Author Archives 
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What is the Best Way to Break the Ice? A Networking Tip
“What are your top opening lines when you first meet someone at a biz event i.e., a speaker lunch (particularly if you are not a confident networker)?” was asked on Focus.com.I like to think introductions as warming or melting the ice rather than breaking it. Networking and meeting new people can be daunting and uncomfortable. We can feel like we are under the scrutiny of the microscope. Shifting the attention to the other person is one way to get the weight off of our shoulders and the best way to make a good impression. (more…)
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Are Your Prospecting Results Disappointing?
Are you struggling with prospecting? My last post, “Stop Selling and Start Succeeding” was about relationship selling for sustainable, profitable sales results. Building quality relationships is a step-by-step process. The first step is prospecting, and getting it right is critical. (more…)
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Stop Selling & Start Succeeding
When asked “What do you sell?” my answer is “I don’t sell, I develop relationships, many of which happen to turn into business.” (more…)
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The Nuclear Bomb of Sales Responses
No is a power word. No is inflexible. No is final. No is a relational nuclear bomb. No painted me into corners of embarrassing finality. Saying no without sticking to my guns always weakened my position and eroded my customer’s confidence in me. A blunt no hurt negotiations, killed deals, and damaged relationships.Adversity to buying is the common climate of the sales environment. How we deal with the curve balls and road blocks creates an image of whether or not there is worthwhile opportunity by moving forward with us. Intense focus on questioning our clients to discover their wants and needs often distracts us from our responses to our client’s. While we size up the possibility of making a sale, our customer is determining whether to do business or not do business with us.
Buyers are exceptional at baiting us into responding with a blunt no that makes an easy decision for them to stop fishing with us. Saying no may give us a feeling of power, but it presents us as inflexible. Lowball offers and unreasonable requests that would have us jumping through hoops, can push the most self-controlled sales rep to negative kneejerk reactions. Even in less stressful situations, no is too handy of a retort, but avoiding this is a best sales practice.
As a New Yorker, my tendency to answer quickly is often followed by deeply embedding my foot in my mouth. Diplomacy is not my strength, so I continually work at being discreet and prudent with my tongue. Buttoning my lip, thinking, and responding thoughtfully, requires diligent effort. After years of reprogramming myself and consistent practice, a little recording plays continuously in my head, “Listen and shut up.” With mentorship and diplomatic reminders from my wife, I have found better ways to say “No.”
Learning shades of gray was challenging for my natural black and white disposition. Holding back on a quick yes, was just as difficult for me. In our eagerness to earn business, freely giving a yes can actually hurt negotiations later, which I’ll address in another post. Finding middle ground improved my sales quantitatively and qualitatively.
Maybe is a power word. Maybe is open ended. Maybe promises possibility and hope. Maybe leaves the door open to opportunity. Creating, cultivating, and nurturing opportunity even in the most adverse situations is what selling is all about. Here are a few ways to phrase maybe:
Let me research your request.
That’s very interesting. Let me see if that is possible.
We have never done that before, I’d love to find out if we can do that.
Postponing a no presents your flexibility, your willingness to try. Stating that you are going to find a solution or compromise requires your legitimate effort. But when “No” is the only answer, put on the “white hat” folks and make your sales managers or sales executives wear the black hat. This is one of the secret values of management. As a sales manager and V.P., I never minded wearing the black hat for my sales team. One president I reported to willingly took the hit for me and taught me the value of taking the hit for my sales team.
Responses like these will put keep your white hat untarnished:
“I don’t’ have the power to make that decision, so I’ll have to take your request to…”
“I have to check with my manager”
“I’ll have to check with the president.”
And when I ran my own company, “The decision is up to my partner” maintained my good guy image.
Salespeople work from behind the 8 ball and buyers try to keep us there. Don’t sacrifice yourself, be the good gal or good guy. You may have the decision making power, and your customer may know that you do, but that does not prevent you from passing the black hat.
With all of the years of training and constant rehearsal, my knee occasionally jerks my mouth and no slips out. This is fixable with a quick sincere “Let me take that no back and look into this.” I’ve watched the demeanor of a client switch to very positive in those instances.
As salespeople, we work against a continuous tide of adversity. We want to say yes whenever we can, but that is not always possible. Our job to convert challenges into opportunities is dependent upon how we respond and resolve difficulties. No is a dead-end, maybe is a world of possibility.How do you manage your urge to say no?
What are your favorite escape routes?
Jill Konrath is running a contest to compile the top things “Salespeople Should Never, Ever…” do. My answer prompted a conversation with Jill that inspired this post. Please check out her contest. Your contribution could be included in her upcoming eBook and win you an autographed copy of her renowned book “SNAP Selling!”
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Book Review: “High-Profit Selling, Win the Sale Without Compromising On Price” by Mark Hunter
The battles over price are as old as selling. Can you picture the first dirt farmer negotiating for some livestock? Learning how not to flinch when a customer claimed “Your price is too high” took mentoring and practice. When I finally understood that price complaints are to be expected and a sign that the game’s afoot, my reflexes changed. (more…)
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My Best Closing Tactic
Getting people to laugh helped me close more deals than every other method combined. Steve and I were negotiating our first deal. He was pushing me to the wall for a big discount. First, I was unwilling to cut my price. Second; I didn’t need to, because he had already made the emotional commitment to buy, which was why he was pushing so hard.It got tense. You know the type of tense negotiations I’m talking about. This wasn’t a poker faced, behind the shades, all in Texas old ‘em negotiation. This was an in your face, blood on the wall, last man or woman standing deal.
