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Looking for a high R.O.I.? How about 400% from time management?
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 18 May 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , ,
how-to-time-managementThese days, anything with a big positive return on investment sounds too good to be true. We’re not talking about financial investments per se here but rather something just as valuable—your time management.  And more accurately, we should say R.O.T.I. which means Return On Time Invested.
Specifically, the investment is the fifteen minutes that you can use at the end of your day to plan your next day. Simply by taking those few minutes and following a few simple steps, you will very likely experience a minimum of one hour of increased productivity the very next day!
Here are some basics to follow:
  • Review your list of tasks and mark which ones got done and which are still outstanding.
  • Note your accomplishments—important for motivation. List your outstanding tasks and any new ones you’d like to get done in your next day’s to-do list.  In CRM’s or calendar apps, these are often called “task lists.”  If you don’t know where the task list is or how to use it, take a few minutes to learn.  A calendar for your appointments is not enough.
  • Prioritize the tasks as As (need to get done tomorrow) or Bs (important but don’t absolutely have to be done by the end of the day tomorrow).
  • Put appointments/meetings in the time slots.
  • Work on one task at a time until you’re done (easier said than done we know) before moving onto the next. Multitasking seems to be a good idea but the lack of focus that comes with it causes ineffectiveness.  Recent research shows that it can actually lower your I.Q. too!
  • Mark off your tasks as you get them done, allowing time for interruptions and unplanned activities.

An added benefit is reducing your stress.  Often, as sales professionals, we feel overwhelmed by the tsunami of things we need (or want!) to get done.  Let’s face it, a salesperson’s job is never “done.”  We could always make more calls or engage in something that will help us grow revenue.  That’s a big reason why getting stuff out of your head and onto the plan for the next day makes so much sense.  Not only will you feel more in control, but it’ll prevent you from waking up in the middle of the night going through your checklist of things to be done.

Does “Like-Ability” Lead to More Sales?
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training 11 May 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , ,

attraction-marketingIf your customer likes you, will it lead to more sales?

 

The link between “Like-Ability” — being liked by your customer — and increases in sales, is a hotly debated topic at live workshops that I lead.  Some of the comments that I typically hear are:

 

“Selling is all about relationships.  My customer has to like me to buy from me!”

 

“I’m in a competitive business.  The fact that a customer likes me more than the competitor’s rep is what sets us apart.”

 

Applying Economics 101 to the issue, the question becomes, “What is the correlation between the amount the customer likes the sales rep and their inclination to buy from that rep?”

 

I try to base the strategies at Northbound Sales on research and not just anecdotal evidence but the research on this topic is pretty light.  Some experts claim that being liked by your customer is akin to gaining admission to a club.  That is, if the customer likes you, you’ll gain the privilege of being considered but if they don’t like you, you won’t even be considered.  This makes sense to me.

 

Neil Rackham, the father of the consultative selling approach, found in his research that led to the SPIN Selling revolution that the relationship between being liked and increased sales was weak.  Although there was a very slight correlation in general, it was limited to rural areas.  Just as most people would guess, it is true that customers in smaller communities will choose to buy more often from a salesperson they like.  In dense urban areas, his immense research found that although customers might “like” one company’s rep more, they were more likely to buy from the rep who provided the most compelling solution to their problems.

 

Bottom line is that if you can’t find your customer’s problems and link them to your unique solutions, they can like you more than any salesperson they’ve ever met, but it won’t close the sale for you.  What I find in working with people in the field is that they spend too much time on pleasantries and small talk at the expense of solving the customer’s problems.

