Set Mutually Agreed Upon Agendas – 6

Phew! Money is not an issue (or at least you’re pricing is in the ballpark.) Now you can relax (a bit) and have a person to person discussion vs. a sales servant to all-powerful-omnipotent-dude-thinking-of-buying-from-you-if-you-act-right-and-beg-and-discount-your-stuff-85% discussion!

What that means is that you need to now find out their top criteria and time frame for making a decision. This has always been a tricky part for sales people I’ve trained because they don’t want to insult the person with whom they are speaking (why they are talking to a “seemore” is the topic of another blog post) so they let the prospect drive the discussion.

Now that you are following an agenda it is time for you to ask something along the lines of,

“Mr. Prospect, What are your top 3 non-negotiable criteria when..

• selecting a new vendor / partner?
• evaluating new hardware / software?
• considering making a change to this process?”

Followed by…

“Mr. Prospect,  When you are evaluating new options / vendors / solutions can you walk me through the process you follow?

• Is there a steering or evaluation committee?
  
• Is legal involved?
  
• Do you have outside consultants such as attorneys, CPAs, partners, spouse, etc. you run things by and let them kick it around?
  
• Yes?
  
• How often do you meet with them?
  
• Will they be involved in our future meetings if we decide there is a fit?
  
• Will you share their contact information with me if we decide to move forward?”

You can take control of the sales process if you simply follow a system and have the courage to ask a few questions up front. If you listen (which means you are asking good questions prepared in advance) the prospect will tell you exactly what they want and how much they will pay and when and how they’ll buy it.

If you’d like a little private sales coaching that can turn your selling world around in as little as 30 minutes a month check out my professional sales training offered under the Pre-Paid Sales Training program. It’s a month-to-month private training program that will help you get sales results fast.

Set Mutually Agreed Upon Agendas – 5

Get the money talk out in the open early.

Now that you’ve set the stage to both be open and honest and also that you are going to ask a lot of questions go ahead and talk about money.

It’s AMAZING how often sales people are so uncomfortable discussing money that they wait for the prospect to bring it up. What’s up with that?

If you’re nervous talking about money (and we have all been nervous discussing money) follow Zig Ziglar’s advice:

“If you gotta eat a frog, there ain’t no use staring at it!”

Get it out of the way now. It’s better to find out you’re 50% too high or right in line with the prospect’s thinking right up front so you can then either get down to business or go find a prospect with money.

Do you know why salespeople are afraid to ask the money question up front? They’re afraid the prospect will say they don’t have the money and the salesperson will be forced to go prospecting for those that do have money. And we all know how much salespeople just loooooove to prospect, right!?

So face your inner sales demons. Get good at prospecting. Automate it with the proper email marketing system. And get good at talking about money. Do it early. Do it often. (Like Chicago voting.)

If you’d like help exorcising  your sales demons join us in the Inner Circle Silver. You can enroll in the Inner Circle Silver for just $37 for the first month if you take action now. Let your competition attend meetings shaking in their boots or hoping their prospects have the money to buy what they’re selling.

Set Mutually Agreed Upon Agendas – 4

The prospect now knows that you are not like the other sales reps with whom they have spoken in the past, and that is a GREAT thing! You’ve just appeared to give them an “out” by saying they could end the meeting at any time for any reason, which puts them at ease. Now you turn around and say,

“When I show up it won’t be to give you a fancy presentation or dog & pony show because I don’t know if I can help you, yet. I’m going to have more questions for you about you and your business that you thought humanely possible. You may want to write down a few for me.”

Far too many (98.674%) sales reps show up with brochures, catalogs and/or demo equipment and immediately hand over the samples, the literature, the demo unit and/or boot up their laptops and start telling the poor prospect about their wonderful company and their wonderful founding, and their wonderful patents and their wonderful trademarks and their wonderful support and their wonderful testimonials and their wonderful…(is your mind drifting now? So is your prospects!)

I learned from a good friend of mine years ago in technical sales that “Demo units are a crutch!”

