“Sales goals that are oriented around results are not valid goals.” – Jim Camp in today’s Tip 1619

How about you? Do you let go of the results?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Jim!

Jim Camp on LinkedIn
Camp Negotiation Systems
4 Reasons People Say No
1614: Start With NO – An Early Yes – Stay Focused
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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Jim Camp. Jim is a former VP of Sales, and is now an owner and coach with Camp Negotiations. His coaching expertise is in sales, negotiations, and leadership. Jim has also served as a military pilot and is retiring as a Major General from the United States Air Force. Here he is:

Jim Camp: Hi, everyone. This is Jim Camp. Thanks for having me back for another sales tip. Last episode, we discussed managing expectations and eliminating assumptions. Sales negotiations are human performance events. Like any other competition, we have good days and we have bad. The fact is we cannot control our results. We cannot control the wins and losses. Whether you sell as an individual, you lead a sales team, or even if you’re in charge of an entire sales organization, the pressure of sales quotas can actually be impacting performance in a negative way. Although results in business are a necessity, I want to elaborate just a little bit, so bear with me.

Imagine, if you will, that you’re halfway through your quarter or month and you’ve already hit your sales quota. Chances are you’re going to be more relaxed, appear less needy, and probably overall you’re going to be a lot more effective in sales negotiations. Conversely, if you’re way behind on your quota, you might become desperate. There’s probably a little bit of fear, and you might be less capable of controlling your emotions.

Here’s the tip.

Results themselves, sales goals that are oriented around results are not valid goals. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but valid behavior and activity goals are the only thing that’s going to help your team get there. At the end of the day, you cannot control others’ decisions, and you cannot manage results. The only thing that you’re totally in control of is your activity, what you do, and how you do it, how you behave.

Imagine a baseball player, for example. The baseball player walks up to the plate, and of course, they want to get a hit, but they know in the back of their mind, in order to do so, they have to focus, stay relaxed, and they actually fall back on their training and all the practice that they’ve had, swinging and batting practice or in game-time situations, and they focus on swinging at the right pitch.

Now imagine that baseball player walking up to the plate with a manager in the dugout looking at him saying, You better get a hit. Is that going to affect their performance? Probably.

I know all of this is way easier said than done, but you’ve got to let go of the results. You’ve got to focus on your activity and behavior. Keep swinging the bat, but make sure you’re swinging at a good pitch. I’ll talk to you next time.

Scott Ingram: To get your hands on a free download with the 4 Reasons People Say No from Jim and Camp Negotiation, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1619. Once you’ve clicked over there to grab that download, be sure to click back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“People don’t buy because they understand you. They buy because you understand them.” – Brian Hicks in today’s Tip 1618

How’s your relationship with your clients or your customers?

Join the conversation below and be sure to check out the links!

Belkins
Brian Hicks on LinkedIn
Brian Hicks on Sales Success Stories Interview
2023 Sales Success Summit
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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today I’ve got another clip from my interview on the Sales Success Stories podcast with Brian Hicks in episode 164 and I know I’m probably not supposed to say this, because it’s like favoring one of your own children, but this is absolutely one of my favorite more recent interviews. Listen to this:

Brian Hicks: My sales pitch has shifted completely from one of features and benefits and persuasion and closing to one of guidance and discussion and true discovery and of sharing and of dialog and interest and curiosity. Some of it is interesting because I’m reading a book right now called To Sell as Human and one of the things that I read in that book is that when the sellers know more than the buyers, then buyer beware. And it all makes so much sense to me now when I go back and I look at how I was selling previously and how I would pressure, I mean, I could close. I’m a closer, don’t get me wrong. I’d go out, hunt it down, kill it, drag it home, cook it, and eat it. That is what I do. But man, my motive and my motivation previously was so different, where I just had dollar signs in my mind, I had commission breath, where I was pressuring and I was using tactics. Don’t get me wrong, they worked, but they weren’t meaningful. I could sell anything even if I didn’t believe in it.

Now it’s completely different because I care about the people that I’m talking to and I want to know who they are and I want to know their story. I want to know what brought them to what position they’re in. Why do they like doing what they do, what are the challenges, why are they having those challenges? And if at the end of the day, if Belkins isn’t the right fit for them, I just tell them, I just tell them, I say, Hey, listen, everything that you’re describing makes complete sense and I understand it, but we’re not the best fit for you and this is why. I knowingly legitimately turn down business because I know that they can probably figure it out in a better way or a more cost-effective way. This transparency that I have with prospects. I talked to a lady yesterday who just looked at me. I looked at her and I said, Listen, I said, you guys are charging $40 a month per user. Unless Belkins was able to drive clients to you at thousands users, this isn’t going to make sense for you. We are not cheap. There’s a high human touch element to what we do and I don’t want to oversell what we’re going to drive. I want us to be realistic about this. And she just looked at me, she goes, Brian, thank you so much. She goes, I just talked to a different guy with a different company in your space. And he just promised me the world, and we’re the best and we’re the cheapest. And she goes, It is so refreshing to just talk to somebody that’s real, somebody who doesn’t have their best interests at heart, somebody who really wants to understand what I’m going through and what I’m dealing with. And that paradigm shift for me, has changed everything.

