Selling to Consumers | Sales Training Blog by Skip Anderson

Why "3 for $99" is Worth Much More than $99 to a Seller

You sell products or services to consumers. Let's say you're offering a widget on sale this week for $33. And you sell some throughout the day or week this widget is on sale. That's good for business.

But what's even better for business is to offer those same widgets at 3 for $99. Of course, this makes sense because a lot of customers will buy three of them, thus increasing your revenue.

But here's the real reason to adopt a "3 for $99" mindset in appropriate nooks and crannies of your business-to-consumer sales operation. You are setting up an opportunity to say this to your prospect or shopper:

"You can do 3 for $99, OR, you can save even more money and get 6 for $198, do you want to do that?

I know this isn't feasible for all B2C segments, but for some, this concept will have an impact on a company's revenue. Assuming that my suggestion is feasible for your particular business, then depending upon the industry and the product or service you are selling, you will find that anywhere from one out of ten prospects to ten out of ten prospects will take you up on your proposal. Just imagine what this could do for your top line!

Here are some potential examples:

> Your a men's clothing retailer so you offer a certain collection of dress shirts at two for $75, but you offer to sell four for $150.

> You're a plumbing and heating contractor and you have a special on toilets sold in the home for (I have no idea what toilets sell for these days, especially when installed, so bear with me) $395 instead of $450, but then you say, "or you can do a second toilet and do both of them for only 790. Some consumers will reason that, as long as you're already there replacing a broken toilet, I might as well go ahead and get a new toilet in the guest bathroom as well."

> You sell dog treats in your pet supply store. A special section of premium treats are $1.49 each, but you post a sign saying "2 for $2.75." When your shopper picks up two and lays them on your counter to purchase them, you say "If you want, you can get 4 for $5.50 and save even more money, do you want to do that?" You're surprised but pleased when the prospect puts eight dog treats on the cash counter.

Of course, the magic isn't in the exact quantity or the exact price in these scenarios, it's the concept. If it makes sense with your product in your industry, you can utilize this selling strategy to easily upsell many of your clients / customers.

How have you used this strategy successfully in your business? Or how do you think it could be used? Please share your thoughts or pass along additional examples of the concept.

  

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Deciding: The Salesperson's Very First Step In Selling

A few minutes ago, I decided to take a break from what I was doing at my desk. I consciously told my body to move my chair back away from my desk, then I told my legs and arms to lift me out of my chair, and then I told my legs to transport me to the restroom.

Notice the word "decided" in the first sentence above. None of us will ever take a break from what we're doing at our desk unless we decide to do it first. The precursor to movement away from a desk is a decision made in our mind. In fact, it has to be made in our mind before we can execute the movement.

Successful selling is no different. 

> We can decide to be successful or we can decide to be unsuccessful (we can also decide to be tentative, to not put in too much effort, to wait and see what happens, etc. - each will bring a different result).

> We can decide to craft an effective presentation or we can decide to wing in (which may feel good to us, but will probably result in less success).

> We can decide to improve our sales closing skills or we can keep doing what we're doing ( in which case we will almost certainly get the same result)s.

> We can decide to become a better manager by improving communications with our staff, or we can blame our staff for not getting it (a sure-fire way to lose your staff, or at least its loyalty).

> We can decide to role-play a challenging part of our sales process or we can wait to see if it comes together over time (I don't want my surgeon seeing if his skills come together over time).

> We can decide to talk to our manager about an issue that concerns us or we can decide to not do that and instead gossip about it to anybody who will listen (thereby reducing the chance that something will be done about the issue).

Life is series of decisions, the results of which will show success or failure or something in between. Becoming either a top-tier salesperson or a short-lived one is also determined by our decisions - many of them - both big and small.

What decisions, big and small, do you need to make today?

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Four Tips to be More Successful at One Call Close selling

In my previous post, I compared one call close selling to "selling to a bucking bronco" (prospects trying to "buck you" off of them). Today we turn our attention to taming said bucking bronco. Please allow me to suggest four tips for more successful One Call Close selling:

1. Have a plan.

Although plans can change or adapt when necessary, it's always better to have a plan to sell successfully in place when doing any kind of selling, but especially to the one-call-close prospect. This plan would be in the form of a well-designed sales script or a detailed and proven step-by-step sales process. One thing that definitely does not work well is what I call "random selling," which is a conversation with the strategy piece missing. Nor does blathering on and on about your product work. If you don't have a plan, get one immediately, and if you need to, enlist the help of someone you trust to create a plan with you.

2. Learn how to handle objections, stalls, and distractions.

If you don't know what to say after a prospect says "Maybe I'll just get your business card and think about it" after you've asked your prospect to buy from you, you can't yet handle prospect objections, stalls, or distractions. But the good news is that you can learn. Start with creating and memorizing the answer to just one common sales objection. Practice it repeatedly for an extended period of time, even after you think you have it down cold. When you're ready to add to your repertoire, digest another answer to a common sales objection. Eventually, you'll develop a lust for your prospects' objections, because they will no longer make you freeze, stammer, or stumble, they'll make you shine and make you sell more.

3. Be friendly, kind, charismatic, genuine, and very, very human.

People dislike plastic, fake people. People hate plastic, fake salespeople. How you sell is a reflection of your values and your beliefs about selling, yourself, and your prospects and customers. These beliefs shine through your eyes, your behaviors and in what you say to your prospects. Let the light of you shine. People love to buy from people they like and enjoy being with (even if their time with the salesperson is only ten or fifteen minutes). If you're a likable person, you've got a leg up on other salespeople, sometimes even though the competitor's salesperson may have more experience or product knowledge. If you're not likable, find a way to become likable in a hurry. Otherwise, I suspect a sales career may not be for you. Likability is important in any sales career.

4. Make sure your time with the prospect creates sales momentum.

A sales interaction with a prospect, no matter how long or short it is, must create sales momentum to maximize the opportunity. Completing one phase of the interaction (even if that one phase is one simple question) should help propel the salesperson/prospect interaction into the second phase, and the second should propel the interaction into the third phase, and so on. The more momentum, the easier it is to complete the sale. Think about cleaning out your garage or cleaning the kitchen. Once you've started the project, you get into it, and you start digging in. Once you're halfway done, you want to get finished. You've just experienced task momentum. Help your sales process experience sales momentum. Momentum allows the sale to happen with far less effort than with no sales momentum.

Now, go tame that bronc.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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The Bucking Bronco of Sales: The One Call Close Prospect

Some of us who sell for a living have merely a single prospect interaction (a meeting or visit to our store or a stop at their front door) to complete a sale with that prospect. The solution for this predicament has been termed the one call close.

I think the prospect in many one call close scenarios is the bucking bronco of the sales prospect world. Even if we've been invited into a prospect's realm (or they've invited themselves into our realm, such as during their visit to our showroom), prospect's love to keep us at a distance, to throw us off track, and to delay a buying decision.

First, let's make sure we're on the same page regarding "one call close" selling. Here are some examples of a sales interaction that could be considered one call close opportunities.

>  You're selling art on a cruise ship. Your prospect will only be in your vicinity for five days. After that, he or she goes away forever.

> You're selling a consumer product in a retail store (pick a product; let's say it's golf clubs). The vast majority of visitors to your store end up not buying, whether it's buying today or next week or next month. Therefore, if you want to maximize your sales opportunities, you need to make the most of the prospect's presence in your store right at the moment they are in front of you.

> You're selling your product door-to-door in the residential market (pick a product; how about a package of discount coupons to the new auto repair shop in your community).

> You're selling custom closets. The prospect's current closet fell down in the middle of the night (it was a cheap product and also installed with insufficient care) and they need it replaced (and improved) right away so they've invited you to their home for a price quote (that doesn't automatically mean they're going to select you to do it, however).

Most of these prospects will become -- in part or in whole -- bucking broncos:

> They may avoid answering some of your questions. They do this by changing the subject, or giving one word answers to questions that would typically require longer answers, or by acting as if they are indifferent. 

> They may answer questions untruthfully, either intentionally or unintentionally. When you inquire about, let's say, their budget for a project, they may either lowball it (in hopes of receiving a greatly discounted price from you) or highball it (in an effort to not look cheap or unable to afford something, even though that may be the real truth).

> They may avoid allowing you to question them at a deeper level. Even though it would probably allow us to help the prospect more, they may not be willing to share information about their driving habits even though we'd like to be able to recommend a vehicle that matches their driving habits. Perhaps they think they're protecting themselves from us (side note: shame on "us" -- sales professionals and sales organizations -- for putting prospective customers in a situation where they feel they need protection from us).

> They may say they're getting other "quotes" or "visiting other stores" even though they've already received those other quotes or already visited the other stores. They often want to shut us down or put us on hold, even though they may still end up purchasing our product.

All bucking broncos buck. But they can be trained and worked with in such a way that they won't buck anymore. And when that happens, it's good for the bronco and it's good for the rider of the bronco. It's also good for the prospect and the sales professional selling to them.

Tame your bucking bronco prospects, and you'll be a better seller.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Selling: Think Speed Dating (8 Tips for Sales Success)

Your younger sister is single following her breakup with her boyfriend. She calls you one evening and says she's going speed dating. She's asking advice from her older brother or sister (you) for speed dating advice. What do you tell her?

This is not a speed dating blog. It's not even a dating blog. It's a sales blog. So what's up with that?

Speed dating is a simple process but it can have major consequences. It can have many twists and turns. So can selling. Some customers buy in a one-call close environment, wherein there's an element of time involved, just as in speed dating. Prospects are seeking potential solutions to their needs and desires, and so are speed daters.

Seeing that there are similarities between selling and speed dating, please see the seven sales tips below, which are disguised as speed dating tips for your little sister:

1. Be well groomed and appropriately dressed based upon the characteristics of the speed dating group (the prospect) and the venue. Few will be attracted to someone (connect with a salesperson) who is inappropriately dressed or groomed. Dress and groom as appropriate for the people you expect will attend the speed dating event (the sales interaction). I know this makes me sound like an old school dude, but if you're selling to a bunch of burly, tough Harley riders (not that all Harley riders are burly and tough in reality), then you'd better dress and groom yourself in a way that will resonate with those burly tough guys

2. Keep your eye on the clock. You only have so much time with each speed dater (with each prospect). Make sure you plan your conversation (presentation) appropriately for the time available.