Show up and take control of the meeting with good questions and tell the prospect that questions are a normal part of any good meeting conducted by any salesman worth his salt.

Everyone gives lip service to the whole “consultative selling approach,” which is pure happy horse $h*t spewed by mind-numb idiotic sales people that have read more books than made quota because they can’t ask one, let alone string together 30 minutes worth, of strong, insightful questions that elicit (that means to “draw forth,” vs. “illicit” as in “the Obama administration made an illicit job offer to Joe Sestak AND Andrew Romanoff.”) a head-tilting, brow-furrowing moment of contemplative silence followed by some variation of, “Hmph. That’s a great question. I’m going to have to think about that.”

By putting the prospect on notice that you will show up to ask great questions it will force you to come up with some great questions! That means you’ll have to do your homework.

If you’d like help getting your sales homework done, this is what we cover in the Inner Circle Silver in detail. You can enroll in the Inner Circle Silver for just $37 for the first month if you take action now. Or you can continue showing up with nice demo units and let the prospect get all of his needs met while he sends you off with a nice pat on the head.

Set Mutually Agreed Upon Agendas – 3

The second step to setting mutually agreed upon agendas was setting ground rules in two parts. Part 1 was agreeing to open and honest dialogue.

Part B of Step 2 is agreeing to end the meeting at any time for any reason.

It may sound odd (most things I teach are odd because it flies in the face of conventional, “traditional,” “old school” sales training) but you want to tell the prospect, “It is OK for either of us to end the meeting at any time should an insurmountable obstacle or issue pop up.”

All of us have sat through sales presentations that felt more like endurance marathons and we NEVER want to sit through anything like that again. So when you tell them, in essence, “Hey, I’m not here to wear you out. I’m also not here to be your punching bag,” it really opens up the dialogue.

I have had “techies” visibly relax by unfolding their arms, dropping their shoulders and lean forward on the table when I’ve said this when I was in technology sales.

Try it the next time you meet with a prospect and see how it works.

This is what we cover in the Inner Circle Silver in detail. You can enroll in the Inner Circle Silver for just $37 for the first month if you take action now.

Set Mutually Agreed Upon Agendas – 2

The first step to setting mutually agreed upon agendas was the Objective.

Moving on, Step 2 is comprised of two parts. Today we’ll look at the importance of setting the Ground Rules for your time together.

Put simply, I inform the prospect that I have two ground rules for all of my meetings. The first is that we are open and honest with one another.

It’s unfortunate to have to say this but our prospects have been conditioned by years of interacting, debating and butting heads with lazy, sleazy, cheesy and desperate salesmen that many actually feel that lying to salesmen is not only acceptable but necessary to get their needs served.

By stipulating up front that honesty is the name of the game it puts them on notice that you don’t play games. (This will also serve as “ammunition” to be used later should the prospect renege on his promise.)

You’ll be amazed at how much more relaxed both you and the prospect will be when you know you’re both in the presence of an honorable person that won’t play games. Professional sales people don’t want to make a sale to someone that doesn’t want or need what they offer. Once the prospect knows she’s dealing with a professional you can move on to the second part of Step 2, which we’ll address in the next post.

Honesty is the name of the game in the Inner Circle Silver. You can enroll in the Inner Circle Silver for just $37 for the first month if you take action now.

Set Mutually Agreed Upon Agendas – 1

Once your prospect agrees to invite you to his place of work the real work begins. At that point you say to the prospect, “In the interest of time and to make sure we cover the key points would you mind if we set a quick agenda for our time together?”

At that point the prospect will say something elegant such as, “Ahhh, well, yeah. Ok.”

You immediately set the tone by replying with Step 1 of The Agenda, which goes something like this:

“Mr. Prospect, the main objective for us getting together is not to discuss speeds and feeds and specs and details of my widget but to see if there is a fit between our two companies to work together.”

Far too often, especially in technical sales, sales people let the prospect take control of the meeting and turn it into a one-way free education for the prospect consisting solely of the sales person explaining every feature and function, every bell and whistle, every option and add-on only to be told

“Thank you very much. You’ve been very helpful. We’ll take your information and give it serious consideration. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. NEXT!”