Now, when I follow up, it’s because I know that I’ve talked to them and I said, Hey, I’m going to follow up with you once a week. I’m going to check in with you if I haven’t heard from you, if you’ve changed your mind, or if this isn’t a good fit or you want to do something else. I trust that you’re going to make the best decision for your business that you can, and I support you. So if I follow up with you and you’ve made that decision, just don’t worry about it. Just let me know, because I’m going to keep following up with you unless you tell me not to. And I laugh and I tell them it’s not because I want to pester you. Somebody says, Hey, I really want to work with you guys, but I’m going to go on vacation for the next two weeks. Oh, well, then I’ll just put a tickle in my calendar. I’ll check in with you in two and a half weeks to give you a little bit of time to settle in once you get back. Hey, where are you going? Oh, I’m going to Indonesia. Oh, wow. Why’d you pick Indonesia? And they start to realize that this guy isn’t just trying to sell me. When people get on a sales call, they’re already defensive because the seller knows more than the buyer. That’s why most buyers do so much of their research themselves. That’s why we’re so self-educated. We have this self educate mindset where we have to do as much research as possible before we agree to take a meeting, because the dynamic on the meeting is going to be, they’re going to try to sell me. And nobody wants to get sold. People don’t buy because they understand you. They buy because you understand them.

And when you open up your approach and you start looking at them as humans, and you start treating them as humans, and then you start having some of these conversations and you realize that you’ve been on the phone for 20 minutes and you haven’t even pitched, but damn, it’s been a great conversation. And wow, this has been incredible. Man, the world has changed for me. I will never go back. I will never change this approach. I approach every sales call with the mindset that I’m going to leave knowing more about them than they know about me. And I approach everyone that way with an open mind and with a very curious and inquisitive nature to learn. Not everybody approaches the call with that openness and that’s okay, too. And listen, I’m emotionally intelligent. I can follow their lead if they come with a clipboard, and they just need me to check boxes. But you better believe that I’m going to say to them, Hey, listen, I can see that you’ve probably talked to 15 other companies that do this right now, right? Yes. You’re my 15th call. How’s it gone? It sounds like you’ve really dialed it in on exactly what you want to know. It feels like you just got a checkboard and you need to just tick the boxes. Am I right? Yes. I just need to know how much you guys charge. Okay, well, Hey, listen, how about this? If the call goes perfectly, you’re going to walk away with our pricing, right? Yes, that’s what I want. Okay, well, we got 30 minutes. Would you mind doing it my way and letting me take you through my sales journey and my process? And I promise you that by the time we get off the phone, I will answer all of those questions. I will make sure that every single box you have is ticked, and it’ll probably be a little more fun when I do it, instead of you just asking me the questions and me just giving you the answers 95% of the time. Yeah, okay. All right. Yeah, that’s okay. Yeah, sure. Next thing you know, now we’re talking. Now we’re having a connection. And so that’s really what type of impact it’s had to my sales.

Listen, my sales cycle has gotten longer. The average sales cycle is about 65 days. At the Belkins, 60 to 65 days. I closed at 70 and a half days. I think I told you guys. My talk time, I used to talk 65% of the time. Now I talk about 40% of the time. I’m trying to get it even lower because I’m trying to use different tactics and skills that I’m reading about to just keep the conversation moving, because I know that they have a lot to share. But I’m closing 14 to 17% of every person that I talk to, and I’m closing more. I’m closing bigger, and I’m having more meaningful interaction. I’m so much happier.

When I close my laptop if I’ve just taken ten new business calls in a day. I’m so much happier because I’m not thinking about that next check. I’m thinking about Bill at Acme Logistics that I just talked to, whose wife is getting ready to pop because she’s eight and a half months pregnant, and it’s his third baby on the way, and he’s just waiting for that phone call. And the next time that I see an article about a new baby product, I’m going to shoot it over to him. Because, Bill, I saw this and it made me think of you. I hope baby and wife are good. Now I’m a human, and now I’m having meaningful interaction. Now my job is my life. It’s who I am. And so that’s really the biggest difference.

