Image via Wikipedia

Selling is harder every day. This topics series is presented to help you better meet the challenges of resisting discounting and over time increasing your prices)

Selling processes/methods/tactics that were successful become less so over time. Marketplace noise increases daily.  The standard practise of push marketing plus outbound sales adds to the noise with targets increasing their use of a Delete key. In order to get to talk to a prospect about how a  product
or service brings value, sales needs high quality help from marketing and different sales skills.

This change is necessitated by a market power shift. Power in the process has shifted to the buyer, because the seller is no longer the sole source of information for the purchase.  Buyers have ready access to a sea of information about products through the Web. Buyers determine when and how the
seller will interact with them.

In my own case, I  receive numerous mail and phone requests every day for “just a few minutes of your time to discuss a new product or service that will bring benefit to your business“. Delete.  I need to be engaged by the sellers content and knowledge of my situation before I will respond.

Many sales and marketing teams still misunderstand this point, wasting millions of dollars yearly of  internal funds. If a selling company was effective in fixing this they would experience:

1. Marketing having ongoing conversations with their target market
2. The bulk of the sales conversations would be initiated by the buyer.
3. The momentum of the sales cycles would be increasing (shorter cycles)
4. Reduction  of the cost of sales and
5. Rising profits.

In our consulting practise we see the opposite happening for many companies.

Any modern selling process (what the seller does) now takes a distant back seat to fully the knowing the buyer, the  buyer’s (hidden) process (what the buyers do) and the value the seller brings during the  buying process. This is a sea change in how many previously successful sales people have been trained.

(In part 2 I describe one of the changes needed – in marketing )

Your comments and examples are welcomed.

Related articles

• Marketing Automation is Not the Magic Bullet for Your Sales Issues (regnordman.com)
• E-Selling and buying (cash-bandit.com)
• The Future of Buyer Personas is Social – Part 2 (customerthink.com)
• Adopting a Buyer-Focused Marketing Model (reportcontentwriter.wordpress.com)

Cover of Go for No!

Go for No! Yes is the destination No is how you get there. Richard Fenton & Andrea Waltz. 2010. ISBN 9780966398137. Quite a surprising book.  In less than 80 pages its the “story” of how one sales guy was able to dramatically turn things around.   It is built around what we know how self limiting goals cause us to ‘quit early’.  Rather than counting the number of closed deals you count the number of “nos” each day.  Failure to talk to enough people is one of the big self limits to sales.  I liked the book and would recommend it as a good addition to your sales library.  It’s good for a boost and a reminder of the basics.

Related articles

• Go For No by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz (bayintegratedmarketing.wordpress.com)

Image via CrunchBase

Social Media Sales Revolution. The new rules for finding customers, building relationships, and closing more sales through online networking. Landy Chase & Kevin Knebl. 2011. ISBN 9780071768504.  Brand spanking new from McGraw Hill and very current.  I am researching resources for a Social Media for Sales course we are presenting this fall.  This one is a good fit.

The author has a great line at the end:

Your prospects have moved but left a forwarding address. That address is found in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and the blogs they write.

The first chapters explain why the old outbound sales prospecting methods are giving lower returns. The book then shows the proactive sales person exactly how to leverage the new tools for 30 minutes a day to improve his sales numbers.  The chapters on really using LinkedIn and Hootsuite are priceless. I was able to immediately improve my LinkedIn profile.  As a result I had as best ever  one day increase in my Klout score.  The coverage of Twitter and Facebook is also valuable.  Could be the sales efficiency book of the year for me.  Most others have got this all wrong.

This is a must buy for the salesperson who wants to win.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Strengths Based Selling. Tony Rutigliano & Brian Brim.2010. ISBN 9781595620484.  A follow-up to Discover Your Sales Strengths.   This book contains more detail on applying your strengths to various sales opportunities as well as guides for sales management. Again it it is built around Gallops online skills inventory test and the book contains one login to take the test. I appreciated that each sales person may have very different strengths and that combined with a basic sales aptitude there are winning methods for all, but they all differ. The suggestions are tried and true but seen through the filter that a one size fits all approach will not work in sales.  This is true in all coaching. They mention that training is not the same as development.  Personal development in sales skills must be issues based.  Again we hear that the base for all sales success is understanding the value that you bring to the client, which requires homework and preparation long before you make the call.  In their eyes a referral is a testimony to the value that the client received.  As well they have the numbers to show that as you increase customer engagement, you increase the  profits from that customer.  A non engaged, rational client is a price based client.  Engagement speaks to an emotional satisfaction for the client.  Which as we have seen before means matching your product to a client’s basic values.   Short, easily read and immediately useful.

