Increase Sales Blog

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Both education based marketing and traditional product or sales based marketing engage in telling and selling. The difference is the approach and therein lies the confusion.

Over at social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Focus.com, there is a lot of telling going on. However I am not sure how much of that translates into selling. Nowadays more people are telling (think self promoting) at every opportunity and forgetting the purpose of marketing is to attract attention and build positive relationships.  Telling by promoting your next event, your book or your blog will not increase sales.

Telling is selling happens when sales people educate others about their solutions (products or services). This “telling is selling” behavior is done more through a Socratic approach with the emphasis always on the potential customers (prospect). The salesperson intensely listens to what is being said and not being said. Emotional intelligence is highly engaged. Telling does take place from a place of authenticity meaning responses happen when asked. Selling is the result with increase sales.

With all the emphasis on asking the right questions, some sales people forget to listen and answer the questions from potential customers to centers of influence. Here you are indeed telling, but at the discretion of the prospect.

Smart and savvy sales people understand that even though they may not appear to be in control of the conversation, they know from their experience what path the conversation may take. Their responses can pull then closer to the prospect. They do not have to push (tell) their product, price or proposal onto the other person. Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Refrain from what others call “pump and dump;” “show up and through up;” or what I call in Be the Red Jacket spew the “3Ps virus” of product, price or proposal.

Yes telling is selling when done effectively because people still must talk to other people as mental telepathy is still hundreds if not thousands of years from happening.  By employing an education based marketing approach within the overall integrated marketing plan, may allow you to tell and sell more .

The simple fact of the matter is we all have expectations when it comes to branding, buying and selling.  Those expectations are part of our conditioned experience memory bank that is tucked faraway into our amygdala.  How will this new solution perform to what I already have is often the unasked question ruminating in our brains.

Seth Godin is quoted as saying the noun “brand” is all about the expectations of your customers, your employees to even voters. However the anticipated result or results associated with any solution from the buyer’s perspective are also part of the buying decision as well as selling behaviors.

The word value is very hot among those providing sales books, sales consulting, sales training coaching to even marketing solutions. And it should be hot because value and expectations go hand in hand. A better analogy is expectations are the shadow or shadows behind the value within the buying decision.Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Focusing only on value while ignoring expectations may leave you pocket poor.

What buyers look forward to can make the buying decision easier or harder and this rests solely on the shoulders of the salesperson.  His or her ability to discover those anticipated outcomes  hiding behind the wants and needs will expedite the sales process to a successful conclusion or grind it to a screeching halt. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Expectations extend into the organization and why in many cases the inability to increase sales is not a sales problem, but a symptom of a much larger problem or problems such as poor executive to sales leadership.

A colleague, Charles H. Green,  just blogged about customer surveys. For years, this customer loyalty building strategy appeared to work. Now with everyone facing information overload, the expectations by the customers have changed.

Recently J.C. Penney changed its business model to be ahead of the expectation river of their customers.  They have removed the special coupons and discount pricing to go to a simpler model where there are monthly specials and two Fridays in each month where older merchandise is heavily discounted.

So what are the expectations your customers or potential customers have about:

• You?
• Your company?
• Your solutions?
• Your price?
• Your delivery?

By knowing, acknowledging and meeting (when possible) these expectations reduces those sales objections to you, your company, your solutions, your price and your delivery.

Once you know the expectations helps you to determine where the potential customer (prospect) to center of influence places her or his value. Here is probably where emotional intelligence is truly an advantage because expectations and value are directly connected to emotions.  Your ability to recognize, manage and then use those emotions to motivate your potential customer will propel you ahead in the sales process and achieve the goal to increase sales.

Now some may say relationship selling or relationship marketing rules the global marketplace. This may be true. However, it is those expectations even within those relationships that will ultimately determine if you are successful in sales as measured by your ability to actually increase sales.

In this age of high tech where social media has become the way to conduct business, many still fail to recognize the importance of face to face interactions and how they increase sales. A new survey by Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Cisco, entitled Business Leaders’ Views on Interaction revealed the importance of face to face interactions specific to communications and other business leadership concerns.

Credit www.sxc.hu

Since human beings still communicate verbally (we have yet to develop our brains to be telepathic), the necessity for face to face communications is still required in spite of all the technology from emails to mobile devices. Given that those engaged in selling must communicate, then it is reasonable to presume that face to face interactions will increase sales or conversely decrease them.