Scott Ingram: If you click over to DailySales.Tips/1618, you’ll find links to my full interview with Brian and to connect with him on LinkedIn. Since this interview, Brian just smashed every record in his company with a $1M ARR month and signed 16 new clients. He’s also agreed to speak at this year’s Sales Success Summit where you’ll find over 30 of the #1 and top 1% individual contributors that I’ve interviewed on that show. It’s going to be epic, and of course, we’ll have a link to register for the Summit on that same page at DailySales.Tips/1618. Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Your goal is to create a space where it’s a win-win for everyone, not just the client.” – Meshell Baker in today’s Tip 1617

How do you convert difficult conversations to dollars?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Meshell Baker on LinkedIn
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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Meshell Baker, our favorite sales confidence igniter and authentic selling crusader. Here she is:

Meshell Baker: Hello. Today I want to talk about converting difficult conversations to dollars. I’m going to start with a quote by Audre Lorde, and that quote is, “I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.” Know this, as a seller and a sales leader, we will always be faced with difficult conversations. The whole business of sales means that you are moving people into uncomfortable conversations about things that have not transpired yet. You are creating a promise of possibility, which in itself is going to create high levels of discomfort for people. Even if they’re excited about what you have to offer, even they’re excited about the possibility, it is still a place of uncertainty. And uncertainty in most humans means uncomfortable, which is a slippery slope to difficulty.

Now, having said that, your ability to maneuver in these spaces with the knowing that no matter what happens, it’s still going to be favorable for everybody is your superpower. So first and foremost, when you know that there’s a high propensity for discomfort, or if you know that there’s been difficult, or you know that there’s something not quite right, determine the outcome before you ever reach out. Decide that this is not a bad thing. This is just part of my profession. This is part of the process and my value to this opportunity to this person that I’m about to reach out to is incredible. If you do not decide and determine that the outcome is favorable before you pick up and dial, you will most certainly create more discomfort, which will create more difficulty in moving that person through to the sale. So determine that is going to be a win-win and favorable for all. First.

Second, when you call them, make certain to ask them, Is this a good time? And schedule a time to follow up. Do not attempt to have that difficult conversation when they answer. Schedule time to have an appropriate space to communicate clearly and so that you know that you have the time to move through that. That’s the second thing.

Three, do not take it personal. This is one of the hardest things to do in sales because you are a person, you’re a human being with feelings, and so are they. So staying out of the right and wrong. People take it personally when they feel like they’ve been made wrong, when they feel like they don’t understood, when their expectations aren’t met. This is when your personal feelings get involved and being in a space that no matter what happens, I’ve determined a favorable outcome. So if my feelings start to be triggered, those aren’t the right feelings because that’s not taking me to favorable.

Remember, you can’t get to a positive profitable outcome from a negative mindset. So set yourself up to think in terms of outcomes, not feelings. Focus on the future, not the feelings. Have a set of questions. If you need to go role-play with someone, reach out to someone, do that beforehand. Talk to someone who’s had incredible success in sales and come with some questions that you can ask instead of making assumptions. Be prepared to ask more questions and that helps guide the other person to experience their and help them get creative so that you guys together can create a favorable outcome that lead to dollars and move through the difficulty.

And again, work with them to find solutions. Think solutions. Think how we can make this better. Think how this can work it out. Be willing to say, Hey, I know this might feel weird or it might have started off weird, and I believe that there’s a possibility for something incredible. That’s why I’m reaching out to you. There’s nothing wrong with being honest, authentic, and vulnerable. People appreciate that instead of focusing on being right.

The last thing I’ll focus on is be willing to walk away. Your goal is to create a favorable experience and environment. If that person isn’t willing to come to that level, then they are going to emotionally drain you. And even if you get the money, the work that you’ll need to put in will be so debilitating that it won’t be that worth the dollars. Your goal is to create a space where it’s a win-win for everyone, not just the client.

And I’ll just wrap up with this, a quote by Maya Angelou. You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Create favorable win-win circumstances and your desired outcome is to move people from difficult to dollars so that everybody lives in a space of, This is a great outcome. This is a great product. This is a great service. Have a great day selling.

Scott Ingram: To connect with Meshell for an easy win/win conversation, click over to DailySales.Tips/1617. Once you’ve clicked over there, be sure to click right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“The whole purpose of a demo is to get to a point where you can have a strategic business conversation around the problems your solution solves that you’ve now made more real than you did in the first conversation that was much more high level.” – David Weiss in today’s Tip 1616

What’s your thought about this play?

Join the conversation below and learn more about David!

DealDoc App
The Sales Tactician’s Playbook
David Weiss on LinkedIn
The Sales Collective
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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from David Weiss. David is the Chief Revenue Officer of the Sales Collective and founder of DealDoc. Here he is:

David Weiss: Hello, everyone. This is David Weiss, Chief Revenue Officer of the Sales Collective and Founder of DealDoc, your app for deal coaching. On today’s tip, we’re going to be talking about the Cinematic Demo Play, a fancy name, right? So if your demo is met with a lot of… Yeah, that’s interesting. If it’s met with a lot of, Oh, this seems really nice to have, but I don’t know if we need it right now. Or, Man, you just showed me a lot. My head’s spinning, or, That’s overkill. If your demo just isn’t landing the way you want it to land, this is a play for you.

