Anyone who read my previous post on Getting Things Done, will probably be interested in a fantastic piece of software that can be configured to work perfectly with the methodology. It’s called MyLife Organized.
I won’t reinvent the wheel : take a look at further information here .
There is even a pocket PC version (Windows Mobile) that you can use in conjunction with your desktop/laptop.
And of course, there’s a free trial.
I thought the "close early, close often" approach to sales was well and truly dead and buried. Unfortunately it seems not. Today I was on a mobile phone provider's website using the chat facilities to talk to their sales staff (an interesting new-ish channel for sales people that I should investigate more). Straight after I typed in "Hello", the first thing the sales person typed to me was "Hi. Are you looking to buy a contract today?"
OK, granted, this is not a close, but it's pretty high pressure and self-centered from the off. In fairness, this sales person probably needs to quickly qualify prospects, but the effect on me was immediate distrust and irritation. In any case, I'm not looking to "buy a contract", I'm looking to setting up on-the-move wireless for my funky new netbook. Where's your interest in helping me achieve what I want? I'm the one with the cash!
I ignored his or her questions and went ahead to get the answers I needed.
Here are a few of my favourite sales questions for uncovering prospects’ issues. Some more direct than others. Enjoy!
• How have things changed in company/industry in the last few years/ months?
• (If they tell you about a recent project or initiative) What do you think are the biggest “lessons learned” from this project? How would you do things differently? With the benefit of hindsight how would you run such a project again, if you had to?
• What are the biggest developments in the industry? How are you keeping up with that? What do you think that will look like in the future?
• What’s most important for you; X, Y or Z? (change as required, e.g. “increasing market share, generating new sales or raising profitability” or “finding good people, lowering staff turnover or finding a way to cut the number of sick days taken by staff?”)
• What are the biggest challenges you face with (department, business, industry, product, etc) right now?
• What are the big initiatives you are working on right now? What issues have you faced in achieving these?
• What are the big changes in (department, business, industry, product, etc) right now?
• What’s the “big goal” at the moment? What’s standing in the way of you achieving that?
• (When they talk about a current project or initiative) Are those the results you hoped/planned for?
• What’s the number one most important thing for you/ your boss/ company/ industry/ customers now?
• What’s the number one most important thing for you/ your boss/ company/ industry/ customers now going into the future?
• A lot of companies seem to be having issues with (Problem X, problem Y and Problem Z) right now. Is that your experience too?
• Do you think (problem X) is more of an issue than (problem Y?)
• What do/does your boss/ company/ industry/ customers complain about / struggle with?
• What changes do/does your boss/ company/ industry/ customers want to see?
• What do you think is going to cause the biggest changes / threats / issues in your business in the next X years?
• What would you like to achieve from today’s meeting?
• What have been your biggest successes in (area X)? What else would you like to improve on?
• What's keeping you from perfection in X, Y or Z?
• If you had no limitations, no budget restraints, no (other problem), what would you aim to do? (now work back to find the problems that are a barrier to them achieving their goals)
More questions for you to use in your selling coming soon. Bookmark/RSS SalesItch now…. And don’t forget to add a comment to share your favourite questions with the community!
If, before a sales call, you were to write down all the questions, all the areas to cover as suggested by sales training and books, you would have a very long list. The list would cover every aspect leading you theoretically, logically to a successful conclusion.
It makes sense, but when you actually pick up that phone or meet that person, reality rudely interupts the theory.There is simply not enough time to cover every base, investigate every pain/problem. Your prospect doesn't have the time to follow the theory.
The skill of successful sales people then may not be that they follow the processes and theory, but that they can understand and decode the theory and pick out the handful of questions/actions/statements that matter in the real world. KISS: Keep It Simple, and Sell.
• How can I as a salesperson best access your intimate knowledge of your situation?
• How can I make you feel important and listened to?
• How can I avoid just pitching you what I think is best for you (and instead pitching the appropriate solution)?
• When I ask you a question, who is controlling the conversation, you or me?
• Who is exerting influence on whose mind?
• Do I need to draw you a picture?
Over the next few months I’ll be listing my favourite sales questions for you to use in your selling. Bookmark/RSS SalesItch now….
