The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Majer

Your mission as a sales person should be to find companies that have immediate wants and needs. This means that something happened or is happening to them - a move, a merger, new investors, etc. You have to look for any event that might create the opportunity for you, or better said you are looking for event that can trigger the sales for you.

It could be something internal or inside the company, like a new direction from management, a merger or an acquisition, rapid growth, or maybe a new product introduction. And it could mean the company is turning “Green” and needs new and different supplies and services.

It could be external or outside the company, like the new strategies of their competition or new legislation (Sarbanes- Oxley Act). Maybe even a natural disaster, which is a well-known external trigger for many customers.

Generally speaking, trigger events have effects inside the whole company. Suddenly new needs are recognized; previous decisions need to be revisited. Very often, management becomes aware of new priorities and changes the direction of the company.

Trigger events are extremely important when we are in the search mode, looking for our next customer, and when we need to identify our sales opportunities at a particular company from our target list.

Every company has something new happening. Maybe they improved or reintroduced their products or service. There could be new faces in the boardroom or on the sales floor. A new office may have opened up in the Midwest. A new vendor or strategic partner could have been added. Even new money or investor may come into the company.

Most important for a buyer is that the provider understands the buyer’s situation, needs and business.

Every change in the business environment causes a search for new suppliers or new service providers, and your main goal is to be in front of qualified buyers when they are ready to buy.

In these situations, I would say this is almost the perfect position for every sales person. You know there is something happening with the accounts from your list of targeted accounts and you know that as it happens – perfect timing is a key of success many times. This is equally true no matter if it is with small or large companies.

An example of the above is a situation where through your trigger event research you determine that your customer is planning to switch its ordering system to one of the new software solutions. So you know there is something going to happen. Whether the company is large or small, it can be perfect timing for you to be able to provide products and services to them using that kind of ordering/sales process.

How to use that information?

When you get the information related to a trigger event, you need to adjust your approach so the benefits of your products (or services) are closely related to the trigger event, and you are able to show your customers that you can create a value for them early in the buying process.

This is a good way to start working on the relationship and developing the customer’s perception of your value to them. This means when you speak with the decision maker and if you know exactly what this trigger event is about, you will be able to tailor your story and the benefits of your product in a way that sounds appealing and is related to the customers’ growth trigger event.

You need to adjust your presentation in the way to recognize that event and to present your offering in the most effective way.

Questions you will ask on your calls or meetings with prospects will be targeted towards their needs and you will be able to demonstrate your understanding of business situation. That should bring you step closer to get the deal done.

You definitely want to discover their hot buttons and why they could be on the market now for your products or services. Also you should find out why they are qualified now, at this particular moment, and why you should be very active with this prospect.

It is actually very simple - when you show your prospects that you actually care and you have done your homework and you know about trigger events happening inside their company (new CFO, merger and acquisition, bad 3rd quarter…) you also show them that you are interested about their issues, and most importantly concerned about their wants and needs.

You will create interest in their eyes because you are different then anyone else who contacts them who is simply trying to sell something without really understanding their needs.

When you know about different trigger events it will be much easier for you to ask questions that lead to uncovered customer’s needs and buying motives, and to put them in the market even if they feel there are not buying anything now.

If you try to make a sale without necessary information about your customers, you are just shooting blanks in the air, hoping to hit something. With full information about your prospects situation you will be able to sell easier, and that is the main purpose of this article (and my blog) – to help you to find your next customer in a much easier way for you, and yet maintain a professional, knowledgeable approach.

All needs are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.

Imagine that you will be having a baby in two weeks. While turning around in your home, what will you see? You are missing the crib, blankets, diapers and everything else that is needed for the new addition to your family. Won’t you need everything right away? You have an immediate need and must take care of it. This is a trigger event.

If we transfer this to a business environment, you will understand what trigger events means for any existing business. A trigger is a need to buy, an event that pushes you to buy the product right now. Not six months or a year down the road, but now.

This is true for the biggest corporations in the world and the small businesses oriented locally (70 percent of all U.S. businesses are so called mom-and-pop shops). The advantage of dealing with small businesses is that they are faster in reacting when an event is triggered and changes that create a need have happened.

Without the trigger you don’t really have a need to buy someone’s product now. Some studies show that companies with a trigger event buy 400 percent more often than ones without these kinds of events.

Many businesses are putting the cart before the horse, creating the product or service for which there is no market. They fail as suppliers because they take their customers wants and needs for granted, not surveying the market and not taking the necessary steps to understand why somebody is buying and who is on the market today.

Searching for trigger events is the first step forming three main keys of every sale that are:

1. Researching and qualifying your customers
2. Being in front of them
3. Being there when they are ready to buy — timing

To start the sales process you need to find out who could be in the market today, and then recognize your selected customer’s wants and needs. You need to have 360 degree view of your prospects.

What is their business situation, what are their business issues and challenges, pain problems, internal issues, changes, motivations? And then add yourself to the equation - how can I put customers in the market? How can I make customers realize that they are on the market with trigger events happening?

