Selling to Consumers | Sales Training Blog by Skip Anderson

The Sales Professional: Lieutenants of the Economy

As Labor Day approaches here in the U.S., I want to recognize the herculean contributions of salespeople everywhere to the global economy. 

Yes, I know, the economy continues to be in shambles, and as great as salespeople are, even they aren't able to single-handedly clear the dark cloud of financial darkness that has plagued us for the last few years.

But think where we would be without the recent contributions of salespeople everywhere. Salespeople are the boots on the ground (or boots on the phone) engaging prospects and making business happen. At a time when consumers and businesses alike are cautious at least, and have their purchasing locked down at worst, salespeople are in the field and on their phones contacting prospects, finding prospects, creating relationships, looking for hidden opportunities and helping their prospects and shoppers find a reason to say "YES" to a sales proposal NOW.

The economy hasn't been kind to most salespeople lately. Some have had to take on second or even third jobs as they've seen their commission checks shrivel or their colleagues be dismissed from their employment. Others have had to cut back drastically as they've seen leads have dried up to a mere trickle, if even that. Salespeople have never worked harder and have never been more dedicated. Their contributions to business are monumental, and they should be recognized for it. [A couple years ago I put together an ebook, "27 Can-Do Steps to Sell in Tough Economic Times. You can download it free here.]

So, here's an idea for you to recognize the salespeople within your sphere of social, casual, and business contacts. Maybe you're a sales manager or small business owner or client or customer or the brother, daughter, sister or father of a salesperson. Here's what you do:

Email them a brief note recognizing their contribution to business and to helping keep the economy alive. Include a link to this blog post. You could email something like this:

"Heather, I really appreciate your contributions to our company and want to recognize the vital role salespeople make in our organization. Keep up the great work and know that I am appreciating all you do every day, even if I don't verbalize it to you. This blog post sums up my feelings about salespeople. I thought of you when I read it." 

My final thought:

To all salespeople everywhere, thank you for what you do and the efforts you make and the results you get. Economic times will get better for all of us, and I look forward to seeing how your future contributions are going to help get us there. Selling is an honorable and vital career. You should be proud it is your career, even during tough economic times.

Skip

  

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

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Get Off the Commerce Freeway Once in a While

Society if full of sellers, all busily pursuing their next sale And that's how it should be.

But not all the time.

Just like worker bees, we get on the commerce freeway, encouraged by our sales managers and our compensation programs and our personal debt to travel faster, and periodically even faster yet. Fast was last year's goal; very fast is this year's goal. Next year we'll be seeking to make sales super fast. In sales, fast is better, and more is even better.

But it's important we get off the commerce freeway now and then. We can seek a new perspective, see where we are and verify that where we're headed is the best place to be going. We can all benefit from reading a sales book, taking a sales assessment, attending a seminar, or connecting with others in our industry that we've meant to connect with, but haven't.

That brings us to sales training.

Yes, I have a sales training company, and yes, of course, I want every company to hire us to train their salespeople. But this isn't just self-serving to me or other trainers out there, it's to encourage you to find identify and repair gaps between management's expectations for sales performance and the current skill sets of those doing the sales performing (or lack thereof).

I love to ask clients why they are doing this or why they're doing that. Answers vary widely, but the most popular answers - by far - are either, "That's a good question; I'm not sure why" or "I don't know, we've always done it that way." A fresh pair of eyes can provide a company with often extraordinarily valuable insight about a company's everyday sales operations that can lead to increased revenue production.

Just like in so many areas of human achievement, the difference between being a winner and an also-ran is often very small. But when you implement those small changes, sales can grow and even explode.

Get off the commerce freeway once in a while and get on the on-ramp to the fresh perspective freeway. Stay a while. And visit it every now and then. You'll be amazed and what you'll see if you just allow yourself to look.

 

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

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Sales Managers: Don't Settle!

Sales managers:

Need to hire a salesperson?

Don't settle.

> Don't settle on someone you like like but who can't sell.

> Don't settle on someone who can sell that you won't be able to tolerate.

> Don't settle on someone that doesn't meet the criteria you said you needed to have met.

> Don't settle on someone who looks good on paper but looks bad to your prospects and customers.

> Don't settle on someone who has failed repeatedly.

> Don't settle on someone who will mess up your department or team.

> Don't settle on someone who can sell, but will have a huge maintenance cost in your time and energy to manage them and follow behind them to keep putting out the fires they've ignited.

> Don't settle for an individual that has substandard credibility, integrity, or work ethics.

> Don't settle for a fast talker without checking to see if he can talk slowly, too.

> Don't settle for a candidate who is functional as a salesperson, but dysfunctional as an employee.

> Don't settle for someone you find yourself hoping will be at least average.

In what other ways should a sales manager not settle?

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

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Becoming a Better Manager: Counteract The Rumor Mill

 
As a manager, how do you communicate with your team? Do you have a systematized, reliable process for sharing both large and small segments of information with your employees? Or do you rely on the default communication structure in any organization?

That default communication structure is the rumor mill. In this day of incredible technology, many organizations, departments and teams still rely on the rumor mill to spread information throughout the ranks. The rumor mill runs at lightening speed thanks in part to your employees' use of incredible technology. But it has awful accuracy. And that awful accuracy could be hurting your management efforts.

COUNTERACT THE RUMOR MILL

Managers must counteract the effects of the rumor mill if they're serious about leading their group efficiently and proficiently. The best counteracting can be accomplished by committing to: 

1. Communicate often

In many work groups, the level of communication is high, but the frequency is too low. This often results in a communication-starved group, and when they're starved, the group will find information somewhere (even if it's outdated or inaccurate). The best way to fight information starvation is to give employees what they want: communication.

2. Communicate accurately

Don't tell your team that the executive in charge of your division has desired to create a new position of Director of Social Media Marketing if the executive in charge of your division is only considering creating a new position of Director of Social Media Marketing. Communicating often is only helpful if the information being communicated is accurate.

3. Communicate both "need to know" and "nice to know" bits of information

Some employees in a work group don't care about anything, so #3 won't help them (but then, what will?), but many employees like to know nice to know information just as much as they want to know the vital stuff. So go ahead and tell them that your company's employment ads will now be placed on CareerBuilder instead of Monster, or that the garbage is now being picked up by Ted's Sanitation instead of Waste Management. Employees like to be in the loop.

4. Communicate important information to ALL your team

Great damage can be done by cherry picking who receives certain bits of information, either be cherry picking intentionally or out of lack of discipline. Of course, there will always be times when only certain individuals or certain groups need to know some bits of information, but the general information (like "We're going to be moving our offices down the street to the 731 building") shouldn't be shared with a few people, thereby allowing the rumor mill to disseminate the information to the remaining employees.

Besides, as the game Telephone shows us, by the time the last employee in your group has heard the rumor, you'll be moving your offices not down the street to the 198 building, but to the suburbs on 198th street.

5. Communicate with proper timing.

There's a proper time and place for communicating particular bits of information. Make sure your timing is wise. The time to tell your group that Tina in payroll was let go is the same day or day after she was let go, not three weeks after Tina's employment was terminated (just ask your three employees who have been frantically emailing and leaving voicemail messages for Tina - to no avail - for two weeks). On the other hand, it's equally as damaging to tell your group on Tuesday that Tina has been terminated when Tina's manager wasn't going to terminate her employment until Friday. Ouch.

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

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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.

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The Race to Sales Competence: A Case for Sales Training

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sales training can help your team become sales competent.

