Coaching the Sale – Part 1 – Build Rapport and Trust by Asking Questions.

Coaching seems to be everywhere and nearly every other person at networking events these days seems to be a coach. Whilst this can be irritating, there is no smoke without fire! It is easy to be dismissive of coaching as a FAD however you can’t ignore how huge the industry is and there must be a reason why.

My view – Coaching skills are relevant personally, professionally across all industries and roles . Its not about being a coach it’s about using coaching skills to be a better sales person, a better manager, a better leader, a better parent.

Asking questions is at the core of coaching. What a great number of sales people need to learn is to do less telling and ask more questions. Through questions we can better understand the challenge a prospect faces and therefore propose the best solution.

The Coaching model GROW is the most widely know and used, the R represents Reality. It is unlikely that the first problem or issue that a person presents is really the problem. Questions allow you to get under the skin, to get to the reality, often described as peeling layers off an onion.

Uncovering the Reality is hugely important in Sales.

• What is the prospects real challenge
• What is really driving this person to look at your solution
• What are the real reasons they won’t return your call
• What are the real benefits they need to see above all others
• What can they really afford to spend

By training sales people to ask better questions, actively listen, to feel comfortable with their own silence and asking for feedback will improve the quality of a relationship between prospect and salesperson. Ultimately this coaching approach leads to shortened sales cycles as proposals more frequently meet the clients exact needs and ultimately more sales.

If putting yourself or your sales team through coach training is not high up on your priorities, how about trying this out.

 Try this out

With your next prospect meeting try this….

1. Ask questions for the first half of the meeting, don’t talk about your product or solution.
2. Give your prospect space to answer and allow silence to happen, often they will fill the silence for you and tell you more than they would normally.
3. Don’t follow a list of questions like a survey, allow the conversation to take its own course let the prospect drive it, let them talk.
4. Use the second half of the meeting to highlight where your product or solutions meets some of the specific things they have mentioned. Repeat their words back to them show them you have listened and understood. Avoid talking about your solution in too much detail.
5. When  you do tell them something always follow it up with an open question immediately, “What do you think of that”, “How would this solve your problem”, “What can I do to help you make this happen?”
6. Clearly the aim is not to piss them off, if you feel they are becoming irritated by your questions ask them. “would you like to discuss what we can do for you? Or are you happy for me to ask you a few more questions?”.

The aim is to have a free flowing conversation where the prospect feels in control, relaxed and listened to. Building rapport and trust quickly and giving the prospect space to share exactly what they think and need. The closer you get to the Reality the closer you are to winning the business.

How to run an Online Sales Meeting – Demo

There are lots of applications which will facilitate the organisation and running of an online meeting or demonstration, popular and well proven applications include Webex and GoToMeeting. Both will incur a monthly fee. There are also FREE lighter alternatives ones which come higly recommended GoLiveRoom and OnWebinar.

When planning an online demonstration, presentation and/or online meeting there is more than the meeting application to consider. When preparing for the meeting take time to think through the following:

1. Keep it Short

Keep it short, 30 minutes – 1hour for a first meeting is about right. They may be able to see you on screen, even so their attention span is shortened by a 2D experience. Do not spend the first 10 minutes explaining who you are and what you do, get straight into asking them questions and showing them the solutions to the problems they share with you. If you have committed to a time make sure you stick to it, it is easy to see impatience face to face, you won’t spot a tapping foot online!

2. Be Yourself

In a face to face presentation your personality and presence can create an impression and leave an impact. Online you loose much of this impact so this is not a time to hold back, be yourself confidently and practice your online demonstration on someone you know first. Ask them for an opinion on how you come across and how this differs when you are face to face, this will give you an idea of where you might need to adapt your communication style to accommodate for online meetings.