Keep following my blog, in my next posts I will talk more about internal and external trigger events and how to use them to find your next customer to sell more, despite recession.

Big money makers take matters into their own hands. They don’t sit around waiting for the next sale to walk through the door.

They know the number one mistake salespeople make is delaying or neglecting their own ongoing sales education.

That’s why I am recommending an excellent sales advice book written by 50 leading experts. It costs a whopping 25 bucks, so the publisher has thrown in 3 grand in complimentary sales tools for you from top sales and business growth leaders, including my Cheat sheet – Correcting Your Weak Points (don’t guess about when to close – get the figures).

I think you’ll find this well worth investigating.

See it here.

This week I am reading one very old book about Selling and Efficiency in Business and I am positively surprised that almost 100 years ago people were holding strong beliefs about the fundamental qualities of a salesperson.

How can we learn today from this old ideas and beliefs? Please read the quote from the book.

The fundamental qualities of a salesperson are as follows:

• health
• honesty
• knowledge of the business
• open-mindedness
• tact
• courtesy
• loyalty
• initiative
• courage
• enthusiasm
• ambition
• purpose
• a willingness to work and work hard ,and
• good judgment.

I especially like the part about open-mindedness:

No quality in business is more necessary than open-mindedness — a mind that is open to new ideas. An individual who thinks he knows it ALL or knows ENOUGH, is a liability rather than an asset. Such a person cannot be tolerated in any business. The same thing can be said of a person who will not study.

Doctors, lawyers, teachers, preachers, and successful businesspeople do a certain amount of studying every week, no matter what else they have to do. The man who does not realize the necessity of doing this shows by that quality that advancement for him is impossible.

Personally, I consider a week wasted if I didn’t read at least one new book or special report. My goal for this year is to finish 52 sales books in 52 weeks.

Any suggestions?

Going back to basics and having focus on what made you successful in the start of your career (learning, learning, and learning) becomes vital in selling in these difficult days for the sales profession. In fact, one of the rewards of a successful sales career is the stimulating learning process - it’s never dull unless that’s how you make it.

The cry of “hard times” is heard at all times, and not just in these recession days and that is where you should refresh your knowledge of how to handle objections during your sales process.

“Times are too hard, I cannot afford to buy anything“- how often have you heard that in the last few months?

This objection is made during the most prosperous times, as well as during periods of financial depression. Customers are confronting sales people all over the world with this before even they had a chance to show them the products, or tell them how they can benefit of them.

It is seldom, however, that the objection is made seriously. Oftentimes prospects don’t have anything else to say. They don’t mention it seriously and don’t expect you to take it seriously.

So what to do?

Pay no attention to the cry of recession.

Go back to prospecting and find customers who want to buy in any market, and spend your time only with the decision maker.

Don’t forget that you create the value through how you’re selling, not just through what you’re selling. You can create the value in each step of sales process, but the most value can be created early in the process by helping customers to define their needs.

Use open-ended questions, use clarifying questions, and remember that great questions produce great answers.

Make it easy for customers to say “yes”.

Ask for the order. Ask for the order. Again, ask for the order.

You can use direct questions such as:

• Are we ready to move on this?
• When can we get started?
• Shall I write up the order?

Use active listening skills. Ask for the feedback.

Remember to read buying signals.

Don’t forget to send a thank you note.

If you get the sale, send them a note thanking them for their order.

If you don’t get the sale, send them a little note thanking them for taking time to meet with you.

It is intelligence that makes times easy, and it is the lack of intelligence that makes times hard.

Go back to basics.

Invest in your knowledge and sharpen your skills, that is the best way of not buying the cry of “hard times” from your customers.

Objections to price are the most frequent of all objections. The ability to meet these successfully is a valuable asset, and efficient selling is impossible without it. It is so important that every sales manager should take special efforts to see that each member of his sales force is able to meet successfully price objections.

Price objections may be divided into three classes:

1. Those which are not meant by the customers from the point of view of value, but that the prices are higher than they can afford to pay. These customers desire a cheaper grade of products.
2. Those which are made solely for the sake of argument. Many customers think it is their duty to make many objections in the course of buying, and their most frequent objections are to price.
3. Those objections which are made with all sincerity. The customers object because they sincerely believe that the prices are too high for the products. They are sincere in their objections, and believe in what they are saying.

When an objection is made to price, you should be able to tell to which class it belongs. If the products are too expensive, you should be able to read this, and to judge what the customer is able and willing to pay.

Many salespersons cannot tell this kind of price objection, and continue with arguments to prove that the price is satisfactory from the point of view of quality. This is not the cause of the objection made, and the customer knows it.

If the customer can afford to pay the higher price, in a few cases you may be successful. If this is the case, you should know it, and continue the plan of sale with that in mind. On the other hand, if the customer cannot afford to pay the higher price, the sale is lost.

Great number of sales people are not able to distinguish between these two classes of customers, and they wonder why they are not more successful.

Let me give you an example.

Recently, I was shopping for a Valentine’s day present for my spouse in a big retail store where I witnessed a conversation among the customer and a saleswoman.

