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Small Actions Can Make a Big Difference

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Selling in 2010, especially as the economy grows again, hinges on how you handle those critical junctures in your interactions with sales prospects. As I’ve said, what you say or do during those junctures can most impact the outcome, moving the deal more quickly to a close or immediately breaking it. The first 120 seconds with a prospect, whether on the phone or in person, is the most important or “golden” juncture — that’s when what you say or do you creates that first impression.

So, now you’re thinking, “Don’t I have enough pressure going into my sales calls?” While focusing on the critical junctures may seem daunting, it’s actually easier than you think to say and do what will win over the prospect. You don’t have to be a super-bright and entertaining conversationalist or wow the prospect with a slick PowerPoint and a stack of collateral. Mainly, you need to be prepared and you need to be proactive.

Your focus may be on your presentation of your company and its product or service, however you need to also keep in mind that minor behaviors during your interactions with the prospect can reveal more than your slides do and have more influence on the prospect’s ultimate decision to buy from you.

For example, I had sat down with a prospect in a conference room at their office to start our first meeting. To get settled in for taking notes and answering my prospect’s questions, I took off my suit jacket and neatly rolled up the sleeves of my shirt. I later won this prospect’s business and when I did the due diligence of asking them why they selected my company, they told me that removing my jacket and rolling up my sleeves (among other things) had made an impression. It showed to them that I was ready to go to work and that I was a true consultant and not some slick salesperson.

So you see how easy it is for the smallest action to have an impact on the direction your sales call or meeting takes. An action such as this demonstrates to the prospect that you are sincere about wanting to work with them and it can help you establish trust. Conversely, behavior that indicates you’re not listening (e.g., not answering the prospect’s questions or interrupting them), talking about irrelevant subjects, talking fast, and making poor eye contact gives the impression you are not totally engaged, disinterested, in a hurry to close the sale or trying too hard.

You want to proactively include behavior such as what I describe in the example as you interact with your prospect; but at the same time be yourself and make sure you are tuned into the prospect’s current mindset. It’s really easy to incorporate the behaviors that will have a positive effect when you remember to be prepared and be proactive.

Tags: sales call, sales meeting, sales people, sales preparation, sales strategy
Posted in Proactive Selling, Relationship-building, Sales Strategies, The Golden 120 Seconds Of Every Sales Call, sales preparation | No Comments »

Nurturing Relationships is Key to Sales Success

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

If there’s a sales professional you know who is consistently closing deals and exceeding sales goals, chances are that person is skilled at connecting with his/her contacts and nurturing those relationships. The essence of great selling is the relationships you establish and build, primarily with your prospects, but also with your current customers and with associates in your business network.

You don’t need to be a social butterfly or leave your specific human relations comfort zone to be great at relationship-building. All you need to do is employ the following tactics in your sales approach and you’ll see that making and fostering connections is a natural process which can lead to rewarding relationships with long-term advantages for both you and your contacts.

1. Find out what your prospects’ goals, issues and challenges are at the outset of your first call or meeting. By proactively inquiring about and learning your prospect’s needs, you demonstrate you care but also have the information you need to best respond to those needs and provide a solution.

2. Establish and maintain trust – this is very important to building and maintaining relationships. You want to make sure you protect the relationship you’ve formed by “walking the talk” — for example, if you tell your customers they can call you 24/7, be available to accept the call 24/7; or, if you promise to deliver something by a specific date or time, make sure you deliver on that promise.

3. Focus on what’s in it for them. As discussed in my last blog post, taking the opportunity to explain “what’s in it for them” is a critical juncture in every sales interaction. You need to convey to the prospect the value they’ll receive by buying from and working with you, and that point needs to be part of your core sales message in the early stages of your first call or meeting.

4. Listen. This is so vital to cementing your relationships and perhaps the greatest gift you can give any prospect. Your prospects are accustomed to having sales people talk at them and recite their product’s or service’s features without getting an understanding of their problems, needs or goals. By listening, you convey respect for what they have to say and in turn earn theirs.

The sales profession is crowded with people who are focused on just telling the customer about their product or service and making the sale — not on the customer. By interacting with your prospects in a heartfelt way, you’ll make that essential connection much more easily and help shorten your sales cycle. By continuing this approach as prospects become customers, you will strengthen that connection and create enduring relationships that will benefit you in multiple ways.

