The profession of Sales is loaded with mediocrity. More than half of all salespeople hired today will not survive a full year with their new company. More than half of those who do survive will fall short of their quota and forecasted sales in their second year. Less than 5% will generate consistent, predictable results.  As a result, business owners waste billions of dollars every year in recruiting, training, compensation, and opportunity costs.

While there are many attributes that comprise a successful salesperson, and while most of these can be uncovered BEFORE you waste your time and money hiring another dud by virtue of an effective screening process, there are some very basic attributes that any salesperson can employ immediately, but simply do not.  These attributes are so basic, in fact, that the skills to deploy them exist in any child.  Unfortunately, it seems that most sales “professionals” have forgotten the skills and traits they learned as youngsters, or they maybe they just choose not to use them when interacting with prospective buyers. Here are just a few of the effective traits of 2nd graders…: 

Kids don’t have answers. Ineffective salespeople prefer to act like they have all the answers.  Kids make you feel like the expert. “Expert” salespeople are a huge turnoff to buyers.   

Kids are sincerely interested. While snake-oil salespeople ask leading (salesy) questions and listen with filters.   

Kids are playful. While “professional” salespeople are scripted and stodgy. 

Kids are unpredictable. Most salespeople are simply boring, asking the same questions and adding no additional discovery or value.  Research shows that 86% of salespeople are perceived as undifferentiated.

Kids are infinitely curious. While mediocre salespeople make far too many assumptions. Assumptions = missed information = DANGER.

Kids will ask anything. Most salespeople stick to their list of Tie-down questions. These add zero value to the conversation.

Kids truly love to discover new things. Conversely, most salespeople choose to spend most of their time talking, presenting, proposing and demonstrating, instead of facilitating discovery and LEARNING.

Kids learn something new every day. Many salespeople are committed to “the way they’ve always done it”.

Kids are always testing their limits. Low-growth salespeople refuse to leave their Comfort Zone. 

 If you have any doubt that using child-like attributes would “work” with your “sophisticated buyers”, or if you’ve simply forgotten some of the most valuable lessons you learned when you were a kid, I’d challenge you to give them a try during your next sales interview.  If you would kindly share the result, I’ll make sure to publish it with the readers…   

 Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2016.   All Rights Reserved.

Most Successful Entrepreneurs and Sales Executives tend to be optimists.

While optimism can certainly be a beneficial trait, most optimists have a communication dysfunction known as Happy Ears Syndrome™.  Quite simply, an individual listening with Happy Ears will hear what they want to hear instead of learning the truth. And the consequences can be severe, potentially costing thousands of dollars and wasting tons of time and energy.

Review the following scenario:

(italics indicate just some of the vital information filtered by Happy Ears)

Manager (or Owner): How did your sales appointment with John at XYZ Company go?

Sales Rep: It went great!  

(what the heck does that mean?)

Manager: Really, what did you learn?

Sales Rep: John said he really needed a product like ours and that money was no object.   

(Just because John says he needs a product like ours, doesn’t mean he would BUY from us. Do we even know if he has the power, resources, and commitment to buy from us if he did? Do we know if he’s trying to wrangle a bid from us so he can shop around?)

Manager:  When will he be buying?

Sales Rep:  Soon, I think. I’m going to forecast the sale. I expect it to happen this quarter. 

(If John did have the decision power, does he have a compelling reason and commitment to act? What if he doesn’t act this quarter? It seems like there are at least 50 more things we should learn BEFORE this sale should ever show up on a forecast)

Manager:  Should we get the engineering & design team to start putting together an estimate so we can create a proposal?   

Sales Rep: Sounds good!!!  

(If the Manager permits a proposal to be created at this point, he/she is also listening with Happy Ears. Co-dependent dysfunction. Why in the world would any company invest precious engineering, design, estimating, inventory, or any other resources to create a proposal in the absence of so much critical information?

Has this scenario ever played out in your business?