 

I’m reminded of my ride-alongs with Jim, a rep for a national supplier to furniture manufacturers.  When I do ride-alongs, I track how much time is spent on the different steps of the sales call.  In Jim’s case, when he learned that his customer built cabinetry for 2 large national chicken specialty restaurants, the conversation shifted to an open discussion on which restaurant had the best chicken!  Out of a 43 minute sales call, how much time was spent on sharing how the new product might help the customer?  6 minutes.  How much time was spent debating chicken? 22 minutes!  When we got back into Jim’s car, I couldn’t help but question him.  “Jim, where were you going with all the talk about chicken?” to which he replied, “Mike, my customers buy from our company because they like me.  If they want to talk chicken, I talk chicken.”  I’d be very interested to ask the customer if they agree!

 

My biggest advice for you is this:  Yes, try to ensure the customer likes you but don’t think for a New York minute that this is a substitute for deep skills in finding your customer’s problems and helping them fix them.  Work on your “Goal Aligned Selling™” selling skills rather than talking about chicken.

 

To learn more about our “Goal Aligned Selling™” program or to arrange a complimentary workshop for your sales team, contact me at [email protected].

 

Happy Selling,

 

Michael

 

Why Trial Closes Are Overrated
Posted by: In: Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 04 May 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , , ,

trial_closesTrial closes are important, but not as much as you might think.

Trial closes get a lot of coverage in sales literature as do closing techniques in general.  I believe they get far too much exposure.  The way many so called sales experts drone on about them, you’d think they were one of the biggest secrets to selling.  They aren’t.  The oft quoted acronym “The ABC’s of sales – Always Be Closing” is just plain wrong.

Let’s start with a couple of definitions.

Closing question = Any question that when answered in the affirmative, means that the customer has bought.  

An example of a closing question is, “Well, it sounds like there’s a good fit with what you’re looking for.  Shall we place the order?”

A trial close differs from a closing question in that there is a condition attached to it.

Trial close = A question that confirms the buyer’s interest in purchasing if certain conditions are met.

An example of a trial close would be, “If we could solve the problems we spoke of in a cost effective way, do you think we could do some business together?”  A trial close is like testing the water before you jump in.  It’s a way to gauge interest without asking the buyer for a full commitment.

How they help:

Trial closes are very powerful in helping understand where a buyer is in the decision making process.  You can more easily determine their level of seriousness in solving their problems with either your solution or your competitor’s.

They are also very helpful in fleshing out what obstacles might stand in the way of making the sale.  Often, the buyer will share what concerns they have or what things are most important to them.

What they won’t do:

A trial close will not save bad selling skill up to that point in the sale!  Too many times, salespeople fail to uncover problems with the buyer, fail to help the buyer understand the full negative implications of these problems and finally fail to convey in a compelling & ironclad manner how their solution will help.  And after failing on all fronts, these salespeople, because they’ve read to “ask for the order at least 3 times” go ahead and do a series of trial closes followed by repeated asking for the order.

If the customer isn’t convinced that a) they have a problem that urgently needs to be solved and b) you’re the best way to solve it, you can ask for the order until you’re blue in the face but it’s not going to help.  In fact, research shows that in large transactions, asking for the order more than once actually reduces your chances of closing.  This is when customers may openly show signs of frustration.

On the other hand, if you are skilled and have helped the customer understand why their problem is big enough to warrant solving now and have proved to them that you are going to solve it, a trial close will be low pressure, reasonable and natural.

I’m going to share a story of poor selling technique and how it can lead to disaster.  After dinner tonight, I got a call from the major bank that has the mortgage on our vacation property.  Naturally, when I saw the name pop up on call display, I answered it thinking that it must be important.

Here’s what I heard,

Salesperson: “Hi Mr. Caron.  It’s Keith calling from ABC Bank (name changed to protect the guilty) and I wanted to let you know about a special offer for selected mortgage customers.  Do you have a few minutes?”

Me: “I’ve got 2 minutes Keith.  Can you explain it to me in that time?”

Salesperson: “Sure.  Your mortgage is up for renewal at the end of July and I was wondering if you’d like to get a lower interest rate by choosing a longer term than you have now.” (trial close)

Me:  “Keith.  I’m looking at my calendar and it says March 3rd.  Why would I want to decide on that right now if it’s not due until the middle of the summer?” This objection came up because Keith failed to find the problem with leaving the decision until later.

