photo credit: Dan4th

Have you ever noticed that Top Producers always have time to succeed?  Top Producer’s are busy people, don’t get me wrong, yet they have time to do everything they need to do plus time to live their life the way they want to live it.  Isn’t that what you want too?

Have you also noticed that the busiest salespeople are often the least productive salespeople?  Now that doesn’t seem possible does it?  However, it makes perfect sense when you understand why some people always have time to succeed and others never have time for anything.

It’s miserable never having enough time.  Removal of this misery is entirely within your power.  There are several things you should know about time management.

1. You can’t effectively “manage” your time when you haven’t figured out exactly what you’re trying to accomplish with your life.
2. You can be both successful and trapped by your success.  Better to set your sites on the life you want to live.
3. Poor time management is predominately a bad habit.
4. Time management problems stem from planning and goal achievement failures.
5. It’s the simplest things that have the greatest impact improving your time freedom.

Are you beginning to understand that if you want to invest your time the way you want, you have to start in your own head?  Millions of dollars have been spent on calendars, day planners, time management books, etc. to no avail for most people who struggle constantly juggling their time.  Why?  Because until you understand what about your behaviors and attitudes is getting you into this mess you’re in, until you understand time management is a habit either good or bad and identify the specific small habits you want to replace and why, you will return to those un-fulfilling habits over and over again.

If you’re serious about wanting to control your time so you can increase your sales and add balance to your life you have some serious work to do.  Starting with listing all those bad time habits you already know you have, and then asking yourself what about those habits is rewarding to you.  I know, you’re initial reaction is they don’t reward you they make you miserable.  That simply isn’t true.  Deep down on some level in some way something about that seemingly negative habit feels good to you.  You also can’t just stop a habit.  You have to replace the habit you don’t want with a habit you do want.  If you try to stop a habit without replacing it with a more rewarding habit you’ll fall off the wagon so to speak, and return to your old comfortable habits.

photo credit: Jay Erickson

Are you tired of objections stopping your sales progress?  Effectively handling objections is a quick way to increase sales.  One of the best ways to overcome objections is to acknowledge and address them before the prospect does.

Most sales people fear bringing up objections because they don’t want to fuel the flame.  The reality is that when you bring up the objections you know a prospect is likely to have before they do, you have the power to direct what you want the prospect to focus on.  Plus the prospect begins to respect and trust that you understand them, and have their best interests in mind.

To do it effectively you must properly prepare. 

• What are the objections you know your prospects commonly have?
• What questions must they have answered to make a buying decision?
• What must they believe to buy what you have to offer?
• What other options do your prospects have?

Stories are among the most powerful multi-purpose tools you have in your sales tool kit.  Stories are highly effective and very non-threatening.  They engage the prospect and they’re an easy way to make your point.  Develop a story to overcome the objection.

The way you structure, or how you tell your story makes all the difference.  Your story must be in alignment with the beliefs your prospects already hold.  They should demonstrate the actions you want the prospect to take.  The story itself could be based on a case study or a seemingly unrelated story that makes the point you’re trying to make.

Clarification is another powerfully effective tool to eliminate objections.  You know your prospects have options and so do they.  However, being the expert you are in a position to make it easy for the prospect to compare the outcomes each option is likely to produce.  The features each option has or doesn’t have.  When a simple chart, table, or graph can tell your story by all means make one and use it.

The more you remove objections by working with your prospects the more your sales will increase.  

photo credit: ogimogi

When you can’t hit your targets it must be the target’s fault, right?  I know that sounds silly yet salespeople fail to hit their targets everyday and they always have someone or something to blame.  It couldn’t possibly their fault they didn’t hit their target, or could it?

If you were throwing darts and missed the entire bull’s-eye would the target itself be to blame?  Would you need to move the target making it easier to hit?  Would you need bigger darts making it easier to hit the target?  Of course not, you’d need to adapt and adjust how you threw the dart so you could hit the target.

The same is true in your daily sales activities.  When you’ve consciously chosen a good target for yourself there isn’t any reason or excuse for changing the target.  It isn’t acceptable to make excuses for yourself when you haven’t hit your targets at the end of the week.