So most demos that I sit through and that you’ve maybe delivered are this amazing array of features, functions, every single all the things that your solution solves. And then you end it often with, All right, cool. Now we have about five minutes left. Let me show you some analytics. Let’s do that. And then we can maybe talk about next steps.

So here’s the problem.

If you show too much, your solution’s bloated. If you show features and functions that people don’t care about, they tune out. If you try and slam everything in and you don’t leave time for conversation, you have missed the point of the demo. I would rather leave someone wanting more than not have enough time to talk about the impact of the demo. The whole purpose of a demo is to get to a point where you can have a strategic business conversation around the problems your solution solves that you’ve now made more real than you did in the first conversation that was much more high level.

So this is where the Cinematic Demo Play comes in. What you’re doing in this play, you are thinking about the problems that you solve. You are taking your demo and breaking it down into vignettes. Instead of a 45-minute, one-size-fits-all, cascading harbor tour of a demo, you are showing 3-5 minutes tops, really best 2-3 minutes, honestly, of a specific feature, function, use case that aligns directly to a problem you learned in discovery. So that often sounds like, hey, look, today what I heard last time is this issue, this issue, this issue, this issue. What we’re going to be doing today is really tightly aligning to those. So we’re going to start with this problem and then we’re going to move down to the others.

So what I’m about to show you, and you use what’s called the tell, show, tell framework, you tell them, What I’m about to show you is this. Then you show them, Hey, look, what I just showed you is a solution to this specific problem. Let’s talk about it. How do you see that fitting in your ecosystem? How would that help you solve the ABC problem? Is it missing anything? Did it solve it? What would be the impact of solving that? Who else would care about solving that? If we solve that for you, what else could you do? You’re unpacking the value of the thing you just showed them. Then you’re like, great, cool. Now we’re going to move on. The next problem that you said you had was this. Let me show you that. And it’s rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat.

The reason why we call this the Cinematic Demo Play is it’s wow moments. It’s like the car chase at the beginning of the story where you’re getting people sucked in and you’re making sure they know that you are about to solve a problem that was important to them. So you’ve got them at the edge of their seats. They’re not showing up with a thing of popcorn and just eating the entire time like, When am I actually going to see the thing I care about?

They’re actually leaning in. They’re paying attention because you’re very quickly solving problems, talking about it, conversing around the impact, moving on to the next problem, so on and so forth. And then the most important thing here is you’re leaving 5, 10, 15 minutes at the end now to have detailed conversation, talk about next steps, make plans, who else should be involved, back in the napkin business case, all of those types of things you’re now doing because you’ve very tightly aligned and you’ve taken out and stripped out all fluff. There was no fluff in this.

So no one can say, oh, you’re too bloated. Oh, this is too complicated. Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because you’ve just solved their problem and only their problem and nothing else. That’s what people want. And then you know what? You can always set up more time to show them all the other things that they frankly don’t care about, or they may not have thought of yet. Or maybe there’s other use cases for other stakeholders and you redo discovery and then you demo those components to them versus these components to the people you just talk to. That’s the whole idea. You don’t show everything. You show and solve problems for the things that people care about.

All right. So again, this is called the Cinematic Demo Play. If you like this play, you can find 78 others just like it inside of the Sales Tactitions playbook, which exists inside of Deal Duck. You can also find a link to it on my LinkedIn profile and potentially at the end of this recording. So if I can help with anything, please hit me up on LinkedIn. Thanks again for listening.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with David, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1616. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come right back for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Value isn’t a step in the funnel, but a parallel three-stage message you bring to greater focus as you get closer to the close.” – Ian Campbell in today’s Tip 1615

How do you deliver and achieve value?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Ian!

The Value Sale: How to Prove ROI and Win More Deals Book
Nucleus Research
The Value Sale
Ian Campbell on LinkedIn
Submit a Sales Tip

Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Ian Campbell. Ian is the CEO of Nucleus Research and author of the Wall Street Journal bestselling book “The Value Sale.” He’s trained 1000’s of sales professionals on ROI analysis and teaches at Babson College and Florida International University. In his spare time races Ferrari’s in the Ferrari Challenge series. Here he is:

Ian Campbell: Hi, everyone. I’m Ian Campbell. We’ve all seen various versions of the sales funnel. Bring a lead into the top of the funnel and narrow that lead to an eventual sale. Depending on the situation, there can be a few or a lot of stages in that funnel.

So where does value and return on investment fit in that sales funnel? It doesn’t fit, yet it really does. ROI isn’t a step in the funnel, but a message throughout that funnel.

Let’s rethink the funnel for a second.

I want you to think about it now as having two sides. One side you already know. It’s the stages you use every day. We’ll call that the marketing side of the funnel.

The other side of the funnel we’ll call the value side. On that side, we’re going to create three stages. What are those three stages?

