Stop Selling!... Build relationships!

What makes a sales call a success or failure?
Are there secrets to sales success?

With today's economic conditions, there's not much "low hanging fruit" to be picked.  In today's economy, relationships count more than ever.  Only the truly professional salespeople have survived over the past few years.  

If you look at your industry, there are probably enough people still wanting to buy your product or service to keep you busy all year long.  Your challenge is, how do you increase your market share or what I like to say get your "unfair share"?

Sales are tougher to generate in a bad economy than a good one.  Nevertheless, why does it seem that some salespeople seem to do well in all types of environments?  When the economy is good, it's relatively easy for even bad salespeople to make a living.  In a good economy, often, salespeople make sales by just contacting a high volume of prospects without developing any relationships.  There is so much "low hanging fruit" out there that just about anyone can make a sale.  

There is a difference between the successful professional salesperson and everyone else.  When business is good, the majority of salespeople are just trying to get as much business as possible.  They are usually more "me" focused, than "client" focused.  Much of sales training emphasizes closing techniques.  The right sales approach involves building the client relationship, not just making the sale and moving on to the next prospect.

My TOP 2 secrets to sales success are:

1. STOP "closing sales" &  START "opening relationships" 
2. DON'T "sell" your clients, HELP them "buy"

OPEN RELATIONSHIPS... BE CLIENT-FOCUSED

Unfortunately, if you don't have a relationship it is very hard to penetrate your prospect's trust to get them to open up to you.  Just think about it.  How many sales calls do you get daily from salespeople trying to sell you something.  I can just imagine your response when the phone rings, "Oh boy, another salesperson trying to sell me something. Let me stop everything I'm doing to see if they have something I want to buy right now!"  If you are like me, you are trying to think of every excuse to get off the phone.

The biggest mistake salespeople make is trying to jump ahead in the sales process before we build any credibility.   We start asking questions before we have earned the right.  We need to earn the right to start a relationship before they'll want to engage in a relationship with us.  We can't expect that just because we've called, the prospect will want to develop a relationship with us.  Let alone want to do business with us.

So, how do the professional salespeople break through the clutter of all the other sales calls their prospects are bombarded with every day?   One strategy is to utilize current relationships.  Using current relationships, professional salespeople are able to get their prospect's attention, but most importantly, they gain some instant credibility in the mind of the prospect. Recommendations to prospects come from clients with which we have opened and built solid relationships.   

Professional salespeople are always "client" focused.   They understand that their client is thinking WIIFM or "what's in it for ME".   When you focus on opening relationships, you'll always be client-focused.

DON'T JUST SELL... HELP THEM BUY
Once you have opened the relationship and gained credibility, you can really begin to engage people.  Professional salespeople understand that people do not like to be sold, but they love to buy.  ActionCOACH's definition of a salesperson is "Professionally Helping People to Buy". 

How can you tell if you are selling someone or helping him or her buy?

The answer is quite simple.  When you meet with potential clients, are you "telling" or "asking"?  The professional salesperson's secret weapon is questions.  ASK open-ended, needs-based questions.  Find out...  

• What is the client trying to accomplish?  
• What features are most important to the client?  
• How can your product or service help the client?  

When you are asking questions, you are building the relationship!

Find out what you can do for your client and make sure he or she knows WIIFM or "what's in it for me".  By asking questions to determine needs and showing benefits, you build up each client relationship.  As you open more relationships and build each one, you gain more credibility.  As you gain more credibility, you create even more relationships.  

That's why there are two secrets to sales success.  You cannot have one without the other.  A professional salesperson must continually open new relationships and nurture those relationships by helping clients.  Follow the two secrets and your credibility in your industry is sure to increase, helping you make even more connections with new prospects.  

So, how do we break the barrier to get through to these prospects and get them to want to engage with us over everyone else trying to get a piece of their limited and precious time?  We need to first create curiosity.  Make the prospective clients want to know more by building our relationship with them.  Don't forget to ask questions and show what's in it for them.  Let's face it-- if we can't get them to want to engage with us, the chances are slim that we are going to make a sale.

BE pro-active, NOT reactive!

When I go out and speak with business owners I hear a lot of mixed comments.  Unfortunately, most are complaining about how bad the economy is and that their competition is under cutting the market.

At the same time, many businesses are not sitting back and waiting to see what’s going to happen.  They are being pro-active!

Just think, if you can get just a few % points of all the business that is happening in your industry here in Jacksonville, what would that mean to your business?  When I ask that question to business owners, the response I get is 'that is probably more business than I can handle right now'.  Now isn’t that interesting...

If that’s the case...

• Why do most businesses do nothing to get their “unfair” share of the business that’s out there?  
• Why do these businesses think that by using their same old ideas, they are going to get different results in this new economy?  
• Why do they let their sales people chase after clients like a sick puppy and do nothing about it?

These businesses are re-acting to the market, instead of creating a plan with...

                                                       NEW goals

                                                       NEW strategies

                                                       NEW tactics            

                                                                            .... bringing them different results.

Your business can be thriving today!  One of my clients just reported to me today that their YTD  revenues have increased 15% and their profits have increased 70%.  A lot of their competition has not survived in this economy.  The competition did not make it because they did not have a plan and they were re-acting to the market place instead of being pro-active.

My clients succeed because they have a plan and are pro-active, instead of waiting for the economy to change!

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below...

Are you afraid to raise your prices?

A few years back I was working with a client that was having some cash flow issues.  One of the first strategies I suggested was that she needed to raise her prices.

She thought I was nuts.  I recommended that she raise her prices 10%.  I can’t raise my prices, I’ll lose all my clients she told me.  

All your clients, I asked? 

Once she calmed down, she agreed to give it a try.  At the beginning of the year she sent a letter out to all her clients thanking them for their business and notifying them of the price increase.

To her amazement, she didn’t get much push back. Then she got that dreaded call from her #1 client (that accounted for 35% of her business) saying they couldn’t live with a 10% increase.  

She was frantic when she called me to tell me the bad news.  So I just simply asked her, how much of an increase would they find acceptable?  “I don’t know, I didn’t ask.  I was too worried about losing their business.”

To make a long story short, they did finally agree to a 4% increase.  That increase amounted to over 50% of the increased revenue she generated from all of her other clients combined.  Her client was willing to accept the price increase because of relationship and value they received from her.

Don’t be afraid to raise your prices.  That fear could kill your business.  What is fear anyways?  False Expectations Appearing Real.

Most of us are afraid to increase our price because we see our competitors keep dropping their prices just to get the sale.  That's because all they know how to do is sell on price and not value.  With that said, the business advice that I give my clients is to raise their prices.

I'm serious, even in this tough economy you can raise your prices if you know how and when.  Raising your prices in your slowest season might be tough but it's a must during your busiest season.

Here are 3 easy steps to raise your prices with no complaints.

1. Get a list of all your products and services that you sell and rank them on the amount sold for the same time last year.
2. Take out the most price sensitive items.
3. Now raise your price on the top 10% of items that are left

It's really that simple.  Another one of my clients that implemented this simple strategy has reported one of his best months ever because he was able to increase his average dollar sale with no resistance from his customers.

Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below...