3. Ask questions to draw out the other speed dater (the prospect). Asking questions isn't the goal; getting the other speed daters (the prospects) to engage in conversation with you and being comfortable with you is the goal. Nobody wants to spend time with another speed dater (buy from a salesperson) who hasn't engaged them.

4. Don't waste your valuable time by talking all about you (you, your product, or your company), but focus on the other speed dater (the prospect).

5. Use eye contact, facial expression, and body language to help connect with the speed dater (the prospect). If the other person is cautious, then you be cautious, too, but with an inviting subplot. Singles looking for partners (prospects investigating purchasing something) feel most comfortable with people who are similar to them. Be similar, but with an extra dose of charisma, humor, confidence, or something else that will set you apart from all the others in a positive way. Not that you should be disingenuous, but we all have multiple elements of our personalities which we can call upon for use in different situations.

6. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Position yourself in a way that the speed daters (the prospects) will have the best opportunity to be impressed with you, intrigued with you, or even like you. Use your strengths and find work-arounds for your weaknesses. You're not good at humor? Then don't try to be funny. You have the best smile this side of the North Pole? Smile away.

7. Help the speed dater (the prospect) feel important. Everybody on the face of the earth wants to feel important in some way. You don't have to pretend, just treat your speed dater (your prospect) as being truly important.

8. Know your limitations. Don't over-talk, be overly funny, or be overly anything. Be genuine, real, and nice while getting the job done.  Be genuinely interested, respectful and effective. That what speed dating (selling) is all about.

Full disclosure: I don't participate in speed dating and never have and really don't know much about it. The speed dating advice above is based solely upon my middle-aged imagination. Therefore, it should be ignored.

However, you can trust the sales advice.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper. He's a happily married non-speed-dater.

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Sales Success: It's All in Your Head

When I was losing weight, I would sometimes convince myself that my plan to lose weight would allow me to have a couple chocolate truffles here and a few doughnuts there. Intellectually, I know that chocolate truffles and doughnuts are not foods that are known for their nutritional value or for their ability to create weight loss. 

Yet, I somehow convinced myself that "just this once" was okay, even if "just this once" happened several times per week, and even if it didn't include truffles or doughnuts but instead included french fries or pork ribs. Although the weight I was carrying was in my body, it was allowed to stay there (and grow) because of what was in my head. 

As it turns out, I wouldn't lose weight in my body until I took responsibility for what was in my head. Crazy thinking leads to crazy behavior.

Selling can be like that, too. 

We know that there is a path to success in sales. We've learned this path either from others in our company (colleagues, mentors) or from our salespeople parents, or from books we've read, educational seminars we've been to, from our sales manager, or from our experience. Yet, our crazy thinking creeps up on us, and we start to believe we can take shortcuts, yet achieve the same level of success.

So we don't upsell, or make the number of calls we're supposed to make. We don't follow the sales script or follow all the steps as defined in our sales manual. We talk about features but leave out the benefits. We convince ourselves our prospects don't want to hear what we have to say, or won't accept the price increase the company has just announced.

So our crazy sales thinking sabotages our real world sales success. We become our own worst enemy instead of being our own best supporter and cheerleader. We move backward instead of forward.

Your head will tell you...

... whether to greet the next prospect in your store or office with sincere gusto or with dreadful monotony.

... whether you'll be able to sell your widgets at $1150 instead of the old price of $1000.

... whether to practice a sales script until you know it or dismiss it as unnecessary or unimportant.

... whether to work until 5:00 on Friday afternoon or sneak out at 2:00 (haven't you already done that the last seven Fridays?)

... whether to put in the little bit of extra effort to do this or that instead of choosing the easy way.

... whether your prospect is a prospect or isn't a prospect (because it doesn't look like they can't afford your product or service, or they don't look like your typical customer.

... whether you learn or get stale, whether you energize yourself or bore yourself, whether you reach for the stars or don't bother reaching at all.

Sales success: It's all in your head. And whatever is in there will determine how successful you become. 

  

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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The Good and Bad of Low Hanging Fruit

As salespeople, we are driven to make sales. Most of us are paid based upon our ability to do so.

So I don't blame a salesperson who pursues the easy sale. Sales to low-hanging fruit are just as valid as the sales we made to customers who required a great deal of work on our part. But sometimes salespeople get in the [bad] habit of merely serving the low-hanging fruit.

I visited retail store that is part of a national chain of computer stores last summer to look for a new laptop. I was in the store for about an hour looking at their selection of products. Nobody approached me during my visit. Most of the sales reps were busy with prospects. But I noticed one salesperson standing off to the side while looking over the mass of people that were in the store looking at computers.

I kept noticing him standing there. He would leave for a while, but would quickly return to his "post," continuing to stand and observe. I was wondering why he wasn't coming over to me to offer assistance (to SELL!).

After thirty minutes of my observations, I finally figured out what was up with this salesperson.

He knew the other salespeople in his department were engaged with shoppers. Rather than jumping in to engage another prospect (like ME!), he would carefully listen and observe the other interactions sales reps were having with shoppers, and he would watch prospects to try to ascertain when they were ready to make a purchase.

When he saw a prospect that had talked to another sales rep, but had been abandoned by that rep to work with another shopper, he would jump on the prospect and offer to help. But he would only do this if he thought the chances were very good that the prospect was ready to consummate the purchase.

This, my friends, was an example of a salesperson going after low-hanging fruit. During my visit, he walked several shoppers to the cashier so they could purchase their laptops and to show the cashier which salesperson to credit for the sale. This guy was brilliant to have come up with this sales strategy.

Oops. Did I write "sales strategy?" I meant "order-taking strategy."

This sales rep wasn't so much a salesperson as he was a retail clerk or order-taker, yet he was going to receive credit (presumably in the form of commission or bonus) for his actions. Maybe he was the top salesperson in the department. Or maybe he was the worst. The one thing I know is that he didn't sell during the hour I was in the store. But he received credit for several sales.

If you wish, call this guy clever, or ingenious, or saavy. Or call him a hack. You decide. Which was he?

Please weigh in with your conclusion. I want to hear what you have to say. Post a comment now!

 

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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How's Your [Selling] Eyesight?

  
The tasks of everyday life require good eyesight.

Thankfully, my close-up eyesight is quite good. I can read my morning newspaper, see my breakfast eggs, and clip my toenails without any problem whatsoever (rest assured, I don't do all three at the same time).

But thanks to my nearsightedness, I can't see things in the distance. Road signs, a deer standing in the middle of the highway, and the visual glitz of Las Vegas would all be a mere blur for me if I didn't wear my spectacles.

I've been nearsighted since the seventh grade. My first pair of glasses was a rather geeky affair, a black plastic-rimmed thing (come to think of it, it was almost identical to the pair I have on my head right this minute). I lost those eyeglasses the summer before eighth grade. My father accused me of selling them to get money - I guess I had sales tendencies back then, too - although my dad's assertion was incorrect.

Selling requires good "eyesight," too. Most of us who sell for a living will achieve true success only if we see the current opportunities as well as select the proper path to get to make the long-term possibilities become realities. 

Two Sales Maladies: Sales Farsightedness and Sales Nearsightedness

Malady #1: Sales Farsightedness.

People with sales farsightedness tend to focus on the future at the expense of the present. They don't understand that revenue needs to be created now. There is an immediacy in sales that some simply don't comprehend.

Imagine if a cell phone company quit focusing on immediacy as it relates to their product development, not to mention their sales. With new technologies sweeping in and changing the mobile technology game every few months, companies that don't focus on the immediacy of getting things done today would get lost in the shuffle. They would soon fall by the wayside - becoming quickly irrelevant - and replaced by faster-paced companies who have figured out how to make new products today and sell them today, too.

Companies want revenue today. They don't want to wait for tomorrow or next week or next year. Salespeople should want the same thing, too. Top sales performers speed up the sales cycle whenever possible. In sales, the closer to today, the better.

Some symptoms of Sales Farsightedness

> Failing to close business now, or soon. Settling for later instead.

> Putting effort into a written proposal, bid, or quote when the prospect hasn't asked for one, or one isn't necessary.

> Scheduling meetings (first time meetings or follow-up meetings) too far in advance.

> Waiting for a prospect to make a decision instead of helping him/her arrive at one.

> Thinking of only the long-term possibilities of a client, account, or prospect at the expense of the opportunities that exist today. 

> Allowing bad sales numbers for this month linger on to the end of the month. Waiting until next month to turn things around.

Malady #2: Sales Nearsightedness

Salespeople with sales nearsightedness always focus on the here and now at the expense of the future. They don't understand that some sales (and prospects) need to be nurtured over a period of time, and real wealth in some sales jobs comes from a long-term approach.

Thinking about the future implications of today's actions is a valuable asset for a salesperson, and indeed, any business person. A future sale is often a destination that cannot be reached without careful planning or strategizing today.

Imagine a mobile communications company who doesn't put sufficient resources into R&D. They will quickly be surpassed by competitors that have invested in product development to give them an edge once the future arrives. Salespeople need to do that, too. Some things simply take effort over a period of time.

Some Symptoms of Sales Nearsightedness

> Not taking careful notes about a client interaction today, and therefore forgetting important details about what happened with a prospect today when you need those details in the future.

> Not planning follow-up phone calls and leaving them to chance instead.

> Not having a long-term plan and working that plan.

> Treating every sales opportunity as a one-call close when that isn't always the case.

> Not investing in sales training, books, sales materials, webinars, or seminars to help sales results in the future.

> Being reactive instead of proactive when it comes to the future.

> Passing up prospects that are likely to offer future opportunities in favor of prospects that only provide a near-term sales opportunity.

> Focusing on the transaction instead of the relationship.

What are other symptoms of sales farsightedness and sales nearsightedness you can think of?

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by leveraging the buying potential of every prospect and shopper.

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Furniture Sales Training: Customer Engagement Creates More Sales

  
When we engage our customers, we enter a new sphere of opportunity. With engagement, relationships are both quicker to form and deeper. We find it easier to develop two-way trust and understanding. Shoppers are more likely to buy from a sales professional with whom they are engaged than from one with whom they are not engaged.