Related articles

• Book Review: Strength Based Selling (salesandmanagementblog.com)
• Notes from Talking with Brian Brim, Co-Author of Strengths-Based Selling (zanesafrit.typepad.com)
• You’re Working Too Hard To Make the Sale. More than 100 insider tools to sell faster and easier . William T. Brooks & Tom Tavisano. 2nd Ed (regnordman.com)
• Consultative Selling. The Hanan formula for high-margin sales at high levels. 8th Ed. Mack Hanan (regnordman.com)
• Roadmap to Revenue. How to sell the way your customers want to buy. Kristin Zhivago. (regnordman.com)
• Why traditional sales management doesn’t work any more [Ann Andrews CSP] (ecademy.com)

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Your web based content could be driving more leads away than its bringing in.

Related articles

• Britannica launches a new web-based ebook service, by Sue Polanka (teleread.com)
• Google announces host of search improvements (news.cnet.com)
• Jorge Escobar: The Keys to the Cloud Are Inside Smart Caching (jungleg.com)
• HP May Launch webOS Cloud-Based Music Service (pocketnow.com)

Image via Wikipedia

No B.S. Price Strategy. The ultimate no holds barred kick butt take no prisoners guide to profits, power and prosperity. Dan S. Kennedy & Jason Marrs. 2011. ISBN 9781599184005.  These two are pure American salesmen. Nobody does it better.  There are four authors of the book and they tag team from chapter to chapter adding a different point of view, which makes the overall organization feel choppy.  Kennedy and Marr are the main players here. Kennedy has written many books and the formula is evident.  The book provides  much valuable content, which you could get from a close read of Nagle.  This is just a much easier way to learn it. (Although I have seen much of this content in other books, this book gives no end of book  references to the work of others, except their acquaintances or their own work, which is done  in context.  Many of the references are very valuable sites.

The book also includes relentless driving of you to their own websites.  This is one of Kennedy’s tenets – get the buyer to pay you the privilege of buying more from you (and get it upfront) i.e. buying the book is an upfront fee prior to buying more!  They hold with value-selling and value pricing but this is one of the weaker descriptors for that state.  I prefer Davis for that.

Kennedys description of niche and subculture markets is useful territory for salespeople to  help better define the perfect customer.

• Niche is an occupational/vocational attribute
• Subculture is interest, belief, activity attribute.

Although much of the content is useful for B2B, the real client for this book is a small business person.  Just as Nagle’s work is really for the Fortune 500. Buy the book for your Kindle – it is a useful read, but this is not the “final ” book on value/ premium pricing.  It is a good “dose of salts” to most business people.  Much of Kennedy’s library is discounted on Amazon.

Related articles

• The New York Times’s tortured line on torture | Dan Kennedy (guardian.co.uk)
• A compliant employee is a profitable employee (zacharyburt.com)
• Consultative Selling. The Hanan formula for high-margin sales at high levels. 8th Ed. Mack Hanan (regnordman.com)

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Rethinking the Sales Cycle. How Superior Sellers Embrace the Buying Cycle to Achieve a Sustainable and Competitive Advantage.  John R. Holland &  Tim Young. 2010. ISBN 9780071639798.  This book has been out awhile, but it is light years ahead of any sales book on the market today.  The treatise is, buyers have  aken full control of the buying cycle through becoming much more aware of what they want and how they want to be engaged.  Sellers who have not adjusted their methods to these buyers who are fully engaged in researching and contacting other users of products are now stuck in a very old paradigm.  Sellers have no control and if they attempt to manipulate buyers they will suffer dearly.  Most sales loses are due to now being outsold.  If you are being forced to sell on price, it likely reflects on poor salesmenship, lack of good sales training, and a lack of sales ready messaging from marketing.  And it seems  like 90% of sales  and marketing organizations  (and training programs) are way behind the ball.  Marketing is charged to now come up with much more relevant content for the interested buyer as well as sales ready messages/materials (for many different players and verticals) for the sales team.  Every page rings so true that I literally could not put this book down , since it directly applies to content marketing.  I shared so many items from it that Facebook said I was sharing too frequently!!!  If you are a CEO, in Sales and/or  Marketing this book is a must buy and multiple read.  The authors have a training program at http://www.customercentric.com/

Related articles

• Rainmaking Conversations. Influence, persuade and sell in any situation. Mike Schultz & John E. Doer (regnordman.com)
• A Rational, Relevant, CustomerCentric Selling Approach (customerthink.com)
• A Rational, Relevant, CustomerCentric Selling Approach (davesteinsblog.esresearch.com)