However, there is a lot to learn and a lot to be gained when you don’t hit your targets.  As you track your progress you know exactly where you are at the end of the week, and why you’re where you are.  You also know where you intended to be.

So why is there a gap between what you set as your target and what you got as your outcome?  What do you need to do, and what are you willing to do differently to hit your target the following week?  There has to be a change in the actions you’ll take.

When you continue to take or avoid the same actions you’ll continue to get the same results.  No big mystery there.  Yet that’s exactly what the majority of sales people do week in and week out.

If you don’t know what to do or how to do it, what will you do to know?  Until you do something you’re stuck, and as long as you’re stuck you can’t hit your targets.  So stop blaming the target, stop repeating poor or non-existent behaviors, and start racking up those bull’s-eyes.

photo credit: anders.rasmussen

If you don’t offer your clients a good, better, and best option you’re cheating your clients and yourself.  When I hear salespeople complain that nobody has the money to do business with them I know one thing for certain.  The salespeople who have that complaint aren’t demonstrating the value of their service to their prospects.

Those who do demonstrate value who do have the interest of the prospect who do have a prospect that wants to buy but doesn’t, has made one other fatal flaw.  About 30% of the people who buy from you or want to buy from you but don’t want the best option available, and you haven’t shown them that you have that option to offer them.  There’s an entire population of people out there who aren’t bargain shoppers shopping on price.  These folks are shopping for the greatest VALUE with the corresponding greatest SERVICE to provide that value.

You don’t want the price shoppers in your business.  Price shoppers complain far more than value shoppers.  Price shoppers have a low retention rate because they’ll leave you at the drop of a hat to save a buck.  And price shoppers are highly unlikely to buy more.  Plus you don’t want the referrals you get from price shoppers because they’ll refer more price shoppers.

You want value shoppers and you want lots of value shoppers.  You can’t get them though if you don’t have a better and best option.  They’ll mistakenly think you only provide the low value option, and they won’t tell you they don’t want your option because it’s too cheap for them.  They will tell you they don’t want it because it’s too expensive.  In their minds the cheap option is either too expensive for what you get, or of so little value that any investment is too much.

So no matter the service industry your in ask how you can ramp up your service options for your clients.  Don’t think of things that are expensive and difficult for you.  Rather think of the things that are easy for you, that don’t cost you a whole lot to provide; but that are very attractive to your clients.  These will typically be things that make their lives easier, that make them feel special or exclusive, or that increases the value of their original investment.

You can peg a Top Producer from an average producer in the first few minutes of a sales conversation.  You don’t need any inside knowledge about the Top Producer or what they’re selling.  You can tell by the questions they ask at the beginning of the sales conversation, and the amount of time they spend asking them.

People who are still struggling to get to the top ask way too many background or situation questions.  This can be down right maddening for the prospect.  Especially when the sales person could have done just a little homework and answered these questions for themselves.

Many sales people have the misguided notion that because people like to talk about themselves that they should spend valuable sales conversation time asking these types of questions.  You should only ask questions that you can’t readily answer yourself.  Or questions that expand on or clarify readily available information.  When you ask questions that seem obvious to the prospect it’s highly annoying.   They feel like you’re wasting their time, and that you aren’t a professional.

Another reason you don’t want to invest too much of your time with these types of questions is because you aren’t getting to the questions that will get you a sale.  Yes, you do need to understand what the prospect is interested in or concerned about now.  However, you also need to know what they want that they don’t have now.  Plus you never want the prospect to feel like they’re being interrogated.

Get the upfront facts and then quickly move on to other parts of the buying process.  Far too many sales people spend the bulk of their time getting the facts, and then rushing to a solution.  Then they’re shocked when the prospect stalls and objects.

A buyer will not buy until they have a highly motivating reason to do so.  You’ll help them to discover their motivation by helping them to mentally experience what they want, helping them to determine the value of getting it, and helping them to choose the best option for them.  When you spend too much time gathering background information then rush to a solution the buyer feels like they’re being sold something they don’t want.

If you follow my blog you may have noticed that I rarely refer to someone who has bought from you as a “customer”.  I do this consciously for a very specific reason.  The word customer has a connotation of a one-time sale or event sales.  When someone is your client it is expected that you will look out for them and their interests.  And that, my friend, is exactly what you must do if you aspire to be a top producer.