3. Ask Questions

You don’t have the body language and facial expressions of your audience to guage the impact of what you are discussing with them. To account for this ask MORE QUESTIONS. Before the meeting prepare a list of all the things you need to know about the prospect / client / delegate. Here is a prompt list to get you started:-

• How did they hear about you
• Why are they looking at your organisation
• What is the reason for looking at your product or service
• What problem will it solve for them / the business
• What must your solution do
• Which other solutions have they looked at
• What would stop them from buying your product or service
• Who is not in the meeting that is involved in the purchasing process
• What are their timescales and budgets

Online meetings are often shorter, you can’t expect to front or back end load the meeting with your questions. So you will need to spread the questions out throughout the demonstration. Try asking them at points when there is a natural stop or break in the demonstration. E.g., when you are launching a new application, running a report, opening a document or file. It will also seem more natural. Having a list at your hand will really help.

4. Don’t over do the detail

To keep an online meeting audience engaged they need to be involved in the meeting, so talking at them for more than 5 minutes is sure to switch them off. If you need to use a presentation stick to a very small number of slides 3-5 at most. Things to include – Clients, reasons why clients choose your solution, awards / accreditations, pricing. Avoid – lengthly feature lists, too many words and diagrams, company histories, detailed product roadmaps.

When demonstrating the application / service stick to showing the features that the client wants to see. The most important questions at the start of the meeting should be “what are you hoping this solution can do for you”, “what would you like to see it do?”. Once they are satisfied it can do what they need it to do then move onto the features which will add value and differentiate you from the competition. Don’t over do it. Remeber Paretos Law – 80% of people only use 20% off an application. You may be excited by all the great new features, don’t assume they are.

Finally, online meetings do create additional challenges and they will not replace face to face meetings entirely. However the benefits cannot be disputed. For both vendor and client it; saves time and money, speeds up the buying process and enables more people to be involved where ever they are based in the world. Whilst online meetings process miss valuable human interaction they certainly make up for this in their ability to involve more people, any time, any where.

Sales Referrals Part 4 – Is LinkedIn the best tool for managing referrals?

LinkedIn is now one of the most popular mediums used for asking for B2B referrals. It is clear to see why, you can see who your network is connected to and instead of asking for a suitable referral you can ask to be referred to a specific person. You take the work out of the process for the referral source who, if your relationship is strong enough, can refer you to the person you have identified at a click.

LinkedIn’s effectiveness as a tool for contacting potential sales prospects will depend on your ability to write a compelling message that expresses clear benefit for the person you want to reach. If the end recipient is two or three links away, your message also has to convince each intermediary. This is no easy task.

In my view, LinkedIn provides an exciting method for contacting sales prospects who are difficult to reach. It makes networking a viable alternative to making a cold telephone call however; it is no magic short cut. If you are serious about using LinkedIn for referrals invest in training to help you get the most from it.

 There are lots of companies who offer LinkedIn training one company I highly regard is Linked2Success.

As someone with a good level of LinkedIn experience here is a checklist of things I believe you need to have in place before even considering asking for referrals:

 
1 – Get your profile right. If someone refers you through LinkedIn your profile is the first place they will look. If they are not impressed, they are likely not to respond.

2 – Build your network. Seek to connect with the people you know, like and trust. People who would be happy to refer you and whom you would be happy to refer. Family and friends included.

3 – Get endorsed. An objective view of you is immensely powerful when trying to persuade people to buy from you. Don’t just trade testimonials from your networking buddies! Ask for genuine referrals from people whose business or life you have had a positive impact on and who have a story to share.

4 – Ask for connections. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Based on Six Degrees of Separation, LinkedIn allows you to find out how you are connected to your prospects and then ask for the introduction.

LinkedIn is great for opening doors however nothing beats a personal call and a face to face meeting over a coffee. Even if the trust bond (see Sales Referrals Part 1) exists between the referral source and the prospect the onus is on you to make a great first impression.

LinkedIn is a tool in the process and not the whole process! Referrals are all about relationships and trust between people, the key is to use LinkedIn as a way of getting yourself in front of people. Don’t hide behind e-mail and social media, pick up the phone!

Sales Referrals Part 3 – Following-up Referrals

So what is important when following up on referrals, in my opinion timing and your initial contact needs to be considered carefully. Part 4 Asks whether LinkedIn is the best medium to use.

Timeliness is important because the referral source often tells the referral that his/her name has been passed along to us. The more time that passes between that communication and our follow up, the colder that opportunity can become. A long time between the two events might be interpreted as us not caring much about this new business opportunity or as our own lack of organisation, both of which can be detrimental to our chances with the referral.

