The Four Stages of Learning I recently discussed the value of training in order to change our instinctive response to certain situations. If you’ve read my other sales tips, you know that I strongly believe in the value of coaching and repetition in order to learn new skills. Let’s take a quick look at the four stages of learning new skills, as popularized by Noel … Read more
4 Ways to Ensure Sure Asking Questions is not an Interrogation I recently talked about the need to use a checklist during your sales calls. A checklist of questions will help guide and bring purpose to your sales conversations, but it does bring a risk of sounding like an interrogation. We discussed this issue in one of my recent Software Sales Bootcamps. #1 Pay Attention … Read more
The Purpose of Questions When you’re on a sales call, you should have a purpose. That purpose helps to focus your questions and guide the call, to ultimately bring about a solution. If you went to engineering school, like I did, you were taught that asking the right questions will bring you 80% of the way to a solution. You cannot jump to a solution, … Read more
Using Checklists It may sound obvious but if you want a checklist for sales conversations to help guide you, you must USE the checklist. To do that properly, the checklist must actually be in front of you. The Fear of Stilted Conversations Many salespeople go through sales training programs and walk away with a list of questions they should ask on sales calls, which are … Read more
Create a Safe Negotiating Space In a career as a salesperson, chances are you will come across a professional negotiator. Someone who has been trained to get the best deal possible. There are plenty of strategies to prepare you to work with these savvy people. But most deals are going to be with average buyers. People who hate conflict as much as you do. In … Read more
The Value of Training Most people have never been shot at with an assault rifle. Nor have most folks been on the receiving end of a mortar attack. And only relatively few have been ordered to jump out of a perfectly good airplane into the middle of a gunfight, or to charge a busy machine gun nest. These rather stressful situations are simply not part … Read more
Guidelines for Use of Call Recordings in Sales Coaching I just put this together for a new client who expressed concerns about his team’s response to the use of call recordings for coaching, since they had never done it. He was worried about resistance to a new level of accountability that might impact morale. He was also concerned it might make his folks fearful of … Read more
The Gap between Sales and Marketing Almost every company you can think of (whether successful or just mediocre) has something in common with all the rest: there is a gap between the sales and marketing groups. In some cases it is more like a gaping wound, or a fathomless abyss. In others, who have worked really, really hard on the problem, it is just a … Read more
The Role of Strategic Marketing While sales and marketing are technically separate functions, they must work together seamlessly. In fact, I’ll go so far as to state that the entire sales process begins with a market and markets are based on unmet needs. There can be a market without a solution A radio announcer remarked, “I put balm on poison ivy, not because it works, … Read more
Understanding the Strategies Used by Software Buyers Software buyers tend to be a knowledgeable bunch when it comes to negotiating deals with vendors. A number of books and programs exist to show software buyers how to use aggressive tactics to get the lowest possible prices out of sellers. Given that a large number of software buyers are taught to take advantage of sellers in this … Read more