Well, stage 1. This is the top where we’re bringing a lead into the funnel. You know the marketing side, and it’s probably something like reach out and qualify the lead.

On the value side, we’re going to put show how you deliver value. As you bring a prospect in, show them all the different ways you deliver benefits for your customers. Paint that big picture and talk about all the things your product can do.

Stage 2. That funnel is narrowing and we’re getting more interest from the prospect. On the value side of the funnel, we put, show how others like them have achieved value. Here’s where you show your prospect how other organizations just like them have decided on your product and realized benefits.

Customer references and case studies go a long way to helping the prospect understand the benefits they can achieve from purchasing your product by seeing how others have already followed that very same path.

Stage 3. We’re getting to the close, and now is the time to show how they will achieve value. Make it personal. Identify the benefits they will receive. Help your prospect understand the potential ROI they can get from your product.

Now, this doesn’t need to be an ROI calculation. If you’ve taken your prospect through the first two stages, they already have a feeling for the benefits they are likely to achieve. Put a number behind these if you can, but simply identifying them can go a long way to helping your prospect champion internally for your solution.

That’s it. Three stages in the sales funnel that build a value message. Think of them as sitting on the other side of that sales funnel you already know. Show how you deliver value. Show how others like them have achieved value. Show how they will achieve value. Value isn’t a step in the funnel, but a parallel three-stage message you bring to greater focus as you get closer to the close. Thanks for listening.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Ian and to pick up your own copy of “The Value Sale,” click over to DailySales.Tips/1615. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Do not lose control. Do not lose focus. You’re not there yet. Don’t allow an early yes or something that seems too easy to throw you off track. Keep asking questions. Keep trying to understand their decision-making process because that’s going to be the key.” – Jim Camp in today’s Tip 1614

Do you get excited to get a yes or something that throws you off the track?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

Jim Camp on LinkedIn
Camp Negotiation Systems
4 Reasons People Say No
1609: Start With NO – Blank Slate – Jim Camp
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Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Jim Camp. Jim is a former VP of Sales and is now an owner and coach with Camp Negotiations. His coaching expertise is in sales, negotiations, and leadership. Jim has also served as a military pilot and is retiring as a Major General from the United States Air Force. Here he is:

Jim Camp: Hi, everybody. It’s Jim Camp again. It’s really good to be back with you for another sales tip. Before I get into today’s tip, I want to touch briefly on what we talked about in the last episode. One of the things we teach in our sales system or our system of sales negotiation, I should say, is a technique called Blank Slate. Blank slate means we do everything we can to eliminate assumptions and control our own expectations. What we typically find is the further down the road we get in any sales negotiation, the closer we get to, I guess, closing the deal or actually putting pen to paper. By the way, the definition of success in any negotiation is having a signed deal that sticks. In other words, you deliver the product, they pay for the product, and you and your team go to the bank. So keep that in mind. The problem is the closer you get to reaching a deal, the more your emotions are going to start to take over and you might find yourself losing control of your own behaviors. You might get too excited, you might start talking too much, and that can be very dangerous towards the end of the deal.

Another challenge that we see as we get closer to the end is when you actually do hear the word yes, and this is where today’s tip comes in. Let’s say somebody says to you; Jim, this looks really good. We’re happy with what you’re providing. We’re comfortable with the price. I’m going to go ahead and we’re going to move it up the ladder and get our decision makers at the higher level to buy in on this. But it looks really good. I think we’re going to have a deal here. Question for you; Do you have a deal yet? Maybe not. Instead of letting your emotions take over, simply stay focused in your opponents’ world and continue to ask questions. For example, if they tell you they’re going to move it up the chain to try to get buy-in, you can say something along the lines of this. What can we do from our end to help you internally there with your team? Another question you could ask; When do you plan to elevate this and how can I assist with your leadership? I’m more than happy to make myself available to talk to them to address any questions or concerns they may have.

The bottom line is this, and this is really the tip. Do not lose control. Do not lose focus. You’re not there yet. Don’t allow an early yes or something that seems too easy to throw you off track. Keep asking questions. Keep trying to understand their decision-making process because that’s going to be the key. I hope you found this helpful, and I promise we’ll get much deeper into some of the things we teach in our system of negotiation, but I hope this helps you. I’ll talk to you next time.

Scott Ingram: To get your hands on a free download with the 4 Reasons People Say No from Jim and Camp Negotiation, just click over to DailySales.Tips/ 1614. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“Think about how are we doing stuff to identify issues, rather than trying to force a solution, rather than trying to push ourselves onto people.” – Fred Copestake in today’s Tip 1613

Are you being selfish with your customers?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Fred!