Two-thirds of all forecasted sales are lost to Status Quo. In other words, the vast majority of proposals resulting from Happy Ears go into the circular file.

Although Happy Ears are pervasive among optimists, this costly condition also exists among others, like individuals that fear rejection and those who lack assertiveness or possess a need for approval.

The formula for effective, profitable sales conversations is not complex. It consists of executing a simple, effective sales process in order to continually facilitate discovery, gain clarity, and learn the truth. Salespeople that use this simple process will outperform those with Happy Ears by orders of magnitude and bring huge rewards to your top and bottom line. 

Stay optimistic, but take a hard look at the quality of both external and internal communication. Eliminate Happy Ears Syndrome™ from your Sales Team and watch your profits soar. 

If you believe the Syndrome may exist in your organization and would like to learn for sure or take specific steps to eliminate it, I’d love to hear from you. Reach out to me - joe@zthree.com

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2016.   All Rights Reserved. 

When a sales prospect tells you they “cannot afford” your product or service, or that it is “too expensive,” what do they really mean?

If you don’t know, then you cannot take effective action. Furthermore, when someone tells you “I can’t afford it,” they often don’t know what they mean themselves!

So when a potential buyer tells you they like your product or service, but can’t afford it, you have a huge opportunity to learn, clarify, understand, facilitate discovery, and differentiate.  

Here are four of the most likely possibilities of what a prospect thinks they might mean when they tell you you’re too expensive:

1.    -  They have interest, but perceive your offer (service or product) is “not worth” the “value” you might deliver.

2.     - They have interest, but they really believe that they “cannot afford it.”

3.     - They want to negotiate to get you to reduce your price.

4.     - They have no intention at all of buying from you, but would rather tell you they can’t afford it than to simply tell you “no.”

Let’s take possibility #3 (negotiation) first. In this scenario, the buyer wants to buy (or is willing to buy) from you, but wants to feel better by getting you to offer a lower price.

Possibility #4 is a form of “maybe.” A waste of your time.  

Possibilities #1 and #2 do not live in intention, they live in perception. “Value,” “Worth,” and “Afford” are all perceptions. Prospects who fall into the first two categories represent tremendous opportunity for you to dramatically increase your sales volume. They perceive that something needs to change in order to do business. These prospects simply have their own “self-talk” that prohibits them from taking action. They represent huge opportunities.

Perceptions can be very easy to change; doing so requires a bit of skill and patience.

When most salespeople hear, “I can’t afford it,” they either give up and leave with their tail between their legs, shift into convince-aholic™ snake oil sales mode, or begin to “sharpen their pencils” to drop price, offer discounts, and cut into your company profit. What they should do is learn exactly what the ambiguous phrase, “I can’t afford it,” really means. 

So the next time you hear “that sounds good, but you’re expensive,” do yourself a favor and please learn what your prospect really means, then help to facilitate discovery to create clarity, build trust, improve perceptions, help more clients, and generate a lot more business.

If you have other thoughts or challenges, or if you need help in managing conversations to grow your sales and profit, I’d love to hear from you…

Best wishes for a prosperous 2016! 

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2016.   All Rights Reserved.

Many private business owners burn up millions of dollars of profit every year by tolerating mediocrity from their sales team. Are you one of them?

If so, follow these steps to dramatically increase your bottom line in 2016.

Every salesperson on earth spends 100% of their time each day in one or more of these 5 areas:

o   Easy (Comfortable) Sales Activities

o   Hard (Effective/Productive) Sales Activities

o   Developing Skills and Strengths / Improving Effectiveness

o   Non-Selling Activities (customer service, reporting, administration, etc.)

o   Wheel-spinning (surfing the Internet, texting, goofing off, CYA…)     

Two of these activities contribute directly to your revenue growth. Two others rob your company of massive quantities of profit. The fifth can be a silent killer.

