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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List 

Follow on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List 

Follow on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List 

Follow on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List 

Follow on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn

 

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List 

Follow on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn

 

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List 

Follow on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn

 

 

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn

Retail: Customer Service is Good but Selling is Better

Customer Service. Every consumer looks for it. Every retailer strives to provide it.

But the term is so overused and so under-executed that I have tired of hearing and thinking about it. In my own consumer life, there have been so many missed opportunities by individuals and stores where I have shopped to provide excellent customer service that I'm just about at the point where I want - no, need - to give noogies to every retail salesperson / clerk / customer service representative that I come into contact with. 

[Having said that, here are two recent examples of good customer service which were provided to me:

(1) The woman at the cosmetics counter at my neighborhood Walgreen's (it's often quicker to check out there than at the main cashier check-out) keeps a file of manufacturer's coupons for typical products sold at Walgreen's. I'm talking about Tylenol and toothpaste and Prep H and the like (I regularly buy two of those three items...you'll have to guess which ones). So when I bring a basket full of goodies to buy, she pulls out her little filing system and looks for coupons to give to me so I can use them. I don't believe anybody told her to do this, she simply does it to be of service to her clients.

(2) I stopped at a Holiday store last week. Although I've mostly given up donuts (even though donuts are one of the most desirable foods in existence), last week was it was a real treat to stop in the middle of the day and buy one. The chocolate glaze was sort of drippy and gooey and wet. When I bought the donut, the convenience store clerk brought me a couple wet wipes in anticipation of my need for one after I sat in my car and consumed my little morsel of sugar and fat.]

So customer service is a good thing in retail. But it should be a no-brainer for companies and individuals to take every opportunity to reach out to customers to make their lives more pleasant.

But if customer service is a good thing, selling is an even better thing for a retail business.

Selling is the art and science of getting prospects to voluntarily give you money in exchange for a product or service. Since all retail businesses are in business solely to get money from customers and then provide a good or service in exchange for that money, it puzzles me why more retailers don't have front-line salespeople who can and do sell.

> What if the clerk at Lowe's actually sold a barbecue grill to one out of ten barbecue grill browsers? What would that do for revenue?

> What if every clerk at Office Depot asked every single customer if they needed any printer paper as they checked out, then offered to carry a box out to their car for them?

> What if every clerk at Dick's Sporting Goods sold customers on the benefits of $120 sneakers instead of buying $49 sneakers?

> What if every clerk at the wine shop tripled the number of customers to whom they sell a case of wine instead of a couple of bottles of wine?

> What if the clerk at Home Depot sold an assortment of screws to every customer that bought a new cordless drill/driver?

Consumers want to buy things that make their lives more meaningful, easier, fun, and better. If retailers would just take a moment to figure out how to do a better job of that using PEOPLE to sell goods and services that accomplish these things (not just marketing, promotions, customer loyalty programs, merchandising, fancy displays, but the sales PEOPLE who engage their shoppers and customers), retail would be in a better place today.

Retail customers love good salespeople. They love to buy. They want and need things. When we use sales PEOPLE to sell these things, everybody wins.

-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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

Sales Training: Changing Selling Behaviors is Job One

  
Let's say your company sells to consumers, maybe in a retail setting or maybe in the customers' homes, or maybe you find your own leads as in insurance or real estate selling.

Let's look at [your]imaginary company that employs three sales professionals who sell widgets to customers. And, for the sake of this discussion, let's say you provide the same number of leads to all three of these sales representatives by you, their employer:

Sales Representatives "A" "B" and "C" all meet with 65 prospects per month. [Adjust this number of prospects for your real business numbers: if you sell retail, your number will likely be higher; if you sell in customers' homes, your number might be lower, if you sell insurance or real estate you might need to adjust it either way.]

Let's imagine that Sales Rep A sells to 45% of his prospects, and let's say this is the average for your industry. [Adjust this number for the average in your industry]. That's 29.25 prospects each month that he converts to customers.

Let's say Sales Rep B closes sales at a rate below your industry's average, let's say at 31%. Therefore, he sells 20.15 customers each month.

And finally, Sales Representative C closes at a rate higher than your industry's average, let's say at 67%. She sells 45.5% of her prospects.

