The only thing you can accomplish is to lose a precious time chasing prospects who are not interested for your product, or they are not a fit for your products or services at all.

Many unsuccessful sales people spend their time with customers who are not even close to sales process and to buying, but poorly trained sales person still contact them regularly simply because they are in pipeline and they need to fill their day somehow. Talking to that kind of prospects is just a waste of your and their time.

When you are selling you need to differentiate and trigger events will make this possible. You will have tools to create the opportunity for you, and not just in the visible market where customers are actively looking for provider or supplier, but also in the invisible market – you put them in the market, you are making customers realize that they are on the market now. Without trigger events you can’t force customers to meet with you because you will be just one of many sales guys knocking on their door.

Here are two examples of trigger events:

• Your research shows some trigger events like hiring new 15-20 sales reps or changes in upper management levels: this clearly sends out messages that the company is in need of new office furniture or new computers with software, or maybe a new benefits plan for employees.
• Thousands of corporate turnarounds occur every year. You may have read about a few of them in your local newspaper, but that’s not enough. There are companies in a turnaround phase that affect sales in your area all the time. I suggest keeping abreast of the New York Times or other newspapers like that in your region. Their business page carries a number of turnaround events throughout the company along with web sites by the large accounting firms and graduate business colleges such as Wharton. Turnaround time means change time: new people, new products, new services, and new sales potential for you.

Customers will be positively shocked with your due diligence and fact-finding mission you accomplished with them. When you contact your prospects and on the first conversation you leave them with impression you know their situation very well — you care to help, and you can add value to them, trust me when I say you are much closer to signing a deal than anybody else.

After discovering trigger events, the next steps are to develop the customer’s perception of your unique value. What can you do for them? How your solution can actually create value to them?

Trigger events will give you the clue about the timing too.

More about Trigger Events here:

Selling in 21st Century

Hit or miss doesn’t work in selling

Get the book “Trigger Events”

Differentiate Prospects from Suspects is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Consequently, through unorganized, hit-or-miss methods, his cost of selling is high simply because his methods are not as efficient as they should be.

This does not mean you shouldn’t use your instincts and training well. But it does mean that your sales assumptions must be based in a finding of facts, not guesses.

Using the dart game in the sales profession can lead to failure. You have limited time on your sales call to a prospective buyer and your darts must hit their mark. It’s even more crucial when you use the phone for your sales prospecting activities: many telephone sales calls miss their mark as being off-the-shelf calls that aren’t developed with a specific buyer in mind. Dartboard selling is a quick way to go broke.

Top notch salespeople advise that 75% of a successful sale is due to the pre-flight work. You must make sure you know what direction you want to go in, and you have to ask precise questions that will lead you to confirm needs you recognized through trigger events. You must know what direction to fly before your takeoff.

Most sales people out there are making a huge mistake meeting (or talking over the phone) with their clients unprepared. They think it is enough to schedule the meeting and they will work their magic and close the deal. They will try to break the ice with the customer by talking about the stuff in his office. Then the next misstep is to ask a few questions and not even wait for the answers, but to start with the same old sales pitch.

This kind of salesperson knows all the answers and few features and benefits later they will ask for the business. After hearing few “No’s” from customer they may give up and leave the office with the promise of a follow up a few days later. Unfortunately, the down side is that the customer will probably never return their calls.

Big number of sales people doesn’t take the time to have a conversation with their customers, because they assume that every other customer is like all the others. You will discover that your previous assumptions in sales were fatal many times. Keep those times in the past. It was necessary for you to learn a lesson every salesperson needs to learn, and now is the time to grow and develop your skills and knowledge. You will do so in developing your knowledge about trigger events. It is time to replace assumptions with research.

When you start learning how to recognize trigger events, rather than trying to assume or guess at them, will not only enhance your professional sales career and knowledge, but will increase your sales savvy to what the customer needs.

It is mind-boggling to receive a sales telephone call and the caller spits out a menu of mechanical words. The customer isn’t even, it seems, invited to be part of the conversation. It’s all about the need of the seller. Now when you contact your customers with information collected from recognized trigger events, you will have right questions to ask them, and all you need to do is listen to their answers and reshape your presentation accordingly.

Start with understanding customer’s actual situation and have their needs on your mind, but also find the way to put them on the market by making them realize their yet uncovered needs.

I hope you realize how often you barked up the wrong tree in your prospecting activities, talking to companies without the real need, following up and leaving numerous messages to someone who doesn’t see the value in your product. It is time to move on. Of course, at one time when we were starting sales, we all may have wasted our time that way, calling people from the long list of unqualified prospects we got from our manager, simply because they were in our territory or vertical market.

Now you will have a very powerful tool to change your approach to selling.

You have to understand the positioning of the company, what are they needs, does not matter if they are hidden or visible to public eye.

You need to do this ahead of the first contact as part of your trigger events research. You have to know the customer’s situation better than perhaps they know it, because at the time of presentation of your product, you will have their needs on your mind and prepare your sales presentation accordingly to information you hold.

