When You Should Say No - 3 Reasons to Fire a Customer
Written by Brandon Hull on August 26, 2008
Jan recently sent out a question to the LinkedIn crowd, asking when it’s okay, or even necessary, to say no to a client or prospect. He got a good response, too.
(Side lesson: ask good questions, get thoughtful answers.)
A quick cross-section of answers from an extraordinary group of individuals follows (but read the thread to see who said what and to get everyone’s full explanations).
After reading all the replies, we thought we’d highlight the most compelling.
3 Reasons to Fire Your Customer
It’s OK to say no to a client:
1. When You Would Be Comprising Legal & Ethical Standards
Douglas Marlow said: “It’s okay to say no in a situation where you may be breaking the law, taking a bribe, paying a bribe, compromising your own morals or religious beliefs, or where it will embarrass or hurt the feelings of another.”
2. When You Would Be Compromising Quality Standards
Kelly Karius said: “When time doesn’t permit for you to do a proper job for them.” We thought this was a tremendous addition to the conversation. It was echoed by Len Mastrapa, who said: “When he/she requests from you what you know right off the bat you cannot & will not deliver…”
Read the full post
The Best $100 You Ever Spent in Sales
Written by Jan on August 14, 2008
We had a little fun over at LinkedIn - and asked fellow sales people about what they considered the best $100 they ever spent.
Here are a few of the responses. Comments are open - what has been the best $100 you ever spent? Read the full post
Think You’re Different from Your Competition? I Bet You’re Not
Written by Brandon Hull on August 12, 2008
Do you realize how boring your industry has become?
Probably not. You deal with it every day. You dream up seemingly innovative ways to sell your products or services. Your differences with competitors are clear to you.
Problem is, your customers likely don’t see it. You and your competitors are virtually identical. There’s only the slightest of superficial differentiation.
Rarely enough to justify switching. That’s why they stay with you or with them. It’s why you’re not closing even more deals.
My suggestion: push the envelope. If you can influence the fulfillment of your product (how it’s packaged, delivered, or serviced), do so radically. If you can’t influence it, change the playing field in buyers’ eyes.
Change the way your products are perceived by customers by changing how they evaluate their current service and how they approach the problems they think they’re solving with your products and services.
Focus all of your communication, from beginning to end during the sales process, on changing how your industry is seen. Re-position everything so that you are carrying the flag for the industry into the new wave of doing things.
Read the full post
Making Prospects Feel Like They Want This
Written by Brandon Hull on August 11, 2008
Book after book has been written about the art of persuasion. “Be passionate,” they say. “Know your audience,” they exhort. “Ask questions to find out what people want,” we’re taught. “Give ample evidence for your position,” they preach.
But the reality is, we’re shortcutters in life. More and more people ignore fine details in their decision-making and go with what feels right. Sure, they’ll listen to the details, but they don’t play as much into the final decision as we all think. And honestly, who has time for details. This is a get-it-about-right world we live in. Everything is beta.
Basic Principles for Handling Price Issues
Written by Brandon Hull on August 8, 2008
The conversation over how to quote and when to quote can easily be summarized. I keep things simple by following these disciplines in face-to-face selling:
Don’t quote a price on your service until you understand the customer’s situation completely and it plays to your strengths.
Don’t quote a price on your product until/unless you know you can back it up with better service (that’s easily validated by existing customers) and with better support, and these things matter to the customer.
You want to avoid, as far as possible, the quote-and-run, show-up-and-throw-up, spray-and-pray tactics employed by, even today in 2008, most sales professionals.
Steer clear of prospects wanting immediate, up-front pricing, or find ways to screen them out earlier in the process. And sprint towards anyone wanting to honestly evaluate the strengths and advantages of similar competitors.
5 Specific Things You Can Control in Sales
Written by Brandon Hull on August 7, 2008
I posted back in March to Focus on things you can control.
Here are five specific things you can control that should dominate your mind. These aren’t my original thoughts, they are excerpted from Michael Boylan’s The Power to Get In.
1. Your confidence level in the product, service, proposal, or idea you have to offer.
Do you realize how many sales professionals still try to wing it on pure logic and product features? You’ve not only got to know your product or service cold, you’ve got to know how it specifically helps a buyer. Specifically.
Then, you’ve got to be absolutely sold, on a very personal level, that what you offer provides tremendous value–even over and above the cost of the product itself.
2. Your confidence level in yourself.
It’s a shame this one has to be listed. Any given day, any given moment, you’ve got to be able to walk in and talk with any individual with unwavering confidence in yourself. We’re not talking arrogance here, but confidence. You’ve got all the talent you need, all the knowledge and training. Now go act like it, don’ t just think it. You can be kind, caring, compassionate, friendly and understanding…and still be a competitive bulldog. You can be a “people-person” and still be someone people don’t play games with. Believe in yourself.
3. The naturalness of your approach.
Can’t overemphasize this one. Win people over. Be excited to see them. Build connections on legitimate grounds. Smile and be ready to help and serve, not sell. Adapt your approach to the personalities of the people you encounter. Be real. You control whether you’re stiff and boring, or alive and engaging. You can be scripted, or natural. You own it. Read the full post
18 Questions You Must Answer to Grow Existing Business
Written by Brandon Hull on August 7, 2008
Do you want to grow your existing accounts?
There are 18 basic questions you should answer to begin crafting your action plan to do that. We’ve listed them in this post.
Please feel free to leave your feedback or additional questions in the comments!
- Do you and your team have regular conversations with your primary contact’s boss?
- Do you know and occasionally speak with your primary contact’s boss’s boss?
Read the full postBe a Contributor, Not a Sales Rep
Written by Brandon Hull on August 6, 2008
I really like this post from Derek over at Polyester Free.He tells us that companies are looking for experts to solve problems, not sales reps that close deals.
He scales down the Jim Collins thinking behind his Fast Company article, Built to Flip, by saying:
The single most lethal flaw in selling as a professional happens when the salesperson focuses on themselves rather than their customer or prospect.
Are You Cohesive?
Written by Brandon Hull on August 1, 2008
We’ve just talked about being adhesive. How about being more cohesive?(Don’t go to the typical dictionaries to remind yourself what cohesiveness or cohesion is. Go here or here for definitions that fit our context.)
Here’s my definition: you are cohesive if you’ve got your behind-the-scenes colleagues working on your behalf. If your coworkers (sales support personnel, administrative assistants, controllers, general manager, and everyone else who can cut you slack or weigh you down) feel “stuck” to you, if you make them feel a part of your success, you build cohesion between them and you.
3 Categories of Sales Prospects
Written by Jan on August 1, 2008
In our Prospect Management Report, a sales tool you can download over at our sister site called SalesTeamTools, there’s a feature called the “Likelihood Gauge”. The purpose of it is to cause salespeople to really size up a prospect based on criteria, not feel.If you never use our Prospect Management Report or any similar tool, this information is still worthwhile, so listen up!
The reality is, all prospects fall into one of three categories:
- Those with whom you have no shot at the business. (And if you knew this, you would stop hounding them immediately…)
- Those with whom you will get the business. (Unless something goes catastrophically wrong…)
- Those with whom you have at least some chance at the business. (Winning the business is up in the air, it’s yours to win or lose…)
Wouldn’t life be easy if you knew which category every one of your prospects fell into? Well, stay with me, you can. I’m going to outline criteria that will help guide you as to whether you should be spending time pursuing a prospect. Read the full post
