A Time for Reflection and Renewal

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A Time for Reflection and Renewal

December 16, 2010 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Tips, Success

As this year comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on the last 16 years in my own business. A lot has changed, yes, but many things have remained the same too. On 9th January 2011 my business will be 16 years old.

While anniversaries and birthdays are celebrated differently all over the world, a common thread is that they are often marked with a celebration or a rite of passage. So, to mark our 16th year in business, we would like to share with you 16 key lessons we have learnt since the business began. While there are many more than 16 lessons learnt, we thought it fitting to have one for each year.

Lessons learnt over 16 years

Values
Define your values and what you stand for; what is acceptable and what is not in your business and for you. Make your values a part of your daily work habits, your charter and your selection process when hiring people. It helps you to know when to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to trivial or important matters.
Leadership and Humility
Central to management and leadership are trust, respect and openness; listen and learn from your staff, clients, mentors and guides and adjust yourself on your journey to become a proficient, effective leader; build a bridge and get over yourself – don’t let your ego get in the way; follow through; don’t assume anything; be available and responsive; it is important to remember that helping others helps you.
Strategic Planning
Is your vision viable? Can it make money and be self sustaining? Once you have decided to move forward, build a plan. From top to bottom and back up again – strategic to tactical. Review it on an ongoing basis not just once a year; involve all staff in its development; make it actionable, accessible and relevant to every role in the business.
Pick Your Counsel Wisely
Find those people who understand you quickly and easily, who can paraphrase and verify what you have just said. They should bring in different perspectives and help you see links and gaps you may be unaware of. Don’t take them at face value – check that their ideas are valuable and valid – put their comments through the ‘fact versus effect’ filter to see if they are being genuine or not. And don’t pick too many at once because listening to too many people only creates confusion and indecision.
Managing Setbacks
Always confront and resolve issues straight away, as they only get worse when ignored. Never see yourself as a ‘failure’, and always try to learn from your mistakes. You can never fail and succeed as a whole person: you can only fail or succeed at the things you do. Don’t be afraid to take risks – instead take calculated risks, so if your new idea or initiative back fires you haven’t lost everything in the process.
Teachable and Transferable
Build your products or services so they can be easily taught and transferred to your team, and in turn, they can easily sell and deliver them to your clients directly or via channels. And make sure it is always in language your clients can understand.
Trust
Even when things are not going the way you want them to you need to trust your vision and have faith in yourself and others that you will come through. Remember, people buy from people they trust. Trust supersedes like.
Passion
Without passion you just won’t have enough energy or desire to make business success happen. Staying focused is crucial. Think as big as you like then set clear goals and ‘see’ yourself achieving them.
Self Mastery Rather Than Success
If we focus on enjoying rather than proving ourselves we value mastery rather than success, effort rather than outcome, and the relationship rather than approval. Our journey to self mastery is ongoing on every level.
Your Health and Time to Reflect
It’s worth it. Look after yourself and make sure you take care of the whole person – exercise, diet, rest, get variety, take holidays, etc. Because if you don’t then you are no use to anyone especially yourself. Take at least 5 minutes each day to sit quietly and reflect.
The Principle of Exchange
We all exist because we are exchanging something of value. Knowing how to communicate that value so others may appreciate and understand what you bring is critical. Be clear about the value you bring to any relationship whether it is business or personal otherwise you may create confusion about its true value.
Worthiness
We are all worthy, whatever our station in life. Our worth is not measured by what we do. We are worthy just because we exist.
Creativity and Innovation
Create something new, think outside the box, challenge prevailing views and attitudes, and don’t let yourself be bullied. Read outside your area of expertise to see how others learn, lead, make decisions, function and work – look at how it may apply to you and your business. Learn to be flexible and open minded. Trial new initiatives and see if they fit your business.
Application Rather Than Theories
Don’t get hooked on only one way of doing things as most theories don’t hold true in real life. You need to be able to use a mixture of ideas, theories, processes and models. Always have a full ‘kit bag’ of ideas, processes, resources, etc. that you can draw upon, and learn how to use them when you need them in life; take bits and pieces and apply them; trust your common sense; be prepared to make mistakes and learn from them.
Get a Reputation
If you don’t have a reputation, align yourself with someone who does. Or put your business up for reputable awards i.e. Small Business Awards, etc. It’s worth it just for the audit process itself. And, who knows, you might even become a finalist and maybe even win. There’s nothing like an award to elevate your reputation.
Courage
Check ‘what am I here to do?’ and have courage in the face of adversity – stand up for what you believe in. Remember, courage doesn’t always roar sometimes it’s a little voice inside your head that says I’ll try again tomorrow.

