Service-Minded Selling

Service-Minded Selling sounds admirable until you are tested to choose between serving your client in a way that might cost you the sale. This week a sales rep (Jon) shared that a prospect was looking for a new system a year after their last purchase (systems usually last 5+ years). They were looking because they never received proper training and the system did not seem to be easy enough to use efficiently (employees did not like the system either). They liked the product Jon was presenting and he left with a request for a proposal.

A day later we were discussing the situation and he concluded he needed to put the deal at risk if he was to serve the prospect and uphold his position as a partner. He decided to assess their interest in receiving the proper training on their current system rather than buying a new one as a solution to their problem. If they said yes, he would be referring them to a competitor and jeopardizing his chances of selling a new system.

He made the call and it resulted in him referring the competition and hearing from the prospect how much they appreciated his approach and that they were still leaning toward his system and requested he bring out a demo. Needless to say Jon was relieved about the deal but also felt great about proving he holds a greater interest in the customer than in himself.

Service-Minded selling is not just a nice new phrase or catchy slogan; it is a way of selling and living. It is the opposite of what most people pre-judge in a sales person. It is what the majority of buyers are wanting in the market place. As the saying goes, if you help enough people get what they want you will get what you want.

I am a firm believer that every contact I make is a potential sale waiting to happen. When a prospect says, not now, no or maybe it is only a delay in a purchase from them or from who they refer. Here is an example of how persistent and professional follow-up can lead to a sale you did not expect.

I have been shopping for a video conference service to hold meetings with clients. It is not a necessity, but it might be the next step in working in a virtual world for me. I have tried a few services but only one representative has consistently followed-up with me to keep me informed of promos and my temperature to buy.

I am sold on the technology and a provider but I still don’t have an immediate need. When a friend of mine was sharing his frustration with getting people from around the state to monthly board meetings I recommended video conferencing. Who do you think I recommended? Yep, Natalie Zaraya at Mega Meeting (nataliez@megameeting.com), the one representative that has been caring enough to following up.

Natalie has persistently and professionally followed-up with me over a six month period. Her emails are informative and she is willing to make personal follow-up calls. Her effort has resulting in me (a prospect) becoming part of her marketing network.

The point is this; Every-time you are presenting yourself, your product or service, you are marketing. Marketing is all about generating interest. While you are following up present yourself in a way that is not only interesting to the prospect you are calling, but to who they know. Every contact done well will payoff in more business. It might be time to look over your database and see who needs a follow up.

This blog is not intended to be a religous pitch, as I understand that each of us needs to come to terms with our own beliefs regarding sprirituality and religion. It is intended to share my personal experience as I do in all my blogs regarding my beliefs and how they relate to sales.

It’s hard to exclude spirituality from my day. I can try and box it up for a Sunday or special occasion but what I have found to be true is we live in a spiritual world and there is no avoiding it. With that said I have come to embrace my spiritual beliefs in all of my life including business and sales.

I am not sure what your spriritual beliefs are but mine are centered around Christ. I have found that the skills and talents I have as a sales person can be maximized when I invite God into my business day. I ask him to lead my work so it will be a good work. He is faithful to guide me to the right call, say the right thing or hear the right message when I am faithful to allow him to be part of my day. I truly believe God does provide for us, so it only makes sense to get in sync with how he is providing to experience more of Him and His power.

When I serve my clients I fullfill a scripture in the Bible that says, “do nothing out of selfish ambition but consider others more than yourself”. Consider your prospects, clients, employer and fellow employees. I ask Him to guide me to greater understanding of their needs. I ask Him to help me prepare the best offering. I ask Him to provide me boldness and wisdom to serve others.

As things go well I celebrate my wins but also am reminded to thank God, my provider for His provision. After 25 years of faith I have come to realize no matter how hard I work, the power to close more business does not reside in me alone.

When it comes to follow-up, are you coming across as pushy or are you viewed as a partner? Here are some basic guidelines to make your follow-up a way to nurture the customer with class by adding value and delivering results.

Agree on a next step timeline and purpose at each appointment. Never leave an appointment by saying, “I will check in with you”. Be of service to your customer and help them set action on their calendar. Tie your action step to their objectives, not yours. If your prospect or customer is meeting with you, they want to make a buying decision. Help them stay on task by keeping the project moving. In the end they will have what they want and need in a more timely manner.

When sales progress has slowed down, try to understand why. It could be priorities have shifted, lost site of value, lost budget dollars, new buyer involved, or not enough pain with their current situation. If you know what the slow down is you can work with it. You can’t just push your way up the priority list. You must earn your way back by; 1)demonstrating understanding to their situation, and 2)gently reminding them of the value in the buying decision of your product or service. Resist the urge to assume delays are disinterest.

Deliver relevant information. Especially during long term follow-ups, find relevant information that will continue to educate your prospect or customer on the benefits of your product or service. This could be case studies, articles or easy to view or read product informercials. Excercise patient-urgency. Remain urgent with your activities to keep sales cycle moving but be patient with their response.

