Chris Murray's Blog: Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service - Posts Tagged "selling"

The Extremely Successful Salesman's ClubI’m delighted to announce that the official publishing date of my new book - The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club - is nearly upon us.

It’s already been heralded in certain quarters as “The Da Vinci Code for Salespeople” and on Monday 17th February 2014, we go live with listings on Amazon, Foyle’s, Waterstones and WH Smiths (amongst others) already confirmed.

The US Edition is launched the following week through Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, Ingram and Baker & Taylor.

We’re celebrating the launch with a number of free prize draws, giveaways and competitions – and here’s the first one. Simply follow this link and I’ll send you the first four chapters as PDF download completely free.

Then you’re just 120 pages away from unlocking the 7 rules of success passed down through generations, originating from this secret and ancient organisation.

Feel free to share it with colleagues and friends – the only people you’ll probably want to keep it hidden from is the competition.

Let me know what you think

Chris

The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club Linked In Group

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So, this weekend, my nine year old daughter decides to set up a lemonade stand at the front of the house as her first commercial enterprise.

To be fair, she’s been nagging me to help her do it for over a year – since she saw that bank advert with a similar age girl doing the same thing.

I only realise now, that right up until the point she set up her tiny table and chair (sandwiched between her hand-drawn poster and little plastic till) – that I was acting like your typical “don’t go into business” advisor.

I recognised it, because I heard so many myself before I set up my first company.

“Are you sure you want to do this? What happens if no one comes? You might end up looking stupid? Is what you make really good enough for someone else’s money?”

But, like all good entrepreneurs and pioneers, she appears to be able to phase all that nonsense out, and crack on with what she knows to be right.

Here are a couple of things that a nine year old girl selling home-made lemonade could teach a few salespeople I’ve met along the way.

1. She sat down and worked out her USP

“So why is anybody going to be buy this, honey?”

“Why wouldn’t they?”

“Well, there’s a lot of competition, we live not far from the local pub and a can of fizzy drink from the shop is only 50p – why would they stop and buy yours?”

So she sat and she thought about it – then redesigned her poster to explain why it was worth stopping and giving her your money – in fact she had five reasons why her Lemonade was worth stopping for.

Question: What are the 5 reasons people buy your product or service instead of the competitions?



2. She knew why it was worth the money

So - it would have been really easy, to spend £10 on ingredients and plastic cups and then just let her play shop – but she wanted to do this properly.

We put all the costs down on paper, she realised what price we couldn’t go below and why, and we justified it with facts.

Question: When someone raises a price objection do you feel uneasy, mixed with the need to knock a little off, or can you justify the value and the cost?



3. She was ready for objections

We sat down together – and I was an awkward customer – I gave her every reason I could think of why I wouldn’t buy lemonade off the side of the road, from a 9 year old girl.

We then came up with conversation pieces that overcame drawbacks, misunderstandings and scepticism.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud.

Question: What 5 objections do you regularly get? Have you sat down and worked out how to overcome each one so they’re no longer a problem?



4. She was passionate about the work

Two days she sat out there.

She wanted to be out there, setting up her stand straight after breakfast – we had trouble getting her in for lunch or dinner.

She chatted, she poured, she went and got complimentary bowls of water for customers with dogs.

Admittedly, it seemed to come quite naturally to her – but she wasn’t daunted by anything or anyone, intelligently delegated most of the grunt work to me (concentrating on the actions that would bring in the most money) and she really, really enjoyed it.

Question: When was the last time you sprang out of bed and went looking for new customers? If those who work with you were asked, what would they say to the question – does that salesperson spend most of their time on actions that only achieve their goal?

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Thanks for dropping by and reading this post. Here on goodreads, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

If you would like to read my regular posts please click the button that says 'Become a Fan' on my profile page (I'd have preferred one that just says follow but it's not really up to me).

I’d also be over the moon if you'd come and see me over at Twitter (@TheESSClub)

About: Chris Murray has become prominent as an inspirational speaker, author and sales training coach and is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works - not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works.

