Sales Training Blog | Colleen Stanley

Salespeople can often get caught up in labeling their calls. Is it cold, warm or hot? Here’s a tip: they all require similar selling skills. A skilled telephone conversation requires the ability to build rapport, deliver a compelling value proposition, and ask good qualifying questions. Here are three ways to enhance your sales conversations – regardless of the temperature.

Build Rapport:
How many of you have hung up the phone with a prospect and said, “I just wasn’t connecting with this person?” You might be focusing on the wrong part of the conversation. The astute salesperson immediately tunes into the non-verbal part of the sales conversation, which accounts for up to 88% of communication when using the telephone.

Top salespeople are masters at matching and mirroring the prospect’s rate of speech as well as specific words being used by the prospect. If the salesperson is speaking to a prospect who speaks slowly, the salesperson speaks slowly. If they have a rapid fire prospect on the phone, the salesperson matches and mirrors by kicking up the pace. The biggest mistake we hear in most sales conversations is salespeople talking much faster than the prospect because of nervousness or lack of focus. The prospect cannot keep up with the conversation, no rapport is built, and no appointment is set. Likeability is the key to moving the sales forward.

Compelling Value Propositions:
The key word is compelling. Most value propositions focus on the salesperson’s organization versus the prospect’s problem; i.e. “We are a 100-year-old firm specializing in blah, blah, blah. We are experts at blah, blah, blah.” The prospect is immediately bored and writes the phone call off as another conversation with a self-centered salesperson.

The well trained salesperson has a customized value proposition designed specifically for the industry and the decision maker. For example, when our organization calls on construction firms, we use statements such as, “We work with construction companies who are tired of going to beauty contests, only to end up in second place.” The phrase “beauty contests” is industry jargon in the construction business. It shows we know their world. Is your sales team integrating statements in their value proposition that show the prospect they understand the prospect’s business or are they using the same phrases for all prospects?

Qualifying Questions:
How many of you have been referred into an account only to discover the prospect has no money or pain? Hot calls need to be qualified just as carefully as a cold call. In fact, they need to be more carefully qualified. A warm introduction often causes salespeople to get sloppy and forget key qualifying questions (after all, they were referred in or the prospect called them). The main question to ask your sales team is: Did you gather information or did you gather evidence of a problem that the prospect is serious about solving?

Whether your lead is being generated by a cold call, introduction or LinkedIn, remember that a solid sales conversation with all of the above ingredients must occur. Build rapport, develop customized value propositions and qualify.

Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley
Chief Selling Officer

Labels: "sales management training", "sales success", cold calling, denver sales training, prospecting, qualifying

We have sent men and women to the moon and we can e-mail across the world. So why can't we figure out how to manage and lead sales teams? One word: process. Most companies operate without integrating three key processes needed for building high performance sales teams:
1. A hiring process.
2. A sales process.
3. A management process.

I often use (and overuse) athletic analogies to make my point in building high-performance sales teams. I believe the world of athletics has done a better job of establishing and using processes in building top-performing teams than business has in building top-performing sales teams.
Let's examine the three processes.

Recruiting (hiring):
Top sports coaches are disciplined in their approach to building teams. They have determined their "need to have" versus "nice to have" criteria. For example, my nephew plays pro football for the Carolina Panthers. While Bruce was in college, the scouts were not willing to sign him until they were convinced that he could reach 300 pounds. Bruce was a great player, which was nice. However, the NFL is disciplined about its need to have 300-pound players.

Many owners and sales managers have not determined the "need to have" for excellence on their teams. Do you need someone with a finance background? Do you need someone who has built a sales territory from scratch? Do you need someone who thrives on new business development versus account maintenance?

Sales managers often settle for nice instead of need. The result can be mediocrity -- not a great strategy for growing companies. Be disciplined when identifying your "need to have" in building your sales team:

1. Hard skills - If you are selling a highly technical product, you may need to have someone that possesses the technical knowledge in order to succeed in your business. You may need someone with major account-selling experience due to your customer profile.

2. Competencies - Identify key competencies needed for this specific position. A highly competitive territory may need a person with tenacity, resilience and initiative. An established territory may need high relationship attributes.

3. Behavior style - Determine the type needed at this time in your company. Do you need a salesperson with a high sense of urgency or one who will work at an even, steady pace?

Playbook (sales process):
"I didn't hire a rookie. I expect them to know how to sell." The is second area of breakdown in building high-performance sales teams: no sales playbook or expectations for sales excellence.
What would happen if Broncos Head Coach Mike Shanahan allowed each of his players to run his own playbook? There would be a lot of running around, with few touchdowns.

It looks the same in business. Sales representatives are running around, calling on unqualified prospects and not accomplishing the goal. Because a sports team has a playbook, coaches can look at post-game films and determine what plays worked, where breakdowns occurred and what to focus on in practice.

Without a sales playbook, the sales manager doesn't know where the sales representative needs to improve or what part of the sales process is not working. A sales process that worked five years ago may not work today.

If sales managers want to build high-performance teams, they must take time to document the company's sales process. This may be a four-step or a 10-step process, depending on the industry and product. Creating a template of a sales process can often take a full day of brainstorming with your team. You must identify and start building best practices in three key areas: activity, knowledge and skills.