Next time you feel like suggesting that a prospect leverages your organization’s paradigm shifting business 2.0 capabilities, remember this BBC article.
Organise, forecast, report and analyse your sales with CRM
In parts one and two of this series, we looked at what a sales methodology is and how it can help you. We also looked at a real life sales methodology, Solution Selling. The next step in upgrading your sales function is bringing it all together in an organized manner with the help of a CRM system.
The efficiency and effectiveness of any sales methodology is increased hugely when supported by a web-based customer relationship management (CRM) system – a database, accessed through a password-protected website, into which all the information about sales is entered. It helps managers in two key ways:
Organisation: A CRM system helps managers keep track of the many individuals, companies, opportunities and tasks they deal with. Multiple users can input information into one CRM system, thereby centralising all the sales data within the organisation. This is particularly useful if a manager requires an organisation-wide view of sales activities or when several people are working on one opportunity.
Forecasting, reporting and analysis: With a few clicks, managers can analyse the information in their system to give answers to such questions as:
● Which opportunities are likely to close in this financial quarter?
● How much business will we close this year?
● Which are our best lead sources?
● What percentage of our sales came from product X?
● At which selling stages do our lost opportunities ‘drop out’?
Most importantly, the answers to these and thousands of other questions can be used to guide managers’ future sales activities – to capitalise on strengths and improve where there is weakness. Furthermore, reports can be generated in order to give other stakeholders in the organisation an understanding of sales activity.
For the sales person, the system provides them with a way to store and quickly recall all information about an opportunity, company or contact. This sounds like a simple task, but anyone who has spent more than a few months selling without such a system knows that things get very complicated, very quickly and knowing what was said, by whom and when, or retrieving a number ASAP when under pressure, is an extremely valuable thing.
(This is an independent recommendation. I have not and will not accept sponsorship/advertising/paid-for-plugs on SalesItch)
In part 1 of this series, we went over the basics of sales methodologies. In this part I share my experiences in integrating the methodology “Solution Selling” into my day-to-day activities.
What is Solution Selling? The easiest way to answer that is to say that it is sales methodology delivered through a book, audio book or training course. SPI, the makers of Solution Selling explain that it is;
• A philosophy : Where the customer is the focal point - helping them solve their problems and achieve measurable results. Solution Selling is aligned with how buyers buy (and the after that, how sellers sell).
• A map : It shows you where you are to where you want to be. It provides an end to end series of next steps for you to follow.
• A methodology : a system of methods and techniques for selling better
I discovered Solution Selling a couple of years ago and was taken a back by its usefulness. Essentially, it brought together most of what I had learned on the job and through reading book in my first 5 years selling and put it into a framework. It has great ideas, techniques and tools that help you do your job better. It unquestionably helps you gain more control over the sales process and by having a process to follow you don’t need to “think afresh” with every new twist and turn in an opportunity’s life. It has also been useful in providing myself and my colleagues with a shared lexicon, understood by all, which helps us communicate with and help each other better.
That said it has its drawbacks. It is jargon heavy and, I feel, is unnecessarily over-complicated at times. It takes continuing effort to apply and keep applying, and in times of great stress it’s easy to slip into old bad habits. But it’s still the best thing that happened to my sales career.
To help you understand the content of Solution Selling, I have detailed below its key principles, with a brief explanation:
• No pain, no gain – There can be no solutions without problems (or “Pains”). Find and develop pains to create/increase demand for a solution.
• Pain flows through out the entire organisation – A delay in production (pain) might impact distribution, IT, facilities management, finance, etc. Sell to all those who have a stake in seeing a solution implemented.
• Diagnose before you prescribe – Listen to your prospect’s situation and needs before deciding what to suggest.
• There are three levels of buyer need – You need to adjust your approach to the level of need that the prospect is experiencing : 1) “Latent need” (they have a need that they are not aware of), 2) “Admitted need” – they have a need that they are aware of, 3) “Vision of a solution” – they know what the need is and they know how to solve it
• There are two types of opportunities – looking and not looking : “looking” is those who are actively investigating solutions. These are harder deals to win as they already have an idea of what they want (and it’s probably not exactly your solution). “not looking” is those who have a problem that they need to solve but they are not actively looking for a solution. These prospects offer the best rate of return on your selling time and effort.