First impressions are lasting, so we need to follow up quickly and professionally to make the most of the referral opportunity. Initial Contact is equally as important as timing. Often we’re unsure of the level of relationship between our referral source and the referral, even if we know how they are connected.

To compensate for this lack of information we need to make our approach as strong and effective as possible. As an example, with very little planning or forethought, we might say, “Jo Bloggs said I should call/contact you.” This puts the burden of detective work on the referral. In fact, the referral is likely to start asking us questions, which is exactly the opposite of how we want this conversation to begin.

Try this approach: “Jo Bloggs asked me to call/contact you and I promised I would.” As a result, we put a much more positive light on the conversation and dialogue to follow. This allows us to move directly into setting an appointment, qualifying or asking good questions to get key information on the prospect’s situation or needs. The point here is to take time considering what you are going to say and how you are going to say it whether written, on the phone or face to face. No standard e-mails. No LinkedIn templates.

Take 5 – 10 minutes before contacting each referral and think through what you need to say to make an impact. Don’t forget the referral source

Consider this bit of wisdom, “The more you give thanks for, the more you have to give thanks for.”

This especially holds true for those who provide referrals to us. To show our appreciation and to keep the pipeline full of future referrals, we should always follow up with those who refer us business. 

A handwritten thank you note, periodic reports of how the new relationship is proceeding and similar contacts all provide positive reinforcement to those who refer business to us.

Referrals will get you 10 times the profitability at less than 1/5 the cost of other methods of selling. None of us does it as well as we should. What’s stopping you from increasing your referral business?

Sales Referrals Part 2 – Where to look for referrals

So where can we find the best referrals?

Here are a few places to look:

1. Clients – This is obvious in the sense that most referrals come from delighted clients. We often fail to ask long-standing clients or customers on a regular basis, such as monthly. When they love us enough to continue doing business with us, it’s very likely that they can and will continue to send us new referrals for additional business. When these clients mention to the referral how beneficial we’ve been to them, the referral is much more strongly predisposed to do business with us as well.
2. Friends – Our circle of friends can be a tremendous source of referral business. Because of this, it’s important that our close friends know what we do and how we add value to our existing customers. When our friends also understand our ideal customer or client profile, they’re better able to look around for prospective referrals for us.
3. Suppliers – Strong relationships with suppliers can result in great referral business. This is particularly true when a supplier offers unrelated services to the same types of organizations as we do. For example, you would want to ask your accountant, web designer, executive coach, business advisor for referrals when especially when looking for B2B referrals.
4. Family members – This is a red flag for many of us who have sworn not to mix business with family. Nonetheless, those of us who have benefited from referrals through family know the value of asking politely and following up promptly.
5. Competitors – Bare with me on this, if you know who your competitors are and what niches they specialise in then a conversation about how you can support one another with appropriate business referrals is worth having. This may not work for all organisation however for many SMEs and consultants a partnership / associate model can provide a rich source of new opportunities. One way to start this dialogue is to develop an industry group, where you and your competitors can start a dialogue, e.g. Finanical Leeds. Or set up a LinkedIn Group.

How to ask for the referral

As mentioned above, people we already know, both inside and outside of our business relationships, can provide us valuable referrals. These people aren’t likely, however, to be seeking us out daily to give us the names and phone numbers of qualified prospects. So how do we get them?

We need to ask for them! Oversimplified?……….Yes, and yet there are certain approaches proven to be very effective in asking for the referral.

How we ask for referrals is a key point in the process. Consider this approach:

“Do you know anyone who can benefit from…….?”

In this situation, we give the referral source a choice between yes and no. This gives us approximately a 50/50 chance that the answer will be no.

Let’s increase the odds in our favor.

First, we need to help our referral source by starting the thought process on his/her behalf. Next, we need to move from the yes/no choice to a choice between yeses. Compare this more specific approach:

 ”Which businesses in your organisation would benefit from…..?”  Or,

 ”Who among your friends might benefit from…..?”