Summary:

Sales Representative A:

> Closing Rate 45%

> 29.25 Sales per month

Sales Representative B: 

> Closing Rate 31%

> 20.15 Sales per month

Sales Representative C:

> Closing Rate 67%

> 45.5 sales per month

The impact these three individuals have on your business is astounding! Clearly, Sales Representative C is the big winner here. She sells more than twice as many customers as Sales Rep B, and over 50% more than Sales Rep A. What if you could get all three sales representatives to close 67% of their prospects? 

That would result in 136.5 sales per month instead of 94.9. That's an increase of over 45%!

And imagine if this is accomplished with no increase in your marketing budget. Your sales team is simply selling more of the shoppers or prospects that they see on a daily basis. Wouldn't that be terrific?

Now let's add another metric: Average Sale (or "average ticket"). Here's how your sales staff stacks up:

Sales Rep A: $1200 average ticket (the industry average, let's say).

Sales Rep B: $1000 average ticket (obviously, below the industry average).

Sales Rep C: $1400 average ticket (way above the industry average).

Using these numbers, along with the closing percentage as previously discussed, let's calculate the monthly sales revenue generated by each of your three salespeople:

Sales Representative A:

> Closing Rate 45%

> 29.25 Sales per month

> Average sale: $1200

> Monthly sales: $35,100

Sales Representative B: 

> Closing Rate 31%

> 20.15 Sales per month

> Average sale:$1000

> Monthly sales: $20,150

Sales Representative C:

> Closing Rate 67%

> 45.5 sales per month

> Average sale: $1400

> Monthly sales: $63,700.

If we add up the revenue from each of your sales team members, we can see that your small business sells $118,950 per month ($1,427,400 for the year).

But what if Sales Reps A and B were selling at the same admirable rate as Sales Rep C?

Your company's annual revenue would jump to over $2.29 million, an increase of $870,000.

And of course, this doesn't take into account that your Sales Representative C should be able to increase her sales numbers as well.

It's simple, really. When you raise the closing rate of your sales team, along with raising the average amount of each transaction, you can increase sales dramatically.

So, you ask, "how do I do this?"

You change the behaviors of your sales team.

Selling is behavioral. When salespeople do the right behaviors (just like golfers, cabinet-makers, brain surgeons, or pastry chefs), they get right results. Without changes in behavior, salespeople (and presumably, you as a sales manager and your entire organization) place themselves in a reactive state, waiting for the economy to turn around, waiting for some mysterious power in the universe to bless your business and increase sales success.

While sometimes waiting will result in sales improvements, it doesn't strike me as a viable way to run a business.

How do you change your sales team's behaviors? 

1. You educate them.

Sales training must bring about sales learning. And sales learning must lead to changes in sales behavior.

2. You educate them some more.

Successful sales training is a process, not an event. Just as the goalie or the stage actor or the public speaker need constant reminders of how to behave (perform) properly in order to maximize performance, so do salespeople.

3. You coach them.

To successfully change behaviors, sales training just can't occur at a seminar, webinar, or during an online sales training program. They need to be touched repeatedly by someone who can help them analyze and study their sales behaviors. They need someone to suggest, help, inspire, motivate, encourage, teach, and shape each salesperson.

4. You manage them.

To successfully change behaviors, management systems (hiring, performance reviews, compensation, daily operations, priorities, standards, etc.) need to work in concert to change sales behaviors in the organization.

* * * * * * *

Nothing mentioned here is new, or breaking new ground. It's not "Sales 2.0". There's no new sales magic here, no stunning new concepts. It's often said that sales is a "numbers game." But you'll only win the numbers game if you earn the right numbers.

So you want to improve the revenue production of your sales team?

Change their sales behaviors.

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

What a Difference The Right Person Makes!

This post is about selling, customer service, managing, and relationships. and virtually all relationships.

I regularly visit two dry cleaners.

Dry cleaner #1: The front desk person always has a smile on her face, calls me by name, acts excited to see me, and we chat it up for a couple minutes every time I'm there.

Dry cleaner #2: The front desk person doesn't make eye contact with me, says thank you (but with no emotion behind the statement), and hurries to get me out of there.

Which customer experience is more satisfying?

Of course, dry cleaner #1 provides the experience I want as a consumer. Having the right people with the right behaviors in the front line of your company's work (receptionist, front desk, selling, installing, delivering, etc.) can make or break your customer service ratings.

Take this out of the retail setting. Isn't this the experience you want with supervisors and employees at work? With family members at home? With friends and colleagues and roommates and fellow committee members? Engaging others is a key to not only selling success, but all kinds of relationship success.