You’ll notice that the last 2 activities listed have absolutely nothing to do with sales. In fact, they cost you sales. Unfortunately, many salespeople spend a huge percentage of time in these 2 costly activities, burning up thousands of dollars every day. 

No matter what kind of company you own, your company is a SALES Company. Sales is the life blood of every company, so even if you know nothing about sales, one of your primary jobs as CEO is to make sure that sales actually happen. That’s right - YOU are responsible. If you have a sales manager in place, they can certainly help. If not, the job is entirely yours. Either way, the vital job of sales leadership and driving sales results is foundational.

The first step in the process of increasing sales is to understand that change starts at the top, so decide that you will change first. Decide that whatever ineffective practices you tolerated yesterday will not be tolerated tomorrow. Since your company is a Sales Company, begin this highly profitable process by declaring that effective immediately, every salesperson in your company will spend their time selling, and that Wheel-spinning will not be tolerated. Then, make sure the decks are cleared to eliminate (or dramatically minimize) the volume of time your salespeople spend in Non-Selling Activities. This means that you may need to shift some customer service, crisis management, reporting, and administrative activities off their plates. If you don’t provide your sales reps with these distractions (or excuses), they will be left with nothing to do but sell. Time = Money, so if you do nothing else, math says these simple steps will significantly increase your top (and bottom) lines. But I’d encourage you to read on…

Next, you’ll want to minimize the time your people spend on Easy Sales Activities (ESAs). ESAs fall into two categories: Necessary ESAs and Worthless ESAs.

Some Necessary ESAs include:

•        Demonstrating (at the appropriate time, not prematurely)
•         Preparing proposals (once, not multiple times)
•         Entertaining (with discretion, when appropriate)
•         Calling hot, pre-qualified leads
•         Giving presentations (at the right time)
•        Sending certain emails (note: some salespeople send emails to avoid conversations)
•        Developing trusting relationships with connectors and influencers

Worthless ESAs include:

•         Wasteful Internet surfing (often disguised as “research”)
•         Excessive small talk
•         Texting and other device addictions
•         Spending too much time with peers (instead of Decision Makers)
•         Self-promotion
•         Talking when they should be listening
•         Avoiding accountability

Both Necessary and Worthless ESAs live squarely inside most salespeople’s Comfort Zone.  Easy Sales Activities are Easy because they are comfortable. For this reason, most sales reps consume their time on ESAs in lieu of the much less comfortable (and profitable) Hard Sales Activities (HSAs). Some examples of HSAs include:

•         Consistent prospecting
•         Asking “tough” questions
•         Being Assertive (never aggressive)
•         Maintaining a Success Recipe and executing it with discipline
•         Calling key targets and Decision Makers, including cold and warm leads
•         Active, empathetic listening
•         Shutting up
•         Avoiding Premature Satisfaction™
•         Practicing consistent time & event management
•         Maintaining an UnConditional Commitment to continuous improvement
•         Uncovering true buying motives
•         Proactively seeking accountability
•         Leaving one’s Comfort Zone

Human nature drives employees to do things that are most comfortable first, often leaving little or no time for vital activities that may be less comfortable. For salespeople, there are many comfortable activities that appear to observers to look like “selling,” when in actuality they replace effective, productive selling. It is not difficult or unusual for a salesperson to spend weeks or months of time in these very comfortable, low-return activities. Tons of hidden profit resides in this simple fact.  

Superior salespeople know that Time = Money, so they spend 90% or more of their time in either Hard Sales Activities or Developing Skills and Strengths.  Most salespeople choose to spend less then 20% of their time in these 2 critical areas.

In order to blow away your sales goals in 2016 without spending a dime:

1. BE THE FIRST TO CHANGE
2. Decide to be a Sales Company
3. Declare that you will no longer tolerate ineffective low-return activities from your sales team
4. Help your salespeople understand:

a.      the 5 ways they currently use their time

b.     that Time = Money. Your money and Their money.

c.      difference between productive and ineffective activities

d.      the massive sales/profit potential of leaving one’s comfort zone & using time effectively

      5. Hold your sales team accountable to your new, effective, productive sales culture.

If you’d like to share your experiences or results, or if you have any questions, feel free to email me at joe@zthree.com. I’d love to hear from you…

All the Best in 2016!