The saleswoman showed to a customer a nice dress with a higher price tag. The customer said the price was too high. The saleswoman thought that she meant that there was not a value in the dress priced higher. Arguments were used to prove that the price was not too high considering the quality of the dress.

The customer repeated that the price was too high, and added that she wished to see something less expensive.

The saleswoman even then did not understand the reason for the objection, and continued with arguments to show value. Eventually, the customer went out without buying. The saleswoman wondered why she did not make the sale.

If she had been able to read human nature, she could have told that the objection was because the price was higher than the customer could pay. This being the case, the sale under ordinary circumstances would have been made if a products of lesser value had been shown.

Next time when you hear a price objection from your prospects, try to understand to which class of this three this objection belongs and than try to handle it properly.

I am sure you have heard about salespeople earning $200-300k, a million or even more. Do you think this sales person is better than you are? They are not much different from you; they are not geniuses or impeccable experts in their field. They probably don’t know much more about their products or service than other salespeople in the same company.

So you are probably asking yourself – how is it that they can make six or seven figures and you are struggling month by month to make ends meet and reach your quotas?

The first and probably the most accurate answer is that they see themselves as professionals.

How can you grow if you don’t adopt new ideas or learn about new things in business and in sales? How can you expect to advance to better, higher paid positions if you stop investing in your knowledge?

In my 16+ years in different roles in sales, I have met many sales people who never bought a book about the sales in their life. They never attended a seminar about sales, which was not part of their company at the time. However, they were always complaining about how companies are not investing enough in their sales force, yet expect them to be perfect and up to date. That is the reason why they don’t want to invest in seminars on their own.

They believe that if their company does not see the value in it, why would they pay for it by themselves? Also they feel they know everything about the sales, so there is no need for spending money on books and seminars, or finding time for reading magazines or specialized websites. Many of those people who don’t learn continuously wonder why they don’t advance in their career or are skipped over again for a promotion.

I am giving you perfect examples of how the amateurs are thinking while blaming everyone around them for being unsuccessful in sales. You are the one who is making the decision. Every morning, when you look in the mirror, are you seeing the reflection of an amateur or professional?

Sales professional is someone who invests in his knowledge, who reads magazines and web portals dedicated to sales people and attends seminars and conferences. A sales person who follows the trends understands how essential it is to improve him personally.Professionals are ones they know how necessary this is to start selling more. And of course – they are the ones who are earning more.

Be different from the 95% of salespeople out there who are not investing in their knowledge, and you will start seeing the change. It will start first inside of you where you will be hungrier for the new knowledge. You will have a better conversation and better approach to your prospects and people around you will see that difference.

Your self-respect that you’ve gained with that new knowledge will make the world your oyster. Don’t wait for your employer to send you to a seminar. Be proactive, for yourself and your career. It will benefit you in the long term - with your career and most importantly you will see the difference in your wallet!

You are asking your clients to make a change, but if you are unwilling to change yourself, how can you ask your prospects to?

Your sales process will also depend on your efforts invested in research and understanding your customer base, your energy and enthusiasm about your product. If you cannot transfer enthusiasm to your prospects, you are in deep problems. When you talking about something people can feel if you are insincere, or you really know what you are talking about.

It is not what are you saying but how are you saying it.

What does it mean to be sales professional? I am not saying that you have to live, eat and breathe sales 24/7 every day for the rest of your life, but to start seeing your sales position as something more, something bigger than 9-5 job.

Whether you love your sales job or not, you have a choice to do it well or not, to be fully involved or back away, and if you have this attitude of choosing to do your work well, you will enjoy your job itself!

You can be very productive once you consciously choose to be in sales, and if you change your approach from “get things done” to actually enjoy what you do, you can get the job well done and be rewarded for your efforts.

Fulfillment in your life comes with doing a great job, whatever you do. And your occupation, in this case sales profession, is just as important to your personal health as the right food for your body.

Invest in your knowledge; put the seeds in the small steps and watering your skills and constant caring about your sales knowledge. And when the time of harvesting comes, you will have the fruits of your efforts in front of you.

To differentiate from majority of people who don’t like what they do, you have to actually enjoy what you do.

Start your day by doing your job the best you can, and try to do it for a week. Then come back next week and do it all over again. The best you can, not waiting for rewards, not asking for rewards. Don’t wait for results to come, just do the job the best you could. When first results came back, when you get positive feedback from your customers, when you close a new deal – ask yourself: What has changed?

You will start loving your job because success will come, first in small steps, but more and more day by day it will grow. Your customers will start seeing you as a knowledgeable person, your colleagues will see you with different eyes, and you will realize that all of that is important, but most important are feelings inside of you that start building – good feelings about yourself.

You will feel worthy, valuable to your customers, colleagues, and you will build that feeling inside of you that you are valuable part of your environment.

And you will start feeling that you are helping others – your colleagues to be better, your customers to find the best solution, and by helping them you are actually helping yourself to become a more valuable member of the community.

Does it make sense?

Natural order of things is in doing your best at what you do best, and the rewards will follow inevitable.

Remember this - you can’t fail how hard you try it.