how to sell more: modelling the secrets of success … · what the best salespeople know, say and...

HOW TO SELL MORE: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales By Tom and Jerry (Tom Bird and Jerry Cassell)

What the best salespeople know, say and do

Introduction We created our survey of over 200 top sales people to identify good practice amongst highly successful sales people, so that the information could be used to help us shape our book Brilliant Selling, published in September 2009 and updated and reprinted in June 2012. Brilliant Selling has been the best selling sales book in Europe for the last 4 years. It has sold over 35,000 copies, has been translated into 8 languages, and is now available in the US. The strap line for the book is ‘What the best sales people know, do and say’. We had our own ideas and yet we wanted to hear from salespeople at the coal face. So we created the survey to identify how the best consistently get the best results. We hope you find the survey results fascinating and if you need any more information on any of the areas we have identified please visit www.brilliant-selling.com. Tom and Jerry

http://www.brilliant-selling.com/


How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 2 www.brilliant-selling.com

ABOUT THE SURVEY The Participants We were not looking to identify key trends in selling - we wanted to know how brilliant salespeople achieved success. To this end, we set up some strict criteria before allowing anyone to complete the survey. These were:

employed or self-employed

direct involvement in the sales process in 2009

a minimum of 5 years experience in selling

recognised by at least one organisation as being successful

an average income over the last 3 years of £50,000 per annum

from any market except retail.

210 people (61% between the ages 35-55, and 85% involved in business to business, face to face selling) completed our survey between April and July 2009. This document highlights various aspects of the results. The summary is deliberately short and we have focused on what we consider to be the most interesting elements for people working in sales today. Whether you are self-employed, an entrepreneur, work in a small or medium sized company, are new to sales or experienced in selling but want to benchmark yourself against current best practice, here you will find essential information that will help you to focus on your sales development areas

Although we weren’t looking to identify key trends in selling we did discover that the 4 key sales issues that were highlighted again and again were:

reduced customer budgets

value for money

weak economy

maintaining margins. And it’s still a tough environment right now for many!



The Key Results

From the results of the survey, a few distinct patterns occurred, and the three core areas we want to highlight from the survey are:

Beliefs

Effect

Trust By learning the 3 key psychological principles of how buyers make their choices you can turn sales into much more of a certainty. We have added some comments and ideas to the survey output in order to add value and help you to identify how to adapt your selling style.

BELIEFS

Your beliefs underpin a lot of your actions in selling, either consciously or unconsciously. Quite simply, if you believe that something is possible for you then you are likely to attempt it and achieve the result that you want. If you do not feel it is possible then you may simply avoid taking any action, convinced that it would not result in achieving your desired result. Most of you have probably heard of Roger Bannister. He was a 25-year-old British medical student when he became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes. His time was 3mins 59.4 seconds, achieved at the Iffley Road track in Oxford and watched by about 3,000 spectators. Before he broke the 4 minute barrier many people believed it was impossible. Indeed some doctors asserted that it was a medical impossibility! Yet within 6 weeks John Landy of Australia

had run 3.58 dead and within 12 months 15 people broke the same ‘barrier’. Roger helped people change their belief around what was possible. Beliefs are not THE truth, they are just true for us as individuals. Beliefs are changed as we recognise that we hold a belief and choose to question or change that belief. What we discovered from the responses in the survey is that Brilliant salespeople hold very positive beliefs about themselves and the nature of the relationships they have with their services/products and customers. Overleaf are five important examples of strong beliefs that were highlighted by respondees:



1. 91% believe that they and the customer have equal footing in the commercial relationship Comment: So many salespeople I know believe that the customer/prospect is on a pedestal and has far more leverage than the salesperson. Often this means he will come across as desperate and accommodate whatever the customer wants instead of negotiating in a collaborative way.