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2015.   All Rights Reserved.

Let’s face it: most buyers do not trust salespeople. And for very good reason.

As a group, most salespeople start each day with one goal in mind—to get purchase orders. In this pursuit, most will tell stories, provide slick demos, pitch, act, prod, ask leading questions, manipulate, and convince. Some will go further by using sleight-of-hand, smoke-and-mirrors, and other magic sales tricks. I’ve even known several sales reps that have studied hypnosis in an effort to control and manipulate.

So is it any mystery that buyers don’t trust salespeople? Do you trust salespeople?

It doesn’t matter much what your title is or how your business card describes you. When you approach someone with an intention to sell, buyers are justifiably pre-disposed to beware. You are guilty by association. 

The fact is that most buyers hate to be sold, but all need to buy at some point. Business cannot be conducted and consumers cannot consume without buying. 

At this point, you may be thinking, “why do people buy” and “why should they buy from me?”

Many salespeople (and executives and owners) believe that people buy because they need something and that buyers buy from people they like. Unfortunately for those who believe either of those reasons (but fortunately for you), neither of these popular beliefs carries much weight. In fact, tons of research has proven that people do not make buying decisions for rational reasons; they do so for emotional reasons. People pull the trigger on buying decisions in order to avoid pain or gain pleasure.

And they don’t buy from people they like. They buy from people they trust.

Since buyers instinctively don’t trust salespeople, most prospects are extremely reluctant to share their true buying motives with salespeople. This begs another important question: “How can I get buyers to trust me?” 

Over the last several years, I heard about and read dozens of articles about clever techniques that salespeople should use in order to get buyers to trust them. These include advice discussing the proper way to stand, direction to look, how to hold your head, words to use, etc. - all designed to generate trust. While some of these tactics may help a bit to facilitate better communication, they do not create trust. The best way to develop trust is to stop acting trustworthy and to start being trustworthy.  Stop acting. Start Being.   

Due to self-talk, mis-information, and bad habits, being trustworthy is unfortunately tougher for many salespeople than it should be. The entire premise of trying to convince someone to trust us is completely upside down. In other words, “acting trustworthy” is an oxymoron and besides being the wrong thing to do, buyers can see your act coming a mile away. They’ll see through you as if you were cellophane. Say goodbye to trust and effective discovery. So why would a salesperson do something that is both wrong and ineffective?

Being trustworthy is even more difficult for many “seasoned” salespeople, especially those who have learned all of the “tricks” and have become addicted to the habits of convincing, acting, and manipulating.

If you happen to be one of millions that possess this convince-aholic addiction, there are many things you can do to overcome it. A great start is by defining what I refer to as your Personal Constitution. Your Constitution is your crystal clear, concise commitment to yourself outlining who you are, who you do (and don’t) help, how you communicate, your personal belief system, the process you use for effective mutual discovery, and the integrity with which you always behave and live. Your Personal Constitution should be clearly communicated early to all sales prospects and suspects as part of your Ground Rules of effective communication.

Sharing your Ground Rules with integrity will differentiate you, help remove the buyer’s embedded fear of trust, and go a long way toward dramatically improving the effectiveness and efficiency of your sales interviews and business conversations.

If you (or your salespeople) are having issues getting prospects to trust you, to have adult conversations, or to share true buying motives, ask yourself if you have an Unconditional Commitment to your Personal Constitution, and whether or not you are communicating your Constitution concisely to your potential buyers.

Feel free to email me with your thoughts, questions, or addictions:

joe@zthree.com.

Continued Success!

Joe 

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2015.   All Rights Reserved.