How To Win New Business Without Sounding Salesy

Here sales improvement specialist Marcus Cauchi uncovers techniques that anyone selling their products and services can use to quickly bond and build rapport with prospects so that they are more open to a sales conversation.

•    Why prospects hate salespeople
•    Why being different works
•    How to differentiate your business through the way you sell

It’s Monday morning at Shiny Widget Co and the sales team are hitting the phones.

Salesman: “Hello Mr Jones we sell shiny widgets. We are in your area on Monday at 4pm and on Wed. When can I come in a show you what I’ve got? I‘m sure we can save you money or make your life easier.”

Bob Jones: “Erm, what’s this about?”

Salesman: “Let me tell you,”

15 minutes later yarn.

Bob Jones: “Can you send me something?”

Salesman: “Sure, our online brochure is on its way.”

Next day and the salesman is following up on what he thought were hot buying signals.

Dring dring.

Bob Jones’ voicemail: “This is Bob Jones’ voice mail, please leave me a message and I will get straight back to you.”

What it is really saying: “This is Bob Jones’ voice mail jail, please leave your message after the tone and I promise I won’t get back to you. Your PDF went straight into trash and if by accident I pick up the phone I promise to give you a stream of excuses and if I’m really weak, I’ll ask you to send it again.”

Who hasn’t had that special someone keep you from your busy day, waste your valuable time, read like a robot from their script and rush towards the close promising you savings or a happier, more efficient life?

So who wants to be one of them? The clown in a suit with the bone crusher handshake, wearing his comedy tie who thinks that by telling you all his reasons for you to buy from him that his unwelcome interruption will cut through the noise of your real life; the 139 decisions you’ve still got to make that morning, your child being bullied at school and you being behind on your numbers by 47% for the quarter.

If you want to sell more, stop selling. Salespeople suffer from a disease called PPS, Premature Presentation Syndrome, where they have to tell the prospect about themselves, their company, their solutions, differences, competitiveness, return on invest, etc. In 99% of cases they do this without ever having heard the prospect specifically ask them to do so.

You sell to go to the bank. To go to the bank you have to gather information not give it. The moment you give information you’ve wet your powder and the buyer no longer needs you. You become a tick in the box and they know just which shelf to get you off. An educated prospect is no prospect at all.  Let me repeat that because it’s important, an educated prospect is no prospect at all.

The moment you start discussing your features and benefits without having the context of the personal reasons they have explicited stated that are motivating them to buy what you have now, you run the risk of dragging them into a pricing conversation. If you are selling on price, you are taking orders.

A client of mine told me that their frustration with being sold to is that they feel like it is all about the seller. They are running their agenda only, which is to reach the close and to get them to buy something. The seller rattles through their questions like it’s a checklist and their answers don’t really matter because the seller is only looking for the answers that fits their script. So my client protects themselves by giving wishy washy answers, being non-committal and non-specific.

When my client buys they want to believe and feel that the seller has their agenda, their best interests and their welfare in mind. They want the seller to take them through a process that helps them to discover their reasons for buying, the causes of their problems and to feel that they are leading them through to the hope that their problems can be fixed.

For that certainty my client would be happy to pay a premium. For the elimination of doubt that this is the right decision; for the belief that the other person’s interests can only be served by serving their interests; for leadership and a safe pair of hands, they’ll pay a premium and if they are willing to pay a premium they will take you to the bank.

Whatever business you think you are in, first and foremost you are in the going to the bank business.

Happy Selling!

Why Giving Your Customers Strokes is Profitable

Did you know that the most common reason that customers leave suppliers isn’t bad service … it’s lack of nurturing?

A child ignored by it’s parents will develop self-destructive behaviours to get it’s “strokes” even if they are negative. Being ignored is worse than no attention at all. Customers are the same.

Different Strokes
1. Fuzzies
2. Pricklies
3. Rubber bands

A fuzzy is a complement, an unsolicited positive stroke e.g “Good morning Bob, how are you?”, “Ana, you’re looking lovely” “Nice work Bob” or just sending an unsolicited cutting about a customer’s hobby or interests with a handwritten note saying “I saw this and thought you might find it interesting”

A prickly is a negative stroke – “Has anyone seen Marcus’s horrific tie?”, “Why do you always do that Marcus?” or when you say Good Morning, someone blanking and you not responding.

A rubber band looks like a fuzzy but is actually a prickly. “Has anyone seen the lovely tie Marcus is wearing….was it a present from his mother in law?”