No matter what service you provide, if you aren’t careful, you can become thick-skinned.  You’ve experienced this, and you know how shocking it is to you that someone simply stops caring and ignores normal human compassion.  If this has happened to you I recommend you either snap yourself out of this lack of empathy for others, or transition into another career.

Top producers appreciate that to earn more sales than their peers they must act as their prospects/clients advocate first.  To make sales a smooth seamless experience enjoyed by you and your prospect you must be able to sit in both chairs.  This is empathy, and to be empathetic to your prospects you must first understand them and their situation.

Never confuse empathy with sympathy.  As their advocate you do need to be empathetic, however, you don’t want to be sympathetic.  When your sympathetic you commiserate with your prospect and that’s doing them a disservice.

They need you to understand them and help them as their advocate.  As their advocate you may have to help them discover what they’ve overlooked in their thought process.  As your prospects become aware that you’re acting as their advocate on their behalf they lose their fear of you as a sales person.  And that means it’s easier for you to do your job helping them to make the best buying decision for them.  It also means you aren’t fighting an adversarial position where your prospects feel like they have to protect themselves from you.

One of the worst things you can do is use your language when talking to prospects and clients. I’ve never heard anyone outside of the financial services industry say they’re worried about their asset management strategies. In fact, outsiders don’t even know what that means.

And therein lies the problem. While you think using your industry jargon demonstrates your expertise, and makes you look and sound professional, what it really does is it puts a barrier between you and the prospect/client. They aren’t sure what you’re talking about so they aren’t sure if you understand what they’re talking about.

This confusion leads to distrust and a lack of confidence in you. The very thing you don’t want to happen. Instead of bringing you closer it’s pushing you apart. Now industry jargon isn’t all bad.

In fact, industry jargon used appropriately in small doses is a fantastic thing. As long as the jargon pertains to the prospect/client. When you know, understand, and use the jargon they use it makes you one of them.

They feel like you understand them. It builds their trust in you and enhances your relationship. So, save your industry jargon for your peers and use the prospect/clients jargon in your marketing communications and selling conversations.

You get it.  People have to need what you’re selling or they won’t buy.  What you don’t get is how to move people from the need to action.

Consequently, you leave yourself open for missed opportunities.  Just imagine comfortably helping people to buy your stuff and doing it efficiently so you not only have money, but you have the time to enjoy the things money buys.  Seem impossible, well it’s not.

Common mistake #1.  You’re so excited about what you do you can’t even imagine a prospect not being interested, therefore, you charge ahead telling the prospect every reason why they simply have to buy and buy now.  Here’s the deal.  When the prospect is satisfied with what they’ve got now even though what you’re offering is hands-down better they won’t buy, end of story.  The harder you push to convince them to your way of thinking the more confirmed they are in their way of thinking.  The reason this happens is we have a need to be right even when we suspect we may be wrong.  Thus the harder you push the harder the prospect pushes back to support their previous decisions because they have to be right.

Common solution to mistake #1. Rather than challenging their decision sincerely congratulate them on that decision.  Ask questions about why they made that choice, what they like best about it, if there is anything that could make the option they chose even better, etc.  Never forget selling isn’t about telling it’s about asking.

Common mistake #2. You hear problem and you immediately jump to solution.  There are lots of little things that annoy you in life.  Perhaps your car makes an odd little sound as you drive down the road.  Yet that doesn’t mean you have any intentions of actually doing anything about that odd little noise it just bugs you.

Common solution to mistake #2.  Whenever a prospect shares a potential problem with you explore that problem and discover if there are others before you ever go down the path of sharing a solution.  There isn’t a need for a solution until the prospect tells you how important it is to have a solution, and what that solution would be worth to them.

Common mistake #3.  The prospect is hot to buy and hot to buy now, however, you lose them in the process of telling them about your solution.  After listening to you they aren’t so sure they should buy.  What they thought they wanted doesn’t seem like such a good idea now.

Common solution to mistake #3.  Going back to the solution for mistake #2 never forget that telling isn’t selling.  Telling opens the door to all kinds of missed opportunities because you aren’t necessarily talking about what the prospect wants to hear, you confuse the prospect, and the prospect doesn’t need to or want to hear the gory details of how you’re going to make the solution happen they just want to know it will happen.

