Sales Chump

No, I’m not crazy.  Objections are good.  Very rarely will you find yourself in a sales presentation that the potential customer really has no objections.  Sometimes they just yes you to death to get through it with no real intention of buying.  So how do we bring these out the right way?

First, I find objections as a sign of a smart buyer.  A buyer who has no questions or objections means 1 of 2 things:

1. You talked way too much and didn’t ask the customer questions
2. Very naive buyer who can’t say no

Neither of which are really a solid sales approach.  From time to time you will have those customers that a piece of cheese could have sold.  Those aren’t the kind of sales you should focus on as the reality of this is that this situation will rarely come around.  A naive buyer will result in someone that will be calling you quite a bit after the sale is completed with questions and/or complaints.

Don’t fear objections, welcome them.  It is a lot easier to handle objections early in the sales process rather than later.  You can do this a variety of ways.  The best is open ended questions.  You can start with a direct question: Do you feel this would fit your needs?  Don’t move on to closing, there might be other things.

• What about this product do you feel suits your needs?

Then build the value about that particular point.  Ask them other questions: What else is important to you when selecting…?

The last thing you want is to find yourself near the end of the sales process fitting one need but missing 2 of the more important ones which will bring objections and they may arise at a time that is too late to save the sale.

Too many sales reps fear rejection and try to steer away from objections.  Bringing out objections the customer has shows the customer that you actually care about what is good for them.  Sometimes you will find that you saved a future sale or sales by not selling something the customer would not need by realizing their true objections.

Bringing out objections early in the sales process also will help keep false objections from coming up where the customer just makes up reasons not to buy.  They feel comfortable with you and know they can share the real reasons they don’t feel comfortable with something and won’t feel pushed into something they don’t want to do.

So don’t try to bury customer objections, welcome them with open arms and you will find your relationship much stronger with the customer and will have built trust up.  You may not have something that will fit what they need today, but you never know what the future will bring and you don’t want to miss future opportunities.

Too many times I hear sales reps getting frustrated with slow sales or being stuck at a certain level without being able to increase it.  I ask what they are doing differently to help them get over their hump.  Most answers go something like, “nothing, I’m doing the same thing I always do, why?”

Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.  Why would anyone expect to do better or different by doing the same thing?  If your drowning or stuck at a sales plateau, change it up!

A football coach wouldnt’ keep calling the same play if it wasn’t working.  If play after play a running back was trying to run it up the middle with little or no gain, the coach would call another play.  Maybe a run outside, a pass play, or option.  Anything but running it up the middle.

Sales isn’t much different.  There are many things that can be changed in sales.  If you work on large corporations, start calling on smaller businesses or vice versa.  Change your script up, even something witty just added in, can change the whole mood.  “I know the last thing you wanted to do was listen to a sales pitch over the phone, but I’m confident if I can speak to you for just 2 minutes you will see the value it what I am offering.”  If you are going door to door, change your outfit.  If you pitch a certain benefit or competitive advantage, find another one you can use.  If you make 100 calls a day, make 120.  If you have 3 appointments, make 4.  If you knock on 50 doors, knock on 60.

The point is, something has to change or the end result won’t.  Don’t blame other things on your poor performance until you try some different approaches.

I’m not going to beat around the bush or try to make cold calls out to be better than they are… cold calling sucks.  There I said it.  I’m a sales rep and I hate to cold call.  How many of you enjoy it?  If more than 1 of 10 people said yes, I would say there’s something wrong.  It’s not that as sales people we don’t like making new contacts, it’s more of a psychological thing.

I know as a sales rep myself I fear rejection.  This is something I’ve worked out of my system and no longer fear it.  If you complete a good sales process, you will know whether or not a deal will go through.  But I digress from the point of this blog/rant…. cold calls suck.

While cold calling leads isn’t fun, sometimes we find ourselves having to do it to generate new prospects.  Referrals and being an “order taker” is nice but it doesn’t always work out that way.  At some point in your sales career you will cold call. While after a while you can use your customers to generate hot leads and give you referrals, a cold call at some point in time is going to be required.