Salesperson: “Well, nobody can predict where interest rates are going to go and it would give you greater certainty.”

Me: “Possibly but why would I want to make that decision now instead of leaving it until the summer.  Is that the only benefit?”  (I had to repeat my question)

Salesperson: “No.  It could also save you point one five percent interest.”

Me: “That doesn’t sound like much.” I’m getting frustrated at this point because I don’t see any meaningful problem that is being solved for me.

Salesperson: “It might not sound like much to you or I but a lot of people would disagree with us.”

Me: “Can you work out how much that would save me in dollars?”

Salesperson: “Sure.  Just give me a moment.”  I hear clicking sounds.  “Eight dollars per month.”

Me (chuckling): “Keith, for thirty two dollars, I don’t think it’s worth the time and hassle.” My frustration is turning to annoyance at this point.

Salesperson (chuckling along with me): “I understand Mr. Caron.  Have a good night.”

This is a beautiful example of trial closes and unconvincing objection handling being used in lieu of strong selling technique.

My advice is to worry less about closing and instead, focus on sharpening your problem finding skills through the use of well designed questions.  Follow that up with practice of connecting your product’s features and benefits to the solving of these problems.  Once you master these techniques, trial closes and full closes will be easy and natural and the best news is, they will be met with a “yes!”

Northbound’s Goal Aligned™ Selling program helps you understand your customer better and fit your solution to them.  To arrange a complimentary live workshop for your team, contact Michael Caron at [email protected] or 416.456.1440.

How to Use “I’m giving up!” in Prospecting
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training, Uncategorized 13 Apr 2023 0 comments Tags: , ,

giving upBeing honest with your prospect that you’re giving up actually helps increase call-backs. 

 

Salespeople generally give up far too early when attempting to contact a customer in the prospecting phase.  But to make things worse, they don’t even let the prospect know that they are giving up.  This is a mistake.

 

After you’ve made several attempts to connect to a prospect through different means such as voicemail and email, sending a “final approach” message can be very effective in prompting a response.

 

 

Tell them this is your last message.

 

Your voicemail might sound something like this:

“Hi John.  As you know, I’ve left several messages for you over the last few weeks and haven’t been able to connect.  It’s hard for me to tell whether that’s because you’re just crazy busy or that you’re maybe not interested in learning how we might be able to BENEFIT and BENEFIT you.  Either way, I don’t want to become voicemail spam so I’m going to give up for now.  If you think it would make sense for us to talk, I’m at 416.555.1212.  Thanks.”

 

Sound harsh?  Yes, it is direct but it’s the absolute truth and the feedback we receive from our clients is that it has produced callbacks from prospects that salespeople were convinced they would never hear back from.  Let’s face it – you weren’t having any luck up to this point so what do you have to lose?

 

Do we know exactly why this technique works so well?  Not exactly.  We don’t know whether it creates a sense of responsibility from the prospect and makes them think, “Gee, I really should at least get back to this person.” or that it maybe forces prospects to realize that if they don’t return the message that they are going to miss an opportunity.  Maybe it’s human psychology that people often want things more when they think they might not be able to have them!  Whatever the reason, the important thing is that it works!

 

Inject some humour.
Some of our clients have had success using a little sarcastic humour in the final approach.  This message might sound something like, “I don’t know if this means that you’re not interested in how we might BENEFIT and BENEFIT you or that you’re so busy putting out fires that you can’t even get to your phone.”  This method is admittedly a bit cheeky and needs to done with a slightly defeated but cheerful tone to be effective.  Again, what have you got to lose?

 

These techniques are not a surefire way to get all prospects to call you back.  Aside from pretending that you’re calling from the lottery winnings office, nothing will guarantee this.  What this will do, however, is increase your callbacks. And incremental improvements in several areas adds up to big improvements overall.  A bigger problem is that salespeople just don’t try hard enough before they give up but that’s a topic for another post!