We’ll cover how to prevent that from happening in more detail with the next several posts but the following steps all depend on your setting the tone by setting the agenda.

This little nugget and more are covered in great detail in the Inner Circle Silver. You can enroll in the Inner Circle Silver for just $37 for the first month if you take action now.

Only Go On Appointments When Invited

Yesterday was the last day you are EVER allowed to say,

“I’ll be in the area next week. How about I stop by?”

Beggars “are in the area.”

Sales amateurs that don’t have a plan, have nothing better to do “are in the area.”

Sales rookies that are under quota “are in the area.”

Think about it: how often is your attorney “in the area?” How often is your dentist “in the area?” How often is Donald Trump slumming around some big city hoping someone will take an appointment with him?

Stop begging for appointments.

Stop “popping in” in people.

Develop a sales and marketing plan that will automate your entire process and work it.

At the same time you need to understand with moonshine-clear clarity why your prospects MUST do business with you and ONLY you and internalize those reasons until they permeate every cell in your body. You will then walk tall, hold your head high and convey with confidence (not arrogance) that you are the best option for your client (and they are clients, not customers, which I address in another post.)

When you have that confidence it will come through on the phone, in person and/or in your written correspondence with your prospects and they will be drawn to you.

(Those that are not drawn to you will remain in your marketing sequences and will eventually be drawn to you! So create and work your marketing plan!)

Later on we’ll discuss more specifics on the verbiage used for opening and controlling a prospecting call as well as generating quality leads online but once you have a good prospect on the line and you have established they do have a need and can make a decision you simply say,

“Mr. Prospect, it sounds like (____) is a real concern of yours. Is that an accurate statement? If you would like to invite me over we can spend a few minutes exploring your needs, examining the causes of your most pressing dilemmas and if I can help you I’ll explain the various alternatives my firm offers and you then decide which, if any, make sense for you. Does that sound like a meeting you would like to have?”

THAT’S IT!

If you can master this short exchange you will initially go on fewer appointments, which has the added benefit of giving you more time to prospect, but the appointments you do go on will go smoother, with less stress, will close more often, at higher margin and more fun.

If you’d like to accelerate your mastery of this process you can enroll in my Inner Circle Silver for just $37 for the first month. Your satisfaction is guaranteed.

Good Selling,

A member of a faith-based LinkedIn group I founded (and now has 1,403 members as of this post) posted the fact that he was praying for a sales job. Here is my response:

“B,
Make a list of the top 10 companies for which you’d like to work and go see them in order. Go sit in the lobby and tell the receptionist you’d like to see the VP of Sales (find his/her name before you arrive.) When they ask if you have an appointment tell them “no” but that you are here to work for free.

After the receptionist tilts her head she’ll eventually contact the VP of Sales. If she says they are not hiring or they VP doesn’t meet with candidates or the VP doesn’t meet with people without appointments or that all job applicants must go through HR just say, “I’m not a candidate. I’m offering your company a $100,000 a year service that will add $1,000,000 to your top line but since this will impact sales and this is a limited offer your VP of Sales will want to see me first. What will it take to fit me in his/her schedule even here in the lobby or in the kitchen for 5 minutes?”

One of three things will happen:

1. You’ll meet the VP.
2. You’ll get turned away.
3. You’ll get an appointment for later that day/week.

If you get turned away contact that VP over the phone and say, “Mr. VP, Today I came to your office and offered your company a $100,000 gift that would add $1,000,000 to your top line revenue in the next 12 months but I was turned away. I will call you tomorrow at 1:15 PM to discuss this offer with you. If that is not a good time or if you would like to speak before then you can reach me at 714-369-8004 (that’s my number…put yours in here!). My name is “B.” Have a great day.”

Then go see their top competitor in the area an be sure you call the next day at 1:15.

Call these top companies up to 7 times until one of them takes you up on your offer.

Your offer is to work for them for free for 30 days. At the end of 30 days they will either hire you and pay you for your 30 days or they will let you go.

