Story Telling for Selling

Bullseye!

There once was a warrior who prided himself in being the finest archer in the land. 

One day he came to a village and saw a bull’s eye on a tree with an arrow sticking out right from the center.

“Whoever shot that arrow must be a fine marksman” said the warrior to himself.

He hadn’t gone much further when he saw another bull’s eye, and another, and another – and all of them had arrows right in the center of the target.

He found the village elders and said “Whoever that marksman is I must meet him, ask him to meet me today, in one hours time by river."

He waited by the river but the only other person there was a small child playing on the bank. She came over to where he was standing. and asked “Are you waiting for someone sir?”

“Run along little girl, be on your way.” said the warrior. The little girl continued, “ I was told to meet someone here and you look like you are waiting."

The warrior looked at her and said, “It is true I am waiting to meet the great archer who is responsible for shooting all these perfect shots I see all over the village.”

"That would be me.", said the little girl. "I made all those shots.”

The warrior looked down at her and said, “Tell me how exactly you got a perfect shot every time?"

“That’s easy” replied the girl “I just point my bow very straight and let the arrow fly then I draw a bull's eye where it lands."

....and that's how the process of sales forecasting began

The Promiscuous Nature of So-Called Partnership

I’ve never been to Ronda (Spain). From what I can see online, it's a stunningly beautiful place. So when I decided I fancied visiting the place, my first task was to find a hotel. Being of a somewhat lazy disposition, I decided to let google do the searching for me.

Low and behold the first site to grab my attention was Trip Advisor, which offered a plethora of hotels I could choose from. The top rated hotel (by feedback) was the Hotel San Gabriel.

I entered the dates that I wanted but was disappointed to get a message telling me that rooms were not available for the dates I have selected. Trip Advisor then offered me rooms in it’s other ‘parter’ hotels in Ronda.

I really like the look of the Hotel San Gabriel, so I decided to try their own site. Guess what? – plenty of room available. It certainly redefined the meaning of the word partnership for me.

Then I began to wonder........in the technology world all the big vendors have their own, often overlapping, network of partners.

Are these real partnerships working for long term mutual gain and support or are they of the promiscuous ‘Trip Advosor’ type.

I’m OK with the latter – just don’t call it partnership.

 

Who would miss you?

If your company went out of business in the morning. Which of your customers would miss you?

Why?

What do you have to do?

Paul Lanigan, Sandler Training

I just heard a business consultant give the following advice;

Thank your customers, regularly.

It's hard to argue with this. The subtext is that you should be grateful for their business and you should demonstrate that gratitude.

I'm not suggesting that you don't thank your customers. That would be crazy.

The question you should really be asking yourself however is;

What would you need to change about your business and how you engage with your customers so that they are thanking you.

Think about the advantage that would give you.

Zero Gravity Environment

I was listening to a radio program recently on the affect that a zero gravity environment has on the body. Did you know that astronauts lose up to 25% of their muscle mass after only a short while in space. This is the result of not getting the constant work out that they are exposed to on Earth. Loss of muscle mass and bone mass, fluid redistribution from the lower body up, overall fluid loss, heart slows down, decreased production of red blood cells, balance disorders, weakening of the immune system and nausea are all symptoms.

It struck me that in a booming economy, characterized by big budgets and lots of projects, a selling version of zero gravity is created. Opportunities fall into the laps of sellers with little effort being expended. This has the side effect on the brain of convincing the seller s/he is very good at selling. It may even result in a bad dose of hubris. Orders are taken and commission cheques are spent with abandon.

Now that the economy has come back to Earth, sellers are wondering why the phone feels so heavy and resistance to their sales pitch is so strong, is it time to rediscover the lost art of salesmanship?

The Art of Bad News

Getting bad news is hard, giving it is an art. How do you break the news to your boss that you've lost a deal? How do you break the news to your sales reps that you're changing their compensation plan? 

Here's a lesson in the art of breaking bad news as experienced by a teenager........

The parents of a 16 year old girl finally decide to trust their daughter to look after their house while they go on holidays. The first night they call, their daughter says: "Everything is fine, except the cat died."

The mother, who was very attached to the cat gets quite upset at the bad news and puts her husband on the line.

"Honey", he says, "you can't break bad news to people like that, you should have prepared us more".

"How?", enquired the daughter. "Well, he explained, you could have told us that the cat was on the roof and was refusing to come down. When we called again you could have told us that she was looking poorly and refusing to eat. Then finally you could have told us that she died. We would have been better prepared to receive the bad news".

The following evening the parents phoned their daughter again: "How is everything?", asked the mother. The 16 year old took a deep breath and replied: "Fine, except Granny's on the roof and won't come down"

The power of a positive 'no'

A very simple but powerful message we could all take advantage of. A simple application in selling is to develop the belief that it is ok to say '"no" to a request for a discount so that we can say "yes" to the prospects real need - great results.

Instead of thinking that saying "no" is negative, we can use this concept to reframe "no" as a positive experience because every 'no' get's to closer to a more important 'yes'

I'm looking forward to getting the book.

16 Excuses Sales People Need to Stop Using - Reprint

I came across the following article by Kelley Robertson and I thought I'd share it with you here.

Sales people make a number of excuses why they can’t reach their sales targets or why prospects and customer don’t buy. Here are just a few:

1.     Our prices are too high. This is one of the most common excuses that sales people use and even when companies reduce their price, those sales reps still often fail to reach their targets.

2.     The competition is cheaper. While there will always be companies who sell the same or similar product as you, very seldom is the competition as cheap as you think. However, smart buyers will often try to get a better price by indicating that a competitor is cheaper.