Tags: Relationship-building, sales call, sales meeting, sales opportunity, sales people, sales strategy
Posted in Proactive Selling, Relationship-building, Sales Strategies | No Comments »

Why You? — The One Question You Must Answer in Any Sales Interaction

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Too often, sales people start off their sales calls by making casual conversation in an attempt to form a more social or personal connection with the prospect. Or they immediately launch into the exhaustive details of their product. Not only are they not focusing on the prospect’s goals for the sales call, they are neglecting to address and respond to the question that is utmost in the minds of all prospects during a sales call or meeting — Why should I buy from you? A variant of that question is “What’s in it for me (WIFM)?

Of all the critical junctures in a sales call or meeting, the opportunity to respond to “Why You?” is up there at the top of the list. And, it is an opportunity that should be seized on in the very early stages.

The reasons for why a prospect should buy from you are the most powerful part of your sales pitch and should make up the core of your overall sales message, which is why you need to convey them sooner rather than later. It is critical that you avoid talking about superfluous matters and engaging in any energy-sucking conversation as you steer toward this heart of your pitch.

As long as you have something in your message that identifies what’s in it for them — the value the prospect will receive from buying your product or service as well as what separates you from the competition — they will listen, and you’ll have greater success at capturing their interest in your product and, ultimately, their business.

You can ensure your sales pitch leverages this critical juncture and responds to the “Why You?” question by doing the following:

• Determining and focusing on your prospects’ goals;

• Creating a sales message that is concise and conveys the value the prospect will gain from buying your product or service; and

• Creating and executing a plan for how the sales call or meeting will be conducted and when you will establish why the customer should buy from you.

Once you’ve won the customer’s business, you should make sure you then do the due diligence of finding out why they bought from you. Chances are the messages and actions you used to respond to “Why You?” will come back to you.

Posted in Proactive Selling, Sales Strategies, The Golden 120 Seconds Of Every Sales Call | No Comments »

Business Activity is Starting to Stir — Are You Ready?

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

The signs are there that we’re pulling out of the recession and businesses are starting to see growth. While there are certain areas that are still feeling the squeeze from the downturn, optimism has become the prevailing outlook.

This is good news for sales professionals. With business activity on the rise, that means you’ll start closing more sales! Right? Right?

Well, that’s right as long as you go out there with an approach that works for the changing times. Remember that selling situations have evolved since the last time the economy was healthy. The business owner or executive with the buying power has developed a different mindset — they’re more focused on streamlining operations, being efficient and getting more bang for their buck. Gaining value as well as solutions is a primary goal and they’re more thoughtful about their purchases. They’re also more pressed for time.

Therefore, with the “new” economy, your old tried-and-true sales techniques won’t work. You need to start using fresh approaches and techniques, but also return to sales fundamentals such as preparation that are crucial to winning over prospects.

The Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call offers a fresh approach to sales focusing on the critical junctures in every sales interaction in which what you say and do can most impact the outcome. The principles of this approach focus on what you do before (in preparation) and after as well as during the sales call or meeting. Most important are the initial critical junctures, which is when you make that lasting impression, establish trust and have the best opportunity to connect with the prospect by demonstrating what’s in it for them.

As announced in a press release last week, my Sales Training seminar that’s coming up on May 6-7 will highlight and expand on the principles in The Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call. It’s the perfect opportunity to learn this fresh sales approach and gain new techniques that will maximize your sales efforts and ultimately boost your sales revenue.

Selling in 2010 is going to hinge on how you handle the critical junctures in your sales interactions. Are you ready?

Tags: sales, sales meeting, sales people, sales preparation, sales strategy, The Golden 120 Seconds Of Every Sales Call
Posted in Proactive Selling, Sales Strategies, Sales Training, The Golden 120 Seconds Of Every Sales Call, sales preparation | No Comments »

The Power of Listening

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Too many sales people get into a conversation with a prospect and can’t stop talking. It doesn’t matter whether they are on the phone or meeting the prospect in person — they just have this urgency to say everything they feel needs to be said to the prospect to make the sale. It’s the belief of many sales people that the prospect should know every piece of information about the product or service they are selling — every feature and every benefit.

What is really bad about this behavior is that the sales person, in his or her drive to get to what they want to say, is very likely not listening to the prospect. They are not letting the prospect explain their goals and needs because they are too focused on conveying all the great things they know about their product/service. Worse, they may even be interrupting the prospect in their rush to say what they want to say!

What’s almost comical about this behavior is that sometimes the sales person will have the sale (and the prospect will have even conveyed that), yet the sales person WILL STILL BE TALKING! How annoying to have someone continue to “sell” to you even after you have said “yes.”