My wife and I visited a furniture store last weekend. While my wife and I enjoyed our shopping, we had a disappointing experience, both the from the shopper perspective and also from the sales trainer perspective.

Here's a script that shows an approximation of the conversation we had with our furniture salesperson:

* * * * * * *

Salesperson: "Welcome to XYZ furniture gallery."

Skip: "Thanks" (while feeling the cushions on a sofa).

Skip's Wife: "Thank you." (while sitting down in same sofa).

Salesperson: "That's one of my favorite sofas. I just love it."

Skip's Wife: "Oh, okay."

Salesperson: "Do you need a new sofa?"

Skip: "Yes, we need a new sofa. But we're not looking to buy one today, we just happened to notice it as we were walking by."

Skip's Wife: "We do need a sofa but we're not going to buy one today. It's not a priority right now."

Salesperson: "Oh, okay! I don't know if you have been in before, but we're a custom order store. We can custom order any of the sofas you see in our store in any of our fabrics. And we have free design services, I don't know if you knew that or not."

Skip: [pleasantly] "Yes, we've been in before and yes, we did know that."

Skip's Wife: "Okay, great!"

Salesperson: [smiling] "Okay, my name is XXXXXX, just let me know if you have any questions."

Skip's Wife: "Okay, we'll do that."

Skip: "Okay, that sounds good."

* * * * * * *

Did the salesperson identify why we were visiting her store? Did she get us actively involved in the buying/selling process?

This scenario is repeated in thousands of furniture stores and other retail venues each and every day. Sadly, there was little or no attempt to engage the customer. Despite the high cost of getting a prospect into a furniture store (or any store), these opportunities are wasted over and over again at retailing establishments across the land.

What could have this salesperson done differently to engage my wife and I? What would have turned this encounter into an engaging one instead of a typical, bland, uneventful one?

Here are three ways to help your retail salespeople become engagers:

1. Focus on the prospect, not the product.

We sometimes forget that our prospects are real, live human beings with real lives, worries, concerns, joys, priorities, goals, biases, questions, needs, desires, perspectives, etc. If we drill down far enough, we can usually see that prospects are not coming into our stores for our products, they are coming into our stores for their lives. Our products are merely one possible route to make their lives better or more interesting or more healthy or more fun or more fulfilled.

2. Ask important questions.

Questions engage prospects and shoppers at a much higher rate than statements do. Questioning is a skill, and salespeople who possess the skill are worth their weight in gold.The quality and quantity of questions asked of a customer will help determine to what degree the shopper becomes engaged in conversation with us. Every salesperson should receive intensive sales training on the miracle of appropriate questioning.

3. Hold off on statements.

Telling is not selling. It is part of selling, but it is not selling. Yet, many salespeople view their role as that of being a "teller:" Telling about their store, telling about their sale, telling about how they work, telling about financing, telling about features of their product, etc.

To create engagement, we need to consciously hold off on telling early in the encounter in most cases. Unless what we have to say is stunningly interesting to our prospects (and it almost never is), it's probably all stuff they've heard before, and it serves as an anti-engagement tactic rather than a path to engagement.

* * * * *

Put an end to trite retail selling! Enter a new sphere of sales excellence. Engage your prospects!

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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The Race to Sales Competence: A Case for Sales Training

 
Like it or not, all sales organizations are participants in the race to sales competence.

How many sales leads will your organization, whether a sole-proprietorship or large sales department, burn through because your sales people are incompetent (or, at least, less competent than they should be) at selling? How many marketing dollars will you invest in various initiatives to get your phone to ring more or to get more customers into your brick-and-mortar location(s) when those dollars would be better spent getting your sales team to sales competence?

I know readers of this blog sell everything from appliances to fine art to RVs to cabinets to clothing and beyond. Regardless of the product or service your company sells to consumers, how much valuable time is being wasted by not getting your salespeople sales-competent? How many wasted marketing dollars will you spend before you decide to invest in teaching your salespeople to convert those pricey leads to sales? How many customer objections will continue to be answered ineffectively? How many opportunities for customer engagement will fall into the no-sale abyss? How many random sales interactions will replace strategic sales interactions with those leads you've so carefully (and at great cost) cultivated? How many sales of $1400 that could have been $1900 (or sales of $14,000 that could have been $19,000) will you allow to happen before you recognize your current position in the race to sales competence?

Someone is in first place in the race right now - it's either your company or a competitor. Someone is doing a bang-up job of presenting their products so they resonate with their prospects. Someone is closing sales at a far higher rate than someone else. Someone is likable and engaging and assertive and hard working and highly energetic while the also-rans are plodding along in the middle of the pack (or worse) in the race to selling competence.

Every day that passes means more missed opportunities for sales and missed opportunities for larger sales. What is the cost of not committing to sales competence today? You know your key metrics. You know what dollars are being made in promotions, marketing, and advertising. You know what commission plans you've tried, at times only being frustrated that the desired results haven't been achieved. You know how much time and energy of your sales team is being spent every day, every week, every month, and every year working with prospects that could have become customers, but didn't because the you're not winning the race.

What would a closing rate of 85% instead of 65% do for your company's bottom line (or 50% instead of 20%)? What would a 25% increase in your average ticket do for it? What marketing dollars could you save if your sales team sourced 15% of their own leads instead of 0%? 

This is real money. It's real potential profit. It's a real race.

But the real race is against yourself. What will it be? Marginal sales success? Or winning the race to sales competence now?

Sales training can help your team become sales competent.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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This Prospect Will Make Or Break Your Sales Career

 
Your effort will make or break your sales career. So will your knowledge and skill and ability to add value to your prospects' lives. So will your ability to create trusting and genuine short-term and long-term relationships with prospects, customers, managers, and suppliers.

But, perhaps more than any of the factors above, this prospect type will have more to do with your career success than any other:

The "on the fence" prospect.

This is the prospect that could fairly easily either become a customer or a no-sale. They have an interest in your product, and your company, but they also have an interest in perhaps buying from another company or buying another product, or an interest in not buying anybody's product and keeping their money instead. They are hesitant, or cautions, or not completely convinced. They've given you time to present your product and its features and benefits, they've communicated forthrightly about their needs and maybe even asked good questions. They've expressed interest and perhaps excitement about your product and about owning it, or using your service.

Yet, there they are: on top of the fence, swaying first to the "no sale" side of the fence just a bit, then over to the "customer" side a bit, and then back again, but they remain squarely on the fence.

Ultimately, though, a prospect cannot stay on the fence forever. The default decision for fence-sitters is to remain a non-customer, since buying a product requires that the fence-sitter tip to the "buy" side and off the fence. Make no mistake about it: fence-sitters are non-buyers until they get off the fence and into your customer (meaning "people who have bought from us") list.

I see many salespeople who spend tremendous amounts of time working with prospects who are simply not going to buy. Persuasion is a good thing in selling. But just as Glenn Beck is simply not going to persuade supporters of Dennis Kucinich that Beck has the "correct" political viewpoint, and Rachel Maddow is not going to persuade Texas Governor Rick Perry that she has the correct political views, a salesperson is simply not going to persuade a prospect who is dead-set against buying to buy.

I also see a lot of time and energy wasted by salespeople on prospects who are definitely going to buy. In the areas where my client companies work (one-call close, B2C selling, retail), salespeople need to do their best work with people on the fence, let those who are definitely going to buy buy, and let those who definitely not going to buy not buy.

So here's my sales training tip for the day: The prospects whom you deal with in the next year who are on the fence will make or break your sales career in the next year.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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Brochures Don't Sell. People Sell.

Brochures, flyers, catalogs: They're all part of the weak salesperson's selling arsenal, at least in the face-to-face (F2F) selling realm. While these pieces can be helpful in marketing a business or a product, they are rarely much help to a salesperson in selling a product or service. 

The most effective tool a salesperson has in his selling arsenal is the salesperson.

A human being has the capacity to be infinitely more engaging with another human being than does a piece of paper, and an engaged prospect or shopper has a higher likelihood of becoming a customer than a non-engaged prospect or shopper. A brochure cannot ask questions. A catalog cannot leverage subtleties of personal communication preferences to have a greater impact. A flyer cannot keep an individual's interest like a human being can. A leaflet cannot become a trusted advisor.

RESIST the temptation to hand out a brochure...

> when a prospect asks you a question;

> when a shopper asks if you have one;

> when a browser asks if you have any information;

> when you're presenting your product or service to your customer;

> when you are handling an objection;

> when you habitually reach for one;

> when you don't know what else to do.

INSTEAD, do this:

> ask a question;

> then ask another one;

> listen;

> show the actual product;

> tell a story;

> paint word-pictures;

> take out a pad of paper and take notes;

> present;

> explain;

> smile;

> invite the prospect to touch your product;

> clarify the issue;

> review;

> ask for the sale;

DON'T BE A DISPENSER OF FLYERS. ENGAGE INSTEAD!

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment.Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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Retail Zen: 10 Tips for a Blissful Sales Career

True salesmanship in retail has all but disappeared in most sectors of the industry. Customer service and merchandising seems to rule the day at the mall. Not that customer service and merchandising aren't important, mind you, but what about the ancient art of face-to-face selling?

When the stacks of sweaters are folded, the carpet is vacuumed, the glass is sparkling, and the till is counted, how about stepping into the zone of retail zen? Here are ten tips to help you do so:

1. Look shoppers in the eye.

Eye contact between salespeople and customers has been gradually waning in retail for years. Let's bring it back!

I once read that parents spend each day with almost no eye contact with their children. It has been suggested that one way to show children you love them is by honoring them with your attention, and attention means eye contact when they're talking or you're talking. The same applies to retail customers. Put down the scanner, the sale signs, the merchandising plan...and lift your eyes to your customers.

2. Be clever.

"May I help you?" is great for a nurse to say when a patient at the hospital rings the nurse call button, but it's so awfully boring in the retail arena that I wish retail sellers would abolish it. Come up with something more clever. Infuse some personality into the day-to-day milieu.

3. Do the unexpected.

An additional "SALE" sign isn't going to help your store's sales.

But whenever prospects are confronted with something unexpected, they tend to pay attention. One challenge with retail is that it has become profoundly boring for most shoppers. Do your customers a favor: do the unexpected. Bake some spinach puffs in the new oven your company started selling and serve them to customers. Show an episode of The Office in the recliner gallery. Wear a football uniform to work at the kids play equipment showroom. Play a polka on your PA system.