Think value. Give to the customer what they ask for; give them what they need and more, drive the conversation to the customer’s wants and needs.
Impress them with the depth of your understanding of their position on the market and recent events that can trigger buying process, and they will sign on dotted line.

Very often you can hear how selling is a form of art, how sales people need to be creative and use their imagination, but I am not agreeing with that – sales is more science than anything. Yes you can use imagination and creativity, but after using tools available to you. With the proper tools and techniques you’ll replace guesswork with success.

Even if your company does not have automated system to generate new leads for you, when you learn more about trigger events, you will be able to find your next customer by your own. This will send the message to your manager that you care about your job and you really want to develop your career further, without waiting for someone.

Becoming best in team is an achievable goal and your self-confidence is growing as you establish a competitive advantage towards your colleges and towards your competition.

You don’t need to use old sales excuses anymore, like “territory is too small”, “need more training”, “inadequate sales tools”, “marketing provides no leads”, “we are over priced” etc.

Numbers of sales people who lose their jobs or miss their quota each year are not really important to you anymore, because you are more confident that you know what you doing in your sales role and all thanks to getting new customers from trigger events.

Now you are becoming a real Sales Professional. And it is a good feeling having control over your sales career, isn’t it?

——————————————

Get the book Trigger Events today and start selling to new customers tomorrow!

Hit or miss doesn’t work in selling is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

SalesMagicians is a social bookmarking and networking site, a place for sales people to discover and share sales content from anywhere on the web. It allows you to submit, share and vote for the best sales information links on the Internet.

Everything on Sales Magicians is submitted by their community (yes that would be you). On SalesMagicians you can discover websites that provide answers, tools, tips and different techniques to address your sales challenges. You can meet other sales professionals that share your interests. Also, by submitting links you help others by sharing your knowledge. If your submission rocks and receives enough “Magic Ups”, it is promoted to the front page for all of our visitors to see.

Most importantly, SalesMagicians will save you an incredible amount of time. And, if you like a particular story, don’t forget to vote that “Magic Up”.

How should SalesMagicians be used?

SalesMagicians is a place for people to discover and share sales content across the web, from the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog.

Every article submitted to SalesMagicians has a count of how many “Magic Ups” the story has received. You need to be signed-in to vote a “Magic Up”. For every registered user that clicks “Magic Up” the count goes up one. If a story reaches the tipping point, then it gets promoted to the homepage.

Be active. Find an interesting sales article online and submit it.

Share your opinions by commenting on stories. The system only works when users actively participate on a large scale, so make sure to do your part either by voting that “Magic Up” or by burying content that you feel doesn’t sparkle!

Bury. If you find stories with bad links, off-topic content, or duplicate entries, click “Bury.” That’s how we get the spam out of the system and let the good stuff rise to the top.

Comment. Use the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons to rate the comments that other people leave on SalesMagicians.

Is there a charge to join?

No. Joining SalesMagicians it’s absolutely free. Visit www.SalesMagicians.com today, register and vote for your favorite articles!

Intro to Sales Magicians is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

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.

——————————————

Get the book Trigger Events today and start selling to new customers tomorrow!

What are trigger events and how to use them is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

You’ve probably heard of my book, “Trigger Events – How to Find Your NEXT Customer.” It’s the book that helps sales people easily differentiate prospects from suspects, gives them a new set of tools to find new customers who are on the market today, and makes them successful by using 21st century resources to close more sales.

You don’t have time to read the book. You want the important information in that book, and you want it now.

Now there’s a new, better way to absorb the secrets of sales success  from the book:

“Trigger Events – How to Find Your NEXT Customer” Audio Book!

You need this audio book if:

• You’ve never heard of the book.
• You’ve got the book but haven’t read it.
• You’ve read it, but didn’t master the material, and haven’t received the wealth and success you want.

Just released on October 10th! If you order now, you will save $10 on the full price of the audio book plus the shipping cost ($6.50) is on us on every order received before October 31st!

Regular Price: $29.95

Special Price: $19.95

The problem:

Consider these questions…

• What is the Holy Grail of Sales and how can YOU use it to sell more?
• How can you KNOW where to focus your selling activities right now?
• Where and how can you find customers who are in the market TODAY?
• How can you be in front of your customers at the exact time when they are in the market?
• What is the curse of the sales job and how can you overcome it?
• How can you use online and offline resources of trigger events to close more sales today?
• Why it is not enough to simply know how to sell; why do you have to deeply understand how your customers buy?
• How can you easily differentiate prospects from suspects, save your time and sell more today?
• How can you find the perfect timing to contact your prospects and sell?
• What is the importance of uncovering customers’ needs and wants before you speak with them?
• How can you win the deal and not even touch the topic of discounting of your product or service?
• How can you make customers realize that they are on the market with trigger events happening?

Grab the most out of each minute! Listen to this audio book during your commute, morning walk/run or while you’re driving to your sales appointments.