Finding an opportunity to raise a smile seemed impossible, but Steve finally gave me the opening, “You have it and I want it, so let’s make this deal.”
Without hesitation and a smile I said, “Steve, having is better than wanting, and I have it and you want it.”
He had a hard time catching his breath and nearly laughed himself to tears. I knocked off less than 1% on a six figure sale and we did plenty of business together down the road.
A father and son team tried working me over on $60,000 piece of equipment we were dying to sell. The son offered me $48,235.61 or some hokey number very close to that. Our deals are rounded off to the nearest zero, so this smelled fishy.
“Do you mind if I ask how you came up with that number?”
“My dad told me to offer you that.”
“Do you mind if I speak with your dad?”
“That’s an interesting number” I chortled. “Do you mind telling me how you came up with it?”
“It sounded good to me” he laughed.
“Well, $60,000 sounds better to me.” We laughed. He then explained that he was teaching his son how to buy. We agreed that I would give his son a small discount and a feel-good moment. We settled at $57,000, which I was very happy to get. His son felt like a hero and his father appreciated the discount and my handling the situation with a good sense of humor.
Of all the closing tips, tricks, and manipulations, nothing works better than authentically making someone feel good. And the best way to do that is to put a smile on their face and a laugh in their belly. Joke telling isn’t the only way. Most often, when we’re in tight negotiations, there is something in the situation that is truly funny. Try not to take yourself and selling too seriously. When all else fails, self-deprecation works very well.
When you laugh, the world laughs with you, and so do your customers.
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Are You Selling to Phantom Buyers?
Imagine you’re running a retail shop. Twenty or thirty times a day, your front door opens and the entry bell rings “ding-ding.” You trace the path of depressions in the carpet and see products shuffled around your shelves. Most of these journeys through your store end with an invisible departure.
This is what internet marketing looks like. Marketers view internet analytics and see which landing pages are creating the best results. Marketers trace the navigation paths to see what material is being read and downloaded. But unless a visitor fills out a contact form, they are just an anonymous phantom. (more…)
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The Last Thing They See – Lasting Impressions
The importance we place on first impressions overshadows our last impression. Most people dress and check their front and maybe a side view in the mirror. Because we don’t have eyes in the back of our head, we pay little attention that side of ourselves. But it’s the last thing people see when we leave. (more…)
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Marketing Creates Lousy Sales Presentations
Guest post By Mark Hunter
Too many marketing departments are still living in the 1990s with how they feel salespeople should be making presentations. Marketing departments are notorious for making slick presentations that do nothing but extol the virtues of how wonderful their company is. I call these “capabilities presentations.” Really they should be called “look at me – I think I’m perfect” presentations.
The reason they are lousy is because all they do is waste time and make people angry.
Why should any customer have to sit through a lousy presentation that does nothing but share stupid facts and information about the vendor – especially when it is nothing but old news? The main reason it’s old news to the customer is because they’ve already had a chance to see the very same information on the internet.
Today’s customer does not wake up in the morning looking forward to having their time wasted by salespeople. Customers have far more important things to worry about. One of the easiest ways customers are cutting down on the amount of time they spend with salespeople is by using the internet before they even meet with the salesperson.
Customers are using the internet to gather the information they want to know, including specific facts and general knowledge. The reason customers do this is because they feel it’s a better use of their time. (This alone is a sad comment about the perception customers have of salespeople, but that’s an entirely separate issue.)
If the customer is knowledgeable before the salesperson meets with them, then there’s no reason to waste anyone’s time with the boring presentation from marketing.
I’m not saying salespeople should assume the customer knows everything. On the contrary, the salesperson needs to now verify everything. It’s for this reason I’m a strong advocate of what I refer to as the “modular presentation.”
The modular presentation is comprised of many small presentations, with the premise that any single piece can be used by itself. The value of the modular style is it allows complete flexibility on the part of the salesperson. They’re able to focus on the parts the customer needs to hear, not on what they already know.
To make the modular style of presentation work, the salesperson must be highly skilled at being flexible in asking the customer questions and listening for their responses. In addition, for the modular style to work, the marketing department needs to be willing to let go and allow the salesperson to know what is best.
This in and of itself is the hardest part of the move, but in the end, it is essential. Failure to move away from the “capabilities presentation” and to the modular style will only result in upset salespeople, upset customers and lost sales. The choice then is really quite simple. Either marketing is going to remain in control or sales is going to have the flexibility they need to close sales and maximize profits.
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” is a sales expert who speaks to thousands each year on how to increase their sales profitability. For more information, to receive a free weekly email sales tip, or to read his Sales Motivation Blog, visit www.TheSalesHunter.com. You can also follow him on www.Facebook.com/TheSalesHunter, www.Twitter.com/TheSalesHunter and www.LinkedIn.com/in/MarkHunter.
Reprinting of this article is welcomed as long as the following is included:
Mark Hunter, “The Sales Hunter,” www.TheSalesHunter.com, © 2011
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Pistachio Nuts and Sales Opportunities
Sally and I love pistachio nuts. We always race for the meaty ones bursting out of the shell. They’re the easiest, best tasting, and give the most for the least effort.
When the best picks are gone, we fish through the bowl and pick the promising nuts. They take a little more work for a little less meat.
Finally, only the tough nuts are left, the airtight sealed nuts that take more work. Out of desperation we may try cracking some to the disappointing hint of pistachio mixed with shell.