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

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Micro-coaching Your Sales Team

Sales coaching is one of the keys to developing a high-performance sales team. Unlike sales training, sales coaching is more individual in nature than typical sales training.It's also a prescriptive measure, while sales training is proactive. Both are important, and each can build on the other.

Micro-coaching is my term for a particular style of sales coaching that can pay big rewards. Micro-coaching is completed in very small episodes throughout the day, week, and month. Brief bits of sales coaching increase the number of "touches" between the coach (usually, the sales manager) and the subject of the coaching (the salesperson). By definition, these micro-coaching session are brief, so what you gain in frequency you lose (by design) in length.

Micro-coaching expands the number of pats on the back, suggestions, observations, questions, goal-setting, examination, preparation checks, micro-role-playing, reminders, and other touches that are shared during any given time period. The increased quantity of these touches help build rapport and trust between the two parties, and also help create sales performance improvement. The consistent, on-point, focused micro-coaching conversations help keep the employee consistent, focused, and on-point.

Note: Micro-coaching has little or nothing in common with micro-managing (which, in my opinion, would be more accurately called micro-controlling rather than micro-managing...but that's another blog post).

There are times a longer coaching session is in order. Identifying ongoing weaknesses, developing a development plan, or developing a strategy for a particular client would be better accomplished during a private coaching session that's perhaps one hour in length or even longer. But micro-coaching can be dispersed easily throughout the day, even though all the players' schedules and plates are full. Micro-coaching is easy to fit into virtually any day.

Here are 20 examples of micro-coaching that can be accomplished while you walk by your salesperson on the way to the restroom at the retail store, or walk past their cubicle in the call-center, or when you both meet at the water-cooler, or on your way back into the office after lunch:

1. Michael, please don't forget to call me with your sales numbers after your appointment tonight, okay? I can't wait to hear how it went.

2. You're looking great today! It's great to see you in those ironed pants! (perfect for an employee who you previously talked to about wearing un-ironed, wrinkled clothes to work).

3. I listened how you added-on the widget to your sale to that last customer. That was FANTASTIC!

4. Stephanie, just a quick reminder: Don't forget to acknowledge the objections of your customers. Can you make that work?

5. Sometime today, I'd really like to ask you to observe how Rachel handles getting the paperwork signed. Watch her a couple times and let me know what you you think, will you do that?

6. Dan, it's time for a smell check...come over here and let me see if your clothes smell smoke-free (appropriate for someone who you have talked to previously about smelling like cigarette smoke).

7. I've got a lottery ticket in my office for you if you sell a widget this afternoon.

8. I really like how you're learning to self-edit your comments after the shopper asks you a question. I really think the shorter, more precise responses are working for you.

9. Becky, I know it's hard for you being on the bottom of the sales pile this month, but I want you to know I believe in you. I'm sending positive energy your way!

10. Jose, don't hesitate to look your customer directly in the eye when you tell him you can't meet his price. Eye contact works!

11. I can't wait to see what you do selling our new line of eco-friendly widgets. What do you like best about them?

12. I heard your last greeting. Just remember Stephen, you've heard that greeting over and over again, but your prospect has never heard it before. Make it sound fresh every time, okay?

13. Do I detect a little extra confidence in your selling today? I love it!

14. It's important that you don't have soda out on the sales floor, John. Will you please take your soda into the break room and leave it there?

15. You've always been so accommodating in the past, which I really appreciate. I'm wondering if I could ask you to stay a couple hours later tomorrow night so we could finish changing the signage, and while we're doing that, I'd like to share a couple ideas for you on how you might be able to improve your closing.

16. You're one of the most organized salespeople I've ever seen, Rox. It's really impressive what you do.

17. Patty, don't be afraid to hand the product X samples into your customers hands. I noticed this morning with that customer you asked them if they wanted to see the samples. I think I might just hand them to them without asking. Does that make sense?

18. Annette, you're so darned good at selling, I'm just wondering how much better you could really be if you'd just learn to be quiet after you ask your closing question! You've got to get that down for once and for all!

19. I loved how you did the sales script just now - very impressive, Lori.

20. Megan, we've been talking about getting you to do a better job of matching your prospect's pace. How do you think you did with that last 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 that sell to consumers in all B2C sectors to increase sales by realizing the buying potential of every prospect.

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10 Ways to End Sales Drudgery in Sales Teams

I love consistency in selling. And consistency in management, policies and procedures. While consistency has it's place in the running of a successful sales organization, there are times where consistency leads to drudgery.

Salespeople in retail do the same thing everyday, opening the cash drawer and maintaining this display and entering information there. Those who sell in customers' homes drive to appointments every day and do their thing, and then drive to the next appointment. Door-to-door canvassers are out in the streets of the community drumming up prospects or closing sales. Prospectors are on the phone day in and day out.

"That's their job," you might tell me.

Of course, we all have to do our jobs to make the organization work, but there is a time to shake things up to end sales drudgery: that automatic pilot selling during periods of lowered enthusiasm that usually drive sales numbers down, and with it the spirit of salespeople in the company. Sales drudgery is sameness, it's boredom, it's low engagement of employees.

Here are ten ways to end sales drudgery in your sales team, if not forever, for a while:

1. Hire a sales trainer or author to speak to your group.

When I work with sales teams, I know that not all of the information I present is new. Some of it has been spoken before, by the sales teams' sales manager, and probably has been spoken repeatedly. But having a fresh face and voice present sales information can spark a sales team out of their drudgery stupor.

2. Have a contest.

Contests are so commonplace in some sales organizations that they actually promote sales drudgery. But maybe a new kind of contest is in order. Instead of awarding a something-or-other to the top seller for month, offer an incentive to anybody who increases their closing rate by five points during the month. Do something different. Different is good when your mission is to combat sales drudgery.

3. Meet off-site.

If you have a weekly sales meeting and it's always in your office, schedule a meeting off-site: in the conference room of a friend's company, at a vendor's facility, at a restaurant, at a food shelter, in a hotel next to your competitor's location, in a party bus or a limo, in a public park shelter, or at your home. Same-old same-old sales meetings promote sales drudgery.

4. Require a 12 hour day.

Traffic is up in your store? Sales are going gangbusters? Have your team put in a 12 hour day to meet the demands of the business. But make it fun. Go out for a beverage afterward as a group. Take pictures throughout the day and post them in the breakroom. Give them a $12 bonus for working a 12 hour day.

5. Have a pot-lock.

Invite your sales team to bring in food for lunch to share with each other, if this is not part of your normal operations. If it is part of your normal operations, then stop having pot-luck on the second Wednesday of the month (or whenever you traditionally do it) and order pizza instead. Better yet, order something different and uncommon: Have a restaurant deliver pancakes and bacon, or fish and chips, or have dim sum, complete with wait-staff. Remember, different is good.

6 . Have a sales employee present all or part of a sales meeting.

Agree on a topic with the employee and schedule it ahead of time. Promote the event ahead of time. Sales managers aren't the only ones with good ideas about selling.

7. Team sell for one week.

Assigning a high-performer to a low-performer is a no-brainer. But pairing up two high-performers can work wonders for fighting drudgery. Let the top-performers compare notes, learn from each other, and bond. Even pairing low sales performers can be great: there are often great things low-performers do that can be taught to other low-performers, thereby raising the quality of your team's work.

8. Do something silly.

As a silly person myself, I am fond of doing silly things to fight drudgery. Wear Hawaiian shirts for a week (especially effective in my home state of Minnesota in February). Require a change of clothes during the day. Call in after every sales appointment, but require the employee to start their report with a joke (just give him time to research jokes beforehand).