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman's Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

In my experience, sales teams appear to fall into two camps - Battleships and Pirate ships.

Battleships are usually (but not always) attached to large corporate affairs, where the marketing department produces most of the presentations and sales material, budgets are put in place and then dutifully spent (whether they have any meaningful effect or not) and where most of the sales team brags about its portfolio of brands rather than its recent, personal achievement.

Pirate ships are dripping with entrepreneurialism.

Everybody on a Pirate ship knows that you need to be constantly one step ahead of those chasing you (or one step closer to those you’re trying to catch), everybody aboard feels a duty to the captain and the ship, everyone realises they have to play their part or get out of the way.

Pirate ships aren’t all small, faceless or youthful - think Apple, Virgin, Amstrad, The Caudwell Group – but everyone on board knows the difference between value and cost, and everyone is driven to make a difference.

Sometimes Battleship people join Pirate ships (never their first choice – something’s usually gone terribly wrong with their careers). They sit in the first couple of sales meetings looking forward to teaching the savages the way of the corporate.

But after a couple of months the pace is too quick for them, the requirement for free thinking, entrepreneurialism and business growth is all a bit of a shock. Due to the fact that there is usually some real selling to be done, they never last all that long.

I’ve found that most true Pirates secretly long to be seen as Battleship material, so they send out CV’s and attend interview after interview.

Should they be lucky enough to be chosen by the great and the good, they arrive on their first day to find life is sooo bureaucratic and slow. There’s no room for change or exciting ideas, no one really wants to save money or create anything meaningful – and when – by their own steam and strength of purpose they actually make a half decent splash - it just gets lost in the massive waves and wake left by the unstoppable Leviathan they’ve joined.

Some decide to stay, some eventually return to a life of adventure on the open seas – but they can do what they want, they have the skills to do whatever makes them happy.



So are you Battleship or Pirate Ship?

Here’s how to recognise which one you’re working for;
　
•Battleship captains hire people that look and act like them, Pirate ship captains hire people to get the job done.


•Battleships hold inquiries and deliver reports. Pirate ships demand action, resolution and continued movement.


•Battleships have a routine to follow, Pirate ships can sail to the island where the treasure’s buried whenever they like.


•If you have an opinion on a battleship you need someone’s permission to deliver it, whereas people who raise their voice on a Pirate ship have something important to say


•Battleship personnel treat training and development like a tick box exercise, Pirate ships train to achieve or to solve a problem.


• Battleships have regular meetings because that’s what they’ve always done, Pirate ships drop anchor only when they need to.


• Battleship crews spend their evenings congratulating each other over dinner and expensive claret, paid for with somebody else’s money. Pirates spend their time drawing new maps, discovering uncharted waters, relishing true freedom and creating their own fortunes.


• Mediocre salespeople on Pirate ships get shown the plank, on Battle ships they get promoted into management

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Thanks for dropping by and reading this post. Here on goodreads, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

If you would like to read my regular posts please click the button that says 'Become a Fan' on my profile page (I'd have preferred one that just says follow but it's not really up to me).
I’d also be over the moon if you'd come and see me over at Twitter (@TheESSClub)

About: Chris Murray has become prominent as an inspirational speaker, author and sales training coach and is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works - not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works.

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman's Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

Marketing guru Perry Marshall tells a great story regarding the difference in thought process that led to the success of the Wright Brothers and the failure of all the others who were trying to achieve the same aim.

He explains the main reason that Orville and Wilbur Wright were the first guys to build an air-worthy vehicle, was that they focused on making the most elegant, efficient and aerodynamic plane.

What they didn’t do was focus on creating the most powerful engine.

At that time, everyone was obsessed with powerful engines. But powerful engines, especially back then, were really, really heavy.

And of course “heavy” is not a quality you want when you're trying to defy gravity.

So, Orville and Wilbur concentrated on designing a machine that would stay in the air...ride the wind...float. They knew that once they achieved that goal, they could strap a good engine to their bird and the thing would stay up.

Meanwhile their engine-obsessed competitors were building powerful, heavy machines...and crashing back to earth.