Do you feel like you’re losing potential clients because your services are priced too high?  This is a common fear among service professionals.  And when you really need clients you may be tempted to cut your prices just to bring them in the business.

Don’t do that.  Doing so conveys two things about you and your service that are bad for business.  First, it indicates that you think your services are over priced.  Second, it attracts the price shoppers and you don’t want to build a business around price shoppers.

Why do you want to avoid price shoppers?  Because price shoppers keep your from receiving adequate compensation for your services.  More importantly price shoppers tend to be the highest maintenance least loyal clients you can ever have.

Even though the prospect wants you to think they’re saying no because of price the truth is, it’s never about price.  But in order for you to overcome this objection you have to convince yourself your service is worth the price.  You may have competitors who offer the exact same products as part of their service as you do, but the value comes from how you deliver your service.  If you don’t believe your service is worth the investment your asking it isn’t.  If that’s the case you have a choice to either lower your price, or you can determine what you can do to make the way you provide your service more valuable than it is now.  I’d vote for the later.

Most often the reason your given a price objection isn’t related to price at all, it’s related to why.  Every buyer has a reason why they want to buy a solution like your service provides, and why they want that solution now.  Until you’ve uncovered or discovered their reason why you can’t get to the next critical question which is, “why you”.

Most sales people try to jump to the “why you” question without discovering the “why” and “why now” questions.  That doesn’t work because it makes the prospect feel like they’re being sold, and drives them away from you.  Find out “why” and “why now”, and you’ll drive your prospects to you so they’ll want to hear “why you”.

Women it’s time to drop the nice little girl crap and grow up.  You’ve been told:

• Nice girls don’t toot their own horn
• Nice girls don’t talk too much
• Nice girls aren’t loud and boisterous
• Nice girls should be seen and not heard
• Nice girls shouldn’t talk to strangers

A fine bunch of rules for proper little ladies, but not necessarily for women in sales.  Let’s put each of these under scrutiny, and get you selling like a pro rather than a nice girl.  In sales nice girls finish last.

Nice girls don’t toot their own horn.  Every time you hold a sales conversation you’re in essence interviewing for a job.  If you went to a job interview and you weren’t prepared to answer the standard interview questions: what was your greatest achievement, what was your biggest failure, and why are you the best choice for this job you wouldn’t get the job.  The same is true in every sales conversation.

Be prepared to share stories that make your point without causing you to feel like you’re boasting.  Stories are one of the most universally powerful forms of communication.  Keep your stories succinct; but make sure you tell them in such a way that you’re removing objections, answering questions they’ll need answered, demonstrating what they need to believe, discounting the other options, and demonstrating the behaviors you want them to demonstrate.

Nice girls don’t talk too much.  This one is actually to your advantage.  Your job isn’t to talk them into a sale.  Your job is to ask revealing questions and to listen to their response.  The better you are at listening the better you’ll be at sales.  And that’s why women are naturally wound to be better in sales than most men.

Nice girls aren’t loud and boisterous, and you shouldn’t be either.  Many people have the misguided notion that the best sales people are extroverts, the back slapping joke popping center of attention.  That is completely false.  The best sales people are introverts.  You may wonder why and the answer is both logical and simple.  Introverts are naturally better listeners, buyers perceive them as more trustworthy, and buyers feel more comfortable sharing the information you need to know to do business together with an introvert.

Nice girls should be seen and not heard.  This is a bunch of excess baggage you’ve carried from childhood that you need to dump because it’s terrible advice for anyone in sales.  You bring tremendous value to every situation don’t discount yourself.  Allow yourself to be confident in the fact that when you speak you have something important to say that others need to hear.

Nice girls don’t talk to strangers.  More terrible advice for anyone in sales that you’ve had drilled in your head from childhood.  Get over this childhood fear by making it your goal to make every stranger a new friend.  And you know you can do that.

At a NAIFA convention one of the speakers gave a great definition for self-confidence.  He said that self-confidence was arrogance under control.  You have just as much, if not more, going for you as any of your male counterparts.  List all the things that make you great and then review them before each sales conversation, so you can enter the conversation with the reserved self-confidence that conveys you’re a Top Producer and they should be honored to work with you.