3.     We don’t have new products. Many sales people lament the fact that their company has not issued or released a new product. However, this is seldom a concern form a buyer’s perspective unless a competitor has a newer product that offers additional benefits that are important to the buyer.

4.     Buyers are liars. This phrase drives me around the bend. The main reason prospects don’t tell sales people the truth is because the sales person has failed to establish credibility or respect. The secondary reason is because they are afraid you will try to box them into a corner in an effort to capture a sale.

5.     Customers only care about getting the lowest price. This may be true in some cases, but price is seldom the primary or motivating factor behind someone’s final buying decision. However, price will become the major issue by default if you fail to demonstrate the value of your product, service or offering.

6.     The economy is still bad. Yes, the economy is still challenging but companies are making buying decisions. They are purchasing products and implementing new systems. The goal is to identify those companies and target your efforts accordingly.

7.     I don’t have enough time to…(fill in the blank). There is no question that most sales reps are required to do more than they used to—technology has certainly contributed to this. However, many reps also waste too much time on low-value customers which sucks up precious time from dealing with higher value prospects and customers.

8.     Gatekeepers block all calls. One role of a gatekeeper is to protect their boss’s time. But that doesn’t mean they prevent all sales people from connecting with decision makers. To succeed you need to befriend the executive assistant, treat her like a decision maker, and enlist her support.

9.     My territory is too small. This may apply in certain circumstances but seldom as frequently as stated by many sales people. While a small territory may have a limited number of new sales leads, it opens the door to create additional sales opportunities within your existing customer base.

10.  My territory is too big. Nice problem to have! Although a large territory presents challenges from an account maintenance perspective, this issue can be remedied by focusing your attention on the right customers (see point 7). If you are really serious about expanding your business, you could hire a personal assistant (at your expense) to help manage your accounts. This approach frees up time for you to focus on prospecting and adding new customers to your roster.

11.  The company expects too much. I remember talking to a district sales manager who lamented the fact that her company was expecting a twelve percent increase in revenues in the upcoming year. However, I have never known a company to say, Well, we just finished a record year so let’s coast this year, shall we?” Do shareholders expect a lot? Of course. You would too if it was your money on the line.

12.  My sales targets are unrealistic. Let’s face it; most compensation programs do not reward sales people when they fail to reach their quotas or targets. As a result, sales reps often believe that their sales goals are unrealistic. However, top performing sales reps set their own targets which are usually higher than the quotas established by their boss. If they can do it, so can you.

13.  Customers don’t care about service. This may be true in rare circumstances, however; I don’t know many people (consumers or corporate decision makers) who say, “I don’t mind waiting two weeks for a service call; after all, I did get a good price.” They may state service is unimportant during the initial sales conversation but I can guarantee that it will become an issue if they experience a problem down the road.

14.  People won’t pay extra for quality. Rubbish! While there is a small percentage of people who base their buying decision solely on price, these individual’s are a minority. However, it is YOUR responsibility to demonstrate why the quality of your product or service is worth the additional cost.

15.  Asking for referral sounds like I’m begging for business. I think every sales person on the planet understands the importance of asking for referrals. However, the vast majority fail to utilize this approach because they are uncomfortable doing so. Let me set the record straight. Asking for a referral in a professional manner will not sound like you are begging for business.

16.  I remember when…. Give it a rest already! No one cares about the good old days except for you. Yeah, things were different ten years ago. But that was then and this is now. If you want to succeed, stop reliving the past and focus on today’s reality.

You can make all the excuses in the world but it doesn’t change the fact that you and only you are accountable for reaching your sales targets. This may sound harsh but if you don’t want the responsibility, find another career.

© MMX Kelley Robertson, All rights reserved.

Get your FREE copy of 100 Ways to Increase Your Sales by subscribing to Kelley’s free newsletter, “59 Seconds to Sales Success” at www.Fearless-Selling.ca.

Kelley Robertson, author of The Secrets of Power Selling helps sales professionals close more sales at higher profits with less effort. Kelley conducts sales training workshops and speaks regularly at sales meetings and conferences. Contact him at 905-633-7750 or Kelley@Fearless-Selling.ca.

What's your story?

Have you ever seen the Steven Spielberg film La Amistad? It's an amazing (true) story involving giants of history playing out a crucial incident in the abolition of slavery. Much of the film centres on the attempts of a few good men, fighting against all the odds to have a group of slaves freed from captivity. The chief defense attorney is former President John Quincey Adams. When asked by another member of the defense team (played by Matthew McConaughey) what his strategy was for winning the case, he replied "forget about the facts, it is the best story that will win, we need a really good story"

If selling is about anything, it's about telling a story. What's your story?

Who Packs Your Parachute?

Charles Plumb was a navy jet pilot. On his seventy-sixth combat mission, he was shot down and parachuted into enemy territory. He was captured and spent six years as a prisoner of war. He survived and now lectures on the lessons he learned from his experiences.

One day, a man in approached Plumb and his wife in a restaurant, and said, "Are you Plumb the navy pilot?"

"Yes, how did you know?" asked Plumb.

"I packed your parachute," the man replied.

It suddenly dawned on Plumb that if the chute this anonymous stranger packed hadn't worked he wouldn't be sitting in the restaurant with his wife today.

Plumb realised that the unknown sailors who diligently packed their parachutes held the pilots' lives in their hands, and yet the pilots never gave these sailors a second thought; never even said hello, let alone said thanks.

So, in your life ..... 

• Who picks you up when you’re down?
• Who makes you feel special?
• Who tells you that you’re fantastic even when you mess up?
• Who do you trust with your closest secrets?
• Who do you go to for advice?
• Who do you admire and respect?

Who packs your parachute?