 

4 Biggest Time Wasters for Salespeople
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training, Uncategorized 30 Mar 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , ,

Wasting TimeGain up to 30 minutes extra productivity per day by eliminating these.

Show me a sales professional in the top 10% of their industry and I’ll show you a person who is in the top 10% at time management.

Unfortunately, as salespeople, we are hard wired to be poor at juggling priorities and tasks. Studies show that most salespeople fall into the high “Influence” category of personality (from the D.I.S.C. profiling system), meaning that we are very good at influencing, communicating and adapting to change. Time management isn’t one of our strong points however. I’m often asked what biggest mistakes salespeople make are and poor time management ranks in the top 3. As you might expect, when working with sales teams, I have found that while they want to learn new presentation or objection handling techniques, growing their goal and time management capabilities provides the biggest & quickest performance gains.
In my experience, here is where most of us lose massive amounts of selling capacity:

Time Waster Number One—No Plan
We start the month with no specifics on what we want to accomplish. “If you don’t know where you want to go, any road will take you there.” You should take the 30 minutes at the end of one month to review and plan for the next in all important areas. Similarly you will greatly benefit from planning your week before you set out. Sunday evening is a great time to take 20 minutes and map out your goals/priorities for the week. Time management is largely a result of good priority management.  Planning allows you to get the “big picture” and prioritize by comparing the urgency and importance of your goals for the week.  Monday morning is OK but is more risky in that you might get distracted and caught up in “doing” before you are finished your “planning”. It is almost impossible to plan and implement at the same time. Below is an example of what a weekly plan might look like:
Business:

B – do 50 prospecting calls Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 8:30–11:00

B – make follow-up calls on all outstanding proposals from last month

A – prepare for proposal presentations with HugeCo and Willbuy Inc.

B – check in with production on delivery of orders

B – practice new voicemail technique and ask Bob for feedback

A – get monthly expenses report in

Personal:

A – run 3x for 30 min each in the morning Mon, Wed, Fri.

B – do rough plan for new deck in backyard

A – get anniversary gift

B – get to bed earlier. By 10:30 at least 4 weeknights.

An “A” priority means that it’s “important and urgent” for the week while a “B” means that while important, it doesn’t necessarily have to be done this week.
Your days should start with a plan too of course, using the same A & B prioritization. Research shows that 10 minutes spent planning your day will give you approximately 60 minutes of increased productivity. That’s a 6:1 R.O.T.I. (return on time invested)!  With better time management, many graduates of our “Goal Aligned Time™” program report these results commonly.  Done for a week, that will give you the time to make about 25 more prospecting calls. Run that number through your sales funnel stats and you will be astonished by what this means in hard dollars.
Mark Twain famously said, “Eat a frog first thing in the morning and everything else you have to do in the day will seem easy.”  Eat your “frog” – do your toughest things that require the most focus – first thing.
Time Waster Number Two—The Email Black Hole
Just like a black hole, the gravitational attraction of email can suck you in just like a planet and once you’re in, there’s no turning back! Email is a very powerful communication tool but overused and often used improperly too. Don’t start your day with email. Start with a plan instead. You don’t need to respond to emails when they come in. Let them stack up and return them in batches at certain intervals in the day. Your average time/message will drop significantly! Low urgency emails can be left to clear at the end of day or even a couple of times/week. Be ruthless with deletion. I often delete messages without looking at them based on the subject and sender. The average person can speak at 120 words/minute yet only type at 30 words/minute.
Time Waster Number Three—Busy But Not Productive
You have three main tasks. Prospect, present and close. If you’re not doing one of these, then you’re not growing your sales. Do a time log for one week, noting your actual use of time in 1 hour blocks. At the end of the week note what activities were directly related to sales, admin and nonsense. You will be amazed where your time is actually going and as a bonus, your productivity will jump as you gain an awareness of this.
Time Waster Number Four—Interruptions
Whether it’s someone walking in to discuss last night’s “American Idol” or your email ringing each time you get a message, you lose much more than the time to chat or listen to the bell. Studies show that the average person, when interrupted, takes 6 minutes to get back to the same level of concentration prior to the interruption. Do the math: If you get interrupted just 5 times in an hour, you are operating at 50% effectiveness. Think about that next time you grab your smart (a misnomer in many ways) phone to check your most recent tweet!

