Selling on Price Alone

You have the lowest price in the market

or

You dont.

So if you dont then you actually have to sell something other than price.  Price is a funny thing.  why pay more for the exact same thing?  You shouldnt,  Thats why you have to make sure you are selling value vs price.  If you have the best rates, or the lowest prices your job is to convince the buyer that there is no significant difference in the good or service you are selling from the higher priced versions.

The question is, are you or are you not the lowest price?  Do you know?  If you dont, it's time to do some research.  If you think your product is unique, its probably not in your customers eyes.  Ever had someone tell you that a particular mobile phone was FAR AND AWAY the best thing ever, and you couldn't really see why you'd care?  Why would you pay more for the NBT (next big thing) if you cannot see the value.

I used to buy and sell grain as my first job out of college.  The definition of not being different is a commodity.  Specifically I dealt in corn, soybeans, and wheat.  Price and the distance you had to travel should have been the only difference.  However there was one thing i could offer that was different.  Advice.  I advised farmers on when to sell and at what month on the market.  The value wasnt in the actual price, although I couldnt be too far off, but the farmers valued the advice and the small difference in price if i wasnt the best, was worth the knowledge.

Do your clients value your opinion?  They need to so that you have something to overcome the price issue.

Your favorite close

Several weeks ago, I was speaking with Jay Hellwig. Jay is a top sales professional. Jay said, “Zig Ziglar’s CD’s on ‘Secrets of Closing the Sale‘ are my favorite CD’s.” Since there are over 50 specific closing techniques in this CD set, I asked Jay what was his favorite technique.

Jay thought for a moment and said, “Oh, I don’t have a favorite close.” I asked, “Then how can it be your favorite sales training set?” Jay said, “That’s easy. Zig didn’t teach me a closing technique as much as he taught me a closing ATTITUDE! The attitude helps me close more sales than the techniques do.”

A closing attitude. Now, that’s powerful.

Have you thought about your CLOSING ATTITUDE lately? Do you have closing attitude? And if you do, what type attitude is it?

Jay is right. The way you feel about closing the order is oftentimes more important than the technique you use. You probably have a number of strong closes. However, if you lack a strong closing attitude, you will never use those closing techniques.

What is your attitude about closing? Selling is what we do WITH your prospect, not something we do TO your prospect. Closing should be the logical conclusion to your selling activities. It should not be the stage of the sales process that is adversarial between the seller and the buyer. The buyer should be as eager for this stage as the seller is.

What is your attitude toward closing? Why do you ask people to buy from you? You ask people to buy from you so that you can feed your family… not your ego. If you don’t want to bruise your ego, you may be hesitant to ask for the order. However, if you do that enough times, you are not putting bread on your family’s table.

What happens when you ask for the order and you get it? You win! But, what happens when you ask for the order and you don’t get it? Well, you don’t lose! You break even! That’s right … you break even. You can’t lose by doing your job.

Your job is to ask people to exchange money for your services. When you do your job correctly you have every right to ask the business owner to buy from you.

When you ask the prospect to purchase from you today, the buyer wants to know that you believe his/her decision is a solid one. You can assist with this if you have a positive closing attitude. You need to exhibit confidence during this stage of the process. If you do, you will be able to expect sales success, not hope for sales success.

Jay Hellwig is right. The closing attitude will close more sales than the techniques!

Good luck and good selling!
__________
Bryan Flanagan is a nationally renowned speaker, author and sales trainer. A performance consultant and coach for dozens of corporations, Bryan knows and communicates the techniques that help people become better performers! Visit him at www.FlanaganTraining.com

The art of how to not to get to any decision maker

If you consider yourself a professional sales representative or executive you have undoubtedly worked very hard to overcome the stigma sales professionals have faced over the years.

For this reason I was very disappointed to read a newsletter written by a major international sales training firm entitled: “The Art Of How To Get To Any Decision Maker”.

I thought I would write about it this month in a newsletter that I will call: “The Art Of How Not To Get To Any Decision Maker”.

The author, president of a major international sales training company, offered claims and advice to get past any gatekeeper/assistant. He asserted: “I’ve been able to get in front of the CEO and CFO of “so and so” (name dropping a Fortune 500 company). Seeking to share his pearls of wisdom, the author offered suggestions as to how you too, can do it. He advised:

* “Don’t be charming to the assistant because it’s a dead giveaway you are selling something.”

* “Tell the assistant what to do – don’t ask them.”

* “The other secret to getting that top executive on the telephone is to send the gatekeeper back as many times as you can, each time giving very little information.”

* “You must lead the conversation at all times.”

* “The biggest tip is that your voice has to sound like you’re important.” To the author’s credit he states: “Never give false information.” He then, however, follows up with,”That doesn’t mean you tell the whole truth.”

The author also advises to keep assistants “off-guard and off balance” by not telling them what your reason is for the call. He advocates sending the gatekeeper back so many times that the CEO finally gets fed up and tells her to put the call through. This sales trainer suggests making a contest out of your efforts: “Let’s see how many times you can send the gatekeeper back to that CEO.” This role play was suggested in the article:

You: Hi.This is Bill Johnston. I’m calling for Carl. Is he in?
Assistant: Can I ask what this call is in reference to?
You: Just tell him it’s Bill Johnston.
Assistant: Carl did not recognize your name, what is this in reference to?
You: Did you tell him it’s Bill Johnston?
Assistant: Yes. He didn’t seem to know you.
You: Hmm. Just tell him I’m from XYZ Company. That might jog his memory.
Assistant: I’m sorry. Mr. Johnston, but the company name didn’t ring any bells. Can you please tell me what this is in reference to?
You: Who am I speaking to?
Assistant: This is his assistant.
You: Are you his regular assistant?
Assistant: Yes.
You: What’s your name?
Assistant: Shirley.
You [tone of authority]: Shirley, if you tell Carl that I’m following up on some correspondence sent to him that should be enough.