4. Suck them in.

Draw the customers in with your smile, your wit, your knowledge, your interpersonal communication skills. Lock down the person-to-person connection first, then worry about the product. Selling is all about people. It is not all about the carpet, the shoe, or the computer; it's about what those things do for the customer.

5. Take a deep cleansing breath. Now exhale!

Outside B2B salespeople get to drive across town to meet with their prospect, or fly to far away destinations. Retail salespeople get to visit the rest room.

Fight the monotony of retail selling by taking time to breathe, to refocus, and cleanse the mind of unwanted negative thoughts. You may not be able to select the music that's playing on the speakers overhead, but you can select how to react to it.

Relax those tense shoulders!

6. Ask customers what they think.

You just put a new refrigerator on your appliance sales floor? Great! Ask the customer to take a look at it with you, then ask them what they think of it. Ask them what they think of your company's new logo, or your store's new video game display, or the new LED lighting.

7. Be a salesperson, not a clerk.

Become proficient at opening conversation with your shopper. Become skilled at identifying their needs, even the hidden ones that the prospect isn't likely to talk about. Help the shopper understand her needs. Clarify. Do an impressive presentation. Ask for the sale. Handle objections.

That's what salespeople do. 

8. Be thankful.

Retail can be a wonderfully rewarding career. Revel in it. You will probably talk to more people in one day than most business-to-business salespeople talk to in a week or more.

You could be stuck in a cubicle, you know.

9. Sell add-ons.

Isn't it mundane to only sell what customers say they want? Why not sell some things they haven't said they want? Sell two vases instead of one. Sell a digital camera with the laptop. Sell underwear -- yes, underwear -- with the suit. Sell a satellite dish with the RV. Sell a subscription to Metropolitan Home with the dining room.

The possibilities are endless!

10. Have some fun.

Do you sparkle at work? Do you add value to your prospects lives? Do you entertain, make people smile, and truly make them feel welcome? Find your inner retail child. Remember how much fun it was to play "store" when you were seven years old? 

What suggestions do you have to help retail sales professionals find "Retail Zen?"

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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10 Reasons In-Home Sales Calls Don't Succeed

For those who sell in consumers' homes, the in-home sales consultation is the catalyst to either sales greatness or failure. If you master the dynamics of selling in the home, you master your sales career!

Here are 10 reasons why in-the-home sales consultations might not be successful:

1. Not on time.

People are busy, and while prospects will likely cut a sales rep some slack if he's late (it's always best to call the prospect as soon as you know you're going to be late), outright disrespect for a prospect's time doesn't help grow sales.

2. Focus on the product instead of the prospect.

Of course salespeople need to present their product's features and benefits in a positive and interesting way, but that shouldn't be the centerpiece of the sales appointment. Although product and technical expertise is important in all kinds of selling, it's more important to have people expertise. The way to sell successfully is to focus on the prospect and her needs, not just the product that's being sold.

3. Do stupid things.

The salesperson parks in the driveway (a no-no in the eyes of some prospects), or plods across the lawn, he tells the prospect he doesn't like cats, he sets a tape measure on a nice cherry dining table and scratches it, he doesn't take off his shoes and tracks muck into the home, etc. Stupid.

4. Wrong pace.

Some prospects are naturally fast-paced, while others are s-l-o-w. Since people like to be around people who are like themselves, salespeople need to adjust their pace of speaking and the pace of their movement to the natural preferences of their prospects.

5. Not leveraging the location.

The prospect collects Italian pitchers. They're all over the kitchen, dining room, entry, and family room. But the salesperson is too busy playing with his order form, brochures, and PowerPoint presentation to notice, much less say anything about it to the prospect. Really? Yet this bozo told his sales manager during his job interview that he's a "people person." Yes, really.

6. No sit-down chit-chat.

The sales rep is in the home to do business. A great place, probably the best place, to do business is at a table, like a kitchen table or dining table. Yet, thousands of salespeople try to do business while hovering around the broken furnace, or in the unfinished basement, or in the upstairs bathroom, or in the entryway of the home where the security system control pad would go. Why? Because that's where the products they're selling are going to be installed if the prospect buys. Almost all in-home sales interactions can benefit from sitting down together first.

7. Missed opportunities for connection to prospects.

The rep knows some of her prospects own dogs, yet she doesn't t keep a small package of dog treats her our bag to offer one to the furry friends. She knows kids can be a distraction when trying to talk business, yet she doesn't t carry a couple coloring books and crayons in her supplies to keep the lovable kiddos busy while she has a serious talk with the Mom about her needs. She assumes everyone remembers her name, so she doesn't give a business card to the prospect at the beginning of the call. Missed opportunities. 

8. Not spending enough effort on discovering or understanding needs.

The prospect doesn't buy a sunroom to have a sunroom. She buys a sunroom to sit in it on a beautiful morning while enjoying her morning coffee while looking out at their apple trees and chatting to her college-aged son on the phone. If we only spend time telling prospects how great our product is, we miss the opportunity to relate the sunroom to the needs and desires and lifestyle of the prospects, and the things that are truly important in the customer's life.

9. Odors. Bad ones.

Cigarette smoke odor on our clothing, parmesan-chicken-with-garlic-mayo-on-ciabatta odor on our breath, body odor on our bodies, or overly aggressive perfume or cologne on our selves can make a sales interaction go south in a big hurry. These are offensive at any time, but these types of odors are even more troubling when they occur on the prospect's [literal] home turf.

10. No sale.

For many products and services sold in the home, our chances of buttoning up the sale AFTER we leave the home is slim. To maximize the sale, we have to know how to complete the sale while in the home. It's truly a skill, and one that every sales professional who sells in customers' homes must learn.

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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Ouch! Sometimes it Hurts to Look for Customers' Pain

 
Some define selling as a process of identifying their prospects' and customers' "pain." Books and articles admonish salespeople to "find the customer's pain." This can be valuable, since relief from pain is most certainly a motivation for buying.

Pain takes many forms in our prospect's lives.

> Pain could be a dishwasher that runs six hours instead of one or two hours, thereby increasing energy costs and reducing opportunities to remove dishes from it.

> Pain could be the car that's difficult to start on humid days, thereby reducing reliability.

> Pain could be a closet rod that fell down in the middle of the night leaving the clothes in a large wrinkled pile on the closet for.

But where I think some are misguided is when salespeople think only about pain as a motivating factor for buying, as if it is the root cause for all purchases. But it isn't. Looking exclusively at pain as the reason for buying products and services can cause you to miss other reasons why people buy.

> I didn't buy 12 boxes of Girl Scout cookies from six different girls to relieve pain.

> I didn't download the new Zero 7 CD or go to the Minnesota Orchestra concert to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy my wife a necklace to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy my daughter a book at her school's book fair to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy a collection of municipal bonds to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy our latest piece of art to relieve pain.

> I didn't buy a Vineyard Vines tie to relieve pain.

It's great to understand pain is a motivating factor for some purchases in some situations. But don't stop there. Customers buy for more than just one reason. Focusing on only pain is like focusing only on the quality of the wine while dining. Don't miss out on the rest of the meal!

Missing other buying motivations can be painful!

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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7 Indicators of High Pressure Selling

The vast majority of salespeople working today don't want to be high pressure sellers. In fact, some have a fear of using pressure to gain sales and avoid assertive, professional selling techniques because of their hyper-sensitivity to high pressure selling.

I also have a disdain for high pressure selling. But I know that professional salespeople need to be assertive, to be willing to put themselves out in the public's eye, to be able to take control, to drive their prospect's decisions, and to bring in the orders.

High pressure selling is something completely different. But what, exactly, is the high pressure selling that most of us dislike so much?

I think high pressure selling can be identified by the following seven indicators:

1. When the salesperson hasn't generated sufficient rapport with, or trust from, the prospect.

2. When the sales representative dominates the sales conversation and does not create customer engagement. 

3. When the salesperson lets the product dominate the conversation rather than the prospect's needs and desires, and their unique circumstances.

4. When the salesperson displays behavior that is disrespectful, rude, or offensive.

5. When the sales representative attempts to close the sale too early or in the wrong way.

6. When the salesperson crosses the line from being assertive (a valuable trait in selling) to being aggressive (attempting to dominate the prospect).

7. When the customer has incorrectly implied or communicated a high level of interest of commitment in the salesperson's product, and then feels taken advantage of when the salesperson acts congruently with that interest or commitment.

You'll see that six of the indicators listed above are the responsibility of the salesperson, and the last one is the responsibility of the prospect. Go ahead and hate aggressive selling. But don't let that keep you from selling.

Are there any sales behaviors missing from my list that you think is an indicator of high pressure or aggressive selling?

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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My [Very] Personal Story: The Pain of False Objections In Selling and in Life

I wanted to make love with my wife one night last week (especially because I've been very busy and have travelled a lot). But my plans were foiled when she told me she had a migraine. [She knows that the tried and true "headache" excuse doesn't work anymore, so in recent years she's elevated "headache" to "migraine"].

But I know she didn't have a migraine. No way. Her "objection" wasn't real. It was a faux objection.

The real reason my wife avoided my husbandly advances was because she wanted to watch a TV show.

[Great. Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe takes precedence over moi. While I'm thinking about getting "dirty" with my beautiful wife, my beautiful wife is thinking about Mike Rowe getting truly dirty as he plays the role of both a dung beetle researcher and a glass blower. That's just not the kind of role playing I had in mind. But I digress...]

It's not just wives that give objections; prospects do, too. So what do you do when you hear an objection from your customer?

The first and most important task is to determine how accurate and true the objection is. Is it a real objection? Or is it a false objection?

Salespeople hear objections every day. And every day, salespeople go after those objections not knowing if they're real or if they're a cover up, a false objection, a smoke screen, an excuse, an easy way out, a tall tale, a desire to exit the sales situation without having to make a decision, a temporary anxiety attack, or a manifestation of status quo paralysis.

Before we address the actual objection, we put our investigator's hats on and dig into the objection and ask some probing questions. Examples:

- - - - -

Objection: "I need to talk to my wife about it."

