Guest blog from Robert Terson – author of ‘Selling Fearlessly’

I know a person who is a serial interrupter – and I’m not exaggerating in the slightest; every time I’ve been in his presence it’s been a constant annoying phenomenon. Annoying and blatant to the point that I don’t want to be around him. He’s close to my age, someone I’ve known for many years. I don’t know him that well, but other than that one unpleasant behavior, he seems to be a decent fellow; certainly, from what I’ve observed, a good husband and father.

The man is in sales, has been all his adult life. I’d be willing to bet that his interrupting behavior takes place as much during his working hours as it does socially (a leopard doesn’t change its spots, my mother liked to say). Which makes me wonder: How many “professional” salespeople are out there behaving the same foolish way, socially and professionally?

A good many I’d wager too, and I doubt that any of them are aware of how much money it’s costing them in lost business; or that they’re pissing people off, instead of performing in an effective manner; that their inability to control their mouths and not utilize their ears more is as disgusting as bad breath or body odor.

If it’s so self-defeating, why do they do it? They do it because they have little interest in you or what you think or have to say—it’s all about them, not about you; because they’re so enthralled with themselves that they think you surely must be interested (fascinated?) in what they think and have to say; because they’re so busy getting ready to proffer that next bit of brilliance, that they’re not paying attention to what you’re saying. In many cases, they’re totally oblivious to what you’re saying.

My father used to say, “There’s a good reason we have two ears and only one mouth.” A professional salesperson needs to ask a lot of questions, and after you ask a question, you must listen carefully and not interrupt. Absorb every word as though your life depended on it. Becoming a good listener is vital for a salesperson; it requires great dedication and lots of hard work. If you don’t think so, why is it you can ask someone his name and a minute later you can’t recall what it is? It’s happened to all of us. Careful listening is so rare that it’s become an anachronism.

Finally there’s this: when you interrupt someone, you’re displaying a complete lack of respect towards that individual. If that isn’t the message you want to send, STOP INTERRUPTING!

Robert Terson is author of ‘Selling Fearlessly’ and the Selling Fearlessly blog.

Principled Selling video interview.

Rasheed Ogunlaru, author of ‘Soul Trader – Putting the Heart Back Into Your Business’  interviews David Tovey about Principled Selling in a sunny and breezy Green Park, London.

Proud to be in sales

I had a very interesting telephone conversation with a lawyer this week. When I mentioned sales coaching he said “our partners don’t tend to use the selling word David – they prefer to talk about business development”.

My response was to say that in that case I probably wasn’t the best person to work with his firm (though I have coached hundreds of lawyers) because I do sales, marketing and sales leadership coaching. Personally I’m proud to be called a salesperson and take it as a compliment when I’m told I’m a good salesman  - so I don’t try to dodge the description by dressing up what I do in euphemisms.

Oh I’ve had fancy titles over the years, senior account manager, sales director, marketing director, managing director, consultant, coach and now author – but I’ve always been and am still in sales.

Selling is the exchange of goods and services for money – so in my book we are all in sales. I don’t know of any law firm that went out of business due to lack of legal knowledge but I do know some have because of lack of sales (fee) income. By the way – clients recognise and are OK with professional advisors being in sales. They know that when you call you’d like to win more business, when you go to networking events you’d like to win more business, when you visit or present to them they know you want to win their business. It’s what they have to do in their business.

Dress it up as much as you like but what everyone needs to be good at is making a contribution to winning and keeping clients and customers. I do understand the fear and discomfort with the ‘s’ word – but that is based on myth and misunderstanding of what selling really is.

If how you sell adds real value to your customer or client, you too should be proud to be in sales. I’ve got an appointment to meet the lawyer I mentioned above – hope he wants to talk about selling!

Are you proud to be in sales?

Finding your ‘North’

I’ve always admired the work of Dr Stephen Covey. His books sold by the million’s and his events were always sold out. I last saw him speak in London a year or so before his death in 2012.

As he stood there centre stage as usual, softly spoken but with huge charisma and power, he asked the audience to cover their eyes without peeking. He then asked us to raise our arms and point in the direction of north. As you can imagine, when he asked us to uncover our eyes, laughter filled the theatre when we saw how many different directions 500 + people were pointing!

He went on to ask us to consider what response we might get if we were to randomly stop work colleagues in the corridors of our workplace and ask them this question:

“What are the most important governing principles and values shared by management and employees?”

And then consider if the situation would be so humorous if their answers were as diverse as the direction we were pointing to find north.  It certainly grabbed the attention of most people in the audience, the chuckles stopped and a more thoughtful atmosphere descended.

If you ask a half–dozen or so people about  their view of your organisations principles and values and fail to receive consistent, compatible, and unified answers, then we have to ask if they have been well enough communicated or whether they actually exist at all. In a commercial world where everyone in an organisation needs to be pulling in the same direction this severely limits the ability for a business to thrive.  In the context of winning business, if sales people or business developers don’t have a consistent, compatible and unified approach, they risk conforming to the worst of the salesperson stereotypes. They also risk sales income being inconsistent and not compatible with business objectives.