If you are in sales, you need this audio book – period. When you start using techniques mentioned in this book and learn where to find trigger events and how to use them, you will be able to get to the proposal itself much faster because you will know that your prospects are already qualified for your product or service, and you will have information about their needs gathered before the meeting or presentation.

Listen to this audio book carefully and it will boost you a step ahead of your competition, who is most definitely not spending enough time learning about the customers before any sales call is made.

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, 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 from anyone else who contacts them and who is simply trying to sell something without really understanding their needs.

Just released on October 10th! If you order now, you will save $10 on the full price of the audio book plus the shipping cost ($6.50) is on us on every order received before October 31st!

Regular Price: $29.95

Special Price: $19.95

Please spread the word!

We tried our best to make this audio book affordable and useful to every sales person worldwide. Please spread the word about the upcoming Trigger Events Audio Book in your blog posts and tweets. We really appreciate your support.

Tweets (copy and paste):

The Trigger Events Audio Book is available now! – http://bit.ly/3RTefB – Pre-order now! (via @SalesScienceArt)

Get the new set of tools to find new customers who are in the market today! http://bit.ly/3RTefB – Pre-order CD now! (via @SalesScienceArt)

How to be in front of your customers when they are in the market?  http://bit.ly/3RTefB – Pre-order audio book now! (via @SalesScienceArt)

Audio Book: Trigger Events is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

It is the same in sales – you have to put the efforts in motion and start learning about new sales tools available to you. There is something you simply have to start doing that your competition is not doing and that is learning about your customers’ situation, their wants and needs.  With trigger events you will be better prepared for challenges that customers are putting in front of us each day.

• Trigger events will help you with research and qualification process.
• Trigger events will give you the clue about the timing.
• Trigger events are here to help you differentiate prospects from suspects.

——————–

More about Trigger Events in my book “Trigger Events – How to Find Your NEXT Customer”. Special discount on the e-book version is ending on September 30th. Order today and start selling to new customers tomorrow!

Daily Sales Tip #56 is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer

Certainly selling has the look of 20 or 30 years ago, features and benefits are still the main topic at every sales training, whether internally done or from an outside trainer, and management is pushing the same old ideas about cold calling and open-ended questions, but customers are changing rapidly in their behavior, buying habits, knowledge about the situation on the market, and most important – their expectations from sellers.

Selling itself is changing. Whole business environment is more dynamic, we have many and breaking new products on the market, and competition is bigger, harder, and stronger day-by-day. Buyers are more educated, they are searching for information by themselves, and they are looking from providers to understand buyer’s situation, needs and business.

Sales cannot continue to resolve twenty-first century situations in the business world using last-century tips and tricks. Tomorrow’s sales challenges cannot be met using last-century’s understandings and strategies. Those skills and information are not wrong; they are simply incomplete for today’s market. Unless this is acknowledged and the sales professional admits that he does not know all there is to know about sales and customers behavior, there can be no hope of continuing excellence in sales as is.

I believe it is finally the right time for the dinosaurs of sales to become extinct.

The 21st Century changes the rules of engagement. New knowledge is needed and also new set of tools which will include the technology, to help you in your search for your next customer.

Technology is developing at a pace that rarely anyone can catch up, and especially the last two decades many trained sales people are not in the position to utilize the advantages of the technology. In this regard, the technology can be your friend or foe.

Web 2.0 enables Sales 2.0 and many sales people can take customer communications into their own hands and to an entirely new level. Sales reps have more control over the tools that they use, and they can be always on, answering to customers questions in the matter of minutes and not hours or days.

Trigger events are great tool set to help you find new opportunities on the market for your product or service. With trigger events it will be easier for you to find companies that have immediate wants and needs. You are looking for events that can trigger the sales opportunity for you.

Trigger events can be divided depending where they have been triggered, inside or outside the company. Therefore we have two sorts of trigger events:

Internal trigger events are events triggered inside of the company or business.

External trigger events are one that we cannot influence, but we need to adapt to a newly created situation. It affects the customers’ success and could change business environment dramatically.

Learning about the trigger events, what they are, where to find and how to use them, your benefit is that with this newly acquired knowledge you will be able to qualify prospects faster and find your next customer much easier than before.

And not just that – you will be able to put customers in the market who didn’t feel that way before you contacted them. Trigger events can be a very powerful weapon for sales person who wants to be able to qualify prospects faster and understand his customers’ situation, and even identify needs with customers together.

With trigger events you will be better prepared for challenges that customers are putting in front of us each day. You will be equipped with a completely new set of tools needed to recognize who could be (and should be) on the market today for your product or services, giving you the better understanding where you should focus your selling activities.

Learning about this new set of tools you will be reminded, motivated, and pushed to do something more for your sales career and your sales numbers. A sales person needs to grow, to try to reach that next goal and to have a life filled with success in his or her profession, which makes life more worth living.

Selling in 21st Century is a post from: The Science and Art of Selling by Alen Mayer