Investigative Question: "Being a married person myself, I can appreciate that. Let's set your wife aside for a moment. How do you feel about owning this [insert product or service here]."

- - - - -

Objection: "I can't afford this right now."

Investigative Question: "I agree, Bob, it's important that you only consider cars that you can afford. What was it about this [insert model of car] that made you want to test drive it today? [customer answers]. Is it more that you can't afford this car, or more that you don't want to spend this kind of money?"  etc.

_ _ _ _ _

Objection: "I'm going to have to think about this. Buying a townhome is a big decision."

Investigative Question: "You know, you bring up an excellent point. Let's think about this together. Do you like the location of the home? What do you think about the fourth bedroom? (I know you only needed three bedrooms). What do you think about the layout of the rooms?, etc.

_ _ _ _ _

Faux objections throw salespeople off course. Before you address an objection (or as you address it), find out if the objection is real and true. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't, but addressing a fake objection as if it's the real reason the prospect isn't moving ahead with the purchase is a serious sales strategy error.

By the way, Dirty Jobs is on TV again tonight. Argh.

 

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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What Are Your Sales Strengths?

As a salesperson, what are you good at?

Is it something broad, like "retail selling" or "telesales?" Or is it something specific, such as "Getting customers to see the investment potential in our ABC mutual fund," or "Adding lamps to the order whenever I sell a sofa." Whatever it is, celebrate your sales strengths.

What I sometimes see are salespeople who don't take full advantage of their existing sales strengths. In an effort to be more balanced, (or to respond to pressure from management), they seek to moderate their outcomes by focusing on areas of weakness, and in doing so, they lessen their success in their areas of strength.

I want to suggest that you start using your strengths like nobody on the face of the earth can do what you do. If you're great at selling lamps whenever a customer buys a sofa, why not try selling two lamps instead of just one, or three instead of two? You've already discovered you're good at selling lamps as an add-on sale, so take that ball and run with it.

Or maybe you can expand your strength into selling lamps along with beds, too. Whenever you have a bed customer, there should be two lamps on the delivery truck with that customer's name on them.

And if you're tops in your organization at getting prospects to see the potential in your "ABC" mutual fund, perhaps you can also have the same effect when you propose your the "DEF" fund to a slightly different customer with slightly different needs.

Some people are only vaguely aware of their strengths, or not aware of them at all. Start by clearly identifying your sales strengths. Ask your manager, your coworkers, your boyfriend, your customers...ask whoever would know what your strengths are. Don't settle for vague or general answers. Drill down to specifics.

As your understanding of your strengths grows, identify opportunities to use those strengths in an even more significant way. Out of this process can grow new opportunities for rising sales.

Next, look for ways to use your strengths in new, fresh, unexpected, or expanded ways. When you do that, you have even more opportunity for sales growth.

What are your sales strengths? Tell the world by clicking "comments" below...

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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Selling is a Skill

I loved playing baseball as a kid. I'd take my book about pitching outside with me and pitch for endless hours to my younger brother (probably my earliest experiencing in selling was learning how to "sell" my brother on being catcher to my pitches even after he wanted to quit).

It didn't take me long to figure out that pitching was a skill. You had to throw the ball the right way to get the ball to go where you wanted it to go and to get it there taking the path you wanted it to take. Great baseball pitchers need to stay healthy, to be able to work when called upon, and to handle pressure effortlessly, but they also need the skill to get the ball to do what they want and need it to do.

I am a trained classical musician with two degrees in music. I played two instruments semi-professionally, and taught, and conducted and composed music. Performing music requires skill.

Just think about the number of hours that top music students in top music conservatories and universities across the world spend honing their craft. It's crazy. But anybody pursuing music at this level understands that performing music requires skill. It requires more than that, too, but it definitely requires skill.

Readers of this blog will know that I had surgery earlier this fall. My surgeon was very skilled - I know this not only by the quality of his work, but also by the checking I did before my procedure. But the only reason I needed surgery is because the surgeon that performed this surgery on me one year ago was unskilled. He had botched it. Surgeons need knowledge, but they require copious skill, too.

And so it is in the profession of selling. The mission of sales training is to improve the skills of professional sellers. Just as with pitchers, classical musicians, and surgeons, salespeople need to have their skills developed to a sufficiently high level to result in sufficiently high sales performance.

If you want to get better at selling, work hard. Treat people well. Be helpful. But make sure you have developed the skills you need to achieve what you want.

Read over 100 posts in this blog about sales skills.

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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Apples and Oranges: 3 Ways to Get Prospects To See Differences

"I can get the same thing for only $13,000 and your price is $18,000."

Hearing something like that from a prospect stops many salespeople right in their tracks. Having no better way to handle that statement, some settle for spewing sales babble such as "But we're the leading provider of widgets in our city" or "We have the best customer service around, and you should really buy from us."

Often, a customer isn't aware of the differences between your product and the other product that is priced much less than yours. When this happens, you need a methodology to continue the selling process. With that in mind, here are 3 ways to continue selling when you hear "I can get the same thing for less."

1. Encourage further communication.

As salespeople, we need to learn more about the lower price from the competitor. The worst thing we can do is get angry or defensive. Thank the prospect for sharing the competitor's information with you. Ask questions, not with the intent to point out differences, but with the intent of learning more.

2. Ask the prospect the difference between the two products.

Sometimes the prospect will say "it's exactly the same." But other times, the prospect will recite a list of differences that can be a starting point for deeper discussion of differences. It's interesting how the prospect's statement of "I can get the same thing for less" can be quickly followed by the prospect acknowledging that it's not really the same thing. It's so much more effective if the prospect tells you how the products are different than if you do all the talking.

3. Use a Venn diagram

Sitting down with your prospect and creating a Venn diagram together encourages the prospect to share what they know about your product (or company) and the competitor's product (or company). The fact that you're sitting down together to create the diagram adds structure to the discussion, and the visual element can be very helpful in having meaningful conversation with your prospect.

Below is an example Venn diagram that might be created with a prospect who says they can get a sofa at another furniture store that is exactly like your sofa, but for less money. After completion of the diagram, it's easy for the prospect to see the real differences, and the prospect may be able to come to understand why your sofa is $350 more expensive than the other store's sofa.

Remember, part of the value of the Venn diagram is that you're doing it with your prospect.

If you like this post (or don't) please click on "comments" below and share your comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, in the financial, real estate, and insurance markets, and other consumer-selling industries.

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Don't Worry About H1N1 - NAS is More Dangerous

Forget about H1N1. Here's the real affliction making the rounds in the sales profession: Negative Assumption Syndrome (NAS). NAS is the real [career] killer.

Salespeople can be their own worst enemies! I see it often. Salespeople decide for their prospects if they're going to buy. Then, once the salesperson makes this decision, he acts in congruence with that decision.

As of this date, there is no vaccination for Negative Assumption Syndrome. But there is a remedy:

Let the prospect decide if they're not going to buy - Don't do it for them.

Unfortunately, many salespeople don't use the remedy. Just like an expired bottle of pills wasting away in the back of the medicine cabinet, salespeople know they should assume the sale, but they forget. Instead, they exhibit NAS, like these salespeople:

- The rug salesperson who said to his coworker, "I know they're not going to buy...they said they were looking online for rugs...I'll bet they'll buy online."

- The real estate agent who - while driving to his open house - "The weather's too darned nice today...nobody's going to be out looking at houses today."

- The interior designer who says "I know you have to talk to your husband, so show him my plans and then let me know what you guys decide."

- The fitness club sales rep who thinks, "She can't buy a membership...she's got three kids! I only have two kids and I couldn't afford it if I didn't work here."

- The department store salesperson who never offers credit accounts because he says "Anybody who wants a credit card already has one."

- The furniture store sales representative who shows the cheapest recliner first, instead of showing the premium product first because "the economy sucks."

- The door-to-door salesperson who skips a house because "their bad siding tells me they can't afford a security system."

- The optical store rep who doesn't try to add on sunglasses because "times are tight and people can't afford two pairs of glasses these days."

You cannot predict the future. So don't waste time on dire predictions.

If you're going to make assumptions, then make assumptions that you ARE going to be successful, that your prospects ARE going to buy, that you WILL find a way to make it through challenges, that your hard work and sales skill CAN and WILL take you to new heights, that you MUST improve, and that you DESERVE to rise to the top.

Wherever your mind goes, your behavior follows, so select your assumptions carefully.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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The 20% Rule: How To Distribute Your Selling Resources

Sales representatives have finite resources of time and energy in which to create revenue. If you want to excel, choose carefully where you spend your time and energy.

Most one-call close industries have a set of numbers like these:

- 20% of customers will buy no matter what

- 20% of prospects will not buy no matter what

Your company or your industry may be 10%, or 35%, or whatever, but I've seen these numbers enough times that I know they often exist.

So here's a vital question: On which group should the sales representative focus his or her efforts in order to become wildly successful in a one-call close environment?

The correct answer is on the 60% of remaining prospects. The 40% described above will take care of themselves. Assigning too much time or effort to these prospects will limit the amount of time and effort spent and on the vitally important 60% of prospects that are on the fence and could end up either as customers or as lost sales opportunities.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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Customers Lie

Nice customers lie. Mean customers lie. All customers lie. They can't help it. It's wired into their operating systems.

Customers consciously lie - yep, right to your face!

- They'll tell you their budget is $5500 when it's really $6500 (or $4500)

- They'll tell you they can make a decision today, but then want to discuss the purchase with their spouse.

- They'll tell you they're ready to move quickly on the purchase, but then drag their feet.

- They'll tell you that the widget they're going to buy must have the XYZ feature, but then buy a widget  without the XYZ feature from your competitor. 

- They'll tell you their brother-in-law bought the same thing for $13,000 when in fact it was $14,900.

- They'll tell you they'll buy if you knock 200 bucks off the price, then they walk after you do.

Customers also unconsciously lie. They don't mean to. They just can't help it. In fact, they're not even aware of it. Lies seep into the conversation without the prospect knowing it.

It doesn't mean you can't be wildly successful selling to consumers, it just means you need to be prepared. Put everything your prospect tells you into your truth machine for a second look. Be skeptical. Test the customer. Constantly reevaluate. Question your prospect. Look for cracks, proof, and evidence. Don't take much on face value. Investigate. Assume your prospect is lying in some way, especially on crucial issues.