If you or your sales team would like to get better at time management, check out Northbound’s workshop, “Goal Aligned Time™.”  For more details or pricing, contact Michael Caron at [email protected] or 416.456.1440.

6 Prospecting Voicemail Mistakes
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople 23 Mar 2023 0 comments

Making Great Calls GTW ImageWith most phone calls resulting in voicemail, you need to leave one that will get your prospect to sit up and listen!

Voicemail is the norm when making chase calls to prospects. There is an inverse relationship between the size of a company and the ability to connect in person. That is, the bigger the company, the lower the chance of your prospect picking up the phone. The number of contact attempts divided by the number of connections with your prospect is called “contact ratio”. Sales reps that I’ve worked with report contact ratios on the high end of 30% and a mere 2% on the low.  With voicemail being the norm, how can we increase our chances of being called back? Here are 6 common mistakes that many salespeople make.

Mistake #1 – They don’t actually leave a message — I had to get this out of the way because I still run into some salespeople who have been trained (poorly albeit) to “never leave a message”. This makes no sense. Why would you give up the opportunity to get your valuable message into your customer’s ear? I actually prefer to get voicemail on the first attempt. Why? Because it paves the way for my next call. It makes clear the purpose of my call and what’s potentially in it for the prospect to have a conversation with me rather than just catching them off guard.

Think about it. When you are interrupted from doing something by an incoming sales call, what’s the quickest and easiest way to get back to what you were doing? That’s right — by saying no. Have you ever quickly said “No thanks!” to a telemarketer or a door-to-door salesperson (pre-COVID of course) and then thought later, “Hmm. I might have been interested in looking into that actually.” Even if it may be something you might be interested in buying, the natural knee-jerk reaction is to say no. By having your prospect listen to a well crafted voicemail prior to speaking with you, it can help prevent a knee jerk reaction.

Mistake #2 – They don’t have a Compelling Business Reason (CBR) — There must be a reason and perceived benefit for the listener to take time out of their busy day to have a conversation with you. Too many salespeople position the voicemail around how great they or their company is instead of what might be in it for the prospect to call you back.

Mistake #3 – They ask for too much — Your first goal in a chase call or voicemail should be to have a two-way conversation. Salespeople shouldn’t ask for a meeting without having first established G.A.S. — that is, value that they may be able to Gain for the prospect, future issues they may help them Avoid or current problems that they might help them Solve. A voicemail should be requesting a very low commitment — something as innocent as a brief conversation to see if here might be a fit between some challenges the prospect has and your company’s capabilities for instance.

Mistake #4 – They “wing it” — Some salespeople are against using a phone script. Common reasons are, “It sounds so fake”, “You can’t predict what the prospect is going to say”, or my personal favorite, “I like to mix it up so I sound fresh”. Unfortunately, these same people have little success in booking appointments and after listening to them in the field, it’s easy to see why. Their voicemails are all over the map — convoluted, weak and generally pointless in nature.

Yes, some people sound like they are reading when they use a script but only because they haven’t put the time in to practice it until it sounds natural. I do a little bit of amateur acting and on the first read-through of our scripts, it’s terrible. I sound 100% like I’m reading and that’s because I am! After rehearsing my lines literally hundreds of times over, however, it becomes a different story on opening night. A high priced Hollywood actor would never ask to roll the cameras until they know their lines down pat and neither should you.