What’s that got to do with sales training?

Well quite a lot actually.

You see, the sales model and mind-set your team work with, needs to be an aerodynamic plane…if they thoroughly understand the motivations behind peoples buying decisions, have the ability to uncover opportunities and turn those opportunities into recognisable needs and then keep moving every genuine prospect forward during each call or meeting…then by all means, you should go ahead and take it to the next level by helping your sales team to improve their overall effectiveness with some advanced sales skills and techniques.

To be extremely successful, both are crucial.

Skills and techniques that genuinely work and are useful within your industry, together with a foundation in buying motives, effective questioning, presentation skills and a real understanding of how and when to close.

A strong engine and a wind-worthy plane.

Unfortunately strapping those skills and techniques onto a team before they can fly is just a waste of time.

So, when you next decide to invest in sales training for your team, ask yourself the following questions and work out whether or not you’re being sold an engine that doesn’t go anywhere, or a plane that’ll take you wherever it is you want to go – and can continuously be improved.
•Put yourself in the customer’s chair - If these techniques were used on you, would you buy from the salesperson using them?


• If you answered yes to the first question, following the purchase, would you feel - in any way - that you had been manipulated or bullied?


• Does the training sound like a collection of techniques for selling AT someone or a toolbox that can be dipped into, to help your customers make great buying decisions?


• Does the title involve the word advanced? If so, how much of the non-advanced training have your team already completed previously?


• Also, which bit of the content allows this particular training to call itself advanced?


• Is the training focused mainly on helping the salesperson sell or the prospect to recognise why they should buy?


• And has this training been built to achieve the specific requirements of your team and business – or is this the same training they do for everyone?

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Thanks for dropping by and reading this post. Here on goodreads, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

If you would like to read my regular posts please click the button that says 'Become a Fan' on my profile page (I'd have preferred one that just says follow but it's not really up to me).
I’d also be over the moon if you'd come and see me over at Twitter (@TheESSClub)

About: Chris Murray has become prominent as an inspirational speaker, author and sales training coach and is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works - not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works.

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman's Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

When salespeople ask to be put on advanced sales training, it’s worth enquiring about their desired outcome.

Do they want to advance what they’re already doing or are they trying to become better by changing something fundamental?

Other disciplines don’t seem to have the same issues differentiating between the two.

Take music for example. (Stay with me on this - it’s going somewhere)

I had a few piano lessons when I was a kid, enough to learn the basics – stuff like where the notes were and what they were called.

As I grew up, I wish I’d done more, become better - I really wanted to play those sexy, boogie-woogie blues - you know, the kind that people gather round and listen to when super-cool, talented guests just start playing spontaneously in hotel bars.

Later, I started earning enough money to buy a beautiful piano for my home. So I decided to make up for lost time and teach myself – building on what I’d already learnt in my childhood - and bought some music books.

However I’d never learnt to read music properly, I just knew the guitar chords above the notes.

So I had to improvise – had my own style going on – I still knew where everything was and what it should sound like.

Which was good - but not great.

You see, I sounded fantastic to a bunch of drunks in the local pub. I had the plonking sing-a-long rhythm of Hey Jude and Show Me the Way to Go Home to finish off any boozy night.

But there were still those people who had the ability to make a fifty year old, out of tune, upright piano just...bounce.

I longed to be that good.

I really wanted to play that ADVANCED stuff.

So, I took professional piano lessons.

I was told that the first thing I had to do, was break all the bad habits I'd built up over the years, start again and learn to do it properly.

Not the answer I wanted at all.

I wanted the piano teacher to say;

"Hey you’re great! Just a tweak here and there and we’ll have you banging out real tunes in no time!"

What she actually said was;

"We do this properly or not at all."

You see, there isn’t a piano teacher on earth – advanced or otherwise – who could take a student who knows a couple of chords but can’t read music to Rachmaninov by the end of a couple of lessons.

And sometimes - putting a sales team on "advanced" sales training is like giving a pianist, who can’t read music, the manuscript for a complicated concerto.

In the hands of someone who is ready for it – it will be amazing.