2. 76% believe the sales starts right at the beginning of the sales cycle and 52% believe the sale never ends Comment: You are always selling. If you get complacent you risk losing customers. You sell not just to the decision maker(s) but to all people connected within your customer. Once you have the first order, you need to ensure that the sale progresses smoothly. Then you are on the hunt for the next opportunity.

3. 69% believe that problem solving is one of their core strengths

Comment: Customers are in front of you because they have a problem/issue they need to resolve. You are there to act as a catalyst to help solve the problem with minimum fuss and often with a fair degree of creativity.

4. 67% believe that they are outstanding at relationship building

Comment: It’s a foundation to all selling. Knowledge is never enough – the old adage that people buy people (often like themselves) is still true!

5. 64% believed attitude in selling was more important than skill Comment: We have trained hundreds of salespeople over the years and so agree with the majority view here. Start with a great attitude and things tend to go your way!



These strong beliefs act as the foundation for Brilliant salespeople to develop an influential relationship with their customers. Positive beliefs allow you to communicate passionately and convincingly. But if you do not believe in what you are selling then this is likely to come across to the other person, and you are less likely to be convincing. “What makes me believe in something?” The answers are going to be closely linked to your values. Some beliefs may limit your sales success. In his book ’The Fifth Discipline’ Peter Senge summarises William Isaacs’ ‘Ladder of Inference’ model to describe how beliefs are formed.

I act on my beliefs

I adopt beliefs

I draw conclusions

I make assumptions

I add meaning

I select data

Observable data & experiences

At the bottom rung we observe data – we see things as they are. Because we cannot process all the data that we receive, we make unconscious selections of the data to which we will pay attention. We then add meaning to the data that we have selected and then we make assumptions based on this meaning. We then draw conclusions based on these assumptions from which are beliefs are formed. With every rung of the ladder we climb, we are moving further away from the objective ‘truth’. By the time we have formed a belief, it is not really based on objective fact at all. This is the start point for changing our limiting beliefs – they are not objectively true… For each limiting belief, start looking for objective evidence to the contrary of the belief. For example, if you belief that ‘everyone I cold call feels that I am interrupting them’, start looking for evidence that this is not true. It might be that you have managed to have useful conversations with some people as a result of cold calling or secured an appointment. Well, for these people your belief does not seem to be true. The problem with a belief is that we often discount evidence that does not support it. We are likely to say things like “Well, that’s an exception”.



The keys to success in changing your limiting beliefs are:

Be aware of those beliefs that limit you.

Think about the ultimate cost of holding these limiting beliefs.

Think about an alternative belief that you really can hold to be true.

Practise thinking about the new belief whenever you can and relate to the benefits of holding it.

By identifying and addressing limiting beliefs, and changing these to positive beliefs, we can focus on those things that we can control and that will improve sales performance.

EFFECTS Do we really know what sort of effects we are having in our sales role? We are talking here about the consequences of our actions. We cannot control everything in a sales situation. The economy, the current financial restrictions placed on a buyer, the past history with your business; these are three examples of things we cannot influence. We can however control the effect we produce in two key areas:

the relationships we establish and develop

how we control the results of sales situations that form part of working life in sales.

Educating and Adding Value Part of building credibility with buyers is through educating and adding value. 92% of all respondees attempt to educate the customer. They do this in a whole host of different ways. Here are the top ten ways in which, according to our survey, we educate customers:

demonstrating value

highlighting expertise

suggesting new ideas and solutions

demonstrations

explaining technical issues/language

delivering seminars/workshops/tasters

offering free services to help processes



introducing complementary services/products

benchmarking

introducing white papers, books, articles, reports

Two other ways in which respondees stack the cards in their favour are:

33% use recommendations

84% believe networking is either very or quite important, with 37% actively network online (24% using Linked in).

These are all examples of techniques that Brilliant salespeople use to develop strategic relationships and become a trusted advisor to their key customers.

Most salespeople know to focus on benefits based selling so that the client sees the real value of our solution in terms of what they will get as a result. But if your mindset is on benefits selling you still fundamentally have a product focus and this can lead to conversation where the salesperson is transmitting rather than engaging in a true two-way discussion.