Selecting the Right People

> Have your job candidates role play during interviews.

> Ask experiential questions that ask for specific examples of how they handled this situation or that situation previously in their career.

> Ask what their proudest job achievement is. Use testing to hire the right personalities, the right strengths, and the right attitudes.

Getting the Right Behaviors

> Getting the right behaviors is easier when you hire the right people.

> Train your people , and when you're done train them again.

> But before you can train them, you must have complete clarity of your training objectives.

> Make sure managing and training are interlocked, each working toward the same goals.

* * * * * * *

Questions for discussion:

> What can you do differently to be the "right person" for your job?

> If you manage and hire, what do you need to do differently to hire the right people?

> And where are you falling short on training and managing those right people?

 

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

Customers: Complex and Marvelous Creatures

We're blessed with two nice zoos here in the Twin Cities area. I love going to the zoos with my daughter when we walk and talk and observe and drink in all the wonders of wildlife.

And trips to the massive Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in far northern Minnesota (and Quetico park in Ontario, Canada just adjacent to it) always produce wonder. There is something about seeing a moose swimming in the water, but seeing zero human beings that same day that recalibrates something within you that helps you maintain your sanity.

Wildlife is full of complex and marvelous creatures.

And customers are complex and marvelous creatures, too. They never cease to intrigue me. I observe them in a state of wonder, trying to understand and learn about their wide array of behaviors and the motivations behind these behaviors. An entire field of study has developed over the history of mankind to study these creatures' behaviors (psychology). Sometimes puzzling, sometimes humorous, and sometimes frightening, customers display a diverse range of behaviors.

Like wild animals, customers can surprise you. Even when you think you have them figured out, they can behave in surprising or even shocking ways. You can try to predict their behavior, but customers and prospects are wild by nature - you never know what can happen. Aggressive one moment, in retreat the next, entertaining the next, customers are fascinating.

Sales training can provide you with wonderful tools to deal with these intriguing creatures. But these tools are only half the sales survival story. The other half is to develop a sense of wonder about, and respect for, these beings. They pay our salaries and give us clear purpose in our careers. We must study them as a scientist studies natural phenomena if we are to make progress in understanding them and successfully taming their varied instincts. How do they think? Why do they do what they do? What motivates them? What behavior is going to happen next?

And to make selling all the more wondrous, each customer is different.

Behold the mystery, complexity, and individuality of these marvelous creatures we call customers*.

* And prospects, too.

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

How to Sell More: Embrace Failure

For sales success to mean anything, we have to be given the opportunity to fail. The more we have the opportunity to fail, the more lucrative winning at sales can be. Celebrate sales failure. Embrace it. Commit to failing, because you can only succeed in a sales career if you also have the ability to fail.

The clerk at the neighborhood convenience store fail in the sales arena because customers come in and buy candy and beef jerky and toilet paper and ice regardless of what the clerk does. The clerk has little impact on whether the shopper will or won't buy, or will or won't buy more. [Not that these employees couldn't have an impact - they could. But this is not the modus operandi of convenience stores I've been in.]

But a real estate agent, kitchen designer, or door-to-door salesperson truly leaves a fingerprint on the results of the sales interaction. Failure (or at least mediocrity) is common in these disciplines, so the successes are all the more important. Here, the salesperson really helps to determine the outcome of the interaction.

Sales training won't help the convenience store employee much, or the discount clothing retailer or the grocery store employee. But it can help those who have the possibility of failure avoid failure by helping the salesperson to embrace failure, and in the process of doing so, embrace sales success.

Managers: design a system in which your salespeople can fail. If you do, success will be more likely.

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

The Selling Process: A Primer for Business-To-Consumer Salespeople

Just about everything in life has a process:

> There's a process for getting registered for kindergarten.

> There's a process to get accepted into college.

> There's a process for changing the oil in your vehicle.

> There's a process for paying taxes.

> There's a process for having a baby.

Successful selling has a process, too. Think of the selling process as a GPS for your sales interaction. GPS will get you to where you want to go, as long as the unit knows your destination preference. A well-conceived selling process will also get you where you want to go with your prospect. Although there are always exceptions to rules, a step-wise progression consisting of doing the right things and the right times will yield big results in sales.

A PRIMER: THE SELLING PROCESS FOR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER SELLING

1. Find your prospect.

If you work in a retail store or have leads provided to you, you don't have to find a prospect to sell to. But otherwise, one of the keys to selling success is to find individuals who are open to spending time with you discussing their needs for your products or services.