To all our readers, supporters and business colleagues, thank you for your patronage. The team at Barrett wish you all the very best for 2011 and look forward to sharing many more insights, research, findings and tips on how to lead an honourable, healthy and prosperous career in sales.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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We want more than a script

July 13, 2010 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Customer Service, Prospecting, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills, Sales Tips, Sales Training

Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of sales people around the world use sales scripts. Used properly, sales scripts act as scaffolding or bridgework to earn us the right to have a meaningful discussion with our prospecting customers, members, donors or subscribers. The sales script is a well constructed set of guidelines that support us when we prospect.

Good sales scripts:

are purposeful – have a clear reason why you are calling someone;
use language the customer understands;
are designed for the benefit of the listener with it always being “the prospects choice” to accept or reject what they hear;
are brief and allow for questions and conversations;
aim to achieve a result – an appointment, donation, purchase, feedback, etc;
are planned not canned –they are flexible, allowing the sales person to adapt to the different needs or queries of the prospect whilst maintaining the integrity of the call’s purpose;
leave the prospect feeling valued and informed, even if they choose not to proceed with you in this instance; and,
are pleasant, respectful and engaging.

However, too many organisations push sales scripting too far creating word-for-word scripts that end up being stilted and clumsy at best and one-sided and ineffectual at worst. We had an experience recently with a telecommunications firm whose telephone sales and service people seemed unable to deviate from a scripted response as the responses they gave us had nothing to do with our issue. The impression this gave us was that our issue wasn’t even heard let alone acted upon – it didn’t fit their script. The number of times we had to request information to check that our matter would be dealt with made the whole experience cumbersome, time consuming and very frustrating. We ended up doing all the work, while the telephone sales and service person simply read from a script, which, as it turns out, could not account for our matter in its design.

Sales scripts are not meant to be regurgitated word for word with no deviation, nor are they meant to be a one-sided affair. This type of approach is called ‘canned’ scripting. You would think that in this day and age we would have ditched these ‘canned scripts’ but they still happen.

The Cluetrain Manifesto (a resulting force that rose out of the discontentment people experience with businesses and how they fail to communicate with people) really nails it when it says:

“Learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about ‘listening to customers’. They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf. While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happy talk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.”

Building on this and taking the canned script one step further, some companies and political parties have even ditched the live person on the other end of the phone and opted for a recording instead. And this is supposed to engage us? This is free-to-air television advertising or junk mail in disguise. At least with television we can choose what we watch and we can put a ‘no junk mail’ sign on our letter box but getting ‘canned’ advertising over the phone takes the biscuit in my opinion. Yes there is the ‘do not call’ register which you can sign up to, however resorting to ‘recorded messages’ is lazy and only serves to create more angst in the already heated area of telemarketing.

If done properly, telephone sales is a very effective way of getting in contact with legitimate prospects. But when scripting removes the ability to genuinely listen and respond to a customer, we all suffer.

If you want to create positive and memorable experiences for your customers, members, donors or subscribers then seek to engage with them in a meaningful way. Don’t force your sales people to be rooted to the spot and limited by a one-size-fits all script. Trust your team to engage with people in meaningful ways by giving them the guidelines and tools they need to communicate effectively with the wide variety of people they encounter on a daily basis. The autonomy this gives your people puts back interest and challenge in the task of making effective prospecting calls and in the process might make the customers, members, donors or subscribers’ experience that much better.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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Now for something completely different – a gift for you

June 10, 2010 in Sales Tips, Success

To our dear Barrett Sales Blog Readers

Some of you may not be aware that since February 2007 we have published over 160 articles on the sales profession covering topics on Sales Management and Leadership; Sales Skills and Process; Sales Strategy and Sales Planning; Sales Tips; Mindset and Attitudes; Qualities of Elite Sales Performers; CRM; Ethics, Culture and Values; Sales Capability and Coaching; Self Promotion and Call Reluctance; Sales Trends and Research to name just a few. We have made these articles freely available to anyone who visits our site or who subscribes to the Barrett Sales Blog.

Since the middle of 2009 we have been proactively distributing our articles via the Barrett Sales Blog to an ever growing subscriber base. We are getting really positive feedback that these articles are very helpful and we are finding that many sales managers are using the topics in their weekly sales meetings.

You may also not be aware that, in addition to our Barrett Sales Blog distribution, we are also published on a variety of online business mediums, including www.smartcompany.com.au, Australia’s leading website for SMEs, where we have established ourselves as their lead sales writer since February 2007.

These opportunities to publish our ever growing body of work have opened up a whole new vista for our business and our readers. With that in mind, we would like to give you the opportunity to receive our very first ever e-book as a thank you gift for your ongoing support and loyal readership.

This e-book represents the next phase of the publishing arm of our business. The e-book is titled ‘Lessons & Insights’ and is about some of the key lessons and insights we have gained as a result of being in our own business at Barrett. It incorporates a range of visual mediums as well as text and, if it were published in hard copy, it would resemble a coffee table book. We hope you find it an enjoyable and inspiring reading experience.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you, our readers, for your loyalty and support of our work. We hope that is has assisted you in being able to make the most of your career when it comes to creating healthy, ethical and productive sales cultures and teams, and becoming master sales practitioners yourselves.