Brilliant sales people develop strategic relationships with key customers. They build a relationship of equals by talking about what is going on in the business, what the other person is facing in terms of priorities and challenges. They are having more conversations that are not product specific.

They are seeking to understand their customers, their role, challenges, priorities and worries. And in understanding they are able to solving problems and, in doing that, are adding true value.

In a strategic relationship Brilliant salespeople have a level of openess in the conversation that is often lacking from more tactical sales relationships. The focus is on co-creating rather than having to have all of the answers. The client is likely to admit to more personal concerns that they have, be open about the internal office politics, etc.

Often their customers will introduce them to their contacts. Rather than the Key Account Management tactic of planning to increase your contacts, in a strategic client relationship, the client sees this expansion of your contacts as a natural thing based on how your relationship is. If you are really looking to add value and not doing it as some sales tactic to win a deal your contact won't feel threatened. Over time, your contact base increases.



Questioning We all know that questioning is a core sales skill. Here we highlight a selection of questions that successful sales people use in their work. The question we asked was: What specific sales questions work best for you?

If you want to reference the whole list take a look at the resources at www.brilliant-selling.com - Great Sales Questions. Here is an edited version of questions we think are great and you may not have used before. We have grouped them for ease of reference. In addition, we have used the SPIN model © which will be familiar to many of you and is referenced in our book Brilliant Selling.

Personal Questions/ Building Relationship and Values Questions: What is your background? What do you want/need to accomplish in business, in life? Why is that important to you? What annoys you? S = Situational: How is the business doing against stakeholder expectations? What does your business offer that creates a clear difference from your competitors? What do you consider is a good level of service? Where do you see your business in five years? What do you like best about the present situation? P = Problem: What are the three biggest challenges that your business faces today? What keeps you up at night? What issue or problem would your boss/board love you to solve as a priority? If you could redesign your dept / structure / process from scratch - what would it look like? What problem area is costing your company the most money? Is there anything else I have not asked that I should have asked that you can think of? I = Implications: What would happen if you didn't address that challenge? What would happen if you did not act now? If the status quo remains, how do you see things in 6 / 12 / 18 months? What would be the consequences of inaction? How long can you survive without addressing this issue?





N = Need Pay Off: What would it mean if there was a way to remove the issue of (insert biggest challenge?) What is the compelling reason for going ahead with this project? What is your perfect solution in your mind's eye? How would you roll something like this out to your organisation? How might you measure success? 12 months from now how will you expect my product / service to have benefitted your business? On a scale of 1 to 10 how committed are you to fixing that? What would make it a 10? (if necessary) Obstacles and Barriers: What has stopped you putting your ideal solution in place before now? What potentially would prevent you from implementing this at this time? Is there anything we have discussed which would make you think twice about dealing with me/us? Where do you see potential problems arising in buying a solution like this? Purchasing History and Buying Decision Criteria: How did you go about purchasing this particular product or service before? What criteria would you use for selecting a new supplier? Under what conditions would you consider a new or additional supplier for XYZ? What would you need to know about the service I provide, to be convinced that I can provide this for you? What do we need to do to win your business? What is the decision process for solutions like this in your company? Who would be affected if you were to implement this solution? Momentum/Closing Questions: Do you see any reason why you can't proceed with this order? Have I answered all your questions? Are you ready to sign the proposal? Does this solve your problem? Will you buy this if it works? Do you think we can make progress together?



Of course questions don’t stop when the prospect becomes a customer. Keep on asking questions. If they are delighted by you and your service then ask questions which will allow you to extend the relationship or cross sell. Or ask them to give you a referral – people will happily do this if they like the product /service and like you! Ask for referrals at the height of the gratitude curve – when they think you are great and have offered an outstanding service.