Door-to-door selling in a residential neighborhood is a process of finding someone who won't slam the door on your face and will answer your questions (at minimum) or indicate they have a need for your product (better yet!). Selling insurance or real estate or other products or services that aren't sold at retail or door-to-door (D2D) require strong prospecting skills (or a nice marketing budget) in order to have enough people to talk to about your product. Selling on the phone requires a phone list of viable prospects or current customers to upsell.

Once you have your prospect, it's time to find out more about them.

2.Investigate Needs and Desires

Purchases are not random acts. Consumers buy to fulfill needs. Clients are complex and marvelous beings, and the better we understand them and their needs, the better we can position our products and services, and our company, to fulfill those needs. This leads to the prospect or shopper to become a customer or a client.

The depth with which we understand the prospect's needs will help determine our success with our prospects. Merely a superficial understanding will yield less results than an understanding of depth and an appreciation of nuance and detail in the customer's thinking. Therefore, we ask questions to uncover needs, and we discuss those needs and desires to develop a rich and thorough understanding of them, even if we have limited time with our shopper/prospect.

Most sales training will tell you that identifying and understanding consumers' needs and desires is one of the keys to a successful sales career. But many salespeople don't spend enough time on this step of the selling process because they're so anxious to talk about their product or service, or show the shopper something. Ask good good sales questions. Then ask more questions. Investigate.

3. The Presentation

Now is the time for the focus to be on the product or service, the salesperson, or the salesperson's company. This is where we match up our product to the shopper/prospect's needs.

We explain the features of our product. "Features" are details and facts about the product, ideally with the individual consumers' needs in mind. A feature might be any of the following: It's available in 17 colors; you can get an extended warranty; It's available in large or small; It is manufactured in the USA; we custom design all our products for our customers; It's 1.1 carat; It has side airbags; etc.

We also present the benefits of the product or service. "Benefits" are what the features will do for the prospect/shopper. This is where value enters the mix.

A benefit could be any of the following: So you can match the color of the widget to the color of your decor; so you can be protected over the next three years should anything happen to your new computer, therefore saving you time and money and frustration; so you're helping to keep Americans working and not frustrated with products that are made overseas with less quality craftsmanship; so the item is the perfect size for your needs rather than having to buy a widget from stock sizes that might not be right for you; so your fiance will have a diamond that is over that important 1 carat threshold that so many engaged women hope for so your fiance will be thrilled; so your not only protected with the front airbags in a crash, but also protection to the side can help minimize head injury and even death during a crash.

4. Closing the Sale

Everything we've accomplished so far is like the plans for a wedding: the proposal, the shower, the selection of the wedding date, arranging for the participants in the ceremony, acquiring a location, buying the cake and flowers and scheduling the musicians, creating and mailing invitations, selecting the attire, purchasing the rings, preparing the vows, etc.

But closing the sale is like the wedding ceremony itself. It is what all the previous steps have led you. Without the wedding ceremony, all the wedding preparation is a waste of time. Without closing the sale, all the previous sales steps have also been a waste of time.

Closing the sale first consists of a trial close (or test close) that is designed to verify that you have been on the right track with your prospect/shopper. An example of a trial close question is "Are we on the right track?" Another is "Today you were hoping to find a brown widget that would let you do this and that. Do you think this brown widget would let you do this and that?" If the shopper/prospect says "yes," you've successfully completed the trial close. If the response is "no," you've got to return to the "identifying needs and desires" or "the presentation" step of the selling process.

There are many different methods for closing the sale, the simplest being a direct question: "Do you want to go ahead and purchase it?" A salesperson can give alternates: "Do you want to go with the Hitachi or the Sony?" or assume the purchase: "When do you want this delivered?"

Closing the sales is absent from many salesperson's repertoire in the B2C selling sector, and therefore their sales success is limited.

5. Handling Objections

An "objection" is a stated reason why the customer won't or can't purchase from you.

Many of the objections a salesperson hears from a prospect are automatic responses that are not valid. Consumers have developed these responses over many years of dealing with salespeople or seeing others (parents, for example) deal with salespeople. Many other objections are outright fabrications. The remaining objections are valid objections. It's the salesperson's job to find out into which of these categories the objection fits.

