Can I have your attention please?

Can I have your attention please?

Listening is an extremely important attribute while selling, You would have to pay complete attention to contemplate the prospects perspective. People who listen effectively only sell effectively. While on a sales call the sales rep is busy preparing what they need to say next rather than paying attention. This is because they are not ready to handle the objections.

The secret trait to the top successful sales people is listening effectively and question skillfully.

While on a sales call or visit it is important for the sales rep to be prepared in taking notes, while most customers say the same thing it is important you make note of key words, phrases which separates them and helps solve the purpose. Ensure that you use them and repeat the key words and phrases they used to build rapport and make your prospect feel that you have been attentive.

Always accompany and take feedback from colleague/ boss about the sales calls you have taken. Ask them to rate the call and where you could have done better. Ensure that you get a record of all your calls for evaluation and hold a calibration session where you can collate the feedback.

An average human mind cannot pay attention for not more than five minutes because your mind starts to explore. You could also practice meditation and yoga for improving attention and seeking clarity on things. You will be able to evaluate things from several perspectives.

Happy Selling!

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Firm Leadership

Firm Leadership:

While it is extremely important to achieve firm sales targets it is indeed important to exercise your authority at times. Reprimanding is an option no one likes however it is essential to unleash your authority depending upon the situation. There is always a thin line which should never be crossed. This is not taught in any MBA curriculum you have to learn live on the field.

If you adhere to the below mentioned guidelines you can command respect and also exercise your powers.

Be clear in your communication, it is quite stressful to manage ambiguous situations however providing  clarity on goals and the process of achieving them should be clear, Always be proactive in asking for feedback and clarifying the doubts so the fundamentals of managing the team is clear.

Be proactive in pushing the team members to take help from you while they run in to problems, It is always advisable that they are open and honest about the mistakes and communicated to you promptly, So you could avoid any disappointments later. This helps you improve high morale in the team.

Avoid procrastination, Jump instantly in to the problems which the team is facing and try to steer it away or fix it, for example a customer is unhappy don’t just push it off to the service team, try to take the responsibility.

It is always in the toughest times the true reflection and character of your direct reports will be displayed. You would always encourage people to take risks and try to think out of the box and give the liberties to experiment. This will help them grow professionally and increase high morale in the team.

So by following the above steps you could create strong morale in the team which will give you consistent results. You could also view my other post "fighting your quote through".

Happy Selling!

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Fighting your quotation through!

Fighting your quotation through!

It is quite frustrating when you know that your client is requesting for quotations from several other firms for the same product and you could lose the business because of the price, since the client wants it regardless of who would provide the service.

When you are stuck in bidding war it is important that you not talk about the price but also focus on the actual service and value he would be receiving, you could also ask him to show you the quotes he received and explain how it would benefit him from buying our services and the value we provide. Always insist on getting the quotation from the customer and then you could get the competitor quote reviewed and get an approval for closure.

It works because when you are investing time to help the customer and create rapport you will be personalizing the service/product as per his needs help him choose what is best for him and you would also be able to talk about loyalty, customer experience, quality, ease of doing business and reliability. Once you are able to explain how it benefits the client it will be easy for you to close.

You could also view my other article "Disqualify the lead".

Happy Selling!

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Disqualify the lead

Disqualify your lead

Sales qualification is crucial because follow up plays a vital role in your daily rigmarole. Most of us get tired when we endlessly follow up on with clients who are extremely busy and they do not care to reciprocate their disinterest firmly. This makes the pipeline more robust however it does not often results in closure.

As we are aware that the industry standard closure is about 10% to 20% depending on the industry. Every sales professional time has a cost involved to the company so he needs to choose his follow up’s carefully. The process of tailor made emails, phone calls, visits, is going to be eliminated once you identify that these clients are stealing your valuable time and resulting in disappointment.

Always try to qualify in the initial interactions where you would have a vague idea if the suspect will turn to a prospect. In order to find the non buyers you could ask questions and also evaluate the buying potential of the client. The top sales personal have always spent quality time disqualifying leads which would burden the pipeline and drain away your energies, instead focus on hunting new profiles and follow up with clients with relevant information would reap big results.

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selling while presenting!

Selling while presenting

When you are presenting your product or service to the potential client and while flipping from slide to slide you would need to consider several factors which could ensure that the audience is not only attentive but also deliver your unique selling proposition.

While presenting data, relate with laymen examples which helps the potential client to paint a picture of how he would gain advantage after using your services. When you find any one disinterested kindly pause the presentation so you could ask for their thoughts on the subject which helps voice out the reason for their resistance. You could then clarify their thoughts and then proceed with the session.

Always remember it is not only important to sell your product but also focus on why this product must be bought from you only, and why now. You could add things like your expertise in the particular domain and how you have helped customers in the similar industry overcome some common problems due to your high quality standards, etc.  Selling the product is just the first thing your focus must be about why the product must be bought from you only.

Happy Selling!

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Managing Introverts in Sales

Managing Introverts in Sales

According to a recent survey more than one thirds of the world population are Introverts. Managing them in sales quite is tough; don’t be surprised by looking at the world’s top introvert prominent leaders.

People recharge themselves by being silent and need periods of solitude in order to be creative and productive. Mostly these employees prefer to eat alone, be quiet at team meetings and avoid gossip completely, but when you are in a problem they are the one’s who can come up with a great idea.
While managing Introverts you would need to give them time to think and gather their thoughts and the chances of getting great ideas are more. Take feedback at regular intervals when you have given them adequate time to think through it. Ensure that you provide them with adequate space for them to come up with appropriate solutions. Silence is really a big thing because he is already coming up with a plan.
In the era of virtual communication leverage social media usage is maximum with introverts, freedom to express ideas and writing out a response is more appealing to introverts.
Give them the time and support them to present their ideas and while recruiting charismatic extroverts don’t neglect the quite one’s to help you grow strategically.
These important tips for managing introverts aren't a to belittle or to pamper to help bring out the best, whose talents and strengths can greatly benefit organizations and help businesses grow.
Happy Selling !

