you will adeptly answer the core objections effectively as second nature.

If your prospects repeatedly say no and mean it your closing problems might go deeper than just mastering closing techniques and overcoming objections. There are a lot of steps and barriers standing between prospecting for leads and cashing the check. If your closing ratio is a low number and if you are struggling to book business a serious analysis of your step-by-step processes is in order. If this is your personal condition I suggest that you get a mentor or coach and work it out.

Never forget that your mission as sales professionals is to locate opportunity, develop each prospect, sit down with them, skillfully pitch your product or service to them and ask for the order. Closing business is the end game and the final measure of success.

Trial Close and Sell like the Pros

Closing or ending the sales interview is end of the sales process. We traditionally close the deal at the end of the meeting. We use proven methods to get the prospect to yes after going through the steps of the sale.

My first sales book was the textbook from the Dale Carnegie Sales Training class that I attended weekly. The training was excellent. Looking back now, things have changed in sales. New tools, new systems, new products and services have revolutionized business, industry and the selling of product and services. In spite of the changes, professional salespeople still follow systems that generally end in a face-to-face moment when the salesperson asks for the order. That has not changed in one hundred years or more. The reality is that if you don’t ask for the order you are unlikely to get it.

The textbook was “The 5 Great Rules of Selling” written by Percy Whiting. Percy went on the road and sold securities in 1918, I believe. He wrote the book after an illustrious career in sales and after his appointment to a leadership position in the Dale Carnegie training organization.

The 5 Great Rules of Selling are:

1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Conviction
4. Desire
5. Close

Note what happens at the end.

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) is my favorite sales movie. I don’t care much for the profanity. I guess it ads to the intensity of the movie. There is a lot to learn from the story. Much of it is overdone, but the reality is that selling is a tough business. There are too many great snippets from the movie to share with you. The best part is when a character (Alec Baldwin) conducted a sales meeting at the office as a favor to his friends that own the company. The presenter was a top sales producer. He didn’t have any respect for the sale force. It was a rough sales meeting for all involved, but the reality of selling was accurately presented again.

In the story, the sales process was noted as

1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Decision
4. Action

Get it done at the end.

 

There was another acronym that he presented during the meeting. The message is not new. It is well known in sales. It is an important truth that sales professionals follow when practicing their profession.

A. Always

B. Be
C. Closing

What does always be closing mean? How can you always be closing without irritating the prospect and blowing up the deal? The answer is simple. A easy and effective way to always be closing is to learn and practice the technique of trial closing.

Trial closing is done during the sales interview, not at the end. As you work through your sales process and ask your prospect if what you just said made sense. Ask if they agree with the value of each point. If they say yes you can go on to the next point. If they say no you can stop right there and explore why is isn’t important or of no value to the prospect.

There are a couple of really good reasons to practice trial closing. The first is that by trial closing you take and maintain control of the process. You are in the lead chair. If one or two points of your presentation don’t resonate, put them away and focus on others that do. The next good reason to trial close is that trial closing makes the end game easy. If your prospect continues to say yes and agree during the course of your meeting, it is darn hard for them to say no. If they do, just pick up your notes and confirm all of the good points that they have agreed to and go for close again.

Here are some simple examples that you can adapt for trial closing your products or services. Let’s use selling a car as an example.

(You) “I see that you like the red coupe. It really looks good. Can you picture yourself driving with your best girl, the top down and your favorite songs on the stereo?”

(Prospect) “Yes I can.”

(You) You might not know this, but your coupe is delivered with an unconditional 100,000-mile warranty. That is the best warranty in the business. You can rest easy that you won’t be paying for repairs for the foreseeable future. Do you see and appreciate the great value in having this extended unconditional warranty?”

(Prospect) “Yes I can.’

(You) I gave some recent industry data that shows your coupe has one of the top five-resale values in its class. That means if you decide to sell your coupe you will get a high market value for it. That makes your purchase of the red coupe financially sound. Do you agree?”

(Prospect) “Yes it do.”

If you have sufficient product knowledge, understand your competitive advantages and have a qualified buyer in front of you, getting to yes by practicing trial closing makes the whole sales event easier for both you and for them.

In reality, if I have a prospect that has told me yes to multiple trial closing questions I am inclined to just ask for the order.

(Me) ‘Based on what you have told me, let’s do the paperwork and get you your new red coupe.”

(Buyer) “OK.”

Based on my example, I have just completed a true sale, a value proposition for both of us. The buyer got the car of his dreams with assurances about warranty and resale value. I got money. We are both happy.