Once that determination is made, the salesperson's job is to navigate through these objections in an attempt to arrive at a closed sales transaction despite the objection. The salesperson does this by asking questions, providing new information or reviewing information already presented, investigating the objections, understanding the objections, exploring the objection with the prospect, and asking the prospect to buy again.

I've developed the 3A method for overcoming objections. It can be used as a template for a great many sales situations to help the salesperson successfully handle objections and move on to the sales transaction.

In our wedding analogy, think of the objection as an absent priest, pastor or rabbi from the wedding ceremony, or a lost wedding ring or a pipe organ that won't work. Handling these events are like handling objections.

6. Acquire referrals and testimonials.

While many business-to-consumer sellers skip this step, it can be helpful for many in the B2C sector. Happy customers are often willing to share the names of friends and family members who could use your products or services. Testimonials are positive statements of endorsement you can use in your selling process or in promoting yourself to others.

* * * * * * *

Download the free sales eBook by Skip Anderson, "27 Can Do Steps to Sell More"

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

10 Favorite Responses to the Dead End Prospect

My definition of a "dead end prospect" is a prospect with which you've completed your selling process, handled any objections, and, despite your best efforts at doing a bang up job selling, have reached a dead end, without any clear reason why the prospect isn't buying.

The dead-ender almost always is a result of the salesperson missing something (or several things) during the selling process. As salespeople, we should always want to know why a potential customer is removing themselves from the "potential buyer" category and placing himself in the "not a buyer" category. Usually, during the sales interaction, you're able to drill down enough to understand why.

But a dead-end prospect is one that catches you off guard, that surprises you, that hasn't given you any answers as to why he's not buying, and suddenly declares he is not interested. These are those few shocker prospects that leave you scratching your head and without a sale.

Here are my 10 favorite responses to the dead end prospect in a one-call close or big ticket retail environment [all assume that you've had a productive and positive sales interaction up to this point]:

1. "Hold it please! Let me write down what you're saying [grab a pad of paper]. What was it you were looking for today?" [This is really starting the selling process over again, and works well because in most one call close or retail scenarios, the prospect is the one that initiated the interaction with us in the first place].

2. "I'm not surprised you would say you're not interested, as lots of our customers said they weren't interested at first. But after I was able to understand the real reason why they were saying that, it created better communication between us. How can you and I communicate better about this?"

3. "What are you thinking?" [Said in an inquisitive manner not an accusatory manner.]

4. "Is it the money, is it me, or is it something else?"

5. "Hmmm. I'm just wondering what it is I'm missing here. Will you help me out?"

6. "Let's talk about it for a few minutes, would that be okay? [then be silent]"

7. "What changes would allow you to become interested instead of not interested?"

8. "John, were you interested when you called me out to your home to discuss getting a widget? Were you interested when we were talking about your need for a widget an hour or two ago? So please help me out here so I can understand."

9. [Via Brian Tracy:] As you're leaving the home, or they're leaving your retail establishment, you suddenly say, "Terry, what's the real reason you didn't purchase today?"

10. "I'm so sorry Becky! Tell me what I missed?"

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

Retail Sales Clerk v. Retail Sales Professional: Which One Are You?

I'm on a mission to advance the sales professionalism of retail sales representatives, especially in big ticket retail sales.

Most definitely, retail clerks have their place in the retail industry, and if you're a retail clerk, please don't be offended by this post. Retail clerks work very hard at what they do. Different skills are required for a shopper interested in a $3.49 bottle of shampoo than a shopper interested in a $34,900 car (having said that, if all sellers of shampoo were properly trained on how to sell, they'd sell more $34.99 bottles of shampoo, not to mention all the add-on sale possibilities!).

What I have a problem with are retail clerks filling a position that requires a sales professional (or a company hiring clerks when hiring salespeople would be so much more profitable!). The roles of clerk and salesperson are very different.

Part of success in B2C retail selling is determined by how you view your job. Your thoughts and beliefs about your job will direct your behavior in your job. If you see yourself as a retail clerk, you'll act as a retail clerk. If you see yourself as a professional salesperson, you'll act like a professional salesperson, and a retail clerk and a retail sales professional are as different as nurse assistants and physicians: both work in a similar field, but the difference in education and expertise is significant.

So how do retail sales clerks and retail sales professionals differ?

Clerk: Is always busy with busywork.

Retail sales professional: Is always busy advancing the sales process.

Clerk: Is reactive.

RSP: Is proactive.