By being more specific, we’ve both helped the referral source focus on a single area and increased our chances of getting a name or two.

In working with delighted clients, try this approach:

“Much of our new business comes from people such as you who are already in [insert as appropriate]. Who among your friends elsewhere in the industry could benefit from the results you are seeing?”

This reinforces the value we add to our current customer and opens the door for referral opportunities with non-competing organizations. This can be particularly valuable when our customer or client views our work with him/her as a competitive advantage

Keep an eye out for part 3 where the focus is on how to contact referrals and a process for managing them.

Sales Referrals (Part 1) – Why Referrals?

 

There is no faster, stronger or better way to build a business than through referral. With the rise of social media the referral process is now easier and faster. Yes we are all being encouraged to join the social media band wagon and as we all struggle to keep up with Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogging etc, many of us are investing our time without focus.

Social media needs focus in order for you to see results for the time you invest and as a sales person seeking referrals is one of the best ways to focus your time and energy. LinkedIn is the godfather of applications in the cloud to do this – a later blog on this!
So to start this referral series I would like to look at the benefits of investing time in referrals.

So why referrals?

1. Referrals come from people we already know – We shorten the cycle of familiarity by simply working with someone who knows someone we know. Common ground already exists through a friendship, acquaintance or business relationship. This eases the pressure on the initial getting-to-know steps of selling. A trust bond exists (see below) between you and your contact which is extended via referral.

2. Referrals extend the network – We widen the circle of relationships with each new referral, thereby increasing our ability to approach that network for additional business, new business and additional referrals.

3. Referrals reduce sales expense – We reduce not only time but expense by asking for and following up with referrals. It costs 6 times more to sell a new prospect than it does to sell a referral.

4. Referrals add value to the source of the referral – When we follow up on the referral, get the business and create a delighted customer, value is delivered to the party who gave the referral. The referral source is credited and often thanked by our new customer. Many industries emphasize value by offering discounts for those who refer new business.

5. Referrals help you use your best sales force – Happy customers constitute our strongest sales force because word of mouth is the single most effective form of advertising. Product or service claims we make often require proof sources for credibility in the eyes of a prospect. Claims from existing customers carry instant credibility and seldom require additional information. (This is why unhappy customers can be such a detriment, because their claims of poor product or service performance are likewise seldom questioned.)

We know that trust is a strong basis for the buying decision. In typical selling situations, trust is the first and foremost issue in the mind of our prospects. “How do I know I can trust this person and this company,” the prospect asks himself/herself. We work hard and invest in the proper look of printed materials, show the right testimonials, ask good questions and listen closely to the answers, all for the sake of trust.

Brian Tracy, one of the top sales training professionals in the world, cites building the trust bond as the critical first step in the selling process. He says building trust with customers is 40 percent of the process, followed by uncovering needs, presenting solutions and asking for the decision. The value of the referral in this sense is simple, as illustrated below:

Trust bonds already exist between you and the customer and between the customer and the referral. The referral process instantly creates a level of trust between you and the referral, a great advantage for starting the selling process.

Why not start creating a list of people you feel you can ask for a referral from and its not just your clients and professional network. Suppliers, partners, competitors, friends and family are great sources.