So in the spirit of ‘everybody lives by selling something’ and the ‘Principle of Exchange’ – the ever present need and desire for people to exchange something of value with each other and to find meaning in our actions, we would like to spread the word and give more people the chance to be master sales practitioners. With your support, we encourage you to forward this blog on to your peers and friends and offer them the opportunity to subscribe to the Barrett Sales Blog and assist them on their sales journeys.

We also welcome your feedback and any suggestions or ideas you would like to explore in further articles. To send us your comments, ideas and suggestions, use our feedback form.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au

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Is Call Reluctance® choking your sales effort?

December 9, 2009 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Call Reluctance, Coaching, Prospecting, Sales Coaching, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Sales Tips, Self Promotion

Whether we are working for a private or public company, a “not for profit” or government institution, all of us are in some way competing for access to a revenue source to fund our existence.

How capable people are to take on the responsibility for improving the revenue line of a company is a hot topic in today’s competitive market.

Research shows that no longer can companies and their people rely on their technical competence, passive referrals, reputation, brand or blanket advertising to bring in new business and revenue streams as they may have done in the past. They also need to effectively self- promote and prospect for new business using professional and ethical sales strategies, and demonstrate real value for money.

Visibility Management
In short, we need to be visible and manage our visibility so that customers know who we are and what we can do.

The research shows we need to make our competency visible to people who need to know about us. Therefore, companies and sales people must first be VISIBLE to be RECOGNISED for what they do well and they must be RECOGNISED before they can be REWARDED!

Social media is an emerging avenue that makes getting noticed and making our capabilities visible easier if done properly, however on its own it is unlikely to yield and drive the type of qualified sales leads we want in the time frame and volume we need to keep us viable. Social media is visibility management and an education and influencing forum, however it is only part of a prospecting strategy.

So, because of this we need to make sure that our sales teams are fully equipped to prospect effectively and regularly or else we are at risk of missing sales opportunities. Firstly, let’s quickly define Prospecting.

Prospecting is… The identification and pursuit of new business opportunities in new and/or existing accounts.

Prospecting requires sales people to establish contact with people who might buy your products or services. Whether it’s phone prospecting, face-to-face prospecting or group prospecting, in-bound or outbound, nothing gets sold until sales people get in front of or talk to potential buyers.

However, the sad truth is that many people find prospecting very hard work. In fact, research shows that only about 20% of sales people are fully effective when prospecting.

That leaves approximately 80% of people struggling with the function of prospecting. In most cases it is not due to lack of knowledge, skill, ability or talent, rather most people are afraid to prospect due to the attitudes and beliefs they have formed about prospecting over the years. This fear is known as Call Reluctance®.

So, why focus on Call Reluctance®?
Barrett has assessed over 50,000 people on their Call Reluctance® profiles and we can attest to the fact that most sales people have some form of prospecting hesitation or Call Reluctance® which affects their sales performance. Our work has allowed us to develop a deep understanding of prospecting hesitation and call reluctant behaviour and the accompanying attitudes across sales teams and businesses cultures.

If you are not convinced by our word, here is some of the research by BSRP which has been compiled over the last 40 years.

Across industries, the sales people who sell the most are those who are most willing to get in front of prospective buyers on a consistent, daily basis. They sell more because regardless of their talent, experience, or knowledge, they always have new people to sell to.
80% of all sales people fail to complete their first year because of prospecting distress with their energy directed towards coping rather than prospecting strategies.
40% of experienced sales people report one or more episodes of Call Reluctance® severe enough to threaten their career.
The hesitation to initiate first contact with prospective buyers on a consistent daily basis is responsible for the failure of more competent, motivated, capable, revenue generating sales people than any other single factor. Nothing else even comes close.
Despite content or quality, no training can earn back what it costs unless sales people initiate contact in sufficient numbers with new and existing clients.
Research indicates that a prospecting hesitant sales person can cost your company 15 new units of business per month.
Non-hesitant sales people are five times more productive than hesitant sales people.
The only significant predictor for success in sales is the number of contacts initiated with prospective buyers on a consistent basis!

The bad news
The bad news is that call reluctant behaviours are highly contagious as they are learnt from being around other people who are Call Reluctant®. It can take as little as 6 to 8 weeks to become contaminated.