Fred Copestake on Linktree
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Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Fred Copestake. Fred is a bestselling author, trainer, and coach. In the last 23 years, he has worked in 36 countries and trained over 10,000 salespeople. His motto is that sales should be about ‘Good people, doing good things, in a good way’. Here he is:

Fred Copestake: Let’s have a look at what’s stopping people get results. This is what I’ve seen working with a bunch of companies, and there’s quite a lot of commonality to it. Again, I’ll be direct on this. It’s to do with being ineffective, old-fashioned, and confused. If salespeople are that, it’s unlikely that they’ll be achieving results. Now, oldy-worldy, this is about being old-fashioned. Breaks down into being self-centered to technical and using poor practice.

Again, let’s have a look at these.

Self-centered is when the salesperson isn’t customer-focused. It’s all about them. That me, me, me, we, we, I, I, our product, our service. They talk about themselves way too much. I don’t know, maybe you’ve sat in presentations where you’re just looking at people going, Well, this is wonderful for you. I’m so happy for you. But you’re not saying anything about me. It doesn’t work. People get bored with it quicker than ever.

I see people get too technical sometimes, and particularly engineers. Doesn’t know the slide on engineers, but they can get right down in the weeds with a whole bunch of how stuff actually works and get very, very into the nitty gritty. And sometimes that’s not needed. Sometimes it is. Absolutely, it’s the right thing to do. But sometimes their fascination with the technicalities isn’t what’s required by the customer and they get bored. Both of those first things, I assume passion, do excitement. That’s good. We just need to channel in the right direction.

The one that I find really hard is people using poor practice. Bad techniques, bygone era of selling. Someone thought these ways of working were a good idea once, but they’re not. I’m talking about the manipulative, pushy stuff. It doesn’t work. Anything will push people away.

I heard someone the other day, and it already got let go. They said that bullshit battle’s brains. This was a clever thing to do, which is to try to confuse a customer. Customers are confused enough as it is. They don’t need any more confusion, and doing that deliberately to them ain’t clever. We need to quit that stuff.

Been the oldy-worldy by getting more modern. The trick to this is to flip, follow, and focus. By flip, what I mean is flipping your attention onto the world of the customer. Now, rather than talk about yourself, all these wonderful things that you can do, you talk about the customers first. In some ways, it’s such an easy thing to do, but some people find it so hard and so their presentations are upside down. People don’t care about where your office is, don’t care how many years you’ve been in business, don’t care about all those logos, all that stuff we see at the front end of a presentation don’t care. Their favorite subjects themselves. So if we can flip that, start talking about them, that will start to make a huge difference. Really big difference.

For me, it’s almost one of the easiest things to do, but it also seems we want the hardest things to do. People are fascinated in showing their logo slides. Oh, look at these. Look at these. Have we done well? Talk about me. Talk about me as the customer. And so following an approach that drives this behavior makes sense. Think about how are we doing stuff to identify issues, rather than trying to force a solution, rather than trying to push ourselves onto people.

How do we manage a conversation to make it about the customer? That process, that structure. That’s what I’ll do in all my conversations. I’ll make an offer later on, and I’ll show you exactly how that conversation is, bearing in mind we want to follow making it about you. Why would I? It’s all stuff I trained, so I’ll be transparent with it. Customers aren’t stupid. They can tell if you’re not listening, you’re just waiting to talk. Have a way of operating that can make a difference. And then focus in on the things that actually work that make a difference. Don’t bother with the old-school tricks, the closers, all that stuff. It’s nonsense. What works now is different. There have been shifts in the way we sell. Quite a lot of shifts, and they’re coming faster than things which we need to be doing to be successful today. But we can make those shifts. I know we can. I’ve worked with loads of people where we’ve just moved them into doing the stuff that’s relevant and right for them, their industry, their customers. That’s what we need to do.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Fred on LinkedIn and for the video version of this tip, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1613. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“It’s about growth, it’s about resiliency, it’s about becoming rejection-proof. So you can forage ahead and find the favorable outcomes.” – Meshell Baker in today’s Tip 1612

Do you accept rejection?

Join the conversation below and learn more about Meshell!

Meshell Baker on LinkedIn
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Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Meshell Baker, our favorite sales confidence igniter and authentic selling crusader. Here she is:

Meshell Baker: Hello. Today, I want to talk about becoming a rejection-proof seller. First, I want to define for you the difference between reject and rejection. You see, reject is a verb that simply means that someone has refused to accept, use, believe, or consider your offer. That’s it. They just didn’t want it. No doesn’t mean not never, just means not now, means that they’re budgeting, their timing, they didn’t see the value. It simply means that they decided that they didn’t want to accept what you were offering. That’s it. That’s on them.

Now, rejection is when it becomes your feeling about what has transpired. You internalizing their no as a sense of hurt feelings or lack of worthiness on your part. We’re really going to talk about how you can feel safe in the midst of hearing all these rejections.

Selling is a challenging job. You are hearing rejections all day long. We know the statistics. The more you go out and you prospect, the more likely you’re going to hear no. It’s also the more likely you’re going to hear yes. To get to the yeses, you have to go through the nos.