9. Give responsibility for employee's B's sales performance for the month to employee A.

Give a bonus to employee A if she can get employee's B's sales to increase by 5% or more by month-end. Do the same with employees B & C, D & D, etc.

10. Library time.

My daughter has library time in third grade. Have library time for your sales team. Bring in a stack of sales books and set them on the table in front of your sales team. Have each member select a book, and assign them to go to a personal space in the facility and read in an hour, then have them return to the group and have them share what they learned with the entire group.

These are merely ten sales-drudger-fighting ideas, but there are hundreds of things a sales manager could do to combat sales drudgery. What wacky, different, or brilliant ideas do you have that might help end sales drudgery in a sales team? Please share your thoughts with our readers.

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

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When Sales Performance Incentives Don't Work

I have often been an advocate of increasing incentive pay and lowing base pay for salespeople in the B2C space. But increasing the portion of income that can be derived from commission won't work for all types of sellers.

Let's look at four different salespeople:

 

> Salesperson 2 is highly skilled at selling, and is also highly money motivated. This person will generally respond well to increased monetary sales incentives.

> Salesperson 4 is not highly skilled at selling, but is highly money motivated. This person will generally not respond well to monetary sales incentives, unless that money motivation motivates the salesperson to develop his sales skills as an intermediary step.

> Salesperson 1 is highly skilled at selling, but is not money motivated. This person will generally not respond well to increased monetary sales incentives.

> Salesperson 3 is not highly skilled at selling, and is not highly money motivated. This person will generally not respond well to increased monetary sales incentives.

Therefore, sales management throwing money at a sales performance problem results in a FAIL for three of the salespeople in our scenarios. Monetary rewards only work for those who are highly motivated to make more money.

Don't get me wrong! I want sales professionals in the business-to-consumer market to earn more money!

To improve the sales of salespeople 3 and 4, management needs to implement sales training that works. To improve the sales of salesperson 1, management needs to identify motivators that will increase performance, as more money clearly will not. It might be: becoming the top salesperson in the organization (ego motivation), being part of a winning team (team motivation), or something else.

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

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Skip Anderson Interviews Shane Gibson, Co-Author of "Sociable!"

Shane Gibson and Stephen Jagger have written a brand new social media book titled "Sociable! How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down." I interviewed Shane on the new episode of The Selling to Consumers Podcast.

I recommend the book to B2C companies and individuals who are trying to figure out if or how social media plays a role in everyday business. Listen to my interview with Shane Gibson at sales training podcast.

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

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Humble Confidence

The manager, business owner, or salesperson who possesses humility allows engagement with other people (employees, partners, vendors, customers, prospects, suspects, etc.). They are accessible and present. They are not toxic. They are thankful for their riches and often flexible with others. The ego is successfully managed.

Add confidence to all that humility and you have an individual who is certain he will successfully handle the management issues with which he is faced, or the customer issues he will encounter. He is able to deal successfully with people of all types, change prospects into customers, move the business forward, and solve problems that need to be solved. Confidence instills confidence in others, so the humble and confident business person inspires those around him. He often takes a leadership role even when it is not a formal one.

Who do you know who possesses humble confidence? How have these traits helped their business? Their sales?

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

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Why Can't Tiffany Sell to Men?

Dear readers: Don't sell like Tiffany.

- - - - -

A Play in One Act: Why Can't Tiffany Sell to Men?

As the scene opens, the sales manager is having a private sales coaching meeting with Tiffany, one of his average salespeople. Rachel is sitting back in her chair, lets extended, looking tired and frustrated.

Sales Manager: "What's up with your sales this month?"

Tiffany: "I just can't sell to men."

Sales Manager: "Why?" 

Tiffany: "I just can't get them to buy?"

Sales Manager: "Can you sell to women?"

Tiffany: "You know I can"

Sales Manager: "I know you can sell to men, too."

Tiffany: "I'm not comfortable doing it."

Sales Manager: "Are you comfortable doing other things with men?"

Tiffany: "Yes, of course. I just can't sell to them."

Sales Manager: "Tiffany, I know you can sell to men."

Tiffany: " -- "

Sales Manager: "So, if I KNOW you can sell to men, and you KNOW you can't sell to men, what do we do?"

Tiffany: " -- "

Sales Manager: " -- "

Tiffany: "I'm just saying I can't sell to men."

Sales Manager: "Let's pretend I'm a woman. Sell me this pad of sticky notes."

Tiffany: [role playing] "What are you looking for in your sticky notes."

Sales Manager: [role playing] "I like purple ones. And I don't like the little ones. I like bigger ones."

Tiffany: [role playing] "What else?"

Sales Manager: [role playing] "I need the jumbo back or something. I hate running out of sticky notes."

Tiffany: [role playing] "What else?"

Sales Manager: [role playing] "That's it."

Tiffany: [role playing] "Here's our super jumbo pack, which has twice as many sticky notes as the jumbo pack. And you get two different shades of purples. Do you like the size of these."

Sales Manager: [role playing] "Yes, that's what I had in mind."

Tiffany: [role playing] "Do you want to get these?"

Sales Manager: [role playing] "Yes, thank you."

Tiffany: "See, I told you I can sell to women...I just can't sell to a man."

Sales Manager: "But I am a man. I was just playing the role of a woman."

Tiffany" " -- "

Sales Manager: " -- "

Tiffany:  "Oh yeah."--

Sales Manager: " -- "

Tiffany: " -- "

Sales Manager: " -- "

Tiffany: "Okay. I can sell to men."

THE END.

- - - - -

Dear Readers: Okay. You can sell like Tiffany 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 and individuals who sell to consumers in B2C, retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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The Salesperson as Leader

Leadership traits are always sought after in management and executive positions, but it's less common, and unfortunate, that all companies don't require leadership qualities in new hires within the sales discipline.

One way salespeople can sell more is by acting as a leader. Leaders have the ability not only to lead, but also to easily get others to follow, a helpful skill during sales interactions. They paint a picture of what the future will look like. In a sales application, this means being clear about how the prospect's life will change when they purchase the product or service in question. Leaders identify incongruence between parties so progress can be made. Leaders inject purpose and direction into their relationships - something very valuable in sales relationships.

How can you identify leaders during the hiring process for sales peeps?

Identify those who have led previously. As in virtually any hiring situation, past performance is the best predictor of future performance, so if a candidate has a history of successful leadership, they will probably continue to successfully lead in your company.

Ask good interview questions to identify leadership sensitivity, ability, and past successes:

- What do you think leadership is?

- Tell me about a specific time you led others on a project. How did you become the leader? What was the result?

- Tell me about a time you were recognized for your leadership ability.

- Tell me about a specific situation when you used your leadership skills during a sales interaction with a prospect.

- Who's the finest business leader you know. Why?

- Name one thing your former manager could have done to be a more effective leader.

If you're a salesperson, how can you become a better leader?

Think not only about selling process, about fulfilling needs, and closing the sale, but think about what qualities are needed to move the prospect from prospect status to customer status.

Develop your leadership sensitivity and your leadership skills. Strive to understand leadership from the outside in. Read John C. Maxwell's The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You

When you become a better leader, you sell more. When you hire better leaders, your company sells more.

Lead on!

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

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It's Fearless Friday

I hereby proclaim today a "Fearless Friday." Be fearless today:

- Call your wealthy great uncle (finally) about your buying your product. You've wanted to do it for years, so pick up the phone today.