What these overly talkative salespeople fail to realize is that the prospect is often only interested in hearing about specific aspects of the product/service; prospects are usually looking to address just one or two problems or needs. If these salespeople would stop and listen to their prospect, they would actually make the sales process easier. By learning what the prospect’s issues are, a sales person can then pinpoint what their sales pitch should focus on. By listening, sales people would not only learn what the prospect’s goals and needs are, but learn enough about the prospect’s business to discover what other areas need to be addressed (even areas the prospect might not even be aware of). They would discover what’s in it for the prospect, because that’s all the prospect wants to know — “What’s in it for me.”

Listening is the greatest gift you can give a prospect. It is how sales people can establish trust and start building the foundation for a lasting client relationship. Once a prospect knows you are listening to them and that you’ve heard what THEY want to say, you’ll have cleared a shorter and smoother path to winning their business.

Tags: listening, prospects, sales, sales people, selling
Posted in Proactive Selling, Sales Training, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Golden Moments in Business Development

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

There are many companies (notably, those in the business of selling professional services) who have a business model structured around “business development.” They use the term “business development” rather than “sales” because their focus is growing the business through expanding the base of customers or clients using their service and finding leads on potential customers/clients. Meanwhile, there are companies who may have a “business development” person or team as well as people in a “sales” capacity. In either case, business development people are also in the practice of selling and follow the same procedures as salespeople.

Typically, the people who are part of a company or firm’s business development team are sales people by trade; they have a sales background and a sales person’s mindset. Also, they use a sales person’s approach and tactics, such as cold-calling prospects, scheduling presentations and engaging prospects in follow-up discussions to win the deal or business.

Although my book, “The Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call” and my consultancy look at the “sales” process, the principles I discuss also apply to business development.

The person engaged in “business development” (he/she could be the business owner or someone in the role of heading up business development) is “selling” themselves, their company, their brand and their value proposition as well as the key features of their service or product. They’re trying to make an impression as, like the salesperson, they are often trying to set themselves apart from companies who are competing for the business.

For those of you in business development, there are also those critical junctures with a prospect — those golden moments — in which what you say and do can impact whether you win the prospect’s business. These junctures are brief and can come and go before you have recognized them and grabbed at the opportunity and acted upon them.

Like the sales person, preparation prior to a call or meeting is crucial, including planning how you’re going to engage the prospect in the first 120 seconds. You need to employ proactive behaviors to move things forward in your business development interactions, however you want to make sure you observe proper protocol for dealing with and winning over prospective clients.

By using the approach of acting on “The Golden 120 Seconds,” you can gain the confidence, the focus and the edge you need to close more business.

Tags: Business development, sales, sales call, sales meeting, sales people, sales persons, The Golden 120 Seconds Of Every Sales Call
Posted in Business development, Proactive Selling, The Golden 120 Seconds Of Every Sales Call, sales preparation | No Comments »

The Power of First Impressions: The Most Important 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

I talk about “The Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call,” yet there are several junctures during a sales call or meeting that can be considered “the golden 120 seconds.” And none of those junctures is more important than the first 120 seconds of the sales call.

We all know how important first impressions are in a new relationship or situation. They can truly make a difference in how the relationship proceeds and the situation unfolds. But there is probably no instance in which making a first impression is more important than a sales call. A poor first impression will have you trying to dig your way out of a hole, and you probably won’t sell anything — no matter what you’re selling.

I know this fact may be intimidating! The good news is you have complete control of the situation and through preparation, practice and confidence building, you can be sure you are putting only your best foot forward and making an impression that will get you off to a positive start with the prospect.

Preparation involves a number of steps — the most important of which is creating a framework of what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it during those first 120 seconds. Preparation involves both mental and tactical preparation and should include the following elements:
• Researching the prospect beforehand;
• Determining objectives for the meeting;
• Knowing who will be at the meeting;
• Developing the meeting collaterals; and
• Setting the agenda and forwarding it to your prospect before the meeting.

With these elements in place — as well as the elements of body language discussed in my December 30th blog post — you can produce a flawlessly-executed opening during the all-important first 120 seconds of your sales meeting. Those two minutes will be the springboard for the rest of your meeting, so make sure you have water in the pool before you jump in. Because how you present yourself will not only set the tone for the meeting, but will make or break your selling opportunity.

Tags: first impressions, sales call, sales meeting, sales opportunity, sales preparation, selling, the golden 120 seconds
Posted in Proactive Selling, Sales Training, Uncategorized, sales preparation | No Comments »

Before the Sales Call: Aspects of preparation that are often overlooked

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

One important aspect of sales that I touch on in the sales approach I developed and outline in “The Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call” is preparation. Often addressed inadequately and sometimes overlooked entirely, sales preparation entails so many things and much more than I can cover in one blog post. Therefore, this will be the first of a series of posts on sales preparedness that I will write over the next several weeks.