A quote by B. Smith, I have stood on a mountain of nos for one yes. However, in our culture, because career success is often directly linked to your self-worth, people begin to feel a sense of lack of acceptance, lack of appreciation, lack of esteem when they keep being rejected.

I want you to understand, successful sellers have conditioned themselves to understand that the more nos I hear, the more likely I’ll hear a yes. They tell a different story. People who linger in the rejection actually do not know how to tell themselves a great story about the no.

So if you want to feel safe, I’m going to give you an acronym, S-A-F-F-E, yes, I doubled the F in the SAFE.

Switching your mindset about rejection, viewing no as not now rather than not never. Recognizing that rejection is a standard part of doing business and sales, shifting it from feeling personal, which goes to the A.

Avoid taking it personal, discouraging the habit of internalizing and telling yourself a story about what you did wrong or how you could have been better and just looking at it as performance. Like any great athlete or any great performer that gets on stage and has paid millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars to get out there and perform, you, a seller, are the same type of athlete. Condition yourself to play the game tape and go back out and take the shot again and again and again. The more you practice, the more you’re prepared to feel that no is nothing.

The F – Feedback is separate from the person. So when you’re really good at this, you will begin to ask the feedback. Even when they tell you no, you can leave that interaction valuable for the person listening to you and you’ll be able to garner some feedback about why they said no. What was it? Was there anything you could have done different? You’ll be able to establish a relationship regardless on the no.

That’s the second F. Focus on the opportunity. When you’re shifting from just trying to transact with that person and you’re actually focused on creating valuable outcomes, you literally understand even if they say no, it’s still a valuable opportunity to interact. Hey, I know this was a no for you. Is there anyone else you know that would find this valuable? Look, we’ve had such a great time. I’ve had such an incredible time learning about your business and your need and what you’re attempting to solve. I know you said no to me. I am going to follow up with you to see how it’s going. You can definitely… I am invested in your success so you will hear from me, which leaves the door open for you to go back. You never know what’s going to happen down the line. Always plant a seed. Regardless of the outcome, leave that person better off for having met with you and you create numerous opportunities.

An E is Embrace the no. It’s just simply a word. You give the word meanings. If someone spoke to you in a foreign language and told you you were horrible, you wouldn’t know. The only way you know is because you know the language. So make up a language about no. Make it a game in your head so you’re telling yourself a different story about no. You have this.

Remember, it’s about growth, it’s about resiliency, it’s about becoming rejection-proof. So you can forage ahead and find the favorable outcomes. Have a great day selling.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with Meshell and more, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1612. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come right back for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“If you want to do better discovery, become better prepared and show someone and earn the right to get the answers to the questions you’re asking for.” – David Weiss in today’s Tip 1611

Do you get people to open up and discover more to convert more discovery meetings or demos?

Join the conversation below and share your thoughts!

DealDoc App
The Sales Tactician’s Playbook
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The Sales Collective
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Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from David Weiss. David is the Chief Revenue Officer of the Sales Collective and founder of DealDoc. Here he is:

David Weiss: Hello, everyone. This is David Weiss, Chief Revenue Officer of the Sales Collective and Founder of DealDoc, your app for deal coaching. So on today’s tip of the day, we are going to be talking about The Faces of Discovery Play. So anyone that’s looking to do deeper discovery, get people to open up and discovery more to convert more discovery meetings to demos or second phases of your sales process or what have you, this is one of my favorite place.

So in this one you’re doing some degree of research. This is LinkedIn, this is news articles, this is competitors, this is annual reports, 10Ks. You’re trying to do your homework on the person, company, competition, and creating a hypothesis on the individual you’re about to speak to. And then you take that information and you put it on a slide and the slide has the person’s LinkedIn picture on it. You wouldn’t believe how powerful just that piece is. I’ve had countless people show up to calls with me, say, Oh, my God, that’s me, on a slide. And I’m like, Yeah, I was doing my homework on you, and blah, blah, blah. And immediately you’re just differentiated and people love looking at themselves and hearing themselves and things like that. So there’s a psychological trick there. Then you’re taking your bits of information or your 3-4 pieces of your hypothesis. And the slide is titled; What I think you care about.

So it’s got their picture, personalized to them, What I think you care about as the title, and then three to four bullets based on the homework you did. And then you frame it up like this, Hey, I really appreciate you taking some time today. I really always try and make the most out of every conversation that I have. With that said, I did my homework on you, your business, your competitors, things along those lines. And from an outsider looking in, these are some of the key things I’m seeing. And it’s like, boom, boom, boom. But you know what? I’m probably wrong or I may be off on some of this. Can you please correct me, confirm some of my thoughts, and I’d love to take 10-15 minutes, what have you, just to talk about your business, about these things, about how we help other people like you, and see if it makes sense to keep chatting after that. Does that sound good? People will be like, Oh, my God, this is awesome. Yeah, you missed this, or you did this, or Blah, blah, blah.