Customers and clients notice

Some organisations struggle on year in year out not maximising revenue potential without ever realising that it is because the people responsible for winning business either don’t know about or don’t adhere to agreed principles or values. Even if internal people don’t realise it you can rest assured that customers and clients do. They notice every discrepancy between promises made and delivery; they notice every difference between the approach of sales people and other staff.

It often results in organisations needing what Bryony Thomas, author of Watertight Marketing, calls the ‘re-explaining department’. Sometimes the after sales or customer service department grows in proportion to lack of adherence to company principles and values.

How things are done around here

Whether they are written down or not, every organisation has principles and values.  They define ‘how things are done around here’, how people in the organisations behave towards each other and towards customers.  People tend to conform to the behaviours they experience as ‘acceptable’ by their organisation and they look to their management and leadership to set the example.

The ‘how things are done around here’ of Principled Selling is based on five core principles – they form the Principled Selling philosophy. If everyone involved in winning business applies them consistently and effectively, supports the principles with the right sales processes, skills and behaviours; it is the easiest way to maximise profitable sales growth. No room for misunderstanding, no stereotypical sales behaviours and customers that become clients for life.

The five principles:

1. Motivate don’t manipulate
2. Invest in relationships to build trust
3. Be congruent
4. Be authentic
5. Be human

You can read more about the five principles here.

What core principles do you and your organisation apply to winning business?

Asking insightful questions is a key communication skill for business winners and leaders. Why?

1)    Insightful questions can cause another person to reflect, and think deeply about issues that your questions made them aware of.

2)    Great questioning allows you to lead a conversation with a light touch – keeping it on track with leadership skills not sales techniques.

3)    Great questions create better communication and help to build a trusted relationship.

4)    Great questions motivate because the recipient discovers answers for themselves and ‘own’ the solution.

5)    Great questions allow you to fully understand the client’s world and enable you to identify the right solution.

6)    Great question focus on opportunities and horizon issues not just today’s challenges.

Asking great questions is a life skill that needs to be developed and practiced – get together with your team and get even better at asking insightful questions.

What do you and your team do to get better at asking questions?

Getting under the iceberg

“Seek first to understand then to be understood” –  Dr Stephen Covey

When groups I work with explain the most common reason for them or their colleagues losing a sale, the answer is almost always ‘price’. When they describe how they won their best customers, they never give one-word answers.

When people explain how they won their best clients, their faces and voices tend to brighten up and they become animated as they enthusiastically share their stories about winning a great client.

‘We invested time getting to know them.’

 ‘We really understood their requirements.’

 ’We got deep insight into their business and critical success factors.’

 ‘There was a good fit – the right chemistry between us.’

 ‘Our proposal was right on the button.’

 ’Our presentation was like poetry in motion.’

 ’There was a negotiation about price as you’d expect – we were both happy with what was agreed.’

 ‘It was hard work but fun.’

 The iceberg principle

The iceberg principle is a term use to describe the writing style of Ernest Hemingway the American writer. He learned to write in a surface level way where he omitted or hinted at the real point of a story. Hemingway believed that the true meaning of a piece of writing should not be evident at the surface level because the crux of a story lies below the surface. Sometimes known as the theory of omission it provided him with a very distinctive but often frustrating style of writing.

When people begin a new relationship they tend to share information that is in the same style as Hemingway – they give their surface level story, only sharing the full picture with those close to them or people they trust.

You don’t have to be a ship’s captain to know that an iceberg is only around 10% above the water with 90% lying under the surface. For a ship it is the 90% that the Captain doesn’t see that is the dangerous part. The iceberg principle also applies to business relationships. Most prospects have their stories of ‘omission’ – the information about themselves and their business that they share with people they only have surface level relationships with. It isn’t an attempt to deceive or catch you out; it is just what normal people do.

The risk is that a relationship is often sunk before it can flourish, not because of lack of understanding about the surface story, the prospects story of omission, but a lack of understanding about the full picture.

To win a dream client you have to be the one who they allow to get beyond their story of omission and who gains the insight that comes from getting below their iceberg.

How to avoid a misunderstanding

In a previous blog I explored the need to ask for commitment without resorting to tired and outdated ‘closing’ techniques.  To avoid falling back on to what can appear to be pressure tactics, the seller and buyer need to move through the sales process at the same pace – and the seller needs to know the answers to eight commercial questions.

The illustration below refers to a typical sales journey from first sign of an opportunity to getting a ‘yes’. However long that journey is, a week, a month or a year – the tandem cycle represents the buyer and seller moving through each stage together.

Too often there is a mismatch between the motivation of the seller and buyer which leads to the seller trying to push or pull the potential client at a pace they find uncomfortable and therefore they resist.