Clerk: Understands how to restock shelves

RSP: Understands shoppers and how to influence them.

Clerk: Completes transactions.

RSP: Makes transactions happen.

Clerk: Checks stock.

RSP: Checks if the prospect will buy if it is in stock.

Clerk: Is product focused.

RSP: Is customer focused.

Clerk: Knows how to merchandise a display.

RSP: Knows how to sell the products on a display.

Clerk: Understands prospects' needs on a very basic level, if at all.

RSP: Strives to develops a rich understanding of prospect needs.

Clerk: Gets you to sign up for the store credit card.

RSP: Gets you to spend twice as much (or more!) as you intended to spend.

Clerk: Asks, "Do you have any questions I can answer?"

RSP: Engages the prospect in conversation, even if the prospect doesn't have any questions.

Clerk: Talks about his product knowledge.

RSP: Talks about his product within the framework of the shopper's stated needs.

Clerk: Earns minimum wage; sometimes a bit more.

RSP: Earns a lot more.

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

Only 2 Years to Meet Your Sales Goals! The World is Ending!

 
So Hollywood tells us that the world is going to end in 2012. Yikes! That means we only have a couple years to meet our sales and career goals! Better hurry...

> Ask for help. If you need to find prospects as part of your selling job, start beating the bushes like you've never beat them before. Get out there. Time is of the essence!

> Learn how to close sales quicker than you used to. Whenever possible, accelerate the speed of the sales cycle for your prospects. Hurry up now...

> Do more of what you do well. If you sell well on weekends, work every weekend. If you sell well immediately after you get a haircut, get more haircuts. If you sell well after you work out, start working out every day. You get the idea.

> Don't waste your time. Some salespeople waste 80% or more of their time on unimportant non-selling activities. Stop doing that. Please.

> Clean up your act. If you're on the fringe of being a sales professional, clean yourself up and join the profession of selling instead of the dark underbelly of sales. Use unsavory business practices? Stop. Need a shave? Ditto. Sleeping with your prospects? Not anymore. After all, there's only two years left to sell. Sleep on your own time.

> Be remarkable. Perhaps for the first time in your life, become a remarkable salesperson. Do what it takes to cross the threshold of remarkability. 

What can you recommend to your fellow sales peeps to maximize their sales by 2012? Let our readers know! Post a comment!

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

19 Momentum Building Questions for Better Retail Selling

In my opinion, adequately trained sales representatives are a requirement for most retailers if they want to maximize their sales and profitability. Retail sales training can turn a retail clerk into a retail sales professional. Which do you think will have a higher average sale? Which will sell more? Which will cram more profit into their transactions?

Unfortunately, the state of retail selling has deteriorated to the point that most store associates can't even legitimately be called "salespeople" any longer. So to help you generate discussion about this topic in your company, here is a list of nineteen sales questions that will help associates build sales momentum. Sales momentum is that glorious force that helps shoppers get out their wallets and give you their money.

These questions may not be valuable if you sell aspirin and toothbrushes at the pharmacy or light bulbs and rakes at the hardware store, but if you sell big ticket items like appliances, boats, furniture, or rugs, these questions may help you take your selling to a whole new level. When reading the following question, let's assume you have built significant rapport and trust with your prospect, and let's also assume that these questions are organically inserted into the conversation in a subtle and sophisticated manner:

1. [Customer asks you to check size in the stock room]. If we do have your size in the back, how many do you want? 

2. [Customer says they think it's the right widget, but they want to think about it]. What have you got to lose by taking it home today? You can always bring it back, right?

3. [Customer says they want to check with their wife]. What will you do if your wife says "go for it"?

4. [Customer says they want you to put an item on hold for them]. I'll be happy to hold that for you, I just need to put a credit card number in the system. Which credit card would you like to use?

5. [Customer is looking for a gift for his wife]. So if you decide to go ahead and give this _______ to your wife, how do you think she would feel when she opens up your gift?

6. [Customer is shopping for a widget. You're trying to decide which widget to show her]. What is the absolutely top amount you're willing to pay for a new ____________? How much more than that would you pay if we found you a perfect ____________?

7. [Customer just tried something on]. Wow, you look great in that. Do you know what I'm thinking? I'll tell you in a minute, but you tell me what you're thinking first.

8. [Customer asks how much you'll lower the price if they buy it today]. How much money would you save by going ahead and getting it today? I know your time is valuable, how much is your time worth if you shopped at three or four more stores?