According to the executives surveyed, they believed four (4) out of the following six (6) activities cannot be achieved without face to face interactions:

• Engagement and focus on shared content (92%)
• Tone of voice (81%)
• Facial expressions (81%)
• Words someone is using (72%)
• Subconscious body language (72%)
• Conscious movements or gestures (67%)

Additionally 89% of the respondents said the primary function of any meeting is to build relationships with customers (external and internal). Sales Training Coaching Tip:  The purpose of marketing within the sales process is to begin to build relationships.

Unfortunately, for many in small business to even those in Fortune 2000 firms, effective face to face interactions are not part of their educational experience. These individuals have not developed the necessary communication skills and more importantly emotional intelligence to enhance those face to face business meeting opportunities.

Years ago, a gentleman by the name of  Professor Albert Mehrabian along with his colleagues developed a communication model based upon the following results:

• 7% of any message is verbal or what is actually said
• 38% of any message is para-verbal or what is heard through syntax, grammar, loudness, speed, inflection, etc.
• 55% of any message is non-verbal or what is observed through body language, facial expressions, etc.

The results from the Cisco survey appear to reaffirm the importance of the non-verbal and para-verbal, but more importantly reveal the importance of word selection relative to what is heard. Here comes into play working with emotional intelligence.

When we consciously consider the impact of the words we speak we can dramatically improve the results we are seeking.  This conscious word selection along with understanding non-verbal and para-verbal communication signals can not only build stronger business relationships, but ultimately increase sales. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Emotional intelligence is recognizing the emotions of others,  understanding how to manage and motivate through those emotions.

Yes technology is important in building business relationships, but to actually solidify them, to elevate them to their highest level does require face to face interactions.  To believe and think otherwise is simply a foolish folly.

Sales leadership in the 21st century is very much about you and your behaviors.

Do you fear your competitors?

Do you speak ill of them?

Do you bring then up in the conversation with a potential customer, potential client or prospect?

Do you ignore them and hope they will go away?

Maybe you view them as Lori Richardson calls them industry counterparts?

How you view them and what you do speaks not only to your own values (business ethics), but more importantly to your own sales leadership, your self confidence and your self esteem.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to sit in a roundtable discussion with 20 small business owners who all offer different aspects of sales training, sales coaching, and sales consulting.  What was interesting to learn that no one had exactly the same business seeking exactly the same customers providing exactly the same services.

Imagine  that!

What everyone shared was a unified goal to use this strategic alliance to everyone’s benefit.

How novel!

Later participants continued the relationship building over dinner.  Conversation flowed and everyone learned about each other from a personal perspective.

One of my colleagues once said “We drive by more business than we will ever have.”

Wise words and this speaks volumes about one’s perspective when it comes to a competitor or an industry counterpart.

So the choice is as always yours.

You can cower in fear of your competitors, challenge them head on or possibly we rethink of them as being industry counterparts. How you view these competitors or industry counterparts will ultimately determine your ability to increase sales not to mention your overall sales leadership behaviors.

In the ongoing quest of how to increase sales, consider the development of strategic alliances. For many in business leadership roles, this may mean formal business to business networking groups where individuals makes a commitment to secure sales leads for other members of the group.

However if you have an integrated education based marketing plan, another how to increase sales tactic might be to develop strategic alliances with those who some may perceive as your competitors.  The onslaught of social media affords the opportunity to unite with other like minded individuals who may share similar solutions but the target audiences may be different.

Today I will be traveling into Chicago to meet with approximately 10 other individuals in business leadership roles who make a living selling sales training, sales coaching and organizational or continuous business process improvement.  We came together through social media and the referrals of others.

Our united goal is simple:

How can we support each other to increase sales

for all members?

If we accept the premise the greatest competitor we all have is the status quo, then we are truly not first degree competitors.

By uniting with others, we have literally expanded our sales forces because no one person can be everything to all those inbound sales leads.

Currently we work together to spread our business and sales blogs through social media sites.  This one simple action of uniting with 20 other sales consultants to sales coaches has increased traffic to this blog by 25-40% while doubling the number of daily Twitter followers.  Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Use a Twitter hash tag to track the spread of your united efforts.  Our group uses #salesinsight.

One critical factor to consider when establishing strategic alliances is everyone must be liked minded and this goes all the way down to positive core values.  Uniting with those who do not share your same high standards, rules of engagement, call them what you will is a recipe for disaster.

There are many how to increase sales strategies for those in business leadership roles be them small business owners to crazy busy sales people. The challenge is to continually to think differently and then take action because thinking and doing are always required.

Sales Cartoon

Credit www.funnysalescartoons.com

Sales Leadership Quote

“Winners are consistently challenging their existing beliefs,  limits and results.”

Leanne Hoagland-Smith

A posting over at LinkedIn suggested that in leadership especially sales leadership you are defined by others and that is a good thing. What a bunch of hooey!