That resistance is often described by sales people as an ‘objection’ and so they learn objection handling techniques which have stock answers prepared for all the objections they have heard before. As each objection is ticked off the salesperson gets closer to another ‘close’.  It sounds, looks and feels like pressure.

The mismatch between the buyers and sellers understanding of where they are in the sales journey often arises because the sales person fails to ask some fundamental commercial questions early enough in the relationship. The seller makes assumptions based on how well they thought a meeting went or how well they got on with the clients, basing their judgement on emotion rather than more objective qualification.

Commercial questions

Even seasoned salespeople and ‘rainmakers’ seem to be reluctant to ask these eight key commercial questions. It’s not knowing the answers that often leads to poor qulification of an opportunity or a mismatch of expectations about moving to the next stage of the sales journey.

1. Budget and money
2. The basis on which the decision wil be made
3. The decision making process
4. Timing
5. Competitors
6. Alternatives
7. Current suppliers
8. Critical success factors driving the decision.

 There is no substitute for effective qualification, throughout the sales journey. At every stage you must ask yourself whether the prospect is likely to buy, when they are likely to buy, if they are likely to buy from you and even if the opportunity is actually worth winning.

The best sales people and ‘rainmakers’ qualify rigorously and repeatedly throughout the sales journey so that they ensure there is no chance of a misunderstanding or risk that they will resort to a few smart questions, a touch of pressure and start ‘closing’ for business.

Listen to David Tovey’s RainToday.com podcast

Get better at asking

You won’t win business unless you know how to ask for commitment from your customers or clients.

There is sometimes a perception that gaining commitment is about doing things to prospects – persuading, convincing, being gung ho, handing objections, moving things forward and ‘closing’ the deal. It’s a perception based on the very worst example of how to sell and is based on the misplaced belief that anyone involved ‘selling’ should remember their ABC   ”Always Be Closing“.

The ABC approach is uncomfortable for buyer and seller; it puts both under pressure and is most definitely not client centric.

The client controls the timing

Unless you plan to brow beat a prospective client or customer into taking action now it is vital to acknowledge (if you want a client for life) that they control the timing of when they make a commitment.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m all for taking action to develop an opportunity, but using pressure to push someone into taking action now at best is likely to result in a single transaction and often leads to early buyer’s remorse. Given that customer resistance to traditional sales methods is so well documented in this blog and elsewhere, how do you gain commitment to move a relationship forward to the point where a prospect becomes a client?

Lead with a light touch and earn the right to ask for commitment.

Light touch leadership

The best leaders inspire others to take action. The energy to take action, the motivation, comes from the team or from individuals.  It is no different when you want to move forward towards gaining a commitment from a customer or client. The energy, the motivation must come from them.

Light touch leadership allows circumstances that get you closer to a commitment to gradually unfold. It doesn’t involve pressure of any kind, just a well structured meeting and application of key skills and behaviours. As the meeting leader your objective is to achieve an outcome that is right for the client and for you.

The diagram below outlines how to structure a typical one hour meeting that will allow you to lead and earn the right to ask for a commitment.

Earn the right to ask for a commitment

When you demonstrate genuine interest and show that you fully understand the clients’ world, you build trust. When a prospect trusts you they will share insightful information with you that will allow you to evaluate how you can help them and make a judgement about what value you can add. Throughout the ‘explain’ part of the meeting you should be adding real value – free advice, explaining how you helped a client in a similar situation, something you could offer to send after the meeting.

When the potential client or customer trusts you and recognises you have added real value – then you have earned the right to ask for a commitment.

And ask you must – there is nothing worse than raising the expectations of a potential client, motivating them and then leaving them wondering why they invested time in meeting with you.  Asking for a commitment is part of your leadership role in the meeting. The key is to ask for a commitment that is appropriate to the customers’ circumstances and to how you or your solution can help them.

Get the words right

When you have decided on what you consider to be the best way forward – make a suggestion. Suggest a follow up meeting, suggest a demonstration, suggest a trial, suggest a delivery date. Whatever commitment you suggest it must involve the prospect in taking action so practice the words you use with colleagues. Be familiar and comfortable with suggesting a way forward and you will win more business without ever ‘closing’.

If you would like help with asking for commitment or would like to know more about winning more business with Principled Selling, you can contact David Tovey here.

Five tips to make your selling life easier and more profitable in 2013:

Start the year with these five key actions, put Principled Selling into action and win more business!

1. Harness the power of the internet and social media to build relationships with your target market and maintain relationships with existing customers.

2. Ditch the product brochures and develop valuable content that you share free of charge to demonstrate your competence and credibility.

3. Don’t cold call. Build relationships with target prospects by providing valuable content.

4. Be absolutely sure that you can deliver on your sales and marketing promise

5. Focus on relationship building skills, not on techniques to manipulate a relationship.