Objection Handling You would expect that Brilliant salespeople would be good at handling objections. However what is interesting here is that the top five answers do not coincide with the now outdated (in our view) training that was probably drummed into you - that you have to ‘overcome’ objections. Who would really like their objections ‘overcome’? It smacks of arrogance, manipulation and aggression. We asked the question: “How do you deal with objections?” Here are the top five most popular ways in which respondees deal with this thorny issue:

1. Listen, understand and review requirements

2. Understand motivation behind it

3. Offer alternative options/solutions

4. Answer the objection with integrity - be open and tell the truth

5. Evaluate how real the objection is and how critical to the successful completion of the deal.

Sales Process One of our first questions when we work with organisations is - what is your sales process? It is amazing how many different answer we can get from individuals working within the same company. Interestingly, in our survey, 70% follow a distinctive and recognised sales process. Preparation

Yes of course we know the old cliché that salespeople are bad at administration and getting themselves organised. Brilliant salespeople know the value of preparation for all key sales tasks.

We asked the question: “What preparation do you do before seeing/calling a new customer?” Here are the top five most popular responses:

1. 55% research the organisation – understand company, background and key situational information, search online

2. Prepare client case studies

3. Plan a series of questions



4. Visualise successful outcome

5. Prepare agenda, objectives and get customer to participate in agreeing these.

After Sales Call Debrief We have been out with many salespeople and many do not recognise the importance of a post call debrief. 68% of respondees write notes, send a summary of key actions and plan the next steps for the customer as part of this reflective exercise.

TRUST If you think about the psychology behind selling, being trusted is of critical importance. Would you buy something from someone you did not trust? Unlikely. And yet how do you guarantee that a customer/prospect will trust you? This is trickier to define. We would argue that trust comes from 3 core areas:

1. Competency (ability or skill)

2. Integrity (honest, sound, moral)

3. Benevolence (disposition to do good). These three areas are highlighted in the research.

1. Competency We asked: “What are your key strengths as a sales person?” The 5 top answers were:

1. Listening

2. Building rapport and managing the relationship

3. Presenting and persuading

4. Questioning

5. Gaining agreement. Brilliant salespeople recognise the importance of continuous improvement - 63% choose to improve their skills with regular training, which has this sort of impact:

Better techniques and planning process

Up-to-date with latest thinking and jargon

Improved presentations

More variety of techniques used to suit different customer types/social styles

Reminder of the basics.



2. Integrity All customers are sorting for integrity. Do you demonstrate consistency with your promises, actions and behaviours? Interestingly 34% of respondees mentioned honesty and integrity as a core strength. 3. Benevolence So often it is the small things that matter. Tom spent 2 years chasing a client whose first order was over £20,000. He did this by constantly being benevolent. For example, the client was interested in mentoring and he dropped around a manual on the subject for no charge. We occasionally do taster sessions to allow clients to identify what we can offer. Equally we always provide welcome packs for all new clients. They cost us less than £50 but are the sorts of benevolent actions that will build trust. Examples of benevolent actions identified by respondees included:

Passing on a key contact and effecting an introduction

Corporate hospitality

Training internal people

Help with positioning presentations internally

Responding quickly and under-promising and over-delivering

Finally If you would like more information on our sales programmes, or would like to receive free resources and sales tips, visit www.brilliant-selling.com and subscribe to our Bulletin. You can find many more sales resources on the website too. If you would like to find out more about how to influence, and about our new idea that we have launched in the 2nd edition of Brilliant Selling called the C3 Model of InfluencingTM, then visit the website or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Brilliant Selling is published by Pearson Publishing and is available from all good retailers (including Waterstones, WH Smith and Amazon) or from our website www.brilliant-selling.com


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What the best salespeople know, say and do www.brilliant-selling.com

About Brilliant Selling Brilliant Selling was written by Tom Bird and Jeremy Cassell (‘Tom and Jerry’) who offer sales training, keynote speaking and consulting in all areas of sales and influence. It is a resource for salespeople of all levels and in all sectors.

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