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Inside sales – Introverts

Inside sales – Introverts

All through it is mostly perceived that sales people should have an extrovert personality and the ability to display resilience attitude amongst others. We also try to include MBTI (Myers Briggs type indicator) assessment while interviewing candidates. However a little latitude is provided when you working at Inside sales, Personally I look at these qualities where a candidate takes time out to read and educate himself or stuck with the rigmarole, if the candidate takes time out to come up with creative solutions, you may not be eager or lack enthusiasm to stand up or volunteer proactively and wait for people to take your opinion and send cues to focus on your thoughts and attention inwardly.

I like hiring introverts because they are someone who enjoys reflecting on their thoughts and avoid unnecessary social chit chat. The only challenge is that you will not be a conversation starter and people may perceive you as someone superior these areas have to be honed. You would need to reveal your thoughts and feelings by being true to your personality and not seem antisocial.
You could also look at my other article "managing introverts in sales".
Happy Selling!

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Inside Sales quality – Achieve 100% and maximize revenue

Inside Sales quality – Achieve 100% and maximize revenue

For Inside sales managers:

“Winning is not everything, but the effort to win is” - Anonymous

Every one aspires to have successful sales careers but keeping aside the office politics, is there a measurement criterion to evaluate your every move. Would it give you consistent growth? As an Inside sales manager you would need to gauge and create a very strong script which should not just cover technical features and appropriate rebuttals but also pitch relevant qualification questions which helps us to understand the customer. And once you have the script ready you should ensure all the inside sales representatives are strong at performing it without missing any detail in the script,  There should be a certain amount of weightage given to the energy on the call and the genuine urge to help the customer. 

Once you confirm a final script for your team then your representatives would need to repeat this activity day in and day out with every single customer. Ensure that this activity is recorded and evaluated and opinionated by an unbiased auditor. Start rewarding the team’s top performers to encourage inside sales representatives and play their calls to ensure 100% participation to achieve the highest quality scores and you will start seeing phenomenal results. I would like to reiterate that there shouldn’t be any possibility of a customer conversation happening which is bucketed outside the category criteria. Once you are able to achieve it then the combat is about overcoming objections.
You would need to conduct a workshop and only handling objections and jot down the best statements which should be replicated and rehearsed. All your energies need to focus on successfully handling the objection.

You may want to look at my other articles like " The wolf of wallstreet is asking you to sell a pen"
happy Selling!

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The wolf of Wall Street is asking you …. “Sell me this pen”.

The wolf of Wall Street is asking you …. “Sell me this pen”.

Since the inception of my sales career at every sales interview it is the most used common question which was asked “Sell me this pen” I used to start bragging about the features and then relate why this pen was an advantage to buy over others and then move to how it is going to benefit to the customer. Now Sales is not like writing a line of code managing a balance sheet or knowing an answer to a particular questio, Sales is mostly about the resilience factor. Your ability to handle every objection and combat it with an appropriate solution and still there are many customers who will not buy.

My Irish sales trainer Noirin told me that she did not want to use the pen to write, she wants to place it in the fancy coffee mug on the office table. The importance of profiling is very essential but sometimes curtails the liberty of the customer to choose. There have been quite a few cases where the customers get confused “ This happens when you try to sell Once a friend tried to sell a $500 K Big data solution and just because there was pressure to up sell the add on’s he ended up confusing and losing the sale.
I also heard a few sales people use strategy called convince, confuse or cheat. Convincing is fine but the other two horrific words confuse and cheat is a definite NO. This strategy is never good for you or the company, because the post sales division is going to be face challenges and it would be an unpleasant experience and may result in big losses/ legal penalties for companies.
So when you sell it is not just about features, advantages and benefits but also assure him about post sales, Always pressurizing for a budget would also not be ideal and if you find resistance don’t push them. Most of the men I know don’t plan budget they just go buy for the features or specific quality.
Hence I would say that the priority is not just about handling objections and answering standard rebuttals but to understand that and not every customer is the same, Listen carefully, look out for cues to relate and questioning skilfully and again look out for cues and create an analysis and read out what he stated by constantly assuring him what he said he wanted and you bundle it together and send him a quote. This model will help you reach your quota and improve customer satisfaction which can guarantee referral business as bonus.
You may read my other articles like "The sales mantra".
Happy Selling!

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Storytelling -- A Sales art

Storytelling -- An Inside Sales art

Gone those days when granny used to tell bed time stories to children which embarked strong moral values in to the children’s physiological system. I started playing lullabies from you tube for my daughter which put her to sleep. No matter how you would use technology to your advantage selling is definitely a human thing, You would need to integrate a lot of factors like your previous success stories, your expertise in helping similar customers, testimonials, case studies which were executed, awards.

Storytelling is a very powerful way to share knowledge. A good story like the one in a television commercial will make it people not just talk but also emotionally connect and inspire them to change. Stories stay in the mind with a powerful meaning rather than reading out just technical product features. It leads to rich conversations and efficient results, your connect with the customers stays on and most likely generate repeat and referral business.
A corporate story helps customers understand the direction in which the business is heading. The classic way to tell a story begins with an current scenario or an opening scene and then how the crisis began and how you helped companies enable their services and your differentiators and then you move to the climax, invite questions and then go for the close.
You could also look at articles like "the wolf of wallstreet is asking to sell the pen"

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