- Contact a local TV station about appearing on their morning show in a segment to talk about how your product can help consumers.

- Plan a publicity stunt to get attention.

- Commit to impeccable follow-up from those who have not yet purchased from you. Be a stalker (but in a good way).

- Trick out your car with signage of a complete car wrap for an advertisement for your business.

- If you don't normally canvas door-to-door, do it today. Pick a street, take a deep breath, and go knock on 25 doors. Every B2C salesperson should do this at least once in their life to experience it. And you may be surprised and get a handful of sales opportunities.

- Get a sales related tattoo. Your tatt doesn't have to be visible (and maybe shouldn't be depending upon what you sell and who you sell to), but your now-permanent tatt will forever link you to the selling profession.

- Go to your competitor to check them out, or if they sell in consumers' homes, have them out to your home. I'm amazed at the number of sales professionals who have never sufficiently checked out their competition.

- Do something outrageous today. In a sea of sameness, find a way to be different, memorable, and interesting. You sell appliances? Make a goal to sell more microwaves than anyone in the company today. You sell real estate? Serve your prospect lunch in the home you'll be showing them today. Sell TVs? Play This is Spinal Tap on all your screens today, and dress like your favorite Spinal Tap character while at work.

- Give free five minute chair massages at your retail store today.

- Wear a tux to work. Or a long, formal dress. Everyone else will be having business casual Friday, and you'll be calling attention to yourself.

- Many businesses hold promotions and fundraising for breast cancer (a very worthy cause), but consider raising money for testicular cancer (the most common cancer in men in their thirties and younger).

What can you do today that would be fearless, and would help either your business, your sales, your visibility, or your attitude?

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

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What Your Employees Want

Your employees want to be listened to. They want to be heard. They want to be engaged.

As badly as they want to be listened to, heard, and engaged, they also want a manager who is decisive and quick (but not too quick) to act. Decisive managers get team members to interact, to talk through situations, to hash things out, and to identify weaknesses and develop solutions.

Sometimes the wildly successful manager moves forward with an initiative even if the team members aren't on board with it. And sometimes changes need to be made. Sometimes direction needs to be changed. Employees understand this, but what they don't understand is when a manager is unwilling or unable to make a decision, to set a direction, to be clear, to take a stand.

Employees of great managers understand what the goals and priorities of their managers are and how the manager envisions the team will go about reaching these business goals. These priorities are the foundation of everything these managers do.

Great managers share copious amounts of sincere appreciation for team members who have done a job well. This is verbalized profusely (not implied, not hinted at, and not merely suggested). Employees need and want to be praised for wins big and wins small if they are going to remain engaged. Engaged employees promote company profitability. Disengaged employees create business losses.

Employees of winning managers know how their doing, because their managers let them know. There is no guessing if they're meeting expectations - they already know. They know areas that are expected to be polished or improved. There are no surprises at review time.

Great managers are consistent. Surprises are minimized. They don't have the "initiative of the month" but then not follow through with the new initiative; there is a steadiness to their leadership that provides stability to the entire organization. Poor managers don't have consistency; they lead people around in varying (and sometimes competing) directions that creates an uncomfortable randomness and unpredictability (like a yo-yo on the end of a string being directed this way and that way).

Listen to your employees. Engage them. Be decisive. Be clear. Take a stand. Praise others sincerely. Communicate. Be consistent.

What else do you think employees want?

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

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The Inspirational Element of Sales Management

As a kid, I loved baseball. But I soon began to imagine myself as a great coach, or a manager of a team, not a star player like most kids. I guess it's no surprise I became a manager, a sales coach, and a sales trainer.

Part of managing a sales team is inspiring it to reach new heights of performance, just as an athletic coach might do. The similarities between coaching a sports team and managing a sales team are remarkable. 

Coaches sometimes rally their troops at half-time or between periods or before the ninth inning. Sales coaches rally their troops at the beginning of the month, at end end of the quarter, and at all times in between. I've been inspired by coaches speeches as a young athlete, and I've given my share of [hopefully] inspiring messages as a manager, and now as a public speaker.

Here's a nice coaching scene from the 2004 movie "Miracle," the story of the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team's win over the seemingly unbeatable Soviet Union's team at the 1980 Olympics. Kurt Russell plays the late Herb Brooks (a fellow Minnesotan, which explains Russell's curious vocal inflection), a dynamic hockey coach who led the Americans to victory. This is about hockey, but with a few word substitutions, it could be about your team making its sales goal this month.

If you want to be a great coach or a great salesperson, learn from someone who knows how to do it. Here's a guy who's off to a great start:

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

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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.

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Are We Sales Professionals or Sales Hacks?

Six months ago, I published a sales learning poll on this blog asking the question, "What the primary way you learned how to sell." If you haven't voted yet, you're welcome to visit the page and weigh in.

As of this morning, the results are as follows:

• 30.9%  Trial and error and instinct
• 24.7%  Books, seminars, audiobooks, sales training
• 23.5%  Received coaching/mentoring
• 21.0%  Observed others

Now these results may change over time as more individuals weigh in, but that's where the results stand today.

I'm surprised and concerned by the majority response the last six months:

"Trial and error and instinct."

What members of other professions do you think would answer in the same way?

• Physicians?
• Accountants?
• Airline pilots?
• Attorneys?
• Athletes?

I hope not. Although "trial and error and instinct" is certainly a factor in all types of learning and all types of professional development, I hope the surgeon that's performing surgery on my neck later this month wouldn't report that the PRIMARY way he learned how to perform surgery was "trial and error and instinct." And my tax situation may be on very shaky ground if my tax accountant learned his profession in the trial and error and instinct manner.

What about the trades? 

• Carpenters?
• Plumbers?
• HVAC techs?
• Brick layers?
• Electricians?

I don't ever want to buy a house or walk into a skyscraper where tradespeople learned their crafts via trial and error and instinct.

My daughter spent another summer attending weekly swimming lessons. Every week she stroked and paddled and kicked under the watchful eye of her swimming teacher. She has learned to swim through training and coaching, not through trial and error and instinct.

And this makes sense. Swimming is a matter of life and death. We want our children to know how to swim not only so they can enjoy the recreational aspects of swimming, but the safety of it, too.

But selling can be a matter of business life and death. We should want our sales representatives prepared to do battle with similar expertise and finesse to the way a skilled airline pilot transports his precious cargo to his destination. How can we grow our businesses if we employ hacks as the front line to our customers (and therefore our revenue stream)? No wonder the sales profession isn't very well respected.

The world of business can change this. It can provide quality sales training for it's new hires and on an ongoing basis for its sales force (I'm not talking about product training here, I'm talking about sales training). Companies can set up mentoring programs with internal or external mentors to help people new to our profession (or not new). Managers can spend more time coaching and less time on everything else and senior managers can see to it that that happens. Collectively, we can make a difference.

If this poll was offered again in five years, it's my hope that "trial and error and instinct" isn't the majority response. If you own or run a business or manage a sales team, you can help make that happen.

If we ever want the sales profession to have the similar prestige to other professions, we've got to start taking the training and development of our sales professionals seriously.

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

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The Argument Against Exceeding Expectations

In my consultant role, I see many different methods for performing performance reviews, usually for sales and sales management roles. I often see a performance rating scale like the following one for each performance area such as "sales performance" or "teamwork" or "customer service."