Don't hate your customers for it. Love them. But like parents of devious children sneaking handfuls of cookies into their beds at night, listen carefully for their footsteps outside your bedroom door. And then look for crumbs in the morning.

Those who protect themselves will survive the onslaught of customer lies today and will sell anyway.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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More Hang Time Means More Sales

One factor limiting sales success is the salespersons' insufficient time with the prospect, especially in one-call close sales scenarios.

Since we need to get the prospect to hang in there with us and not end the conversation, I call the time we spend with our prospects "hang time." Often, more hang time equals means more sales.

One reason sellers fail at handling objections from customers successfully is that they aren't able to extend the conversation long enough to adequately deal with issues in the objection. "I'm going to hold off," for example, begs for a response, but you only have the opportunity to provide a response if you're able to engineer enough hang time into the sales interaction.

What many salespeople do to try to extend hang time is babble about more features or repeat themselves from earlier in the sales interaction. But these are ineffective ways of extending time with the prospect. What is far more effective is to address each objection with a customized response to that particular objection.

Or, responding to "I'm going to hold off" with a simple question such as "Tell me what you're thinking" can help reengage the prospect to continue the dialog. Important information, such as the true customer objection, can then surface. Once this objection sees the light of day, it can be examined and discussed, giving the seller the opportunity to change the outcome of the sales interaction.

If you're challenged with overcoming objections, develop the ability to increase the hang time with your prospect.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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The Accidental Salesperson

In the world of B2C selling, I often run into accidental salespeople - people who ended up in sales by accident, perhaps because of a particular love or passion they possessed for a particular product or service or company. These individuals often have many challenges making the transition from product expert or product loyalist to revenue generator, which is the number one role of the sales professional.

There's the young HGTV addict who decides to go to college or trade school for interior design. He has a passion for fabrics, finishes, and an intense interest in planning spaces that work. But when he graduates from school, he ends up selling furniture or bathroom remodeling where success is more likely determined more by the dollars sold than the quality of his design.

Or there's the member of the discount buying service who remodeled her kitchen using the services of the service and thereby saved $15,000 in the process. She decides to take a job selling memberships for this company. Despite her passion for the service, and her direct hands-on experience using it, she's unable to meet her membership quota and is terminated after only three months.

Take the car nut who's fiddled for years with cars in his father's garage, and then later in his own garage. He's been an avid car show attendee and a car magazine junkie who decides to sell cars for a local dealer after losing his job of thirteen years. He knows cars inside and out, is an avid follower of the automobile industry, and a passionate fan of all things auto. Yet, he cannot close a sale with any of the dozens of ups he's taken in his first month of employment. Ouch.

One of the most dramatic misconceptions about selling is that if you have passion for the product and substantial technical knowledge about the product, you'll be able to sell that product. Especially for big ticket items like furniture, remodeling, and automobiles, passion and technical knowledge are only two pieces of the selling puzzle, and they're usually not enough to complete the selling picture.

Sellers of consumer products and services must also have a passion for sales and a passion for results. Selling cars is quite different from wasting away a Sunday afternoon reading your old issues of Car and Driver while sipping on a margarita.

B2C sellers must also be accountable and assertive and have a healthy dose of tenacity. No amount of passion for interior design or a particular make of car will make up for absent assertiveness or tenacity, or a history of not being accountable for one's own performance.

Selling is a wonderful, lucrative, and rewarding profession. But it's not for everybody. Passion for a product or a company is a great starting point, but it's not the end point. Learning and personal growth can infuse these salespeople with improved performance, but both manager and employee must understand what will be required to get the sales rep from point "A" to point "B".

Passion for the product does not build a sales career - it only initiates it.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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5 Ways to Increase Customer Engagement With Better Goodbyes

I read a very interesting post this week by Rodney Johnson. I love the title: "The Power Goodbye." Read it.

In his article, Rodney discusses how society places more importance on beginnings (the "hellos") than on endings (the "goodbyes"). This is an interesting thought that got me thinking about how this concept  applies to prospects, customers, salespeople, and the sales process.

First, let me say I am a big believer in the power of effective openings during the sales process. The companies I work have salespeople who sell in customers' homes or in retail or in other B2C selling venues. They often have very limited time to establish a trust relationship, and while a B2B salesperson can rely upon prospecting activity to create a vibrant pipeline of prospects, many business-to-consumer salespeople can only rely on the leads supplied to them or the traffic in their store.

For instance, in a retail setting, you wait for your prospect to come through the door. When they do, you have a limited window of opportunity to engage that prospect in conversation. If you fail at opening up that conversation, the prospect will likely either leave the premises (perhaps to visit with your competitor!), or end up engaging with another sales representative at your store. Since the prospect traffic in a retail setting is a finite set, a salesperson must maximize their openings  with these visitors if they are to maximize their sales results.

But let's also look at, as Mr. Johnson calls them, the "goodbyes." 

Let's imagine your customer has just purchased a new barbecue grill, or an entertainment center, or a sunroom. How should the salesperson handle this engagement opportunity?

Here are five tactics to help you maximize engagement with your customer immediately after the sale:

1. CONGRATULATE.

It's very common to thank a customer for their order. One might even be able to argue that it's such a  common occurrence that it's lost its effectiveness. So, congratulate your prospect instead. "Betty and Bob, congratulations on your new health club membership!" has a nice ring to it. And when you follow it with a handshake and appropriate eye contact, you are supporting your prospects underlying needs and desires that motivated them to spend this money on this product or service.

2. SEND A THANK-YOU NOTE, BUT...

Thank you cards are nice. Send one after your customer buys 1 house-full of window treatments or a riding lawnmower or hardwood flooring from you.

But do something different, fun, or unexpected. Send an applicable article clipped from a newspaper or magazine with the thank-you. Take a picture of the customer next to his new recliner before he leaves your store and mail the photo the the customer along with the thank-you note. Send a lottery ticket. Have the entire staff of your store or company sign the card. Send an unconventional card - maybe something that doesn't even look like a traditional greeting card.

When customer engagement processes become unimaginative and routine, their effectiveness is reduced. But when we make them clever, entertaining, or different, we increase the odds of engagement. 

3. BRING A MANAGER INTO THE PICTURE.

When I bought my Sony laptop at Micro Center last year, the cashier called a manager over to her station to  personally thank me for my purchase. Did they have to do this? No, of course not. But did it have an impact on the customer. Yes!

If you work in a venue other than retail, the manager could phone the customer to thank the customer, or send a note or an email.

4. MAKE IT EASY FOR CUSTOMERS TO WEIGH IN ON THEIR EXPERIENCE.

The proper instrument may be a written comment card, a mailed comment card, an online survey, or a phone follow-up, but when you ask prospects about their experience, and it's clear to the customer that you really want their feedback, you increase engagement, trust, and respect.

5. FEATURE YOUR NEW CUSTOMER AND THEIR NEW PRODUCT.

A photo of your new customer standing next to their brand new boat (or, better yet, fishing on it) could be featured on a billboard, in an ad campaign, or in an email newsletter. Making human being customers the focus of your marketing activities can help engage customers because your company is more human-centric and less product-centric. Could insurance companies, for example, benefit from this? Yes! And maybe your company could, too.

Put more effort into your "goodbyes" and you'll increase your customer engagement.

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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How To Handle Objections: The 3A Formula

Objections are part of selling. No matter how hard we try to prevent them, objections will appear out of nowhere, and it will always be that way.

First, for our purposes here, let's define the term "objection," because I think there are several variations on the term that can potentially cause some confusion in discussions about overcoming objections during the sales process.

Objection (definition): "After an attempt to close a sale, an objection is a reason expressed by a prospect why the prospect will not or can not buy the product or service being discussed."

For handling this type of objection, I teach the 3A system:

Skip Anderson's 3A Formula for Handling Objections:

1. ACKNOWLEDGE the objection

2. ADDRESS the objection.

3. ASK for the sale again.

Acknowledging the objection is some statement of understanding or even support for the prospect or their sharing of the objection. Let's imagine a prospect has just stated "I need to talk to my husband about it." Here are a few examples of acknowledgment statements:

- Thank you Mary for sharing that information with me.

- I understand!

- I'm a husband myself, so I can appreciate what you're telling me. 

Most salespeople skip this acknowledgment step, and get right to confronting the objection head-on. The problem with this is that it often comes off as being too confrontational.

The second step is "address the objection." This is when you provide further information, clarify the objection, isolate the objection, revisit previous conversation, remind the prospect of what they told you earlier, or all of the above. Let's imagine the prospect's objection is "I just don't think the colors in this rug will work in my home." Examples of addressing this objection could be:

- Mary, earlier you told me you loved this rug and the colors would match your colors in your living room. Did I hear you correctly? And so on.

- Based upon the paint chips you brought in last time you were in, we both agreed this rug looked great with those colors. What has changed since then?" And so on.

- Mary, why do you say that? And so on.

This step can be a lengthy one, and sometimes can result in rewinding the sales process back to the needs and desires assessment and starting it over again. If this happens, either the prospect wasn't being forthright, or something changed that you weren't aware of, or you missed something.

The third step is to ask for the sale again. Examples:

- Mary, you've spent hours and hours looking for a rug for your home. Why don't you get this one so you can quit worrying about it and start enjoying it?

- Should we schedule delivery?

- You want to own this rug, don't you?

The triple-A formula will help a salesperson get through many tough objection situations whether the objection is a legitimate one or a false objection. Remember: Acknowledge - Address - Ask!

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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Selling to Consumers: It's Mostly About Relationships

When we think of "relationships" we usually think of those that matter most to us: partners, children, parents, friends, and the like. But those aren't just relationships, those are strong, meaningful relationships. There are other relationships, too. Those other relationships are the ones we have when we end up chatting with someone at the neighborhood coffee shop or meeting someone new at the bar while having a cold one.

And what about the relationship with the front desk clerk at the hotel we check into? It only lasts a few minutes, but isn't that a relationship? Or the parent we meet at the playground while our kids are playing. Or the person that talks to us in a retail store...isn't that a relationship? They're not deep, long-term relationships, but they are relationships, right?