What is the activity needed to build and grow business? What are the necessary steps in the sales process? What knowledge is needed for effective client management? If you are not willing to document, be ready to settle for a lot of running around with few touchdowns.

Coaching (sales management):
Training and coaching skills are essential to growing people and teams. Sales managers often get stuck in their manager role and spend too little time in their training and coaching roles. This is the equivalent of a sports coach spending time in his office during basketball practice.
Sports coaches are excellent at having a playbook and making sure their teams execute it. They accomplish this through drills, practice and more practice. They understand that top-performing teams know the plays so well, they can execute without thinking.

Sales managers often receive pushback from their teams when it comes to running practice and drills, i.e. role playing. The excuse given by the team and accepted by the sales manager is "it is not real."

My response is the same: "Neither is basketball practice, but it is as close as you are going to get to the real thing. Stop practicing in front of your prospects." Start running practice sessions with your sales team. Managing numbers and dealing with operation issues are important. However, I haven't seen a sales team improve skills from either of those areas.

Practice sessions can be held at sales meetings, one-on-one coaching sessions or field coaching during a sales call. The point is to let your team know that yours is a culture of continuous learning and improvement. After all, NFL players show up every day for practice, and they have been playing football for years.

Hire the right stuff, build a sales playbook and coach your team to the next sales Super Bowl.

Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley
Cheif Selling Officer, SalesLeadership, Inc.

Labels: "sales process", "sales success", "Sales Success" "price shopping" "price objections" "sales activity" "how to succeed in sales" "sales training" "sales training programs"

The pundits and economists are predicting we are near the bottom of one of the deepest recessions since the depression. One good thing about the bottom is that there is only one other direction: up. How well positioned are you and your sales team for taking advantage of the recovery? Some economists are predicting that it could take four to five years before we are ‘back to where we were.’ What does that mean to sales managers and sales teams? It means upgrading the sales team, getting creative and taking exceptional care of customers.

#1: Check Your Sales Bus:

The much quoted phrase from Jim Collins, author of ‘Good to Great,’ still holds true. “Get the right people on the bus in the right seats.” Getting the right salespeople on the team means looking at two emotional intelligence skills necessary for success in tough, competitive environments.

Flexibility is defined as the ability to adapt to unfamiliar, unpredictable and dynamic circumstances. (Does any of this sound like the last nine months?)

The internet, global economy and Sales 2.0 have created buying environments that are fast-paced and ever changing. Alvin Toffler says it best: “The illiterate of the future are not those who can’t read or write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” How adaptable is your sales team? How good is your sales manager at spotting new trends in the industry and quickly adapting strategy and tactics? The salesperson of the future must be flexible and have the ability to change course.

Impulse Control is defined as the ability to delay an impulse, drive or temptation to act.

Salespeople scoring low in this area often exhibit high levels of frustration. This is a problem in business environments where buyers have been burned, are cautious, and taking longer to make decisions. The easily frustrated salesperson may not invest the appropriate time in building relationships and trust. Low impulse control shows up in prospecting as well. If there is no immediate pay-off, the easily frustrated salesperson quits doing the activity and blames lack of results on the marketing department.

#2: Innovate and Renovate:

Sales teams poised to capture the recovery are done mourning the good ‘ole days. They are creating the new days by figuring out creative ways to close business. The Denver Post recently ran an article on a group of innovative realtors. These realtors changed up the old concept of an open house. One realtor partnered with an art gallery to create a gallery in one of his listings. Another held a charity event at one of her listings. Still another threw a tailgate party at one of his properties. They all used innovative ways to drive traffic to their listing.

Take time to study other industries. Brick and mortar companies can learn a lot from the e-commerce stores in the way of innovation. Zappo’s, an online shoe store, is a brilliant example of innovation. They advertise where they have a ‘captured’ audience: the security line at the airport. There is a Zappo’s advertisement at the bottom of the gray tub where you deposit shoes that are killing your feet after a long day of business. Then you go to the website and find that they address the two biggest e-commerce objections by stating: Free shipping both ways and returns 365 days a year.

Where is a new place that you could place your marketing message? What is the unspoken objection in your business and how are you eliminating it? It’s time to innovate and renovate.

#3: Send a love note to your clients: (okay, a thank you or appreciation note)

There is a great article in the May issue of Selling Power where they interview the CEO of the New Jersey Nets, Brett Yormack. He has taken an under performing franchise and turned it into one of the few that have sold 2,000 full season sponsorships three years in a row. Innovation is one of the reasons as well as exceptional care of the client. On Fan Appreciation Night, the New Jersey turnpike tolls at the stadium exit were paid for by the team for one hour. A nice way of saying thanks to the fans.

I recently experienced the extra mile with a store, The Pine Creek Clothing Company. I made a small purchase, a sweater, which was placed in a lovely canvas bag. The friendly clerk then handed me a water bottle noticing it was a hot day outside. One week later a handwritten note (yes, handwritten) arrived thanking me for my business. I have spent thousands of dollars on vehicles, sound equipment and other stuff with no note acknowledging the exchange of cash. Guess who is getting my repeat business?

Go green and capture the recovery with top salespeople, innovation and client care.


Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley
Chief Selling Officer

Labels: "client appreciation", "economic recovery", "emotional intelligence", "sales success", flexibility, leadership, sales