Here's what I believe is wrong with this scale:

1. What's the difference between "doesn't meet expectations" and "needs improvement"? In almost all cases, an employee who "needs improvement" isn't meeting expectations, and an employee who doesn't meet expectations needs improvement, so this is redundant.

SOLUTION: Remove "needs improvement."

2. What the delineation between "exceeds expectations" and "greatly exceeds expectations?" If someone is greatly exceeding your expectations, then I conclude your expectations might be too low.

SOLUTION: Remove "greatly exceeds expectations."

3. How does one exceed expectations? If you mean "exceeds minimum performance standards", then say that, don't say "exceeds expectations." When I hire a sales professional, my expectation is that they will sell as much product/service as possible, so it's impossible for an employee to exceed my expectations. Let your compensation plan reward employees for top performance, but I don't ever want to tell an employee he's exceeding my expectation in a performance review for fear he will stop doing it.

SOLUTION: Remove "exceeds expectations."

4. It's too easy for managers to select the middle option when providing five options, often without even thinking it through. Make the manager take a stand: either the employee is meeting expectations or he isn't.

SOLUTION: A two option rating system:

Use written commentary to describe outstanding performance, to comment on exceptional accomplishments, or to give credit for superior contributions. It's especially effective to make comments on marked improvements during the period. Let your commentary speak to the specifics. Let your rating system be clear about the employee's performance relative to your expectations.

Clarity is king in the employee expectation review.

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

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What to Do With New Employees That Will Boost Your Business

Okay, so you hire a new employee - one who has, let's say, ten years of applicable work experience. They show up at work and your number one goal is to get them up and running as quickly as possible, and indoctrinate them into your system, getting them to follow all the rules and procedures and doing things the right way.

But there's something very valuable that many manager's don't take advantage of, but you have a limited of window of opportunity to benefit from it. When this new employee first comes into your company's culture, he is bombarded with lots of new stimuli. And they can't help but compare this new stimuli to their existing paradigms of business thinking and behavior (the paradigms that they spent ten years developing).

So here's my advice: Don't miss the opportunity to sit down with your new employee after a month on the job and ask him a long series of questions about his observations of your company and your processes. You'll be surprised at what you might learn from your new employee. If you're hired the right person, you should welcome their feedback, their impressions, and their "compare and contrast" statements. Ask them:

"When you first started working here, what did you noticed that seemed odd or unusual?"

"How can we do a better job of selling?" (or serving our customers, or marketing, or fulfilling orders, etc.)

"If you were in charge here, what would you change to make us more profitable?"

"What flaws in our systems (people systems, order systems, IT systems, etc.) have you identified?

"What should we be doing differently?"

"What have you seen that leads to inefficiency?"

and so on.

Intelligent, sharp people will give you this information, but probably not unless you ask for it. Create a business culture that seeks out and takes advantage of this valuable information from new employees!

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

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Post Traumatic Sales Disorder: PTSD

In the sales profession, we have a very high exposure to failure (in fact, in many selling jobs we will fail to make the sale more often than we will win the sale...how's that for ruining your day?). Most successful salespeople have developed (or were born with) a high tolerance for weathering the storm of a selling failure. They have high bouncebackability; they get back up on their feet and keep moving forward.

But on the other end of the spectrum are sales representatives who get mired in the failure part of selling. They've developed post traumatic sales disorder, my terminology for someone who gets stuck after a selling set-back and has difficulty moving forward.

Individuals with PTSD may need some extra therapeutic coaching from a sales manager. Think of this as mental health therapy for the ill salesperson. These individual may need hand holding, advice, and a step-by-step plan to help get the salesperson out of the funk. At it's worst, PTSD can end sales careers, but usually some helpful coaching can prevent that step.

Here's how to identify a salesperson with post traumatic sales disorder:

1. They've had a significant sales set-back (perhaps recently, but not necessarily).

2. They seem fixated on this failure and talk about it well after it should have been cleansed from their psyche.

3. They are visibly down. This may be in the form of depression, low energy, lack of drive, missing work, etc.

4. Their sales performance is suffering. PTSD isn't just about the initial sales set-back, it's about the other sales that are lost while in the throes of PTSD.

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.

You Can't Motivate Your Employees

"You can't motivate your employees. You can only help them motivate themselves."

-Skip Anderson

Just as you can't motivate a seed to grow (you can only provide an appropriate environment that will allow it to grow), managers can't motivate employees. Motivation comes from within. External factors can help create an environment where self-motivation can occur, however. Individuals have the capacity to motivate themselves...or demotivate themselves.

- Find out what's important to your employee. Then give him a chance to earn it.

- Find out what your employee fears. Then give her a chance to avoid it.

- Find out who your employee is (other than a generic employee). Then get busy creating a relationship with him.

- Find out what your employee has to offer, even if it's not in her job description. Then give her a chance to offer it.

- Find out what your employee needs to succeed, then help him with his needs.

- Find out how your employee learns, then teach her.

One of the biggest responsibilities of a manager is to create an environment of motivation for each employee.

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

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The 5 Stages of Sales Script Grief

Yesterday's post was on the topic of sales scripts and when to use them.

Today, I am writing about what happens when salespeople are introduced to a newly-revised sales script, or are directed by sales management to add a scripted presentation into their sales process for the first time. As a sales trainer and management consultant, I've been involved in many sales script role-outs, and they can be somewhat challenging.

In Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's well known 1969 book, "On Death and Dying, Kübler-Ross describes the five stages of grief we go through when we learn we are dying, or the stages we go through when a loved one passes on. With thanks to the late Kübler-Ross, I now present a summary of her five stages along with my "Five Stages of Grief During New Sales Script Role-Outs." 

STAGE 1: DENIAL

Kübler-Ross (death): A temporary defense mechanism. State of shock. Refusal to accept reality of death.

Anderson (sales script): A temporary defense mechanism. State of surprise. Refusal to accept reality of a new sales script. "I'm sure this is just some temporary push by management - it will all blow over and then we'll be able to sell the way we used to."

STAGE 2: ANGER

Kübler-Ross (death): Anger with self or others. Pain. Experiences feelings of being lost.

Anderson (sales script): Anger with management. Frustration. Experiences feelings of being abused or treated unfairly. Tells management why the sales script can't work. "I can't believe they are making us use this script. It's so stupid and it sounds so fakey - how could they do this to us? I'll sell more if they let me sell the way I want to." May quit job during this stage.

STAGE 3: BARGAINING

Kübler-Ross (death): Attempts to strike a deal with the individuals higher power or their personal version of God. May include some acceptance of reality, but looking for relief from other aspects of the death.

Anderson (sales script): Attempts to strike a deal with management. May include some acceptance of the reality of the new sales script, but will attempt to negotiate partial implementation. "I like the beginning part, I think that's really good. I'll do the beginning part, but then I want to put my own spin on the last part - I want to use language that I'm comfortable with." Or: "Sure, I'll try it for a while, but if it doesn't work, I'm going to go back to my old way of selling."

STAGE 4: DEPRESSION:

Kübler-Ross (death): Acceptance of death but with an ongoing unrealistic emotional attachment to the dead individual. Feelings of emptiness, sadness, or clinical depression. Withdrawal.

Anderson (sales script): Acceptance of the new sales script but with an unrealistic emotional attachment to the old way of selling. Feelings of sadness. Withdrawal. May quit job during this stage.

STAGE 5: ACCEPTANCE:

Kübler-Ross (death): Acceptance of reality. Still may not feel okay, but now understands the finality of death. Commitment to move ahead with life in spite of the loss.