Enter Doyle Slayton

My good friend (and rising star sales guru) Doyle Slayton through up quite a post on his blog Wednesday. It's gotten a lot of people thinking and discussing his topic, which is something that I think is very important for all of us in the sales profession (when I last checked, he had dozens of comments on this blog post). His post, "It's nothing personal, it's just business," takes a contrarian point-of-view to the the commonly held belief that selling is all about relationships.

While I understand what Doyle is getting at, and I definitely agree that sales results are king (everything else is just a means to that end), I somewhat disagree with Doyle's point of view, probably because Doyle's sales background and my sales background are in different types of selling.

My post today is about poking holes in Doyle's post (I warned you, Doyle!). The following are several excerpts from Doyle's article (I encourage you to read the whole thing so you can put everything into proper context). I've added some of my B2C-oriented commentary below. I hope you find the "debate" interesting at least, and thought-provoking at best:

“The relationship begins after the sale, not before.” 

Here's my bias, and why I've chosen to offer a differing point-of-view to Doyle's post:

Most of my sales experience, like many B2C and retail salespeople, has involved sales interactions where you must quickly establish rapport and trust (the basis of any relationship, in my opinion), so you can make a sale while the sales opportunity exists. If you sell windows, for instance, you're going to have a 90 minute (more or less) in-home consultation in order to complete the sale. If you close that opportunity often, you'll be a sales superstar. If you never do it, you'll just be one of the long list of salespeople who tried this job but failed at it.

For a salesperson to sell windows in an in-home sales appointment, one must absolutely, without question, create a relationship with the prospect as a means to achieving the sale. This relationship will be different than the relationship with your good friend, different from the one with your neighbor, your love interest, or your college buddies, but it will be a relationship.

Building a relationship isn't something you do TO someone, it's something you do WITH someone. And to be successful in these types of selling scenarios, the relationship has to be there, because you likely won't get a second chance to sell if you come up empty on the first call. The prospect will be on to his next appointment with your competitor, and if your competitor is able, he'll button up the business while you're left on the sidelines watching from afar.

The same thing holds true in selling jewelry, furniture, fine clothing, or cosmetics at retail. Or selling basement finishing, custom closets, landscaping, or home remodeling in the home. We may never see the customer again (therefore, a relationship after the sale is a moot point), but the relationship almost always has to be there if we're going to win the business.

Most people who sell to consumers don't act as account managers (insurance and financial products are two exceptions). Once the transaction is complete, the relationship, if it exists at all, is of minimal importance. "The relationship begins after the sale?" Nope. I don't think so. Not in the B2C world.

"If there are no results, there is no relationship. Period!"

I disagree with this statement for reasons I've already stated. In my world (consumer selling), there is a relationship, and almost always that relationship exists from the point of contact to the close of the sale, and rarely lasts longer than that.

"If there are no results, there is no relationship" strikes me as being a "which came first, the chicken or the egg" dilemma. Having said that, in B2C selling, the relationship almost always comes first.

Francesca at the gourmet store probably has one chance to sell you a set of All-Clad stainless steel cookware for a thousand dollars or more. If you don't buy it from her, you'll likely go to another store, or order it online, or decide that something else has a higher priority in your life at this moment than cookware. Many consumer purchases take place in a very limited window of opportunity.

I offer this spin on Doyle's statement: "If you can't quickly create a relationship with your prospect, you probably don't have a sale."

"Do you really think the majority of your prospects are interested in building a relationship? We might be pretty good people, but I don’t think any of us are that cool."

If you ask your prospects if they're interested in building a relationship, they'll say no. I agree with Doyle here. But I can also say that consumer prospects prefer to have a positive and productive interaction with their appliance salesperson or their interior designer at the end of the day. As salespeople, we shoot ourselves in the foot when we don't create a positive relationship, albeit a usually short-lived one, with our prospects.

Our prospects probably don't want us to ask for the sale, either. But we still do it. We have to to excel.

"Ok, point made. Let’s transition to look at our current client base."

Many of us in consumer selling don't have much of a "current client base."

While the B2B salesperson has the luxury of getting ongoing orders for steel or paper products or industrial finishes, or IT services, we B2C folks hunker down and look for new selling opportunities. You can make a nice sale selling window treatments to your prospect today, but aside from selling them window coverings at their second home or for their new home when they move in seven years, you're not going to get much repeat business from your customer (again, there are some exceptions, like insurance and financial services).

In my opinion, it's must more important to maximize your relationships with all your prospects, whether those relationships last five minutes, half-an-hour, or several hours (or if you're lucky enough to leverage a longer-term relationship into ongoing revenue). If you want to sell more, get better at creating relationships quickly.

That reminds me: Years ago I created a sales training program for a national chain of furniture stores called "Have a Relationship with a Customer." The point of the training was to look at the sales interaction as a relationship, not just two ships passing in the night.

Thanks, Doyle, for your thought-provoking post. Let the discussion continue!

[One of my favorite sales books is Relationship Selling, the 8 competencies of top sales producers by Jim Cathcart. Although this book has a bit of a business-to-business bias, it's filled with great insight and wise recommendations.]

If you like this post (or don't) please leave a comment. Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers Sales Training. He works with companies and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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I'll Know It When I See It and Top 100 Sales Blogs

Here's the scenario: You're working in sales at a furniture store, and you greet a couple who has entered your store. You quickly find out they are looking for a sofa, so you begin to ask probing questions about their need so you can be helpful. Then the prospects say this:

"We'll know it when we see it."

I know people who sell cars, homes, clothing, jewelry, and many other products also here this distancing statement. Having spent many years working in a range of business-to-consumer selling roles (yes, even selling furniture for quite some time), I would cringe when I would hear a prospect say something like, "We'll know it when we see it!"

Why would I cringe? Because I would feel like I had been marginalized. Prospects saying this succeeded at keeping their distance from me. They had effectively prevented me from doing my job. Although "I'll know it when I see it" limited me early in my sales career, I eventually figured out why prospects would say this. And here's the reason:

Lack of prospect engagement. 

When a sales professional doesn't succeed at creating an engaging relationship with a prospect,  the prospect can see the salesperson as a foe rather than trusted advisor. Engaging the prospect draws them in, makes them feel comfortable, and encourages them to enter into conversation with their salesperson.

When prospects are engaged, they are actively involved in the buying (and selling!) process. They speak, they share, they challenge, they ask, they joke, they relax, they relate, they laugh, and on the list goes. In my sales training, I talk a lot about how better engagement of the customer cures many sales ills, but one of my favorites is putting an end to hearing prospects say "I'll know it when I see it."

Engage more if you want to sell more.

* * * * *

News flash: The Selling to Consumers blog was recently named to a list of the Top 100 Sales Blogs. See the list the here.

 

If you like this post (or don't!), please consider leaving a comment. Subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter to read more sales tips and commentary about selling and sales.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip works with companies and individuals to unlock the buying potential of every prospect through improved selling.

Selling to A Naysayer: 7 Strategies for Dealing with Prospect Negativity

You're selling in a furniture store. A prospect comes through your front door. You say, "Good morning!"

"I'm just looking," she says abruptly as her eyes dart left and right. She quickly moves farther and farther away from you as your sincere hopes of engaging the shopper dim.

A bit later, she approaches you. "How can I get some help here?" she announces.

"I'll be happy to help," you respond, smile on face.

"All your sofas are too big. I can't believe you don't have any reasonably-sized sofas in your store. That's so frustrating."

"What would be the ideal sofa size for you?" you inquire.

"Smaller than what you have here at your store for sure," she barks. "Who would want such huge sofas? I can't believe it."

"Did you see the apartment-sized sofas on the second floor by any chance?" You're trying to help.

She apparently doesn't want your help. "I don't live in an apartment. I live in a house, and all the sofas in here are just too large. Can you recommend a store that would have some real sofas?"

You've just met a naysayer. These prospects are the individuals that seem to have their mind made up that you won't be able to help them, that the world is against them, and that you are incompetent. Nothing will work, nothing will help, and nothing will relieve their (imagined) pain.

How do you deal with these negative customers and still have a hope of moving the sales interaction forward to a closed sale? Here are seven strategies for dealing with the naysayer prospect: 

1. Be unfailingly positive.

Don't let anger, disgust, or despair creep into your persona. Be positive. Smile genuinely. Be helpful. Sometimes even the most ardent naysayers can be softened by a caring salesperson.

2. Simplify.

Naysayers create negative momentum. They love to pile negative thought on top of negative thought. They make their situation needlessly complex because of all this layering. Counter this by simplifying instead. For instance: "Can we back up a moment? I know you're disappointed in our sofas, but I'd really like to understand what size of sofa you'd like. If I understood that piece, I just might be able to help you. Would you be willing to share that with me?"

3. Take notes

Naysayers get caught in a cycle of negative thinking and negative speaking. Sometimes they do this without even being aware of it. By taking notes, you're documenting your prospects' conversation. Sometimes the trickiest prospects will lighten up when they see you with a pen in hand writing down their key statements, such as "This store sucks because all your sofas are too big."

4. Let them talk

Naysayers sometimes need to get something off their chests. Let them do it. After sufficient opportunity to vent, naysayers can brighten their outlook. Some people do yoga to create a positive frame of mind. Others bitch at salespeople. Whatever works.

5. Know when to stop letting them talk

Yes, this is 180 degrees from #4. Naysayers' negative talk can energize some naysayers and make their naysaying condition worse so they transform from naysayers to extreme naysayers before your very eyes. Don't let it happen! Don't let the naysayer reach the point of no return. Take over before they implode!

6. Use closed questions

Closed questions are easier for people--especially children and naysayers--to answer. Closed questions can be answered with "yes" or "no," or with multiple choices. Sometimes "What size of sofa do you want?" is too complex a question for a naysayer customer. "Would an 84 inch sofa work for you?" might be your ticket to breaking down the naysayers nayness.

7.Disengage

As a last resort, disengage with your prospect. Saying something like "You know, I just don't think I'm going to be able to help you today - Thank you for coming in today" will shock some naysayers back into reasonable conversation. Some even apologize! Others will go on naying their way into oblivion.

*  *  *  *  *

Don't forget my "Engage More...Sell More" webinar today (June 17, 2009) at 1PM Eastern.