Those who aren’t, will just do their best with what they know and when they find they can’t get a decent tune out of the advanced stuff, they’ll just revert to playing their comfortable old tunes, all over again.

As sales people we should continuously look at how we do the things we do and ask;

"Does this just need polishing to ADVANCE it to ANOTHER LEVEL or do I need to be doing something BETTER? Do I need to BECOME BETTER?"

It also helps if you know what and who you're measuring yourself against.

Externally, everyone can see the self delusion of those who believe the way they do something is brilliant because they're the best in their own little bubble - "I've been doing it like this for 20 years, why would I need help? I don't need to get better, just show me how to do some of those tricks."

Take my word for it - no one is ever impressed by a forty-year-old playing chopsticks in the Marriott cocktail bar at midnight.

NB: I was asked by a reader of this article to clarify exactly what I meant by Better and Advanced - and which one was the equivalent of breaking bad habits - apologies if I didn't make myself clear - my reply to the question is detailed below

"Essentially, if you are on the right course - doing the right things and practicing good habits - you will want to advance that knowledge to a higher level.

This allows you to advance from correct form all the way to greatness, dependent on how far you want to take it.

However, sometimes advancement is not what is required - but doing things differently, better.

If you can be self-aware enough to know that there are better ways of doing things other than the options within your current tool kit (which also needs the bravery to step slightly out of your own comfort zone) - you'll start to seek the best advice you can find, recognise role models you wish to emulate - which enables you to realise that there wasn't any trick to ensuring your fingers stretched across the keys, it was simply that you've never held your hand properly - and that can be a bitter pill to swallow. In the article I just wanted to point out that - particularly - in sales training wanting "Advanced" means advancing, moving higher along the same path, whereas deciding there is a better path to be on requires courage and change."

*********************************

Thanks for dropping by and reading this post.

Here on goodreads, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

If you would like to read my regular posts please click the button that says 'Become a Fan' on my profile page (I'd have preferred one that just says follow, but it's not really up to me).

I’d also be over the moon if you'd come and see me over at Twitter (@TheESSClub)

About: Chris Murray has become prominent as an inspirational speaker, author and sales training coach and is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works - not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works.

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman's Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

“The secret to riches is the same as the secret to comedy – timing.” Max Skinner (Russell Crowe)
A Good Year (2006)



1. You’ve got to be fabulous, original YOU

Delivering someone else’s jokes never really works - even if you do so better than the person who wrote it.

You have a distinct point of view on your specialist subject – if the buyer is seeing three others before making a choice, make sure your originality and unique personality stand out.

Trust me, if the service or products are almost identical – you’ll be one of the very few things that’s makes a difference.



2. It has to be honest and come from the heart.
Unbelievable comedians aren’t funny and insincere sales people aren’t successful.

You truly have to believe what you're saying.

You have to know why you’re helping them and the real difference your input will make.

In fact you have to be - what we like to call over at Varda Kreuz Training -evangelistic about your entire back story and presentation.



3. You have to be inclusive

Everyone in the room has to be able to understand and relate to your content.

Being unique, original and personal is one thing – being the only person in the room that gets it is quite another.



4. A funny thing happened today (or at the latest, this week)

Use present tense verbs to keep your presentation feeling topical, current and urgent.

These days, we’re all selling to an instant gratification, attention-deficit society, if it feels like you're presenting old news your audience will tune out.



5. Genius on paper? But how will it sound on stage?

Rookie comedians fall foul of this one regularly - the written material is hilarious but dies when performed live.

Delivery has always been 90% of any routine.

Intonation, emotive pauses and calls to arms – they may sound like world beaters in your head, but how “human” do they sound when you say them out loud?



6. Things might go wrong – be ready
Stand-up comics write "savers," funny comebacks for the things that can go wrong.

Now I know you don’t want me to go on about planning and preparation – however, the best sales people I have ever met knew it, did it and got the bonus.



7. Your words should be as ‘visual’ as possible.

You need to be able to create pictures with your words, your audience need to engage with – and be absorbed by - your presentation.