Mistake #5 – They leave too much time in between voicemails — If you call your prospects once every few weeks, it’s easy to become forgotten. On the other hand, if you only leave a couple of days in between your calls to a prospect, you will be forefront and they will feel more compelled to respond. At the end of each voicemail you should say something like, “If you don’t get a chance to get back to me in the next couple of days, I’ll try you again on Thursday morning.” Your prospects will get the idea very quickly that you’re not going to be giving up anytime soon. Strike a reasonable balance between professionally persistent and stalking!

Mistake #6 – They act too submissive — If you act like a lesser business person grovelling for the prospect’s consideration, you have reduced yourself and the prospect will lose respect for you.  In reality, you are one business person requesting to speak to another business person to see if there may be a mutual benefit of working together. Approach the call from an Equal Business Footing (E.B.F.) perspective. Picture how you might strike up a casual chat with another person you meet in a park while walking your dogs together. You’d be relaxed and casual – not pushy or threatening. That’s how you should think of your prospect when you’re leaving a voicemail. If you sound laid-back, confident, open and honest, your prospect will be much more likely to want to speak with you.

Do You Procrastinate? Don’t Put Off Reading This Article!
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training, Uncategorized 15 Mar 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , , ,

procrastinateBy Michael Caron, President, Northbound Sales

Congratulations for reading this! Procrastination has been appropriately called the “silent killer of careers” yet few people have ever had formal training on how to overcome this immensely costly habit. All of us procrastinate to some extent but while managing this problem is a constant challenge to me, I have learned some strategies over the years that have worked very well.

Urgency versus Importance: The first step in overcoming procrastination is to understand that by definition, urgent activities are done before non-urgent. On the surface, this seems to make sense until you take into account the additional factor of importance. In Northbound’s “Goal Aligned Time™” workshop, we train people on how to place every activity in their personal and business life on a quadrant with these two variables before they decide what to put on their plan. Important tasks are often not urgent and so get pushed off the agenda. Unfortunately these are also frequently “growth” activities such as prospecting and skills development on the career side and on the personal side, might be things such as exercise and building stronger relationships. Have the discipline to schedule these activities so they get done and start saying “No” to low value, urgent activities that are screaming for your attention.

The 15 Minute Strategy: Psychologist David Burns recommends simply making a promise with yourself that you will give some task you’ve been putting off just 15 minutes of effort. His point is that we often become overwhelmed by the sheer size of a task and talk ourselves out of it. We might tell ourselves, “It’s going to take soooo long” or “It’s too big to do now. I’ll leave it until I can really focus on it”. Instead, talk back and say, “OK, I’ll just give it 15 minutes and then I can stop”. How hard can 15 minutes of anything be? Once you get started, you will have broken that psychological barrier. Most often, you’ll find that it’s not nearly as hard as you thought it was going to be and you’ll either keep going or not fear it so much next time.

Think of the End Result: Instead of thinking of how difficult the process may be to accomplish something, think rather on the end result and all the great things that it will mean to you. Turn thoughts of “I hate cold calling. It’s not much fun” into, “If I make 2 hours of calls, I’ll probably book one meeting. I usually close one out of two meetings so I’m 50% towards a sale if I make some calls!” Once your brain clearly connects the doing of a task with major benefits, you’ll be unstoppable!

You and your team can learn dozens of other proven time management strategies with Northbound’s Goal Aligned Time™ workshop. Graduates report an average productivity increase of 12%! For more information or pricing, contact Michael Caron at [email protected], 416.456.1440

3 Ways to Get Prospects to Call You Back
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 09 Feb 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , ,

Voicemail

If you use these 3 strategies, more prospects will actually return your voicemail!

You’ve left a couple of voicemail messages in the last week or two and haven’t had a return call from your prospect.  What can you do?  Here are some tips that work:

ONE – Script and master your voicemail message

Your voicemail should follow this rough outline (this isn’t the verbiage you’d use of course):

  • Here’s who I am
  • Here’s what company I’m calling from
  • This is what we do
  • This is how we’ve helped other organizations similar to yours (noting measurable results)
  • Here’s an example
  • “I don’t know if we can do the same for you or not.”
  • “Can I ask you a couple of quick questions to see?”