• Learn how to win your prospects over;

• Hear what actual salespeople sound like when they are non-engaging in their behavior;

• Analyze your past sales behaviors to evaluate your engagement proficiency;

• Learn ten simple yet effective strategies to achieve richer customer engagement with your prospects and customers;

• Leverage your engagement skills to more and bigger sales.

INVEST IN YOUR SUCCESS:

OPTION A: The webinar is free with a VIP membership in Top Sales Experts (only $25 a year - AND you can attend all TSE webinars and master classes for FREE with your VIP membership; You can even listen to a recording if you can't make a live session). To take the Top Sales Experts VIP tour, click here.

[After becoming a TSE VIP member, make sure to go here to register for the webinar].

OPTION B: Attend the webinar for $59.50 without a TSE membership. To register, go here.

Begin engaging your prospects more effectively starting next week. Take the "Engage More...Sell More" webinar. Register now!

If you like this post (or don't!), please consider leaving a comment. Subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter to read more sales tips and commentary about selling and sales.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is mad about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

You Might Be a Sleazy Salesperson if...

You might be a sleazy salesperson if...

 
...you make fun of your customers behind their back. Alot

...you don't just take advantage of an opportunity, you take advantage of a customer

...you don't keep private information private

...don't treat your customers with genuine respect

...cheat someone out of something

...view your prospect as being your opponent

...have a fake smile

...wear polyester ties

...wear a top that is two sizes too small (applies to men and women)

...or even one size too small

...you can't help out a colleague without expecting something in return

...your ego is bigger than your humility

...take anything of the customer's that isn't yours

...hit on your customers

...say "trust me"

...show too much leg

...act like a gangsta

...you line up with other salespeople, peering out the windows of your car dealership

...with binoculars

...eat in front of your customer, unless you're dining together

...wink a lot

...your perfume/cologne lingers two hours after you've left the room

...prematurely bring your sales manager into the conversation to "close the deal"

...tell a unabashed lie to your prospect

...don't do what you say you were going to do

...use colorful language in front of your prospects that don't use colorful language

...you call a customer "babe" or "baby" or "honey"

...say inappropriate things around children

...look anywhere in your customer's home that you shouldn't (if you sell in the home)

...chomp on gum while with a customer

...say "I gotta go take a dump" to a customer, unless that's how your customer talks

...don't play by the rules

...don't know the rules

...don't care that you don't know the rules

...wear too much jewelry

...have breath, clothes, or a body that smells like an ashtray or worse

...have too many buttons unbuttoned on your blouse or shirt

...stand around your store or showroom talking trash with other salespeople, especially when customers are present

...answer your cell phone when with a prospect

...itch yourself where you shouldn't

...for too long

...you think know the world evolves around you

What salespeople do you know that are on the sleazy side? What else should be on the list that I'm missing?

If you like this post (or don't!), please consider leaving a comment, or subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

You Must Watch These Business Videos

Today I have two must-watch videos for you. If you haven't seen these videos, you must watch them now. Really.

1. The first is a TV ad for Red House Furniture in North Caroline. This is unlike any furniture store advertising I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of them (I used to work in the furniture industry).

I definitely have some thoughts about it, but I'd much rather hear your comments (maybe I'll comment at a later date). Watch the vid, then click on comments below to weigh in. What do you think?

2. Here is a video from a talk given by Seth Godin a few years ago (via the marvelous Seth Godin's Blog. Every single person who works in an organization should watch this video titled "This Is Broken." I'm not kidding. It's great stuff. It's twenty minutes long. Watch it now.

If you like this post (or don't!), please consider leaving a comment, or subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

What Your Customers Want To Buy

Overheard statement from customer to salesperson:

"I don't want to buy something that you think is worth it,
I want to buy something I think is worth it."

This statement was made by a prospective customer of one of my client companies to a salesperson for that company. It was during a home improvement sales call in the customer's home, but this statement applies to sales of all kinds of products and services and customers in all industries.

How brilliant it was that this customer summarized so well one of the tenets of selling.

Customers don't care what we think unless it's congruent with what they think. Our words lose their value if we try to sell something to the customer that he doesn't want. If we want prospects to value our words, we have to work tirelessly to make sure all our words have value. Please: no more wasted words.

Yet I see this frequently: salespeople pushing a particular product or model or option because they want to sell it. Maybe it's because they like the product; or they get a spiff from the manufacturer for selling it; or their manager told them to push the item this week.

Pushing (aggressiveness) shouldn't have a place in selling. Customers resist pushing salespeople today more than ever.

But I'm a big proponent of assertive selling.  Go ahead and present your premium option to your client, but if they aren't interested, let it go. Go ahead and show your customer the product you think is best for them, but if they aren't buying it, figure out what you're missing, regroup, and have another go at it with the right product this time. So you get a spiff for selling the maintenance plan? Great! Present it convincingly and ask for the order, but that's different than pushing it.

You'll have a much more successful sales career if you sell your customers what it is they want to buy. Find out what that is and then give it to them.

Your customers want to buy what they want to buy. They don't want to buy what you're selling, unless what you're selling happens to match what they want to buy. Sell accordingly.

If you like this post (or don't!), please consider leaving a comment, or subscribe to our free sales tips newsletter.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

Selling Design Products and Services to the Color-Sensitive Customer

There are a lot of readers of this blog that sell design services or design-oriented products. Today, I offer some sales advice to these readers.

If you sell design-oriented products, some of your customers are design-oriented while others are definitely design-challenged. Some of your design-oriented prospects may especially enjoy the space utilization portion of the design process, others like form and function issues, while others are turned on by color.

Your clients who are keenly interested in color are what I call "color sensitive." They have an intense awareness of color above and beyond the typical customer (even more than other design-oriented customers). I estimate that 10-15% of prospects are color sensitive. Typically, color sensitive individuals get energized by looking at colors in fabrics, paints, and swatches, and they like to talk about color. These highly visual people can be emotionally effected by color, and color decisions should never be treated as an after thought with these prospects.

If your prospect is color-sensitive, it's important to identify this during the selling process. Salespeople need to not only probe for needs, but also probe for an understanding of the prospects design point-of-view, if they have one. A prospect who is very in-tune with color can be a fantastic prospect, but only if you leverage their passion for color into a buying decision. A color sensitive prospect can derail the selling process if the salesperson gets too far into the selling process without developing an understanding of the prospect's color biases and goals.

For instance, designing an entire room without having in-depth color discussions with the prospect can be deadly. Since these color-sensitive people are all about color, they may make furniture decisions more on fabrics and color than on comfort, style, and design. If you show them the perfect side chair but in a fabric that's the wrong color from your client's point-of-view , they may veto your chair proposal because they can't get past the color palette you chose. The deeper you go into the project, the greater the potential set-back.

During the needs and desires investigation, you need to accomplish two tasks:

1. Find out if this prospect is a color-sensitive individual; and

2. Find out as much as possible about the prospect's color biases and preferences for the project or product.

Treating these special prospects with care will help you maximize their buying potential. The right color can help you rock their world, but the wrong color can do severe damage to your relationship.

If you like this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to our free sales tips newsletter.

Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more. 

Customer Engagement: Two Retail Tales

I had two shopping experiences recently, and the customer engagement skills of the two salespeople could not have been different.

First, I stopped at a local garage storage products showroom. This is a higher-end showroom that sells garage storage cabinetry and accessories. I had been to one of the company's other showrooms about five years ago, but hadn't seen this particular showroom.

"Hi," said the salesperson.

"Good morning," I replied.

"Have you been into our store before?" was his first question.

"Not this one, but one of your other stores, but it's been about five years ago," I offered.

The salesperson continued, "Well over in this corner we have some of our clearance product including the Gladiator line which we're discontinuing. And over there is our top-of-the-line product. And we've got accessories over here and such-and-such over here."

"Great," I responded.

"I'll let you look around; let me know if you have any questions," he said.

I looked around for 5-10 minutes and then left. Business must be very good for the salesperson because he didn't show much of an interest in engaging me.

This interaction had almost zero customer engagement. I can think of a hundred questions the salesperson could have asked me to engage me in honest, sincere, human-to-human conversation. But he took the ineffectual selling route instead. What about:

"What kind of garage do you have?"
"What are you thinking about doing to your garage?"
"What brings you in today?"
"How does your garage work for you now?"
"If you could improve your garage, what would you do to it?"
"What's happening in your garage?"
"Do you own a garage? Tell me about it."
"Who else uses your garage besides you?"
"What's your biggest frustration with your garage?"
"What kind of improvements to your garage would help out you and your family?"
"What kind of interest do you have in sprucing up your garage?"
"Tell me how your garage is working for storage now"

And so on.

My advice to this salesperson? Ditch your sales pitch. Engage customers instead. Have real life conversations that matter.

My other story is about when my wife and I stopped at West Elm, a contemporary furnishings store owned by Williams-Sonoma. The energetic salesperson with a fabulous smile greeted us with abundant positive vibes. After saying hello to us, her opening question was, "What did you come in to look at today?"

This is a great opening question, and far surpasses the bland and typical, "How can I help you?" that I often hear from retail salespeople. My wife told her that we were on their mailing list and got their catalogs, and thought we'd stop in. I added that we were on our way home when my wife said, "Let's stop at West Elm."

Then the salesperson asked us if we shopped at Williams-Sonoma or Pottery Barn. We confirmed that we did, and she told us they were owned by the same company, which would explain why we get their catalogs. She told us about their stores opening up all of the country, and then asked us this question: (again):

"What did you come in to look at today/"

I love that. She purposefully came back to a question she had already asked, but wasn't sure she had gotten very good information from us yet. We truly were just there to look around, and had no needs and no intention of buying anything, but she handled herself very well. If we had been in the market for a chair or a desk or a bed, her questioning would likely have gotten it out of us, which is one of the key skills of top-performing retail salespeople. She engaged us, checked back with us, and showed a lot of class, appropriate enthusiasm, and some decent selling skill. She had ditched her sales pitch.

If you sell, be more like the West Elm salesperson and less like the garage storage guy. Engagement of prospects is vital in selling. The right questions engage prospects. Selling is about asking the right questions.

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Skip Anderson is the Founder of Selling to Consumers Sales Training, a B2C and retail sales training and management consulting company. Skip is nuts about helping companies and individuals sell more.