Anderson (sales script): Acceptance that the new sales script is here to stay (or at least until it's revised). Commitment to make the new script work as best as possible even if he doesn't like it. Moving on even though salesperson may still prefer the "old way" of selling.

- - - - - - - - -

One comment: Death is final. But a new sales script can breathe new life into sales achievement. Sales scripts aren't always the answer to lagging performance (they usually arent'), but read yesterday's post for instances where a well-designed sales script may be the ticket to increased revenue.

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

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When to Use Sales Scripts

To achieve a desired outcome, using the correct words is crucial. Screenplays rely on the correct verbiage. So do politicians, public speakers, spouses, parents, attorneys, lawmakers, journalists, authors, bloggers, trainers, law enforcement officials, friends, and salespeople. In certain types of sales, selling scripts have tremendous value because they help sellers to say the words which are engineered to achieve the desired results.

Those of us who are analytical by nature, and who have an intimate understanding of buying psychology, sales momentum, selling processes, and cause and effect are more likely to craft words that will achieve sales results than are individuals who don't have this perspective. Words mean things. Therefore, the right words mean the right things and get the right results more of the time.

Sales scripts aren't right for all sales scenarios. But they can be extraordinarily effective in these situations:

∙ When you have limited time with your prospect

∙ The sales team is inexperienced in selling, lacks professional sales skills, or is challenged with creating sales momentum

∙ You don't have time to provide comprehensive sales training, so you have to cut to the chase

∙ When there is a lot of information to cover, especially if it must be done correctly

∙ One call close scenarios where the prospect's probability of purchase decreases after a window of time

∙ There are potential legal issues that require certain verbiage, or prohibits other verbiage

∙ When your company or product requires consistency in its message to prospects

∙ When the selling scenario is more transaction and less relational

∙ When what you've been doing hasn't been working

How could sales scripts help you achieve your business goals?

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

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Planning the Agenda for your Weekly Sales Meeting? Ask Yourself These Questions First

In my post yesterday about bad sales meetings, I opine that the number one problem with weekly sales meetings is that they don't focus on sales. In the post, I list typical qualities of dysfunctional sales meetings.

So what if you are a sales manager, and you want to make your weekly sales meetings more productive and more relevant, and you're committed to making your meetings about selling? What should you do?

One thing you can do is ask yourself the following dozen questions about any topic before you place it on your agenda for a sales meeting:

1. Do I have a clear agenda for this meeting? If not, make one. If you can't make a concise agenda, don't hold the sales meeting.

2. Is a sales meeting the appropriate venue for this topic? Or would a better venue be a one-on-one meeting, or an email, or some other method of communication? If, during the last 125 sales meetings you've reminded your group to turn in the pink copy of the order to accounting, and they're still not doing it, it's unlikely that reminding them again will do the trick. You probably need to manage those offenders to get the job done, not take more sales meeting time to say the same thing. Some sales managers use group talk when disciplinary action for an individual employee is more appropriate (and more effective).

3. Who should attend this meeting? You may have a senior manager that should attend this particular meeting because of the topic. On the other hand, you may have other people (sales support, marketing, receptionist, etc.) that regularly attend your weekly sales meetings that don't or shouldn't be there.

4. What outcome am I trying to achieve by talking about topic X? The same goes with topic Y, Z, etc. Make sure you know how you will determine if your sales meeting was successful BEFORE you plan the meeting.

5. How can I boost the sales-related content of my sales meeting? Since sales meetings should be about sales, how can I spend more time and energy on forecasting, sales training, won sales analysis, lost sales analysis, role-playing, review of sales performance, sales metrics, etc.? Add one or two selling topics to add to your agenda.

6. How can I delete non-sales topics from my agenda and still manage my team? Since sales meetings should be about selling, it's often a very good thing to edit out at least some topics that don't have a direct impact on revenue production or learning.

7. Will we do a better job of closing business, finding new business, attracting new customers, or cutting costs if I spend time on this topic? If the answer is "no" to all of the above, then it probably shouldn't take up valuable sales meeting time.

8. What can/should I do that would make this meeting more engaging to my team? Sales meetings that have something that is different or memorable or novel or fun are more likely to have an impact than the same old same old.

9. Which fifty-percent of the sales meeting can I delete to make the other fifty percent more effective? Trying to do too much in too little time doesn't help make sales meetings effective.

10. What can I do to make this meeting have impact? You might need to do a better job of following up with your individual salespeople after the meeting, or assign action items to yourself or other attendees.

11. Am I prepared for the meeting? If not, don't have the meeting. If you have fifteen salespeople on your staff, and your sales meeting lasts ninety minutes, you're spending 24 man hours on your meeting. That's not a small sum. If you're going to ask for that much commitment from your team, you should have your ducks in a tidy, well-planned row by the time the meeting starts. 

12. Stay on topic. If peripheral topics come up during the course of the meeting, write them down and add them to future agendas or consider those ideas or problems after the meeting. Don't let employees hijack the agenda. Emergencies must be dealt with, but there are few emergencies that require all members of a sales department to solve.

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 retail, in-home selling, and the financial, real estate, and insurance markets.

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The #1 Problem with Weekly Sales Meetings

Weekly sales meetings are legendary for their ineffectiveness. What makes a weekly sales meeting ineffective?

- When the sales force is less motivated to sell and excel after the meeting than they were before the meeting.

- Spending time sharing information that would be more efficiently and effectively communicated via email or some other method.

- Not following through on issues that were introduced or decided in previous sales meetings.

- Asking for feedback from the group when the sales manager really wants agreement rather than feedback.

- Having an unclear agenda.

- Attempting to get through too much material in too little time.

- Extending meetings beyond the scheduled end of the meeting.

- Getting inappropriately mired in details that should be sorted out individually, or in a coaching session with an employee, or by the manager locking herself in her office for an afternoon to figure out a solution to the problem.

- Allowing group think invade the meeting.

- Letting the sales meeting stray off topic.

- Allowing unplanned bitch sessions when most suggestions to management would be more effectively handled in a one-to-one forum rather than a group meeting.

- Not including some element of fun or levity when appropriate.

- Prematurely sharing news or introducing initiatives

- Wasting peoples' time.

But the number one problem with weekly sales meetings is:

Insufficient time and energy spent on the topic of sales.

Can you imagine a basketball team having a practice but not spending time on basketball? It would never happen. But many weekly sales meetings across the globe have become textbook examples of inefficient and ineffective management practice. 

Let's make sales meetings about sales again.

 

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.

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Breaking Bad Selling Habits: Where Sales Training & Coaching Intersect

I was working with a client's sales representative who had been selling in his industry for seventeen years. Despite this wealth of sales experience, he was a very marginal sales performer at best.

"Ben" was skeptical about the sales system I had created for his employer and all their salespeople. This isn't unusual, of course, because in my industry we not only need to share sales knowledge, we need to "sell" our client companies and individuals on learning, embracing, and implementing sales knowledge we provide. Ben was being resistant at worst and leery at best. So I asked him a few questions:

1. Are you willing to change anything in your sales behaviors? (He said "sure.")

2. Do you know which sales behaviors to change to get a better results? (He said "not really.")

3. If, after seeing you in action, I find five sales behaviors that you would be well-served to change, would you be willing to implement these changes in your selling? (He said "yep").

4. If at first you don't experience immediate success, will you be willing to implement these new behaviors 500 times before you give up?

To this last question he laughed, and then he said "no." So I said...