If you don’t the opposite will happen - each member of the audience will begin to paint their own picture – which may lead them away from the punch-line.

*********************************

Thanks for dropping by and reading this post.

Here on goodreads, I regularly write about Sales, Sales Management and Customer Service issues, topics and trends.

If you would like to read my regular posts please click the button that says 'Become a Fan' on my profile page (I'd have preferred one that just says follow, but it's not really up to me).

I’d also be over the moon if you'd come and see me over at Twitter (@TheESSClub)

About: Chris Murray has become prominent as an inspirational speaker, author and sales training coach and is founder and Managing Director of Varda Kreuz Training, a company created to deliver sales training that really works - not in theory and not just sometimes, but sales training that really works.

His latest book, The Extremely Successful Salesman's Club has been heralded as the Da Vinci Code for salespeople.

Is the sales story in your elevator speech 100% true?

Can you genuinely promise, that the wonderful results witnessed by one or two of your previous customers, will happen to everyone else who works with you?

Here's a question that doesn't appear to be related - but bear with me.

Who Built the Empire State Building – The Financier, the Architect, The Tool Salesman or The Labourer?

Quite often (especially in certain training workshops), sales people are told to build their introductions around the huge amount of money they saved or created for a recent client.

It's supposed to make a 30 second sales pitch sound bold, brash, powerful and tick the “What’s in it for me” benefit box that some sales trainers will tell you your customers and prospects just can’t resist.

Allegedly, it’s the androgynous sales version of covering yourself head to toe with AXE or Lynx. You simply mix the magic words and numbers together and those prospects are helplessly drawn to you like some kind of sales Siren.

Which is just tosh.

If you want my opinion, more often than not, they just sound like they’ve been marinated in fiction – completely unnatural and totally smarmy.

Don’t get me wrong, those facts and figures are incredibly important, but is it really how you like to be sold to?

Do you believe and trust people who quote random numbers at you during the introduction process of your first meeting or phone call? (And do you care?)

The thing is, these days we all know when we're being sold to, we're more sceptical and untrusting than customers ten years ago. That's why you're not convinced and still don't feel comfortable, even after the sales person shows you the company literature with the endorsement from;

Mr. Bob Munchin of Surrey who “couldn’t believe his bulging wallet”, and is now "living in the Cayman Islands after pocketing the extra XXX% saved by this poverty busting product."

So what has this got to do with the question of who built the Empire State Building – Financier, Architect, Tool Salesman or Labourer?

Let’s have a look at them individually.

The Money – Well, someone put the capital in place to finance the project, without which there would have been no raw materials or wages, no one would have turned up. So it could be said that the financiers built it with their cash.

The Architect – Without the initial concept, design or plans, it simply didn’t exist. It was first built in the architects mind and then in real life.

The Tool Company – Without tools and materials the labourers would have had nothing to work with.

The Labourer – They put metal, glass and stone in place. Not as individually irreplaceable as the financiers and the architects – or as highly paid – but they turned financiers money into tangible versions of the architects vision using tools and materials supplied by the tool company.

Commonly in my working week;
• Shareholders and Directors are the financiers of this story
• The Sales Management Team, the architects
• The Sales Trainers (My colleagues and I) are the ones providing the tools
• The Sales Team are the labourers

Did clients I worked with this year;
• Exceed their targets three months in a row?
• Have their best year ever?
• Double their prospects in a single month?

You’re darn tooting right they did!

Was it completely down to me?

No it wasn't.

I just went in, worked out which tools they needed and delivered them as required. They picked up those tools and used them.

It was the hard work that those well prepared, well equipped individuals put in that really made the big bucks – a statement I’m very comfortable with – because it’s true.

Back in the old days salespeople used to seek to talk to The MAN - The person with the Money, Ability and Need. These days they're probably 3 different people - with many more involved behind the scenes in the decision making process. Therefore, an understanding of how you fit into that process and cycle of events, might well be crucial to your success.

So instead of dreaming up and spouting figures that none of us are ever going to believe - tell me, honestly, from your heart – what do you do and how does it help?