The whole point here, though, is you are going further than, Hey, thanks for taking some time today. Tell me, what are some of the main challenges you’re focused with? Or, I work with people like you all the time. They tell me they have problems with this, this, and this. Does that sound like you? Those are super commercial, common openers. You don’t do any research. And when people pull that on me, I’m like, you don’t know me. You don’t know. You haven’t done any homework, and you’re essentially using a one-liner for me to tell you all my problems. You show up with a picture of me, with competitive data, with research on who I am as a person, you’ve earned the right. And I think that’s the key element here, folks, earning the right. You need to earn the right in conversations for people to answer with a real good level of depth. It’s trust-building. Until you’ve earned the right with me, I don’t trust you. I’m not going to give you the back of the napkin business case data. I’m not going to give you the real meat because you haven’t showed me you’re someone I can trust with that level of information.

Doing this, you’re building rapport, trust. You’re showing them that you’re someone who comes prepared to play, and there’s just something about that. People that have deployed this, and I’ve deployed it countless times, as long as you’ve set the right meeting with the right buyer and there’s any need whatsoever and you’ve done your homework, there’s about a 90% conversion rate between first meeting and second meeting using this.

So like I said at the beginning, if you want to get your conversion rates up from first to second meeting. If you want to really be able to build back the navigant business cases, if you want to do better discovery, become better prepared and show someone and earn the right to get the answers to the questions you’re asking for. So if you like this play, you could find 78 others like it. Again, this is the Faces of Discovery Play inside the Sales Tacticians playbook, which exists inside of DealDoc. You can find it on my LinkedIn profile. We may even provide a link to it on this recording. So I appreciate taking the time. Thanks for listening. And if I can ever help you again, this is David Weiss. And I am here for you to support you on your sales growth initiative. So thanks again. Take care.

Scott Ingram: For links to connect with David, just click over to DailySales.Tips/1611. Once you’ve done that, be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!

“To be a salesperson, to be a go-to-market leader, and come in to something where people are truly finding value and shouting it from the digital rooftops, that’s something you can work with.” – Mark Roberge & Kyle Parrish in today’s Tip 1610

How do you find the right next role?

Join the conversation below and check out the links!

The Science of Scaling Podcast
Mark Roberge on LinkedIn
Kyle Parrish on LinkedIn
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Have feedback? Want to share a sales tip? Call or text the Sales Success Hotline: 512-777-1442 or Email: [email protected]

Transcript

Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from a new podcast called The Science of Scaling. It’s hosted by Mark Roberge – who you might know as the founding CRO at HubSpot, co-founder of Stage 2 Capital, or as a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School. Each episode of The Science of Scaling gets super tactical on how to scale your sales and revenue. And episodes feature this really unique, “stop the tape” feature where Mark literally pauses the interview to jump in with a deeper breakdown of the different points being made by the guest. You’ll hear that happen here as he talks with Kyle Parrish, The VP of Sales at Figma:

Kyle Parrish: When I started to look for my next role in Figma, like you said, I think you’re looking for something where you see some big trends or some trends that I was following the rise of design in technology that was disrupting some of the biggest markets out there. Early on, the former COO would just talk about the user love, the community around Figma. Even then, which was pretty nascent in 2018, people were just ecstatic. To be a salesperson, to be a go-to-market leader, and come in to something where people are truly finding value and shouting it from the digital rooftops, that’s something you can work with.

Mark Roberge: Hey, folks, it’s just Mark here. That point Kyle made, that’s an important one if you’re out there looking for the next Figma as a PLG company. PLG has been really hot, I would say, over the last 10 years. Current macro conditions make it a little more challenging, but I’m still extremely bullish on the long-term impacts of PLG. It’s not applicable everywhere, though. And Kyle, he brings up an important point around disrupting a field. And I’ve written about this. If the category already exists and is understood, but it just hasn’t been PLG’d, quote-unquote. It’s just easier for someone, Oh, yeah, I’ve used CRM. Oh, cool, a free CRM. Oh, yeah, I’ve used a designer tool. Oh, cool, a free designer tool. I already get the category. That’s something to think about as you look for the next winner. The other thing that’s hidden in his discussion there that is so key and it’s critical for me as an investor in PLG is the first question I ask. It’s not like revenue. Believe it or not, it’s wow retention, weekly active user retention. Fine, you signed up 100 customers in the second week of November, and now it’s four months later. How many of those 100 customers still use the tool? If you dive into the depths of PLG execution, that’s key. And that’s, I think, what Kyle means by creating value, creating end-user value, that’s what you want to look for.

Scott Ingram: You can listen and subscribe to The Science of Scaling now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts and of course, we’ve got those links for you at DailySales.Tips/1610. Once you’ve been over there, be sure to come right back here for another great sales tip. Thanks for listening!