Few things factor more importantly in your sales preparation than your appearance, because, of course, it’s the first impression you make with the prospect. It goes without saying that your appearance needs to be highly professional, but what characterizes a truly “professional” appearance?

While your clothes may be clean and pressed, what you wear and how you wear it and present yourself physically is another matter. I’m talking about body language — how you use your hands, your handshake, your sitting and standing position, your eye contact, etc. Then there are the items you bring to the meeting and are part of how you present yourself — your pens, note pad, business cards, etc. All of these things communicate your level of professionalism, confidence and attention to detail.

Altogether, there are 18 critical elements of nonverbal communication that each salesperson should check before every sales call, no matter how casual the encounter. In addition to the above, salespeople need to consider their fingernails (keep them trimmed, clean and away from your face), breath (think about what you ate and drank before the meeting), make-up (women, don’t overdo it; keep it natural), and shoes (keep them polished and well-soled). Salespeople also need to keep their hair out of their eyes and their hands away from their groin (no scratching!).

These nonverbal communication opportunities can become powerful tools in your selling arsenal. You want your prospects to focus on your selling messages, especially during those “Golden 120 Seconds.” If they are distracted by your mannerisms or turned off by your appearance, even your best efforts to present your product or service will be wasted.

Tags: sales preparation
Posted in Non-verbal comunication in selling, Sales Training Book | No Comments »

“The Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call” official release date today!

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Today is an exciting day, as it’s the official release date of my book (my first), “The Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call.” The press release announcing my book can be found online.

The motivation for writing this book came from what I’ve seen and learned in my 25 years of working “in the trenches” in sales. Sales people — and particularly those who are experiencing the challenges of selling products and services in this economy — are often finding themselves “stuck” and unable to make things happen with prospective customers. They want to improve their sales performance and better manage the sales process. As a result, they desperately seek out new approaches, techniques and ideas that will help them close more deals.

What I touch on in “The Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call” is a sales approach I developed using the knowledge I’ve acquired and the techniques I’ve honed, as well as what I’ve learned from my own sales call mistakes. This approach focuses on common sense tactics that sales people actually already understand but for some reason fail to execute. The good news is they can start applying these tactics immediately.

Most importantly, my approach looks at those critical junctures during a sales call or meeting — the 120 seconds — in which the sales person’s behavior with the prospect can most impact the outcome. Until now, these junctures — and developing strategies for navigating them — have been virtually ignored.

My book is loaded with examples of both sales successes and sales blunders. I’ve used this approach to grow my company and shared it with my clients to help them increase their sales and revenue. If you are looking for a way to turnaround declining sales or end a pattern of lost sales opportunities, my book provides a solution. Check it out at the Barnes & Noble website or Amazon.com.

Posted in Non-verbal comunication in selling, Proactive Selling, Sales Training, Sales Training Book | 4 Comments »

“The Golden 120 Seconds of Every Sales Call” to be released 12/15/09

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

The Golden 120 seconds of Every Sales Call is all about the proactive approach to selling!

A down economy is fertile ground for proactive selling. And, proactive selling requires that sales professionals are sensitive to the foundations of selling that in strong markets are so easy to ignore. The days of opting for the next prospect if you spoil the selling interaction with the current prospect are over. The next prospect may never come. So the message to sales forces today is: “go out and make something happen”: generate relationships, find more prospects, and increase the number of selling opportunities.

The key to being able to leverage these opportunities comes from the flawless execution of the basic foundational selling skills so necessary to successful selling. Just as the $20-million a year baseball player goes to spring training every year for seven weeks of practicing the fundamentals, the sales professional needs to ensure they are training, and preparing for the next selling season by re-learning the fundamentals. The Golden 120 seconds of Every Sales Call is about applying these key fundamentals to every call, every selling interaction and every opportunity to “make something happen.”

Author Peter Dennis has over twenty-five years of ‘in-the-trenches’ selling experience. In this twenty-two chapter book he provides tips, warning areas and common-sense (yet easily forgotten) elements of strong sales call preparation and execution.

Today’s economic environment is ripe for a sales book with a unique focus. After-all, anyone who has sold anything will recognize that the ultimate success or failure in any selling opportunity comes down to a critical 120-second juncture.

Pre order your copy today by visiting www.norlightspress.com and viewing the “In The Spotlight” section.

Posted in Sales Training, Sales Training Book | 1 Comment »