sales,differentiation,price,salespeople,buyers,pain,questions,Joe Zente,z3,zthree,tab austin

5000 senior executive B2B decision makers were recently asked: “When faced with a buying decision, what makes the final difference in your purchase selection?”

Paying close attention to the results of this survey can make a enormous impact in your top and bottom lines, so here goes…:

• 19% of respondents said their purchase decision was based upon Company Brand or Reputation.

• Another 19% said it was based upon their perception of Product, Service or Quality.

• Contrary to popular belief (and to the #1 excuse you probably hear from your salespeople and sales manager), only 9% said that Price was the deciding factor.

• Interestingly, 53% of surveyed senior executives said that the Field Sales Interaction was the #1 factor in their decision.

In other words, the interaction that buyers are having with your salespeople have a greater effect on buying decisions than all other factors combined.

Surveyed buyers also felt that only 14% of conversations with salespeople had any significant or commercial impact.  This means that salespeople are perceived to be flapping their gums in the vast majority of their conversations, creating ZERO value or differentiation 86% of the time.  Burning up valuable time in this way is a huge waste and is no way to win points with busy decision makers.

Additional research indicates that the vast majority of all value and differentiation is not perceived as a result of comparisons, presentations, benefit statements, testimonials and demos, but instead from personal, emotional connections, effective facilitated dialogue, pain discovery and good questioning.

If you own a business or run a sales organization, these statistics and data should inspire many questions, including but not limited to…:

• Am I spending my money and resources wisely and proportionately?

• How do MY salespeople really stack up compared to our competitors?

• How effective are they at messaging, listening, questioning?

• Can my sales team really take me where I want to go?

• Am I selecting the right salespeople who are capable of differentiating?

• Is my sales training, development and management program effective?

Answering these questions and addressing them effectively can be the difference between blowing your competitors out of the water, or being left in their dust.

Best wishes for a spectacular 2013 and beyond!

Copyright © Joe Zente 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Two-thirds of Americans make New Year’s resolutions each year.

Approximately 5% of those who make resolutions actually keep them.

In other word… 19 out of 20 fail!

But we are obviously talking about others. As a business owner, we all know that you are one of those special people who always exceed your goals. Right?

Independent of whether or not you make resolutions, most results-oriented people do set goals and view December as a time of renewal and optimism.

“This year is going to be different.  We are REALLY going to achieve our KPIs THIS year.”

Business owners are planning to achieve new growth and profit targets. Salespeople are going to exceed their quotas.

“This year, we are going to stay focused and blow away our numbers.”

For many CEOs, it isn’t long before reality sets in.   By springtime, many businesses have already fallen behind their plan and are strategizing about ways to close the execution gap and playing catch-up.  Also, many salespeople and sales managers are formulating creative excuses for mediocre performance and forecasts.

The fact that 95% of resolutions are consistently broken and that most businesses consistently fall short of their goals all stem from the same set of fundamentals.

The universal language of business owners is PROFIT.   The following five tips will improve your chances of achieving your 2013 profit goals.

1. Change your Self Talk:  All transformation begins with self-dialogue.   The conversation that you have with yourself is more important than the conversations that you will have with your Team.  Self-talk dictates one’s beliefs, behavior, and communication and effectiveness.  Organizational transformation begins with highly committed, future-based, assertive dialogue from the leader. Make a Declaration and Unconditionally Commit.  DECLARE to yourself (and to your Team) that you have decided and committed to transform your business and to exceed your (crystal clear) goal.  Failure is NOT an option.  Make it clear that you are All-In.  Write it down, and make it big and bright to everyone.  Then expect to succeed.
2. Create a Compelling “WHY”:  Human beings can achieve practically miraculous feats if they have a compelling reason to do so.  Humans also behave the way they are currently behaving because they CHOOSE to do so.  Most people HATE to leave their Comfort Zone.  They will NOT leave their happy place unless they have a highly compelling reason to leave it.  In most cases, financial incentives (especially small or moderate ones) are NOT compelling.  Your hope (or their hope) that an employee will change and leave their comfort zone is even less compelling.  Hope is a pathetic strategy.
3. Eliminate the word “try” from your company’s vocabulary:  Prohibit its use.  “Trying” is less than All-In.  Far less.  In fact, trying is a built-in excuse and will almost guarantee failure.  It provides unbridled permission for an employee to return to their Comfort Zone.  Given this permission, they will be back there in a heartbeat.  Say goodbye to accountability.
4. Remove the Past from the Future:  I often ask business owners what they want.  They often answer by telling me what they are currently doing or have done in the past.  The past does NOT equal the future, but human beings have a highly self-limiting tendency to super-impose last year on next year.  This tendency destroys creativity, productivity, innovation, effectiveness and profit.  You can certainly learn from the mistakes or successes of the past, but make sure to plan the future on a blank slate.
5. Don’t Fly Solo:  And don’t re-invent the wheel.  Help is everywhere.  Mentors, business coaches, profit-partners and experts are abundant.  Whatever your challenges or goals, there are many highly successful people out there that would love to help.   Set a personal goal (with a deadline) to create a success team.  Choose carefully.  Find people who have been there, who walk their talk, and who have achieved a great deal of success.   An Accountability Partner and Business Owner Peer Group can help immensely.  Investing in yourself and your leadership development in this way will have a huge impact on your organization, your growth, your business valuation and your profit.