In summary, set your next step at each meeting, tie the next step to their objectives, be understanding of slow downs, use relevant information to keep interest and exercise patient-urgency. This will demonstrate your class and professionalism and deliver the results you and your customer hope for.

In most buying or closing sales conversations price becomes a focus or at least it should. We must know what the buyers acceptance level is with our price. If acceptance is high or low make sure you know the answers to the following questions.

1. Do they prefer your system, product, service or design over the competitors?
2. Are you the salesperson they prefer to work with?
3. Is your company who they prefer to work with?

If the answers to these questions is yes, it simply becomes a process of helping the buyer justify any additional upfront costs if they have not already. If they answer no to any of these questions, you need to understand where you have fallen short to satisfy.

You can’t always satisfy all three areas but you can still win the business. By knowing where you are preferred and where you are not will make it easier to justify your value by focusing on the areas of preference.

A powerful way to begin your discovery process is to inform your buyer that it is your hope that they can answer yes to the three questions by the time you present your final proposal. Explain you might be a little more thorough than other vendors, but it is because you want to make sure you make the best recommendation for their company.

Summary: People don’t buy a price, they buy what they want. The price they pay is the value they attach to what they want. If your product or service is the best or close to it, stop lowering price and help customers pay for what they want.

Miller Hieman has a good sales Article on Price if you would like to learn more about improving your ability to sell value.

Yesterday I was talking with Mike, a sharp CCTV rep about referrals. He has been working on increasing his referrals, mainly by asking for them, and it has paid off.  I asked him how his last referral conversation went. He said, “The customer was jazzed about the service I delivered,” which led him to handing over some cards and asking the customer if he would be willing to refer him to others.

When I asked him why he did not just ask for a referral right then and there, something hit me. It’s not easy for customers to know who else is in need of services you offer, but they always know someone who enjoys working with a service-minded sales rep.
I realized I have used this approach in my business and had not taken note to share it with others. Rather than asking who might be ready to buy, ask who they know that might enjoy knowing or working with someone like yourself. You might need to reassure them you’re not asking if they know someone who has an immediate need, but rather someone who would want to know about you in case they have a need in the future.

The point is to make it easy for your happy customer or client to introduce you to others. A warm introduction opens the door to a warm conversation that will eventually lead to someone that needs your product or service.

Bonus Tip: When you are given a name, ask your customer if they wouldn’t mind calling or sending them an email of introduction before you contact them.

If you need a quick role-play session on asking for referrals, contact me and I would be happy to work with you.

Lou Holtz, retired coach and motivational speaker says employees or team members want to know three things about their manager or coach; 1) Can I trust you?, 2) Are you committed to Excellence, and 3) Do you care about me.

Here is specific activity you can do as a manager to answer these three questions with a yes.

Can I trust you?
Keep your promises, little and big.
Be clear about the expectations you have of your team.
Be fair in how you deal with all team members.
Practice what you preach or teach.

Are you committed to excellence?
Be excellent in your job responsibilities of leading, coaching, and managing your team.
Have realistic but high expectations for your team.
Provide the team with tools and resources they need to meet the expectations.
Apply best practices and be open to areas of improvement in yourself, processes and the team.
Monitor progress of your team to offer coaching tips or praise.

Do you care about me?
Show compassion when mistakes are made.
Provide education and growth opportunities to the team.
Be interested in their lives not just their sales.
Be a good listener.
Be their advocate with corporate or upper management.

Motivating and leading others does not require a lot of hype and cheerleading nor does it need a controlling dictator. Believe in your people, do what you say you will do, be excellent at your job and expect their best. You will be pleased at how they respond.

Developing sales professionals is what I love to do. Watching a seasoned professional in action is very exciting to me. Last week I had the privilege of doing just that. Every gesture, comment, question or conversations lead the buyer toward an informed and intelligent buying decision.  It was all done with grace, ease and confidence. Let me share what I found most important during the demonstration appointment I observed.

The SP was working with a current customer who was looking to upgrade their phone system and was shopping around. The discovery process had been done earlier and now it was time for show and tell to flush out more needs and concerns. The SP had invited her sales engineer along to lead the demonstration and address any technical questions.

Here is a list of practices the SP did during the demonstration worth mentioning:

Have a goal in mind: Before going into the meeting a sales goal was stated. “We need to show him the benefit of utilizing his existing hardware with some upgrades to meet his objective.”

Confirm Understanding: The first thing done was to review a “written” document outlining the goals and priorities of the customer for the system to be demonstrated. The customer was given the opportunity to confirm or modify at this time.

Set Expectations: An agenda of the demonstration was outlined so the buyer understood the purpose of the meeting. This also allowed the buyer to request a change to agenda or request to cover points of “their” interest.

Keep proposal a “Work in Progress”: The SP had prepared a proposal in case all things lined up the way she anticipated during the demo, but also left room to make changes. She informed the buyer that many times different needs or wants arise during a demo, so it was best to wait until the end of the meeting to see if the “Work in Progress” needed some tweaking. KEY PIONT - Always be prepared but don’t back yourself into a corner.