When you get picked up contact me and I’ll tell you EXACTLY how to set the proper, clear, mutually-agreed-upon expectations for your first 30 days to ensure you are successful.

If you do this today and every day this week I guarantee you’ll have someone take you up on your offer by the end of the week.

There are many benefits to this:

1. It’s exciting and different and will make you stretch.
2. It will keep you busy and stir your imagination.
3. You’ll keep your skills sharp because you’re making cold calls / prospecting calls.
4. You’ll sharpen your negotiation skills.
5. When you get picked up you’ll get to see the company from the inside, which will help you make up your mind as to whether or not this is a good company.
6. You will sell like a MADMAN those 30 days because your back is up against the wall, which will make you extremely focused, efficient and productive.

2 Cor 9: 6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.

In sales and marketing terms Paul is saying “take massive action!”

Prayer can do all things. So can prayer and smart, hard, focused work. God provides even for the little sparrows but he makes them get out of the nest to get the worm.

God Bless,
Wes

“The common man is not concerned about the passage of time, the man of talent is driven by it.”

~ Shoppenhauer

Rachel Rofe, whom I follow on Twitter had this Tweet late last week,

“Had 3 meetings in last 2 days & all 3 were over 30 mins late. About to make a “5 minute” rule where I peace out if someone’s late. GRR”

To which I responded,

“Tell them, “I have you down for 3 PM Tuesday. Should I pencil that in or write it in ink?” That gently nudges them to be on time.”

This brought a smile to Rachel’s face, my face and her Tweet as she responded,

“Hehe, I like that! Thanks. .”

If you are a consultant / service provider, your time is your product. Someone showing up late or taking more than the allotted time is LITERALLY like walking through the dairy section of the grocery store, busting open a mike carton, chugging down 3 big gulps to wash down some Double Stuff Oreos you picked up on Isle 7 and putting them back on the shelf.

YUCK!

You can’t resell that stuff. It’s wasted. Gone. Thrown away. Can’t get it back. Just like your time. So if clients / prospects are continuously showing up late you need to look at two things:

1. Are you somehow signaling to your clients that your time is flexible and that it is OK for them to be late?
2. Are you afraid to set firm appointments with your clients?

What do I mean by “signaling” flexibility to your clients? Pay attention to the words you use and the tone with which you deliver them because words mean things! For example, do you ever say things like,

How strong are those phrases? How committed and driven and motivated do you sound? Does your doctor say “swing by when you can?” Try that with an Apple store. If you’re more than 5 minutes late they cancel your appointment! (Maybe that’s why they’re near their all-time high while the rest of the tech market is suffering.)

What do I mean by “afraid?” Because business may be a little slow or we think a prospect could be a “whopper” or we don’t want “word to get out that I’m hard to work with” we don’t put our foot down when setting firm appointments and that is completely bass ackwards thinking!

Because Apple makes a quality produc and provides great service I make sure I’m on time when I set an appointment at their Genius Bar.

Because our family doctor is the best in town and is super busy but provides personalized service we get to the office on time so neither of us have to wait.

Your clients will think the same thing of you assuming you are good at what you do (you’re reading this so you’re obviously wise!) and you provide value above and beyond your fees.

So pay attention to your words, set firm appointments, tell your prospects you have a meeting right after their scheduled time so they must be on time. If they’re 15 minutes late for an hour meeting then see them for 45 minutes and bill them for the full hour and document it.

Remember, you’re the consultant, the PROFESSIONAL service provider. Act that way.

If you could benefit from a little nudge on a periodic, private basis consider enrolling in my Pre-Paid Sales Advisor program. It’s just what the sales doctor ordered!

Overheard conversation between prospective clients:

“You know how you can tell when a salesman is lying? His lips are moving.”

Overheard conversation between salespeople:

“You know how you can tell when a prospect is lying? His lips are moving.”

Who is right? How did we get to this point?

When is it right to lie in a sales situation?

Are there “forgivable lies” and “unforgivable lies” in a sales situation?