Why A Fuzzy File?
I’m sure you get the gist. The point is, have you ever considered keeping a “fuzzy file”? What do your prospects and customers enjoy, what interests them, what do they get excited about. Doesn’t it make sense to get to know your customers and prospects and build up a fuzzy file of their interests, hobbies and family so that you can let them know you are thinking about them (without trying to sell them something).

RULE: All things being equal, people buy from people they like and trust. All things not being equal …people still buy from people they like and trust

It is not a crime to be liked by your customers. If you’re not taking care of your customers, who else is?

RULE: Customers leave you because they are stroke deprived, not because of bad service

What did you do in the last 3 months to demonstrate to your best customers that you appreciate their business?

What have you done to nurture your client relationships in the last 3 months?

What can you do in the next 3 months to protect your best accounts from your competition?

Happy selling!

W.A.I.T And See

I came across a very useful little acronym.

W.

A.

I.

T.

Why

Am

I

Talking

It works on 2 levels. Whether you’re infront of a prospect, a network contact or with family and friends, Stephen Covey’s 5th habit of highly effective people is “Seek first to understand then to be understood”. You’ve probably heard the cliche “You have 2 ears and one mouth, use them in that order”. Well if you ask yourself “why am I talking?”, you realise that either you may be talking drivvel or not listening to what your counterpart is actually saying. The other level it works on is that it helps you to find the time to actually consider what has been said by your prospect, and use that understanding to formulate your next question. It is a fatal flaw in many salespeople that they spend the time that should be listening, half listening and trying to work out what they’re going to ask or answer next. WAIT and you have time (at least 3-5 seconds) to demonstrate you’re taking in what was said by the other party and to formulate a better question. Does this make sense? Think about that for a moment. Playing the WAITing game also allows you to draw out so much more information from prospects by using listening noises, body language etc than you might otherwise gain. Remember …. YOUR JOB IN THE SALE IS TO GATHER INFORMATION NOT TO GIVE IT. Telling isn’t selling. So many of us in sales can’t wait to prove our worth, demonstrate our credibility by getting up and presenting. This is a big mistake and will cost you tens of thousands in personal income, year on year. And when you establish the cost in terms of lifetime customer value lost, modifying this one behaviour, the costs can run into the millions. What are you doing to make sure you or your people are WAITing for your prospects to tell you how to sell to them? How do you make sure you’re gathering the intelligence you need BEFORE you spill your candy and make your presentation. PRESENTING IS NOT SELLLING. Don’t you gain more credibility from the questions you ask NOT the information you give? (C) Marcus Cauchi & Sandler Systems Inc 2006

Why Aren’t You Having R.E.C.O.N. Conversations With Your Customers Too?

When I was growing up 30 years ago, I remember overhearing a young boy making a call from a public phone box in our local general store. He was so small he had to pull across a milk crate to reach the phone. “Hello, Mrs Jones?”, he said, “Mrs Jones, I’d like to cut your lawn”. It didn’t sound to me like the call was going especially well “Mrs Jones, I’m offering to cut your lawn and take away the cuttings when I finish”, he continued, “Mrs Jones, please give me an opportunity to show you how much I’d appreciate working for you. Not only will I cut your lawn and take away the trimmings, I’ll also prune your hedges” but still no he was having no lick. “But Mrs Jones, I’ll cut your lawn, take away the cuttings and trim your hedges all for £1 less than you’re paying now!”

The hard-nosed Mrs Jones apparently was having none of it, “but Mrs Jones …….Mrs Jones, please listen………” and eventually he put down the phone. I was sure I saw a faint smile fading from his lips. Mr Clark, the shopkeeper called the boy over to him. “Son, I’m impressed by your initiative and someone your age making such an effort to earn a crust. I want to give you a break. If you want a job, come and work here”, he said. The boy replied, “No thanks Mister. I’ve got a job cutting Mrs Jones’s lawn. I was just making sure I kept it!” and with that he got on his bike and rode off.

There’s a fabulous lesson here for all of us. To keep your customers, keep in touch with them, explore any weaknesses in your position and discover if their loyalty is in doubt so you can fix any problems before they cost you a customer.

Have you tried R.E.C.O.N.?

1. R – Remember the reasons you were originally asked to help them, review their pain and relive their previous position before they brought you in to help.