If you are not defining you first, then you are allowing others to define what is important to them and not to you.

This leads to be more concerned about what others think of you instead of holding true to yourself.

Today especially with credentials being so easily inflated, individuals (think potential customers or sales leads) are seeking authentic people who truly care and who have already defined who they are.  Sure there are some uncaring folks as there has always been. Yet, sales success, the ability to consistently increase sales and develop long term relationships is far simpler to be achieved when you are know who you are.

So this leads to the question:

What defines you?

Are you defined by:

• The demonstration of your positive core values?
• Your friendliness?
• Your ability to remember conversations?
• Your follow-up?
• Your insight?
• Your style or wardrobe?
• All of the above?

In other words, what do people remember about you when they meet you the first time?

President Theodore Roosevelt is quoted as saying:

“No one cares about what you know until they know how much you care.”

People who truly care, who are not just in for the quick, gotta make a sale, close the deal and then adios baby, do know themselves far better than those pushy type sales people. These individuals have taken the time to reflect, to examine themselves from the inside out.

So when you read some dribble from some so called executive consultant, small business or sales coach  that you should let others define you, run do not walk in the opposite direction.  When you know who you are, then you can make a decision (choose) what you wish to change and then put an action plan in place to create that new future path.

Yesterday in speaking with a small business owner over lunch (this was a social media Facebook friend that I had yet to meet in person), I realized egos running amok are probably one of the major reasons for the inability to increase sales. During the end of our conversation, I asked him this one question:

Credit www.sxc.hu

“How may I support you?”

He looked at me in dumbfounded silence for several moments and then replied:

“No one has ever asked me that question before.”

Usually, he continued with, they (other business to business networking contacts) have asked me for indirect or direct referrals. But they have never asked me how they could help or support me.

This particular small business owner is not new to small business. His firm had been around almost 5 years and he had extensive experience in business to business networking.

I was taken aback because my belief is small business owners must support each other and not always be in ego drive where they want this sales lead or want that referral from another small business owner. Yet I know there is a lot “It’s all about me ” and you as the potential contact (sales lead) are just another channel for me to spread my ego.

Then today I read a blog about how sincerity in business is missing today’s world from the small business owners to life in general.  The first statement in this blog was the definition of sincerity:

“The quality or condition of being sincere; genuineness, honesty, and freedom from duplicity.”

The phrase  “freedom from duplicity” could be easily rewritten “freedom from self serving egos.”

As more and more small business owners to sales professionals continue to seek to increase sales through social media and other more traditional marketing channels the exposure to egos running amok, self serving promotion is increasing.  Social media sites such as LinkedIn are becoming havens for self promotions (ego driven selling disguised as education based marketing) and not places free from duplicity.

So if you as a small business owner to sales professional wish to increase sales, then check your ego at the door and look first to support others before you look to gain from any business relationship.

Being in any sales leadership role from the salesperson up to sales management and even beyond requires the talent of diplomacy. For without the consistent application of this talent may result in one’s foot in one’s mouth not to mention the inability to increase sales.

There are many definitions for this word. However, I believe those definitions that connect diplomacy with emotional intelligence are far stronger and more applicable for those in sales leadership positions.

Within the Innermetrix assessment, diplomacy is defined as:

“The ability to balance personal emotions with the needs of the situation, to not allow one’s personal emotions or feelings to interfere, cloud or inappropriately affect their response to a situation. This attribute is looking at how clearly someone can keep the feelings and concerns of others in mind while dealing with emotional charged situations.”

Think about how often in business, we as experienced sales people or business professionals find ourselves in emotionally charged situations.

• Customers are screaming for their products or services
• Employees are complaining about other employees or workplace situations
• Sales management to even C Suite executives question some recent event or decision

Emotions are running rampant.

Fuses are short.

Deals must be closed.

After all “sales is the transference of feelings.” (Zig Ziglar) Not to expect emotions, well that is just plain foolhardy.

When we demonstrate this talent of diplomacy we have the capacity to “remain reserved and act in an appropriate manner with regards to others when having to deal with emotional charged situations. Those with this ability “are not likely to offend others, place their needs in an unfair priority, yet not lose site of their needs either. Diplomacy is all about balance both sides of a human situation.” (Innermetrix)

Diplomacy is the application of emotional intelligence that being the ability to recognize and manage the emotions of others as well as ourselves. This is no longer a talent reserved for government officials, but one every salesperson must have and demonstrate at a higher proficiency than probably ever before especially if he or she wants to increase sales.