9. [Customer is looking at different sizes of bottles of ______]. You can save money by going with the __ ounce bottle. Do you like to save money?

10. [Customer is talking with you about buying a new widget]. Who else will need to give the okay to approve this purchase?

11. [Customer told you he's been looking at other stores]. What's the criteria you will use in making your decision about who to get your new ________ from?

12. [Customer told you he's been looking at other stores]. So you've been out shopping for a _____, how wonderful! How will you know the right one when you see it?

13. [You greet a customer and she says she's just looking]. You're just looking? Fantastic, please do look! What will you be looking for today?

14. [Customer sees something they like]. So you like this widget! Great! What is it you like about it?

15. [Customer asks if he can think about the purchase]. Can you think about it? Of course you can think about it! Let's think about it together. What do you think?

16. [Customer asks for a better price]. Can I do better on the price? Wow, that's a great question! So I can make sure I understand what you're saying, what price are you hoping for?

17. [Customer wants to try out your widget in the store]. Yes, of course you can try it out. Please, go right ahead. If you like it after you try it out, then what will happen?

18. [Customer asks for price of several customizable widgets]. Absolutely, I'll get that for you. I can either give you individual prices, or one package price including your package discount. Which type of pricing is most important to you?

19. [After a presentation of your product]. Every purchasing decision requires information. What  information have I left out of my presentation that is crucial to your decision?

What momentum-building questions can you think of that would be valuable for salespeople to include in their repertoire?

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

In Selling, Are You a "Waiter?" (It's Not What You Think)

Immediacy is a prized trait in business. For better or worse, businesses run on what happens today, not on what might happen tomorrow or next year. Therefore, we all live in the environment of sales targets, sales goals, sales budgets, bonuses, incentives, sales plans, and projections.

Business investors, owners, executives and managers want to know what you're selling today, and they want to have confidence that you're going to duplicate what you're selling today again tomorrow, too, and the next day and the next month and the next year (but with a 10 - 20 percent increase, of course).

Despite the length of sales cycle (the door-to-door salesperson has an extremely short one while the stock broker courting high net worth individuals might have a long sales cycle), immediacy rules the day.

"Waiters" don't do well in the sales profession. In selling, a "waiter" is someone who waits for good things to happen. It might be out of hope for the future, or it might be out of laziness or a personality trait that lacks immediacy to take action or be accountable for one's own sales performance.

If you tend toward being a "waiter", ask yourself five questions every day (post them on your cell phone, by your office phone, on your mirror, or in your car) to help keep you focused and falling into the trap of becoming a waiter:

1. Is what I'm doing right now going to help me generate revenue today?

2. If not, what must I do today to bring in sales now?

3. What business do I need to close today even though I tend to believe that the prospect really will "think about it."

4. What actionable behaviors am I going to do today that will help position me for success today?

5. What can I do today to spend less time thinking (hoping?) about the future rather than taking action today?

6. What action will I do today to take responsibility for my own success?

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

The Value of the Extreme

We notice and remember:

.The young woman with hair down to her tail bone;

.The guy with the super cool glasses;

.When we're greeted by someone wearing a tux;

.Ferraris, Lamborghini's, and Rolls Royces; Smart cars, too.

In sales and in business, it is sometimes (often) helpful to get noticed and get remembered. What have you done to get noticed and remembered? What has your retail store or company done to do likewise?

.Any retail store can set out a platter of cookies for shoppers. But what about little cups of bread pudding? Or mini tartlets? Or your own brand of chocolates?

.There is (was?) a drive-through coffee establishment in Washington that had workers who wore bikinis. This definitely got the public's attention (unfortunately, the bikini baristas took it too far, apparently).

.If coffee shop baristas can wear bikinis at work, how about having guys at your surf shop go shirtless?

.When I was selling products in customers homes 10+ years ago, I would wear a dress shirt and tie on sales calls. All the competitors wore polo shirts or work shirts. I closed 82% of my appointments. They didn't.

.I know a retail sales guy who changed his name to Peter Pepper so he would be remembered. I met him over ten years ago, but I still remember his name.

.I sold a custom closet back in the 90's to the founder of Geek Squad when he lived in a modest South Minneapolis duplex. Parked out front on the congested street was a vintage car with black and white paint (ala 50's cop car) that had the now familiar Geek Squad logo on the doors. We all know Geek Squad now, and it all started with their distinctive visual presence in the marketplace.