At last count there are 12 Call Reluctant® types that can keep people from prospecting effectively due to fear. Here are some of the marker behaviours from the more common types that may give you clues that you or some of your people may be suffering from Call Reluctance®:

Over-reliance on information such as brochures and technical specs; over-invests energy in always getting ready; never enough information or feel adequately prepared; over-analyses and under acts
Nagging guilt and shame associated with being in a sales career generally based on negative stereotypes; may use ‘deflected identities’ to disguise the sales role; tries to be overly positive and instead comes across as insincere
Hesitates to prospect or close sales due to fear of appearing rude, pushy or intrusive; says ‘yes’ when should say ‘no’; avoids confrontation and needs to feel liked; can gossip to remain ‘in the loop’
Overly-concerned with professional image and credibility; may see prospecting as demeaning and unnecessary; doesn’t listen; may talk over people; needs to be seen as better than average

The good news
The good news is that prospecting hesitations and fears can be overcome and unlearnt, thus freeing people to prospect in a consistent and confident manner. Whether you identify prospecting hesitations and fears via a purpose built assessment or your own observations, the first step is to recognise and acknowledge if prospecting hesitation and Call Reluctance® is holding your or your sales team hostage.

The second step is to put in place strategies to eliminate these unhelpful attitudes and behaviours. This can be done by giving people access to effective prospecting skills training that shows how to confidently and competently prospect in a professional manner. If hesitation or fear still persists, then we suggest that you invest in training and coaching that gives people insight into their specific prospecting hesitations and access to well researched, behavioural changes strategies that can be applied to overcomes these specific types of fears.

Prospecting hesitation is preventable so watch who you let near your mind.

PS Don’t forget to complete the Barrett poll on The 12 Sales Trends of 2010. We want to know what you think will be the number one sales trend in 2010.

We will publish the results of the most important Sales Trends for 2010 in January. Make sure you are subscribed to our blog to receive in depth articles on The 12 Sales Trends of 2010, starting in January with the No. 1 trend as voted by you our readers.

Remember: Everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett is Founder & Managing Director of BARRETT

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Help my sales people can’t close sales

September 16, 2009 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Complex Selling & Transactional Selling, Negotiation, Sales Skills, Sales Tips, Sales Training

‘My sales people are not closing sales’ is the most common complaint we hear.

The biggest cause for people not being able to close sales it not the close itself. It often starts at the beginning of the sales call.

Sales people need to be able to properly understand client’s needs and discuss possible solutions that meet those needs with the relevant products and services before any close can take place. Once this has happened they can close the sale but not before. If a sales person cannot meet a client’s needs with their products and services then it is a ‘no sale’.

Some people also expect every sale to be closed in one meeting.

Closing a sale as a ‘done deal’ in one meeting can happen in a number of industries, particularly in simple sales, however with more complex sales it often takes more than one meeting to progress to a final close.

In some instances, however, even simpler sales are experiencing a lengthening to the sales cycle. We are seeing a trend with clients not wanting to make hasty decisions and needing to take a more time to make informed decisions. Does this mean if they do not say ‘yes’ in the first meeting you have lost a sale? No, not necessarily. If you need to go an extra stage or two, make sure you get an agreement on the action that moves the sale forward to the next logical stage.

Where sales people often fall down in the actual closing of a sale (that is assuming they have understood the client’s needs properly as stated above) is that they do not gain agreement from the client as to which solution is the best for them. They then fail to gain commitment from the client to move forward with the sale to a close.

In ‘pressure selling tactics’, sales people are conned into believing that if you don’t get the customer to sign there and then you won’t get them back or get the sale. In most cases, this is simply not true. Some people like to take their time to make a decision and forcing them to ‘sign’ will actually turn them away. The desperation displayed by sales people in these situations can be very unappealing and can be a turn off to prospective clients. At worst this behaviour becomes bullying on the part of the sales person, often at the expense of less assertive, confident customers.

Another common misconception is that you need to ‘ask for the sale’. If you have done a good job asking questions to establish needs, properly matched your solution to these needs, and then asked questions to check that this is what the client wants then closing the sale is easy. We should remember it’s the client who makes the buying decision and the sales person who facilitates the process.

Top performing sales people stop asking questions here and they start telling the client what they are going to do for them. They take charge and ownership of the process. They are confident but not arrogant. The client should, and usually does, feel supported and happy to proceed
If you are in more complex sales and have several steps in the sales process, you need to make sure that at each stage you to get a commitment to move to the next logical stage of the sales process. This is a close as well – a mini close that leads to the final close.

So, what’s stopping people from saying “Ok, this is what I will do for you. Let’s get started.”?

They are being told that they need to keep asking questions.
Many sales people do not know how to conduct an open transparent purposeful conversation. They do not take charge and they make too many assumptions leaving the client, and themselves in no man’s land.

If you are direct and upfront, and confirm what has been discussed and take charge of the situation, then real viable clients will move with you and get started. Those who are tyre kicking will show their true colours and bail out.

This assertive, positive approach makes no assumptions. Both parties are clear about what will happen.

Closing the sale should be the easiest part of the process if you do everything else right.

Happy Selling

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