By following these simple steps, your journey can be as rewarding as your destination. I’d love to hear about your new goals, your successes and your challenges, so feel free to email me as you continue to explore from outside your own comfort zone in order to achieve new heights.

Best wishes for abundant success, peace, happiness and prosperity in 2013.

Happy New Year!

Copyright © Joe Zente 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Well, the election is finally behind us.  Some people are euphoric, others are pissed.   Loads are fearful.   Some are simply clueless.

And many are confused.

Two things that have changed little since Tuesday is the intensity of emotions and the volume of diverse (and often misleading) opinions.  Neither of these will help much in running a successful business.

As business owners, there are many questions that lie before us.  The one I’m hearing the most since Election Day is:

“What am I supposed to do now?”

Here are a few suggestions:

• Get the FACTS:  Accept very little of what you hear.   Stay plugged in and validate everything.
• Focus upon OPPORTUNITIES:  The greatest opportunities are often created by virtue of confusion, uncertainty, turmoil and pain.  In other words, this environment is target rich for those who focus upon the best ways to not only survive, but to also take advantage of the current situation.
• Be Proactive.
• Control your emotions.
• Take a deep breath:  Relax and have fun.  Things are rarely as good or as bad as they may appear.
• Beware of “experts”.  Instead, surround yourself with Trusted advisors.
• Make a Plan:  ALL stress results from uncertainty.  There is ZERO benefit or virtue in worrying.   The best CEOs in the world understand that running a business requires a clear understanding that every business and economic climate is fraught with uncertainty, so they develop the key skill of dealing with ambiguity.

Independent of the political and economic climate, the fundamentals of business and leadership always prevail.  So follow these simple steps and enjoy your joyful prosperity in 2013.

Copyright © Joe Zente 2012. All Rights Reserved.

I’m still reeling, but I think I’m beginning to recover.

I am also inspired beyond belief.

Last week I was honored to host the TAB Texas Synergy Conference, a truly unique, three-day event that was likely the largest assemblage of successful business owners in the history of our great state.  The North End Zone of Darrell K. Royal Stadium was stuffed to the gills with the most talented CEOs in Texas.

The energy was electric, the speakers were phenomenal, the peer learning was abundant, and the sharing was unprecedented.

Every year, I visit with hundreds of business owners and sit in dozens of CEO board meetings, but it is difficult to describe the magic that occurs when you consolidate this much brainpower, innovation, thought-leadership and business expertise in one place at one time.  True Synergy.  1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 1,000.

I came away from the conference energized and optimistic. 

Energized to apply all of this new knowledge and wisdom to help our clients grow and to take my own four businesses to the next level. 

Optimistic in the future of Texas. Despite the economy, political climate, or result of the upcoming election, I am confident that this group of entrepreneurs can take on any set of circumstances or obstacles, turn lemons into lemonade, and create loads of jobs and prosperity.

I’m privileged and proud to know you all.

Joe

Copyright © Joe Zente 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Your Salespeople have lots of skills.  Unfortunately, they are probably the wrong ones.

Buyers do NOT trust salespeople.  So they have created a system to deal with them.

The system of the buyer is designed to:

• Provide the buyer with a feeling of control and security.

• Place the buyer in a strong negotiating position.

• Strip the salesperson of any differentiation.

In other words, the buyer’s system is designed to turn salespeople into apple vendors.   Let’s call your top vendor Super Mario.

Buyers want you to believe that your apples are no different than anyone else’s.   In their mind, it must be Mario’s job to PROVE that your company’s apples are worthy.

For most unsuspecting apple vendors like Mario, the buyer’s system creates the intended transactional dysfunction and feeds right into his behavioral preferences.  Succumbing removes all differentiation from Mario and your company.  Like most salespeople, Mario is equipped with traditional “selling skills” and unfortunately feels most comfortable deploying them along with all the other apple vendors.  He quickly proceeds to:

• Tell
• Present
• Demo
• Shine Your Company Apple
• Provide References
• Give Quotes
• Wheel and Deal
• Use Goofy Closing Tricks
• Send (Unqualified) Proposals

If Mario is competing against four other apple vendors, the good news is that he might win “his share’ of around 20% of the business.   The bad news is that he will waste loads of time, consume plenty of company resources, cut deeply into your profitability and further commoditize your company reputation.

If Mario wanted to differentiate, develop trust, win far more than “his share” of sales, and drive lots of profit to your bottom line, he would instead need to:

• Slow down a lot
• Start Being (versus acting) Trustworthy
• Care
• Listen (actively and empathetically)
• Stop asking leading questions
• Ask many more questions
• Ask better questions
• Ask tougher questions

Behaving in this new way would require Mario to leave his comfort zone.  For many salespeople, this never happens.  They behave the way they are behaving because they CHOOSE to behave that way.    Most choose to behave like apple vendors.

Taking your sales to the next level is not rocket science.   But in most cases it requires a commitment for salespeople (and their managers) to stop vending apples.

Copyright © Joe Zente 2012. All Rights Reserved.