I love to sell. I hope that you do too.

The Just Ask Close

Just Ask For The Order

 

At the end of your sales call there is only one thing to do. Ask for the order. There are easy methods to get your prospective customer to yes.

 

There is a method that I refer to as the little decision closing technique. Other ways to close the sales are the act now close and the assumptive close. These tactics can stand alone or can all be used to complement each other during the tender period as you bring your sales call to an end and solicit positive purchasing decision.

 

I am making an assumption that during your sales presentation you are selling a product or service to a prospect that has a need, a budget and decision authority to buy from you. If not, all bets are off.

 

That said, if you have done a good job of prospecting, qualifying and interviewing your prospect you have earned the right to ask for their business.

 

A simple observation I would like to share with you is that your prospect know exactly who you are, who you represent and why you asked for their time. If they gave you and appointment it is a very good and positive sign. I don’t make appointments with salespeople unless I am interested in their topic. My time is valuable to me. I do not waste my time meeting with people who have not won my interest before setting the meeting. Your prospect’s time is just as valuable to them as mine is to me. If they give you an appointment you are staring out in a very good position.

 

This brings me to my final suggestion to end the sales interview and win an order. I personally prefer to just ask for the order. No gimmicks, no games, no tricks, just a simple yes or no answer. If I have done a good job along the way and the prospects says no, I immediately ask them why not, answer the objection(s) and ask for the order again.

 

Here are some simple statements that you can use to just ask for the order:

 

“Are you ready to move forward with my proposal?”

“Let’s do this.”

 “I’m ready to get started, how about you?”

 “Are we in agreement?”

 

No matter how you go about closing your sale it is very important to let your prospect answer any and all questions you pose before you talk again. You will be penalized for continued chatter while closing business. Let your prospect talk. Let them answer. They will tell you yes or tell you no. Again, if they say no you get to ask some variation of “why not?” Either way, you are still in the game.

 

Just ask? Yes, it is a very simple way to end your sales presentation successfully. There was a lot of preparation and skill required to get the prospect and the sale to a conclusion. If you did a good job during the sales process, closing the sale should be easy.

 

Now, go and close a deal. Good selling.

Assume the Closing Position

The Assumptive Close

Closing a sales is a relatively easy to do if you have successfully gone through a quality sales interview with a qualified buyer. My style is consultative selling or problem solving. This style of selling is based on getting the prospect to talk about his or her needs after leading them with relevant, progressive probing questions. The objective is to get to a point where you both agree that there is a problem that you can solve for an investment by the buyer.

Closing is just asking for the order.

There are a few simple ways to get to the end of the sales process. There is the act now close, the little decision close and the assumptive close. You can use any three of these methods to close the order. They all work. Another easy way to close sales is to just ask for the order. “Will you buy from me?” also works just fine.

Let’s look at the assumptive closing method. The assumptive close is a little more nervy and tricky than the others. It can backfire if deemed to heavy handed.

The premise of the assumptive close is that all during the interview you and your prospect have agree on the problems and the solutions you have offered. You may have stopped a few times along the way to do some trial closing. “Will that feature solve this problem?” After a few or more yeses you can assume that the prospect is going to purchase and become your customer.

The tender moment when you apply the assumptive close can be played out with simple statements or questions..

 

• "Just sign here and I will get your order processed.”
• “Please write a deposit check for $100.00.”
• “What is the purchase order number?”

 

Next?

If they don’t put up a fight you have won the order. Enjoy your victory and move on to the next call. If they do object to your assumption don’t panic. Objections are a normal occurrence in sales. They happen often.

 

Handling objections is easy if you have done a good job during the sales interview.

 

• Repeat the objection to your prospect so that you have a clear mutual understanding of their concern.
• Answer the objection if you can. Use the notes from your interview to point out what the prospect said earlier on that particular issue.
• Get agreement.
• Close again.

 

If you like, feel free to upgrade your close with a few little decision and an act now value statement.

 

Earlier you told me that this feature would solve an important issue for you. Has anything changed? Good then we can move forward. Will you be paying cash or will you take advantage of our payment plan (little decision)? Place the order today and I will be able to process it and deliver your product before Christmas (act now).

My favorite sales trainer, Mark Thelen, said that no is non-yes. If you don’t win the order on a sales call you have failed somewhere along the way. It is your fault not the prospect’s fault. Learning, practicing and using proven closing methods just makes good sense and helps salespeople succeed.

 

Assume that the order is yours. You have earned it.

Good closing!