When we examine what it means not to have this sales leadership talent of diplomacy, we find individuals who “may be likely to lose site of the thoughts, feelings and concerns of others when they are dealing with emotionally charged situation. The result can be someone who creates an imbalance between their needs (persona, corporate, etc). and the needs of the other party (others, customer, client, etc.). This can cause them to possibly offend others or make decisions that do not balance all parties’ needs equally and respectfully.” (Innermetrix)

Take a moment to think about a past situation where someone failed to behave in a diplomatic fashion. What were the results? Did you find yourself thinking:

• I can’t believe he or she said that?
• Boy, will that come back to bite him or her in the butt?
• And I thought this day could not have gotten any worse?

Yes the sales leadership talent of diplomacy is something all salespersons to small business owners to C Suite executives must have. Not having this attribute is no longer an option especially when the market place is a global playing field filled with emotionally charged plays, one right after another.

If your goal as a small business business person to sales professional is how to increase sales, then consider this phrase work life balance.  By understanding the concept of work life balance and then writing down WAY Smart goals to achieve that desired state, will result in your achieving not only your goal to increase sales, but a far better life.

Being crazy busy, we as small business owners to sales people have a tendency to develop a myopic view of our world and probably the universe. Engaging in what we need to do to increase sales from the marketing to the actually selling and back to the marketing can be all consuming. This consumption of busyness may keep us from seeing the bigger picture and in the process only add to our already high stress levels.

There is an old proverb that states:

Take time to smell the roses.

This is probably one of the more simple ways to determine in you have work life balance.

If you are too busy to stop an appreciate a flower, to share smile with a stranger, to sit down and reflect upon the day’s events, then this may be a good indication that you lack balance in your life.

Reflection is a necessary part of balance because this action helps you to determine where you need to right the unbalance in your life especially if you are not operating on all 8 or 12 cylinders.

There is a lot of pooh-huh about work life balance.

Yet if you are not physically well, how can you be on your best mental game when negotiating that critical sale or deal?

If you have family issues pulling you down, how can you be social and truly engaged with others as you work to build a relationship with that important decision maker?

When money is a major concern, how can you focus on your career or your professional path?

Finally, if your purpose is unknown or cloudy, how can you be truth to your ethics, your beliefs or your spirituality?

Maybe as we become older, we can realize and understand the greater value in having work life balance in one’s existence.

Is work life balance easy? No because it does require making decisions that sometimes may be difficult.

However, if we remain true to ourselves, provided we have clarity about ourselves and a commitment to our core ethics and beliefs, staying in balance is a somewhat simpler.

How to increase sales does require work life  balance.  When this state happens and you can keep it fairly consistent, you will increase sales and better yet be a far happier small business owner or sales professional.

P.S. Having a one page goal driven personal  action plan may also be of benefit.

Sales Cartoon

Credit funnysalescartoons.com

Sales Quote

“Success is a pathway with bumps traveled by persistence individuals who have clarity as to what they want.”

Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Is your sales leadership team one of being “Lion Hearted Full” or “Lion Hearted Empty?”

Credit www.sxc.hu

What I mean is do you and your sales people demonstrate both of these two words:

• Lion?
• Heart?

Many salespersons in business today are quite lion like in their behaviors. Their sales leadership style is to focus on the prey or sales leads and then stalk them using contemporary tools including social media, customer relationship management (CRM) and effective sales skills.

However what appears to be lost in this hunting and earning the sale feast is heart or what Dan Waldschmidt once said is “we don’t have a sales problem, we have a caring problem.”

Where is the heart in this sales process becomes a primary question?

Heart represents our emotions, our ability to relate to others, our emotional intelligence. And yet so little focus is on this concept of heart unless there is some quid pro quo involved.

For example, building relationships is fine as long as I “close the deal” seems to be far more prevalent than just relating to people first and thinking about them as potential sales leads second or even third. Maybe this is why so many sales professionals abandon sales leads after the third contact even though sales research suggests 90% of all sales are earned between the fourth and twelfth contacts.

Building relationships by staying in touch, making those follow up phone calls or contacts does take the courage and determination of a lion hunting for his or even her survival. Abandoning the hunt by looking for another likely target is probably easier and does focus more on technical or sales skills than caring ones or those associated with emotional intelligence.

Additionally sales leadership benefits from  having a lion behavior where there is balance between what is called an economic driver versus an altruistic driver.  Being 100% full of heart suggests a salesperson who loves to meet and greet potential sales leads, but never follows through with the rest of the sales process culminating in the goal to increase sales.

Sales leadership in this ever changing “Serengeti Plain” (the business marketplace) is for the “Lion Hearted.” Having a good balance between the lion inside of you along with your heart will provide you the internal fortitude to keep moving forward toward your goal to increase sales.