"How many sales appointments do you suppose you've been on in the last month, Ben?"

Ben said he'd probably been on 65.

"Ben, how many sales appointments do you suppose you were on the month before that?"

Ben again guessed about 65.

"And the month before that?" I asked.

Ben said 65.

"So Ben, is it safe to say that you've been on about 780 sales appointments in the last twelve months?" (12 x 65 = 780)

Ben thought that was a realistic number.

"And the year before that, Ben?"

He thought 780 was good for that year, too, and the year before that and the year before that.

"So in your seventeen-year sales career, you've been on approximately 13,260 sales appointments. Ben, does that seem about right to you?" (17 years x 780 appointments - 13,260).

Ben agreed.

"Ben...You've been ingraining your incorrect sales methodology on your conscious and subconscious mind during 13,260 sales appointments spread across seventeen years. Don't you think that you owe it to yourself to try these new sales behaviors a mere 500 times before you give up on them?

Ben stopped and thought and went silent. I could see the gears grinding away. Eventually, Ben's eyes made contact with mine and he said, "Yes."

"Ben, do you mean it? You'll try these new things I'm going to teach you FIVE HUNDRED TIMES before you give up on them? You REALLY mean it, Ben?"

Ben sad, "Yes, Skip, I do mean it. It's just that I don't know if I'll be able to do it."

"Ben, how would you rate your sales compared to the others in your company? Let's say on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the best?"

Ben surprised me and said "a two."

"So are you telling me you've been a marginally effective salesperson for seventeen years?"

"Yes. Marginal. Yes," replied Ben.

"Would you like to be better than marginal?"

"Yes, Skip, I would, I would, yes" was Ben's reply.

"So let's do it. Let's have you become better than marginal. Will you join me?" I asked.

He paused. And then he said "Yes."

And thus started the first step of a long journey for Ben to break old sales habits...ones it took him seventeen years to "perfect." And it was incredibly hard for him, but luckily his sales manager took up the sales coaching torch where I left off. Last I heard, Ben was still with the company and had improved several notches (hey.,.several notches is nothing to sneeze at! If 422 sales employees all improve by several notches you've got some serious revenue that's being produced with these new notches!).

Sales learning can change lives. It can change the lives of individuals and it can change the lives of companies. Sales training provides sales learning. Sales learning is a process, and it requires constant coaching to bring about the behavioral changes that drive sales improvement.

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.

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Firing an Employee? Ask Yourself These Questions First

Terminating employees is a fact of life for businesses and managers. But before you fire an employee, ask yourself the following questions to help prevent HR and business mistakes.

1. Is this firing caused by my management deficiency or by the employee's performance deficiency?

This is a tough, but crucial, question. It can help you to see what role you played in this employment situation. It can also help you understand options other than termination, and help you manage your next employee more effectively.

2. What are the short-term implications of the firing?

There are possible implications of revenue loss, political struggles within the company, and a potential impact on other employees (both emotional and practical). Responsibilities may need to be distributed to other associates. Consider what will happen this week, next week, and next month if this termination moves forward.

3. What are the long-term implications of the firing?

Will this employee become your competitor? Will she be in a position to hurt your business in a way that is greater than she currently does as an employee? Will you be able to retain long-term customer relationships without this employee? How will this impact your organizational chart? Think ahead 1-2 years to predict the impact this action will have on your department and your business.

4. Have you sufficiently counseled the employee?

This includes verbal and written warnings, coaching sessions, documentation of performance and behavior issues, performance improvement plans, training, etc.

5. Is there another manager in the company to whom the employee could report?

Especially if there has been personality issues between you and your employee, this may be a way to allow the company to keep benefiting from the employee while allowing another manager to take over the management responsibilities of keeping this individual on board.

6. Have you asked the employee this question: "What would it take for us to save your job and continue our business relationship?

This is a great last-ditch-effort question to ask. Just when it seems like you're at the point of no return, you may learn something that may help you keep your employee.

7. Might this action be putting me or the company in legal jeopardy?

The time to do research, get your ducks in a row, and consult your attorney is now, not after legal action is commenced.

8. Are we ready to terminate this employee?

How will internal and external stake-holders be notified of this action? How will you get all company property? Do you need to review the employee's employment agreement before he leaves? How will voicemail, email, mobile phones, laptops, and access to your computer network or intranet be handled?

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

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

31 Great Sales Interview Questions

Here are thirty excellent candidate questions for sales interviews. They are not in any particular order. Some questions amy not be appropriate for certain type of selling. This is not an exhaustive list, but there might be some good ones here that would apply to your specific situation.

1. Tell me about a time you failed at something. 

2. If you could do one thing over again in your life, what would that be? 

3. How would you help me build my business? 

4. Imagine that you've just spent ninety minutes at a sales appointment with your prospect. All has gone well. When it comes time to ask for the order, your prospect says, "I need to think about it." What do you say or do? 

5. Tell me exactly how you found your last five prospects. 

6.  Who was the best manager you ever worked for? What made him/her so good?

7. Who was your least favorite manager. Why? 

8. What is your favorite way to ask the prospect to buy from you? 

9. Everyone has a bad day at work now and then. Describe a bad day you had in your last position. 

10. In your opinion, what are the keys to successful selling?

11. What qualities do exceptional sellers have that average salespeople don't have? 

12. Tell me about the last customer that said no to your offer but ended up buying anyway. 

13. Who has influenced you most in your sales career. How? 

14. What have you done in the past that demonstrates your commitment to professional and sales skill development? 

15. Are there any inaccuracies on your resume I should be aware of. 

16. We do a background check before making an offer. What is in your background that I would want to know about? 

17. Which of the following is more important to you: (a) being the best; (b) making money; (c) taking care of your customers. Why? 

18. Tell me about a sales situation you were either involved in or observed where you thought the salesperson was too "pushy." 

19. How much money would you like to make in the next year at our company? What's the most you've ever made? What are you willing to do differently to make that kind of money? 

20. When is the last time you asked a customer for a referral? How did you do it? 

21. Why did you apply for this job and not come and introduce yourself to me? 

22. We do a lot of sales coaching in our company. I would do ride-alongs with you, I'd take notes, we'd talk after the appointment. We're committed to this kind of environment. What is your experience with this type of sales management? 

23. Would you be able to fully commit yourself to working in a coaching and self-improvement environment? 

24. Do you think success comes more from: (a) hard work; (b) skill/talent; (c) a positive attitude? Why? 

25. Other than selling, how did you contribute to your last company?   

26. What customer personality type is the most challenging for you to work with? Why?

27. Describe a situation where you took a stand on your customer's behalf. 

28. What special recognition have you received in your career? (or school) How did you accomplish that? 

29. What special talents or qualities do you have that you'd like me to know about? 

30. Why should I hire you instead of one of the other candidates? 

31. What other questions should I be asking you that I haven't asked yet? 

What are your favorite sales interview questions that are not on this list? Please share! 

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

Static: A Roadblock to Success

STATIC is distracting aural noise. It's unnecessary visual stimulation. It's wasted words and lack of clarity. It's missed opportunities, confusion, and misunderstandings. Static is like dirty water, polluted air and tainted food. Static prevents us from achieving excellence.

Is there too much static around you?

Sales static: You think you know what the customer wants but you don't know. You talk more than you listen. You assume. You babble and spew. Your timing is off. Your energy is too high or too low. You show brochures instead of engaging your prospect face-to-face. You're not connecting the dots.