Your message should be around 45 seconds and 60 seconds max.  While this might seem long, it’s important that you get your “elevator pitch” out in a clear, concise, compelling and complete manner (the 4 C’s) and this can’t be done in much less time.  Most prospects will listen to the first voicemail message in it’s entirety and this underscores why it needs to be absolutely great.  If you’re not happy with it, don’t panic.  Hit the # button and most voicemail systems will allow you to re-record it.

TWO – Take the pressure off

An important rule in sales is that — Yes’s make you money.  No’s make you money (because you can move onto more Yes’s) but Maybes cost you money because they eat up your time.  It’s far better to get a fast no than a slow one.  Sometimes prospects are reluctant to return prospecting voicemails because they feel that they are going to be subjected to a high pressure sales pitch.  The fact is that with many salespeople, their fear is warranted!  Let them know that this isn’t the case with you.  You could say something in your second or third voicemail such as, “We’ve been able to help other companies accomplish X solution to problem and Y solution to problem but I don’t know if there’s a fit between your organization and ours or not.  I was hoping to have a brief phone conversation to see and if not, that’s OK.”

Sometimes I get pushback on this language from people in my workshops who feel this type of language in a voicemail is weak.  They say, “We should be totally confident that we can help them.”  The paradox is that, by allowing that there might not be a fit, you’ll get callbacks more often and if you ask the right questions, will often find that there is a fit.  Another reason not to claim that you know you can help them is that, in most cases, it’s simply not true.  Until you have the opportunity to fully understand their current situation, their problems, preferences and goals, how can you know you can help?  An added bonus is that it builds rapport and trust because of your openness.

THREE – Use professional persistence

Recent research finds that it takes on average 7 contact attempts to connect to a prospect.  The same research shows that most salespeople give up after 2.  See the problem here?  Worse, most sellers leave far too much time between contact attempts.  They’re fearful that they will annoy the buyer to the point that it hurts their chance of connecting.  Sure, there’s a fine line between persistence and stalking!  Most sellers are nowhere near that line however.  Think of what you would do if you got 5 voicemails from someone spaced 1 or 2 weeks apart.  Now think of what you would do if you got the same 5 voicemails spaced a couple of days apart.  Would you be more likely to put a return call on your to-do list in the second case.  I bet you would!  At the end of your voicemail, say something like, “If you don’t get a chance to give me a call back in the next couple of days, I’ll try you again on DAY.”

With the recent anti-spam legislation in place, many salespeople who have relied on email to prospect will now have an added dependence on effective phone prospecting.  These three strategies will help you connect more often with prospects and maximize your efforts.  The percentage of prospects who call you back will still be low, but these tips will bump the number up for certain.

Six Steps to Negotiation Success
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Training, Uncategorized 01 Feb 2023 0 comments Tags: , , , , ,
Joined in businessIf you stay cool and follow these steps, your negotiations will produce agreements that last.

Contrary to what some think, negotiation isn’t something that only takes place at the end of the selling process. We are actually negotiating and laying the groundwork for further negotiation throughout the sale. When the customer has agreed that your solution fits with their needs but there is not agreement on variables such as delivery, terms and, of course price, good negotiating skills will bring the sale to successful completion. Here are six essentials:

One – Plan:

Never go into a negotiation without a plan. Do your homework. What do you know about the individual you are negotiating with? What is their personality style? How can you adjust your style to be more effective with them? What information do you want to disclose or keep confidential? What is the time frame for this negotiation? Go through some of the other points below and write this information down.

Two – Have a collaboration mindset:

Most negotiations involve parties with which you want to have a long term, mutually profitable relationship with. You will only be able to protect and nurture this relationship if an agreement is reached that is truly win win. Enter the negotiation with this in mind and test the commitment of the other party to a win win, collaborative solution. If both parties agree that an agreement will be easier to reach if creativity, openness and collaboration prevail, the negotiation will have a much greater chance of delivering a successful deal.