I imagine you feel as shocked at this manipulative and deceitful behavior as I do. The next logical question is, if you are a TRUE SALES PROFESSIONAL how DO you get access to key decision makers? The simple answer to this complex question is that you earn it through trust.

How do you do that? Don’t cold call! Work to get a referral from an existing satisfied client or someone else in their organization. Either way you must do your homework! Research the target company and your senior executive contact. Your goal is to know more about your clients than they know about themselves. Online tools now make this possible. You must be able to tie your solution to one of the top three key pain, challenges, issues or opportunities that they are facing.

When you do reach out to the administrator, follow these four steps as you introduce yourself:

1. “I have done an extensive amount of research analyzing your company.” (I am not cold calling);
2. “As a result of my research I know your: pain, challenges, issues or opportunities. I think your major areas of concern are…”;
3. “We have helped other companies in your industry solve the exact same issue with excellent results. Here is how we helped them…”;
4. “What is the best way for me to share this information with Sharon (the administrator’s boss)?”.

Here is an example of how it would sound:

“Hi Margaret,This is Dan with A&A. Over the past two months I have been researching your firm and have uncovered a strong focus on cost reduction through supply chain integration. We are working with X and Y in your industry to solve this very same challenge. I believe that Sharon would be very interested in hearing what we have be able to accomplish for that client. What is the best way for me to share this information with her?”

Instead of viewing your “gate-keeper” as an obstacle, you have professionally justified your reason for seeking access to her company’s executive. It is not advisable to keep anyone “off-guard and off balance”. After all, it is your objective to provide professional and consultative service to your clients, and this introductory call will start you off on the right foot.

Good Luck, and Close ‘Em,
Dan Adams
______________
Dan Adams is a popular professional speaker, author, and consultant who draws upon more than 25 years of experience in the field of sales and marketing. Having honed his sales skills selling multimillion dollar solutions for Fortune 500 and high technology companies over the past 25 years, he founded a sales consulting company called Adams & Associates. Visit him at TrustTriangleSelling.com. Dan is the author of: Building Trust, Growing Sales: How to Master Complex, High-End Sales Using the Principles of Trust Triangle Selling.

Your product or service

If you sell a product or service, of the most important this is that you understand how it works through the eyes of your customer. Do you use your own product or service?

Why or why not?

This will give you a lot of insight as to the mindset of your prospects and help with service to the current clients

Rapport Building

Rapport Building

Rapport building is an art.  If you are having trouble building rapport it’s probably because you are asking the wrong questions

Rapport is personal. Many salespeople make the mistake of trying to build rapport around non personal things like the news, the economy, or the weather.  The difference between these subjects and rapport is that rapport is about the commonality you have with the person.  In short, it’s personal.  Easy examples of this would be children, went to the same college, or share a hobby.

Where do I start if I don’t know them? The easiest place to start is in their office.  Take a look around and see what they have hung up or put out on their desk.  Do they have a trophy, an award, or pictures of their family?  An easy question to ask is “how old are you kids?  Pictures are usually a few years old and it starts a nice conversation.

Rapport Building. An aspect of report building that is often overlooked is that rapport is the prospect qualifying you as a provider of service.  Relationship selling is very difficult if you don’t build the relationship.  Winning on price alone is not selling nor will it last.  There is no secret to rapport building other than to ask.  Once you find a link the relationship deepens and trust begins for mutual understanding.

Now what?

You need to transition from rapport to business conversation.  Start with a career question – length of tenure, biggest accomplishment, how they got there etc.   Then mention something about your career.  At this point its time to get to the point, “The reason I asked for this meeting was to find out…”  You will notice it does not say, “I’d like to tell you about…” it’s a subtle change but an important one.



What rapport is.

• Rapport is delicate, and must be professionally understood before you can be personally engaging.
• Rapport is exchanging information of personal value.
• Rapport is gaining insight into the person and their personality.
• Rapport is gaining an understanding of the other person.
• Rapport is the ability to begin the engagement process.
• Rapport is a learning time about them, not a bragging time about you.
• Rapport is asking – then creating dialog around the answer.
• Rapport is permission to smile, even laugh, without doing so at someone's expense.
• Rapport is your opportunity to establish yourself as someone they would like to get to know better, and maybe even do business with.

Tough

I saw a quote yesterday, it said, "Times are Tough, we're Tougher".  I sent it to my team.  Things may be tough in the economy but that is no excuse for things to be tough for you.  You may need to adapt.  Best way to get more business in a tough economy, really anytime, but especially in a tough economy, is to help your clients/prospects get what they need.

Facilitate sales.  Put your clients together.  Help them get business and they will help you.  When you put people together you become a business broker.  And if youre into success, being a business power broker is where the top dogs are.  The clients will never leave the person who brings them business.  You might be outpriced by a competitor, but if they think they might lose your influence to bring in other clients, then they will let a lot of price happen before they are willing to lose you.

Be tough, and let the others whine about the economy.

Elevator speech

I know, I know, you've heard no less than 1000 times how important it is to have a good 30 sec commercial right?  I just saw a short video on the topic and it reminded me that I havent practiced mine in a little while.

Then I thought, wait, I don't think my speech is as polished as I thought it might be.

RIGHT NOW - say your 30 sec speech.

How'd that go?  Need a little work?  perfect?

Just your sales thought for the day.