Use the power of your Sales Engineer: A good sales engineer who can speak “Tech Talk” and English can be a great asset. Buyers listen to engineers more openly than they do with sales people. The SP allowed the sales engineer to run the demo. She did not override the engineer or create any cross in communication. Unity was always presented to the buyer.

Flush out Competitors Advantages: This was my favorite part. The SP asked who else they were looking at and the buyer was open with his answer. At the conclusion of the demo the SP asked the buyer what he saw in the competitive systems that they had not seen with theirs. He had an answer and so did the SP. The SP had the engineer demonstrate the feature the buyer was looking for and removed the competitor’s advantage.

In addition the SP did all these basics:

• Confirmed buying time-line
• Asked about other buyers and what the buying process involved
• Asked about the dollars budgeted for this project
• Reviewed every page of the proposal so the buyer understood what was included and could use the contents to sell other buyers the SP would not be able to reach.
• Confirmed buyer’s acceptance of ballpark cost of system.
• Confirmed the next step toward closing deal.
• Left on a positive note and was off to next appointment.
• Adequately informed the Sales Engineer to the sales situation prior to the appointment.
• Was well educated on her products and services.

Apply these practices in your meetings and you will be on your way to being a Sales Professional and earning top dollars in your field.

If you are a manager or owner, creating a sales process that includes many of these steps is important to realizing consistent desired sales results.

To achieve peak performance with your sales team you need to be consistent with team systems and process and unique regarding individual relationships. All sales people are not the same but most sales people can perform above average with a manager that applies both team consistency and a unique individual approach.

To allow for effective coaching bring stability to the team by creating consistency in the following areas.

Compensation: I am a big fan of keeping compensation plans the same when building a sales team for longevity. Not saying everyone is paid the same salary, but the earning scales and bonuses should be the same. Use salary as a differentiator justified by experience or results. Commissions should reward the higher performers with higher percentages or bonuses. What does not work is setting up different sliding commission scales, pricing or ways to earn commission among different team members.

Support: Don’t play favorites; offer the same support to all salespeople from manager to support staff. The same support has nothing to do with the amount. That is dictated by sales volume. What I am saying is don’t make someone earn support, they need it to get their job done.

Processes and Systems: These are in place to support the company and the customer. Everyone needs to get their portion done.  Don’t let higher performers get away with not doing their work. If their volume is high enough to warrant hiring additional support do it overtly so all can see what more profit can buy.

Expectations: If you expect less from one sales person you will no doubt receive your lower expectations. Keep quotas and goals consistent. Use your commission incentives to drive the higher performers.  The time to increase a sales quota for one would be to justify a higher salary.

Tools: If one can benefit from a laptop or cell phone make sure they all have the same tools. Exceptions could be due to territory or market differences.

If you create a consistent playing field it makes coaching more effective and fun. Adapting and working with each person’s personality and motivations is what separates the great sales managers from the average. Here are examples of three different sales people and how you might approach each to improve sales.

Salesperson #1 is already very successful and producing very high. Don’t come in and push their activity up, ask them how you can help them do more of what they are doing. What road blocks can you remove for them to keep them running fast.

Salesperson #2 is a consistent producer but under achieves. He/She probably needs some positive reinforcement, some personal attention and a diagnostic on where they are losing most deals.

Salesperson #3 is a person who has a bunch of good ideas but can’t get their sales going.  They probably need more structure and strict accountability at working the right activity to produce results. Give them clear direction in the morning and check on how things went at night.

Peak sales performance will not happen by approaching these three sales people the same way. It is the personal touch and savvy approach that will get the job done.

Cream rises to the top, oil and water separate and driven sales people will perform toward their compensation drivers. Early in my sales career a start-up wanted a fast increase in market share. To achieve this they priced aggressively and set a heavy bonus in addition to generous commissions to sell 50 units for the month.  Because of the bonus, the 50th sale was worth 15% of my total monthly earnings. I kicked in my commission for the last sale (2% of month earnings) to achieve the bonus.

There were no rules that I could not do that, but ownership was upset at me for “cheating” to hit my bonus. What I was doing was working my pay plan. Every smart sales person will understand their pay plan and work to maximize earning. It is important to create a plan that profits both the company and sales person.

When creating a compensation plan, there are a few general guidelines I follow.

• Clarify or determine your company goals. When a company is clear about growth and profit goals it creates the framework to build individual sales targets and compensation.
• Total compensation should be fair for average performers and above average for top performers.
• Base salaries should be based on the sales cycle and size of the market opportunities. The longer the sales cycle and smaller the market would call for a higher base and smaller commission percentage.  For shorter sales cycles and greater market potential the opposite is true.
• Commissions should be targeted on areas the salesperson has control over and will profit both the salesperson and the company.
• Create a team bonus. It will encourage sharing and support, and minimize unhealthy competition.

The company I mentioned above did not clarify their goals or ensure both the company and salesperson profited.  They were simply shooting from the hip trying to sell something.

A well thought out compensation plan will keep your best people happy and weed out those who cannot meet performance expectations. If you have questions about your compensation plan give me a call or send me a message and I would be happy to discuss it with you.  Phone: 509-293-4121 / email: rene@salesmanagernow.com.