Three – Make a concession list:

Make a list of all the things that you could give up and all the things they could give up in the negotiation. Then put two columns beside each, one for cost and the for value. By doing this, you will be better able to give up concessions that cost you little (but have high value to the customer) while accepting concessions in return that have high value to you.

Four – Uncover goals: 

Make a list of goals from your point of view and the other party’s point of view. These should include objective and subjective goals along with business and personal. If you’re not sure of some of the goals of the other party, make an educated guess for now and attempt to confirm them during the negotiation.

Five – Don’t counter immediately:

When an offer is made, resist the urge to make a counter offer immediately. A person’s resistance to another person’s idea is the greatest immediately after they’ve given their own. Instead, explore it with the other party. Ask questions like, “Why do you think this might make sense for both of us? How exactly would that work in this area?” Probe for this solution meeting the win win criteria and show that you are truly considering it. If it doesn’t meet win win, state why it doesn’t work and then slowly come back by saying something like, “Something such as (terms) might work because . . .”

Six – Know your walk away point:

The goal of the negotiation is not just to produce an agreement. It’s to produce an agreement that works for both parties and protects the relationship. Know what the minimum terms are for you to accept an agreement. Understand that no agreement might be the best alternative. We call this your “BATNA” or the Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. By knowing your BATNA, you will prevent being driven into a deal that works for the customer but not for you.

You or your team can learn how to master these steps plus learn many more strategies to successful negotiation in Northbound’s “Goal Aligned™ Negotiations“.

4 Steps to Help Juggle Priorities
Posted by: In: Sales Coaching, Sales Executives, Sales Managers, Sales Training, Salespeople, Uncategorized 26 Jan 2023 0 comments Tags:

juggler-1Most executives would say if there is one area of their life where there is a serious time and priority mismatch, it would be with their family. To juggle conflicting priorities between work and home is not a balancing act for the faint of heart.  Most executives are a living contradiction in that, while surveys show that family is generally their number one priority, it rarely ranks number one in volume of time or in planning of commitments.

Why? Usually it’s because people have gotten into the habit of letting work related “urgent” activities bump family time off the agenda. Your son or daughter isn’t going to send you an e-mail or a text firmly stating that they want to have dinner with you or go play in the park at a certain time.
Turning your priorities into action starts with having a clear set of goals that reflect your values and emphasizes all the different areas of your life such as family, career, financial, health, social, spiritual and recreational. Think of these areas as being the spokes in a wheel with you at the centre. If one of more spokes are broken, the wheel doesn’t turn smoothly. If enough spokes are missing or broken, the wheel doesn’t move at all.
Here are some ways to get control of your life:
ONE – Set some goals: Ironically, the number one reason people don’t set goals is that they are afraid of failing to reach them. This flies in the face of reams of research indicating that having goals ALWAYS achieves better results than without! Goal setting must be accompanied by a realistic yet challenging execution plan. Start with your life goals, then break that down into yearly, monthly & even weekly goals.
TWO – Plan your time to match: Plan your week in advance. Each week, I pull out my month’s goals and ask myself, “What can I do this week to help drive me closer to my goals?” I break my monthly goals into smaller “bite-size” chunks and then plug them as to-do’s into a specific day. A goal without a plan is just a dream.
THREE – Categorize your actions: Goals and time management are inextricably linked. Effective time management is actually just goal setting in a short time frame. Take your tasks and mark them as A’s or B’s. A’s are things that must get done in the time frame that you’re planning for (i.e. day, week or month) while B’s can wait if necessary. Note: They are both important. The A/B distinction is only for urgency. If something’s not important, why are you spending any time on it anyway?

FOUR – Do it again! At the end of day, note how you did and plan for the next day. If you would like to learn more check out our Goal Aligned Time™ program.