Be distinctive, maybe even extreme. Do things differently. Don't be a "me too" salesperson or a "me too" company. Is there an opportunity to utilize "the extreme" in your business?

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

2 Reasons Salespeople Fail at Effectively Handling Customer Objections

The biggest reason salespeople fail at handling objections from their customers is that they don't know what to say or do when they hear an objection, so they talk.

This is primarily a sales training issue, of course, but once trained, it becomes a sales management and coaching issue. Salespeople need to be reminded (daily? weekly? monthly?) how to effectively handle objections so that a simple customer objection doesn't kill a sales interaction prematurely.

The second reason salespeople fail at objection handling is anxiety. They get nervous, impatient, and loose their composure, often resulting in a haphazard response or an end to the dialog.

Again, this is a sales training and management issue. Just as anxiety control is important in being a pilot, a hockey player or a comic, anxiety control is important to the sales professional, too. High anxiety causes comfortable person-to-person timing to become rushed. During an episode of objection anxiety, sales reps loose their ability to listen, to think, and to react effectively.

If your sales team is struggling with handling customer objections effectively:

1. Make sure everyone knows what to say when the most common objections are expressed by prospects; and

2. Make certain salespeople know how to control anxiety through slowing down, improving listening, and lots of role-playing.

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn

I Don't Push It On Them

One of my sales coaching clients - I'll call him Mark - and I were having a discussion last week about the roadblocks he was experiencing trying to sell his product more successfully. He gave me permission to describe our conversation in this post.

In an effort to understand the dynamics surrounding Mark's challenges, I asked him many questions. During coaching sessions, I always look for information that raises a red flag: something unusual, something that indicates a blind spot in the seller's perception, or something that makes alarm bells go off in my mind.

I had one of those red flags raised when Mark was explaining how he worked with his prospects selling high end big ticket retail products.

"If I don't feel our product is right for the customer, I don't push it on them," Mark blurted.

With red flag raised, I started asking Mark questions about this idea. My first question was, "Mark, I understand you don't like to push product on your customer when you don't think it's right for that particular customer, but when do you think it's perfectly okay to push your product on a customer?"

Mark gave a long and rambling answer having to do with respect for the customer, pushiness in selling, needing to make sales goals, management's expectations, how it's fun to sell to a customer that likes your product, when a customer should buy a particular product for his own good, and so on. But he never really answered the question.

"So Mark, when do you think it's perfectly okay to push your product on a customer," I asked again.

Silence. Mark was thinking. That's always a good sign in a sales coaching session.

"I'm not sure," he replied.

So we talked it through at some length. I shared with Mark that I thought it was never appropriate to push product on a customer. That means when the salesperson doesn't think the product is a good fit for the customer, and it also means when the salesperson does think a product is a good fit for the customer.

I told Mark that having a push mentality in selling will always throw you off course, not only because when you push, you can't guide, and when you push, you can't lead. It also throws the salesperson off course because a push mentality requires a salesperson to determine when it's okay to push and when it's okay not to push. By taking pushing out of the selling equation, a salesperson doesn't have to make this determination.

Mark agreed and vowed to take product pushing out of all future sales interactions.

Then I had one more angle to discuss with Mark relative to his "If I don't feel our product is right for the customer I don't push it on them" statement. I started here:

"Speaking theoretically, what if a customer determines your product is a good fit for him, but you don't believe it is?"

Mark talked about the need to guide the prospect in the right way, being true to your own beliefs, and so on.

I counseled Mark: "The customer's conclusions are always more important than your conclusions. So if a customer believes product X or feature X is a better fit or most important, even though you [think you] know product Y or feature Y is more beneficial, you have to sell the customer what he wants, otherwise you're letting your biases get in the way of serving your clients, and in this way, you're limiting your sales."

This was a stunning revelation for Mark. He had always believed one of the most important selling functions was to guide his customers down the correct path, but he realized he hadn't been guiding, but had instead been steering, and that he couldn't ultimately determine what the correct path was anyway.

To review, here's what I believe Mark learned in our coaching session:

1. "Pushing" a product or service is not part of a sales representative's job description, so don't waste any time or energy doing it or thinking about when you should do it.

2. Guiding a customer is good. Steering a customer is bad. Let the customer decide what's a good product fit and then support the customer's decision.

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.

Contact Skip | Join Mailing List

Follow on Twitter | Connect on Facebook | Connect on LinkedIn