• Get there first, set the requirements and make yourself column A : If you beat all other players to the prospect you have a chance to influence their initial requirements (in your favour), thereby locking out competitors and making you an obvious choice.
• You can’t sell to someone who can’t buy – Aim high within the organisational hierarchy, sell to those with the power to buy. With anyone else, “sell” them on allowing you access to the real decision makers
• Buyers’ concern shifts over time – For example, at the beginning of the sales cycle buyers are very concerned with their needs and not so concerned about the risk inherent in implementing a solution. Towards the end of the sales cycle, they are extremely concerned about risk and far less interested in their needs. Sales people need to alter their approach depending on the stage the buyer is at.
• Pain X Power X Visions X Value X Control = Sale – This one looks pretty ridiculous. When you understand Solution Selling’s terminology, it’s actually not.
Solution Selling provides you with a process around which to fit all this, along with various milestones and checklists, which play a very useful role in holding back your natural sales person’s optimism. You may believe you are ready to move to the next stage of the process, but the checklists and milestones remind you : “Hold on buddy, aren’t you forgetting something?” (and it’s surprising how often you actually are…!)
I was initially skeptical about using something like Solution Selling, as I felt that it would put me in a straight-jacket, curb my creativity and take the “art” or “sport” out of selling. On the whole it does not. In fact, it generally frees you up from the administration and hundreds of smaller decisions involved in the sales process and allows you to focus on the “art” or “sport” parts of selling – the bits most of us really enjoy.
Having used the process everyday for a number of you years now, I have “customised” the methodology to suit me and my industry. I have simplified some processes and stripped out the jargon to make it more intuitive. But the base of the process remains the same.
If you are interested in reading more about Solution Selling I suggest you start by reading either New Solution Selling or The New Solution Selling Fieldbook. Please share your experiences if you are using Solution Selling or alternative methodologies, by leaving a comment.
Coming soon : Part 3 : Getting organized by implementing a CRM system
Sell better with proper process and method
The sales team isn’t achieving what you want it to. It’s time to get organized and put plans in place to ensure you hit your targets. But, where do you start? In the first of a three post series, I will take you through the basics of upgrading your sales function. The first step is implementing a sales methodology.
A sales methodology is a set of clearly defined processes and tools designed to help the individual or team emulate the best practice of others. A good sales methodology is built on research and observations of the actions of top salespeople. It should answer three important questions:
1 What should I do now?
A sales methodology provides a clear sales process through which all your deals or ‘opportunities’ will pass, ensuring appropriately rigorous attention is given to each opportunity. The process is divided into stages running from discovering a new ‘lead’ to the eventual signing of contracts. Most importantly, at each stage the methodology should provide tools to help you analyse and understand the opportunity and develop and execute a plan of action.
For example, after an initially exciting first conversation with a prospective customer, a manager uses a checklist to assess just how valuable and likely an opportunity it potentially is. Answers to the checklist reveal a number of weaknesses in the opportunity. Consulting the methodology the manager identifies the appropriate next steps and is provided with support in the form of scripts, tools and sales techniques.
2 Why do it this way?
A strong sales methodology provides managers with an understanding of why, and under what circumstances, people buy. No methodology can provide instructions on what to do in every situation, so managers who are equipped with an understanding of the fundamentals of selling are better able to improvise in situations where help is not immediately at hand.
3 How much business will we ‘close’?
Of particular interest to most managers is probability rating. This is the practice of giving a percentage rating to the opportunity, representing the likelihood of that opportunity concluding in a sale.
The percentage is related to the stage that the opportunity has reached in the sales process. By multiplying the financial value of the opportunity by the percentage rating a value can be attributed to the opportunity at that time. By aggregating this number for all the opportunities currently in progress, a manager can predict how much revenue will result from their activities.
Coming up soon :
Part 2 : My personal experience in applying sales methodology, “Solution Selling”
Part 3 : Getting organized by implementing a CRM system