Management static: You don't do what you say you're going to do. You don't walk your talk. Your team is dysfunctional - therefore it's not a team. You don't lead, you react. You are confusing, nebulous, and possibly irritating. You retreat to your office, avoid decision-making, you don't delegate, and you don't bring out the best in others.

Marketing static: Your message is not consistent. Your brand is not consistent. You're a "me too" entity. You're not memorable, unique, or particularly effective. You follow the crowd, even if the crowd isn't going where you want to go, and you're not even sure that you know where you want to go.

Personal static: You don't have clear goals. At times, you are a zombie-like creature going through the motions. You don't excel. You're in a fog and have quit looking for sunlight. You've built a box for yourself but you hate the box you built. You lack direction, passion, or both.

Will you stop the static?

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

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

Illegal Interview Questions, Sales Panic, and Smile & Move

1. Troublesome Interview Questions

As a business consultant, I am sometimes involved in teaming up to do interviews with one of my client companies. Every once in a while I hear an interviewer ask an inappropriate question to a job candidate. There are certain things you can't ask on a job interview, at least in the U.S. Read forbidden interview questions to make sure you know what you cannot ask of a job candidate.

On a related note, I received a job notice this week from someone who wanted to know if I knew of a candidate who would be a good fit for a sales opening. The posting said, "Only men are encouraged to apply." That's perfectly acceptable in some parts of the world, but not in the United States of course.

2. Play "Sales Panic"

This is a free online sales game which illustrates the steps of selling. Make sure you read the directions first.

3. Smile and Move

Watch the Smile and Move Video (I learned about this video via Jill Konrath of Selling to Big Companies fame - Thanks Jill). This three minute video has a really positive message. Smile and move today!

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

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

Deliberate Practice & The Pursuit of Sales Excellence

Thanks to Ian Brodie, I recently learned about the work of psychologist K. Anders Ericsson from Florida State University. Dr. Ericsson studies expert performance, especially as it is created by what he calls "deliberate practice," i.e. focused practice aimed at improving a particular skill set or desired outcome.

Dr. Ericsson's studies have concluded that expert performance derives mostly from two factors:

1. Regularly obtaining concrete and constructive feedback

2. Deliberate practice

This is fantastic knowledge to have! Now we know what we need to do if we want to achieve expert performance! Read Practice Makes Perfect to learn more about these concepts. 

According to Dr. Ericsson's research, experience alone does not result in great performance (practice is fairly benign as a technique to achieve maximum human performance), but deliberate practice is. This is why accurate, focused, role-playing and other practice tools are effective human performance enhancers for the sales professional.

Sales managers: keep role-playing with your people. Practice deliberately. Do it often, and provide constructive, direct feedback, even if your sales team doesn't like it (One of my favorite compliments to get is when one of my clients or former employees tells me, "When I was with the customer, I could hear your voice in my head, telling me what to do! That's the power of deliberate practice). Direct, constructive feedback should be a priority for all sales managers in their day-to-day work.

If your sales manager isn't providing this kind of feedback, or isn't providing it with the frequency you desire, consider hiring a sales coach or find a mentor who will give you time, attention, and direct feedback. Then listen to it.

Only deliberate, perfect practice makes perfect.

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

Sales Manager, How Are You Going to Spend Your Time Today?

"The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership."

-Harvey S. Firestone

Outstanding sales managers create a learning environment. Their workplaces become laboratories of sales education, or experiential learning, of human development, of human nature and psychology.

Great sales managers are always looking for potential in their people. When they find it, they develop it - not just during initial training upon hire, but always. They look for learning opportunities for their employees at every juncture. They are perpetual sales trainers and role models.

When teaming up with another salesperson during a customer sales interaction, they observe so they can identify points of success and opportunities for improvement, then they coach the salesperson on those points and opportunities. They only take over the selling role for the salesperson when they want the salesperson to observe and learn, but would prefer to let the salesperson sell so they can observe and then coach.

Great sales managers have confidence in their salespeople, even to the point of allowing them to experience instances of failure so they can learn valuable lessons in that failure and themanager's coaching that goes along with it.

They are not merely paper-pushers, administrators, or yes-men (or women). They don't spend all day in their offices with the doors shut, noses firmly planted in the space between their computer keyboards and monitors. They don't spend their time selling.

They are teachers, doers, cheerleaders, motivators, nurturers, disciplinarians, recognizers of achievement, back-patters, shapers, and social workers. They remove barriers to success, run efficient operations, have fun, foster teamwork, create respectful work environments, and challenge their people. They identify their salespeople's strengths andfind ways to use those strengths. They spend time with their people, walking around, observing, talking, asking, noticing, rolling their sleeves up and getting busy.

They provoke, inspire, help, and develop. They create success in their people, and experience their own personal success as a by-product of their team's success.

Sales managers, how are you going to spend your time today?

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

So What Should Retailers Do Now?

I have a prediction: Because of the recession, some retailers will begin to hire salespeople again, not just retail clerks, cashiers, and customer service reps. Others will (unwisely) continue to wait around for the economy to turn around, hoping it will return to "the way things used to be" (read Jim Mathis' article "The Recession Won't End."

Through the last couple decades, many retailers have moved steadily away from commission compensation and away from hiring (and then training) sales professionals. This has turned most retail establishments intro customer self-service environments with little or no added value for the shopper, and reduced abilities to turn shoppers into buyers and to turn buyers into bigger buyers.

Nobody likes pushy salespeople. But I believe nobody likes non-existent salespeople, either. Retail customers love to work with competent, professional, skilled sales professionals. So I say, let's not hire pushy salespeople, but let's also not hire robotic customer service representatives.

Retailers take a proactive approach with the prospects that come to their establishments, or they can take the reactive approach by merely showing their merchandise on their retail floors and placing human drones adjacent to this merchandise but who do nothing but answer customers' questions and ring up sales.

Can retailers afford to continue down the clerk/cashier path in a post-recession economy? I say no way.

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

Read This Good Stuff

1. Colleen Stanley has three great suggestions for sales managers who lead sales meetings. I love her suggestions. Since many sales meetings are less than impressive, this is a must-read for sales managers.

2. One of the major reasons salespeople don't achieve their maximum sales performance potential is because they have difficulty looking at the sales interaction through the eyes of their prospects. By this, I don't mean you shouldn't ask for the sale, or ask challenging questions, or cower in the corner when they give you objections. What I mean is we sometimes we tend to sell as if WE are the most important ones at the table.

Read Mike Sigers account of his customer service nightmare. Then rethink your entire process (if you're a salesperson, think through your entire sales process; if you're a manager, think through you're entire management process; if you're a business owner, think through your company's entire customer interaction cycle). Then, identify what you must change to ensure what happened to Mike never happens to one of your customers.

3. Things are a bit wacky these days in most industries with the recession and all. But employees are still important, and always will be. If you can't keep your key employees (or any employee for that matter) happy by giving them more money, here are 12 ways to keep your employees happy without raising wages.

4. What's the next big thing? Forget about the recession. Quit looking back and look ahead instead. Here's the next big thing in China. It's crappy.

5. If you do any custom-order work for your prospects, it's important to achieve absolute clarity with your customers before you embark on the custom work (please take note, home remodelers, custom closet companies, landscape designers...and cake bakers).

Let's imagine you call the cake bakery to order a cake. The associate asks what you want written on the cake and you say, "Best wishes Suzanne - underneath that we will miss you."

When you go to pick up Suzanne's cake for the big going away party on Friday afternoon, this is what they have waiting for you:

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