On Being Great. Sales. And You. Part 1

in Sales on by Adam Townsend
Sales CEO should not sell Sales Assembly Line

Selling you to you

In our day to day interactions we are defining ‘ourself’ and who we ‘are.’ We are also ‘closing’. Here’s a video I did that will make you go “Ah, yes, I see now.“

The Company

You are selling the biggest part of your life. Your employer is always checking the current exchange rate, you should be also.

If they don’t care about their clients, they don’t care about the instruments that acquired them. You’re just another mouse in another trap.

Choose your CEO well. If the CEO is an ego driven jerk the company is a big jerk farm. If the CEO is personable, listens respectfully, is responsive and understands their obligations to the employees and clients, then that too will cascade down. 

Never work for an unprofitable company. Maybe they will become profitable and you’ll be there to see it; but they won’t give you a real cut of its success: “why should we, we’ve been fine without doing that.”

Commissions

When companies want to improve shareholder return one of the first places they look is in reducing sales payouts.

Commissions are distribution of profits. If the company is not profitable then the payout is meager.

If the company is profitable and the commissions and base salary don’t adequately value your revenue creation, don’t be there and don’t look back

Brute Sales Force

Brute sales force is when the company overhires sales reps as a strategy to divide up the market into the smallest particles. When a company uses this strategy they are divvying up the profit (or anticipated profit and/or revenue) into smaller cuts. 

Brute sales force makes the sales rep an anonymous foot patrol and it’s hard to distinguish yourself.

Companies that use a brute sales force strategy have a higher than normal attrition. That is often the rumble before an earthquake.

Brute sales force is great for the marginal sales rep, they can skate by and nobody cares. They soak up salary, commissions are icing on their cake.

The Sale

There are two types of sales

Transactional: Sales reps don’t make money, period. The company allocates their resources to creating a system that reduces the salesperson to a pleasant cash register. You are a checkout basket on a website. You’re evaluated by punctuality and achievement of the minimums. I won’t be discussing this any further; you’re on your own

Complex:

In this model you can (hopefully) make a lot of money. 

The difference between minimum and excellence is all discretionary effort and it happens because you want the recognition from others and from yourself of a job well done. That is not only a financial gain, it’s an emotional one.

The best sales person builds a conveyor belt to make their sales processes an assembly line.

Prospects have a lot of anxiety in making their decision. When they have a question that is likely contacting you and the alternative sales reps, whoever answers first and best has an insurmountable advantage.

The company sells the product, you sell the ease of on-boarding, being somewhat the client advocate, answering their questions and holding the chains tightly to make it all work. Only say things like ‘ from my experience’ ‘this is the experience of our clients’ ‘our clients prefer’. You have to take yourself out of the product equation. Some big part of this is ego. To be successful you have to set that free, if your ego loves you it will come back when you cash the checks.

There is at best only a 50/50 chance that the prospect will personally like you and there is even a lesser chance that they will trust you. So by emphasizing the company brand and emphasizing your ability to get it implemented in their company you are improving the probability of the close.

In sales, you are not just holding the prospect’s hand, you are dragging them across the street like a stubborn basset hound.

Never try to make the prospect a friend until the deal closes, you are only making it easier for the prospect to stall, to be vague and excuse their unresponsiveness. Friends are forgiving. Business partners aren’t.

Don’t be a nice person. It’s okay if they don’t like you, as long as they respect the quality of your job and performance. Then after they become a client you can lighten the mood by simply calling them and saying thank you. Then drop the bomb again and ask for referrals.

Always ask for referrals. Plant that seed so that when they encounter another prospect they will say to call you.

Make everything a template. Prior to the first meeting or call send an email setting the agenda and letting them know in advance what info they will need. Prior to delivering the proposal send an email with an agenda listing the next steps to becoming a client and on boarding. It should all be a template and you just need to swap in names and add or subtract the particulars. 

If your pipeline sucks you will fail. If your pipeline is full with quality and quantity, predictability improves and the industry statistical norms will at least be achieved. 

Also, a full pipeline makes it easier to stop their excessive price negotiations. Prospects like hearing no because it is precise and they know the sandbox they are playing in. Decision makers always need the most precise information, if they feel they can negotiate then it is an unknown and the unknown is troubling.

Never bullshit. If you don’t know, tell them you will come back with the answer. Include it in the agenda for the next meeting and the close and post sale. If it is news that may jeopardize the deal, say it and then find workarounds if there are some, if there are not, they are not. Period. But tell them well in advance.

Always send an email in advance of the meeting that includes an agenda and the information they will need to provide. In advance of delivering the proposal send an email saying the steps to becoming a client in their proper sequence and setting expectations.

If a prospect is not suitable, tell them. Be nice and move on.

Don’t let a prospect over complicate the sale. They are often looking to find a lever that lets them say ‘no’. Don’t give it to them.

Never permit endless pointless questions, it will force you to overcomplicate the process, you will never recover. You have to move them back onto your sales conveyor belt. Ask “is this a deal breaker for you?” “Why is this important for you?”

Never let a prospect or client change a meeting that has been planned well in advance and that has an agreed upon agenda and others from your company attending. Ask why and let them know it’s unreasonable to change at the last minute. They are doing a power move on you and if you allow it they’ll keep pushing the envelope.

Bonus: Author or an artist. How to sell ‘it’

watch this video, my brief chat with an author:

The prospect’s identity

Here’s another brief video. You should watch it

Sales Gurus and books about sales

Sales books are stuffed with ‘meme like’ pickup lines. They are made for the low sales producer who will read all the books and then quote them in office sales meetings. Then the books will sit on their desk so that the boss will always see it.

Sales conference keynoters are there so that the failed sales reps can cheer the loudest and say how transformational the speech was and how as soon as they get back to the office they are going to use those magical memes.

Subscriptions to sales gurus. The failed sales reps always want to get a subscription to the sales guru newsletter. They go into their boss’s office and plead for the perk, losers.

Sales gurus sell books, subscriptions and conference keynoting.

Sales conferences usually have an awesome pool.

Why they buy from you

To understand and appreciate the product you have to ask the client why they signed with the company. This is never a conversation about price, it’s about value.

When prospects are selecting a vendor they are jumping out of an airplane, they are not sure if the parachute will open. They will go with the firm and the salesperson who gives them the confidence they are going to land safely.

Competition

Never explicitly criticize the competition. To win against them you have to break apart their mythology. Use pricing, technology, service or the judgment of your prospects peers.

Success

When you are successful people are envious and you shouldn’t allow it to fester in them. They will enlist others and they will conspire against you. So, be overly nice and considerate almost to the point of nausea and always smile. Reduces the probability of your ‘internal’ failure.

You are judged by the company you keep. And, you are whoever you are seen having lunch with.

Invest

Compensation in sales can be excellent. The dull side of that blade is that you’re paid today with less visibility into your future earnings. Live frugally, invest abundantly. Elder ‘you’ will be thankful to the ‘young you’.’

Here’s part 2: ON BEING GREAT. SALES. AND YOU. PART 2. COLD CALL

The End?