Cover via Amazon

Selling to the New Elite. Discover the secret to winning over your wealthiest prospects. Jim Taylor, Stephen Krause & Doug Harrison. 2011. 978-0814416532.  The authors have been surveying the buying habits of the affluent over the last five years (10 000 interviews and counting). That would be enough to purchase this book, but these  is more , much more.  The first 75 pp. detail the attributes, behaviors and attitudes of successful salespeople.  That is worth having for any salesperson who wishes to improve. Lots of lessons learned:

• The perception of the salesman to their role, and his/her skill set  correlates 2x with success than testing attributes.
• Optimists outsell pessimists
• A passion for sales is important
• only 1 out 3 salespeople is really engaged in their work ( ie 2 of them are not good at it and they are likely calling you tonite)
• The top 5% of  US sales  people have annual income around $420k with liquid assets of $3M
• Facebook is like a telephone – a tool to socialize with, but seen as intrusive for marketing
• Social media can be used for listening about your clients ;  A new job, new venture, job promotion, travel plans.
• Create the detail rich stories that show how you love your job, what you are selling and everything about it -show your passion.
• The affluent had an emotional recession that preceded the economic one by 18 months and they see it lasting another year more.
• You need to increase your value, not lower your price to get the deal.
• Killer words today are value, values, savings, deals and best
• A great brand promise has truth, meaning and distinctiveness

An easy read and well worth time.

Related articles

• How Salespeople Use Social Media Survey (salesandmanagementblog.com)
• When we haven’t sold any value (empwaynek.wordpress.com)
• For the wealthy, a return to luxury spending (usatoday.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Rainmaking Conversations. Influence, persuade and sell in any situation.  Mike Schultz & John E. Doer. 2011. ISBN 9780470922231.    The authors are the principals of the RAIN group which publishes sales research and RAIN Today a highly respected sales blog/newsletter.  I am voting this the best sales book of the year so far.  This book  is a fitting complement to David Maister‘s ground breaking work.  The authors have been able to make this a comprehensive book as well as eminently readible.  They keep the book true to the 10 Rainmaking principles:
1. Play to win-win
2. Live by goals
3. Take action
4. Think buying first, selling second.
5. Be a fluent expert.
6. Create new conversations every day.
7. Lead masterful rainmaking conversations.
8. Set the agenda: be a change agent.
9. Be brave.
10. Assess yourself, get feedback, and improve continuously.

I pulled a few jewels on value selling from this as well. The concept of Money Discomfort is well explained.  They explain that there are two parts to this;

1. A general discomfort talking about money and
2. A money ceiling where talking about a certain amount becomes uncomfortable.

This also ties back to a persons buy cycle.

1. Some know what they want, and go out and buy it.
2. Others are indecisive, always price checking, and need sellers to educate them.

If a seller is more like the indecisive buyer, he will reflect that in his sales approach, especially if he trends to being a price seller.
Lesson learned, take individual  money discomfort  level and personal buying cycle into account when you are looking to improve your sales abilities or those of your team.

Related articles

• How to Successfully On-Board Your New Rainmaker. (bmwilliamson.wordpress.com)
• Bust Your Slump – The Benefits of Digital Media (salesandmanagementblog.com)
• A scientific approach to marketing (blogs.sitepoint.com)
• Gift of gab is great for sales … but there’s a time to listen, too (usatoday.com)

The Truth About Leads. Revealing little-known secrets that focus your lead-generation efforts, align your sales and marketing organizations and drive revenue.  Dan McDade. 2011. ISBN 9780983026709. This is a treasure of a book.  Absolutely agree with every word.  EG:

• Executive and C-Level management owns responsibility for providing high level market, message, and media  strategic direction.  and
• The strategic-level messaging most companies use does not work.

He also comes out against any firm that thinks using a metric like cost per lead tells them something useful. He is also against blueprinting.  A real advocate of nurturing leads until they are ready for the sales team. Begone the short term mindset.

A short. concise book full of nothing but the truth and how to do it. Every CEO, VP Sales and VP Marketing must have this book.  Buy it  and  keep it.

Related articles

• Do You Know “The Truth About Leads”? (customerthink.com)
• The Most Important (and Overlooked) Fact About Lead Generation and Why You Should Care (mpdailyfix.com)
• 5 Things You Need to Know to Boost Your Lead Generation (mpdailyfix.com)
• Let’s Put Marketing On Commission! (customerthink.com)
• Lead Generation Best Practices: Summarizing the 7-Part Series (customerthink.com)
• Lead Generation Using Social Media (compukol.com)