2. E – Evaluate your relationship. How are you doing? What’s worked? What hasn’t? What could have been done better?

3. C – Changed? – What’s changed since you stated working together? For better? For worse? How have you helped improve their lot? What’s changed in their business? In ours?

4. O – Opportunity? – what are the opportunities for them? For you? How can you collaborate so both sides benefit? What opportunities can we pursue together?

5. N – Next Steps? – What happens next? Put in place a clear, specific, certain up front contract so that you both know what will always happen next. Contract with your customer for the next point of contact, for the next piece of work, for the next phase of a project, for the next review or for referrals within and outside their organisation.

I know this is simple, common sense. But what can I say? How many of us really do this type of account development behaviour regularly and routinely to protect our lifeblood income and then hold up our hands in despair when they drop us and go to a competitor or worse still, we lose them to apathy. Now that is a crime against our families and our businesses isn’t it?

Next time there’ll probably be another good story …… which might even be true. If you have any questions or want to engage in a discussion, drop me a line here or call me to chat on 07876 616983.

Happy selling!

Regards

Marcus

I don’t trust you

As a sales trainer I’m acutely aware that Trust is an emotive issue. Daily, I help others develop and maintain trust but my experience is limited to …. my own experience. I need help to develop and I know many others do to. Perhaps you need help yourself. Can you help me and others?

My objective here is to open up a discussion around the science and art of building trust.

In networking iTrust is at the foundation of most relationships. Occasionally greed comes into play but few of us will give our hard earned contacts and risk our credibility unless we feel that the other party is trustworthy.

Let’s explore that word for a moment – trustworthy or worthy of trust. It’s basis is that we judge others and assess if they are worthy of our trust. What criteria do we place against that worthiness? Track record, what they say, what they do, age, responses to our jokes, race, religion, gender, height, weight, eye colour, shape of the nose? At what point in the relationship do we feel they have earned it? In the first meeting, after several meetings or in the first 30 seconds?

How to we accelerate that trust? I have certainly found a way through my membership of BlackStar to shorten it …. in the short term. I see these people more often, I meet them regularly, we drink together, and in many cases we can even go to war together and I believe they’d be by my side or watching my back. And many I don’t … because they are people with their own agenda, they don’t always live up to promises (I have failed to live up to all mine too – I’m only human), they have their own needs and they don’t coincide with mine. That’s perfectly fair. Back to the question how do we shorten the cycle of trust building.

I don’t believe you do that online, certainly not in a sustainable, highly repeatable manner and cettainly not just online. My experience is you have to meet, press the flesh, eyeball to eyeball, toe to toe another person. Was it Michael Marr or Dennis Barker who recently posted about slow networking working? It does. Without question. But can we shorten it.

I believe we can, but it takes a fundamental shift in some of our beliefs and a change of behaviours.

Who do you trust? I mean really trust? People you know? People you don’t know? People you’ve only just met for the first time? Many of us will take a risk on someone and trust that our instincts are right, we might even buy something over the phone or on the web but what makes us take the plunge.

There are several factors and I can only cover a couple here.

1. Their subconscious bonds with my subconscious and we have a meeting of minds. Is that physiological, psychological or pathological? I leave that for you to argue.
2. We understand one another. I take the time to actively listen to you, your story, your hopes and fears, your aspirations and ambitions and demonstrate that I not only listened but HEARD. How does that make you feel? For another person to actually hear what you are telling them, and be interested in you?
3. Congruence or believeability. If I tell you I’m a high roller and I drive a beaten up rustbucket, come in a torn suit and when I come to pay my bill, my credit limit on all my cards has been maxed out, do you believe I can lay my hands of £20 million to buy out your company? Congruence seems to be a combination of evidence and behaviours – tone, pitch, cadence, emphasis, hesitation or tremors in our voices, a badly timed sideways glance, the words we use, the tense we choose to describe something.

That is, in my opinion, why online networking on its own can’t work to build real trust, total trust. The face to face interaction enables you to discover if someone is a nitpicker far more quickly, if their habits will get on your nerves or frustrate your network contacts.

1. What helps you build trust in another person?
2. What examples have you got of building trust quickly?
3. When has your first impression been so wrong it’s embarrassing?
4. What do people need to do to break trust in your world?
5. What stories or advice can you give to others to help them establish more trusting relationships?

This isn’t the most original blog in the world but from a networking, parenting, sales, social or management standpoint the subject and skill of trust building is vital. Can you help us?