Salesforce.com Goes Social

There is a lot of talk about how social media will transform the way businesses sell however I have seen few examples of sales-department or organisation wide adoption and even fewer that can point to measurable results. Saleforce.com is my preferred online sales and CRM System and is leading the march with a chatter function which, as quoted by Salesforce.com is reducing internal e-mail by 40%. There is also a FREE I Phone app which customers can use to access their online CRM system and engage in chatter remotely, view contacts / tasks / opportunities / leads and update on the go.What is this new Chatter function? If you are a Facebook or Twitter user, you already know how to use chat and update features. As with Facebook, in Chatter you get started by uploading your photo and writing something interesting about yourself. Then you post updates, ask questions, or write on other people’s “walls.” Like in Twitter, you “follow” other Chatter users or groups, which gives you access to their updates. You can also “unfollow” if someone repeatedly posts drivel. What’s different about Chatter is that this so-called social behavior happens within the application where Sales 2.0* reps and managers live: CRM. Because of this, the product could transform the way sales and other teams work. How chatter transforms the way sales teams work Sales: Collaboration and References It’s a central place to post a presentation for an important customer meeting, if its cross-functional selling with a team of technical sales engineers, product specialists and sales professionals this can be reviewed with instant feedback and discussion. Chatter can be used to quickly find customer references and ask customer questions. Historically this required mass e-mails or tracking down a sales engineer who had worked with a client. Events: Linking Attendees Salesforce attendees can communicate with each other before and during the conference via the the Chatter application (including mobile versions for iPad, iPhone, Android and BlackBerry). Surveys: Feedback and Crowd Sourcing Teams can easily weigh in with their opinions on logos, marketing programs, website changes, etc. Marketing: Competitive Analysis Use Chatter to gather information when someone joins the company from a competitive company. You can use the application to disseminate content to sales and marketing and the executive team. Followers, organized in groups according to competitor, can add to the information to make it even more complete. Better than having an online content library hoping someone will download the competitor file which is likely to be out of date. With Chatter, a whole group of experts can provide answers, from competitors to products and potential markets. What Salesforce.com say Salesforce says they have reduced e-mail by 40% with Chatter and have driven productivity and sales growth. I imagine this is because conversations are easier to follow and find, which makes volumes of e-mail follow-ups less necessary. Communications are consolidated and typically personalized to the interests of a pre-defined group. I wonder what measures have been used to create this figure and whether we are just moving traffic from one media to another. In this Sales 2.0* age when the speed of communications and process matters, salesforce.coms adoption of social media features may genuinely improve the speed of the sales process and turnaround time of information to clients as well as improve the quality of information provided. If used fully across teams – This is the real challenge. * Sales 2.0? Sales 2.0 is the use of innovative sales practices, focused on creating value for both buyer and seller and enabled by Web 2.0 and next-generation technology. Sales 2.0 practices combine the science of process-driven operations with the art of collaborative relationships, using the most profitable and most expedient sales resources required to meet customers’ needs. This approach produces superior, predictable, repeatable business results, including increased revenue, decreased sales costs, and sustained competitive advantage. (Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway) Thank you to Anneke Seley for her inspiration for this post, structure and some content.

The Sales Revolution – from persuade to aid

Dale Carnegie’s concepts, ‘how to win friends and influence people’ and other similar methods based on them, are helpful in understanding that people are all different and therefore all have different perspectives.

It is important that the sales person appreciates that people have their own views, feelings, values, and aims. The more we can understand the other person’s situation, aims and feelings, the more likely we will be able to develop rapport and trust with them, and then hopefully to arrive at suitable solutions and agreements with them.

Early thinking primarily focuses on influencing the other person (customer) to adopt an opinion or to take action in the direction which favours the influencer, irrespective of whether this is in the genuine best interest of the other person. Some modern criticism suggests that these traditional selling methodologies and sales training systems lack honesty and integrity and ultimately have a short term focus not focused on building long term relationships.

The effects of this short term approach to sales can be seen in the recent collapse of the financial services market place.  Historically a debt was fully owned by the bank and a bank manager had a duty of care to ensure the debt was repaid, therefore care was taken to ensure the individual was able to repay the debt and was provided with the appropriate plan/ product to ensure that the risk was managed carefully for both the individual and the bank. More recently the debt was re-packaged by the bank and sold on thus the responsibility to ensure repayment was removed from the bank managers and instead target driven sales individuals were employed by the bank to sell mortgage products and the responsibility for repayment was soley on the individual. The individal in this process changed from being a person who was known by the bank staff to being a customer with which the bank was transacting.

In summary two key things changed in the sales approach which led to the collapse. 

1. The sales person was not responsible / accountable for the customers or the banks risk.

2. The process moved from customer centric to product centric.

The use of ‘persuade / influence’ approaches like Carnegie’s, Seven Steps of the Sale are useful frameworks which apply consultative and needs-creation selling however it is evident that more importantly our sales teams should have core skills such as effective listening, good questioning techniques, self awareness and responsibility to create a more ethical and sustainable approach to selling.

These days selling should more than ever focus on helping people.