For example, the other day one of my customers (which was a complete cold call right out of the phone book) referred another franchisee who owned several more locations.  While I get a lot of referral business now, my referrals all started from a cold call at some point when I look back at it.

So what is the point of this rant you ask? I’m getting there…

When you are cold calling, you most likely don’t have much information about the decision maker or the business.  You will find yourself having to work on bypassing the gatekeeper and various other things.  There are some things that can make your cold call easier:

1. Goal for Sales Call - Have a goal in mind for your cold call… what do you want to accomplish on this call?
2. Know the Business You’re Calling - Have an idea of what this business does and what is important to them.
3. They Aren’t Expecting Your Call - Remember they weren’t expecting your call today, that you are interrupting their day.

There are many other things that will help you on your cold call.  For me I have these goals in mind when making my first cold call to a lead:

1. Get Decision Maker name and email
2. How High of a Priority This Decision Is
3. Time to go further in depth about the product

While cold calls aren’t the best thing in the world.  Good things do come from them when the right approach is taken.  If you have to make cold calls, make sure you have clear goals laid out for the call, know the business you’re calling, and realize you are interrupting their day to talk to them.

As always, please chime in with tips that you may have for cold calls.

I hear time and time again a sales rep calling up a prospect or customer and saying things like:  I just wanted to check in with you, I just wanted to touch base or I was just follow up.  I cringe every time. 

Before any call or any appointment, a clear cut goal must be laid out.  This may sound silly but you need to know what you are trying to accomplish other than getting the sale.  There will be different goals and objectives depending how far along the sales process you are.

For example, if your making your first call, what is the goal of this call?  It may be to get a name of a decision maker, send out an information packet with a scheduled call back or appointment time, get a bill to do a savings analysis, or it may be to make a sale.  Your pitch will vary for all of these and you will be much less effective if you don’t know what that pitch or goal is.

My bigger pet peave is after a sales rep has made contact and they are “following up” on that contact.  What is the point of the follow up?  Is it to review the pricing, the terms, see if the contact has read the information, make an appointment, etc?  There are so many variables here that you won’t be able to plan for so knowing before the call what you want the outcome to be will help keep you on the right path. 

Sales reps that have clear cut goals before each contact is made with a prospect or customer have much more success than those that don’t.  Write a list of the most common goals you want to achieve on most of your phone calls and write scripts for each.  Be aware of what you want out of each call and watch your sales grow.

Negotiating may be the most important process in sales besides for closing because this generally determines how much money you will make on a deal.  No matter if you’re dealing with a purchasing manager, owner, controller or other, chances are in some part of the sales process they will try to get a lower rate or better terms on their deal.  If they do try to negotiate, this should be viewed as a positive because it means they are serious about buying. 

The main point in negotiating is to have a win win for both parties involved.  So, if you give something, take something as well.  This may sound impossible in some instances but here are some examples.  If a prospect wants to get a lower price with everything else constant, a good win win may be to honor the lower rate but only if they sign today or in a set amount of time (the shorter the better).  Make sure to have them agree to this time frame and stick to it.  If the prospect thinks you are weak, or you don’t stick to your agreed deadlines, they will continue to try to take advantage of you.

Another example if the prospect is trying to lower the price is a response of:  I will lower the price to X but you will have to buy X amount more or extend the term of the contract by X days/months/years.  With this agreement the prospect gets the lowered rate but you are able to sell them more or extend the time they are contracted to buy from you.  It’s a win win.

Most prospects or current customers will try to lower their prices and open up the conversation of a lower price.  Be prepared and stand firm.  Most of the time if you don’t budge they will still sign a deal.  They are just pre-dispositioned to try.  Don’t be so quick to adjust your numbers just to make a sale unless you get something in return.  Your customer or prospect will respect you more and you will make more money.