Tag Archives: Business Growth

Sales Coaching

Sales Coaching – How to Turn a Shopper Into a Buyer – Taking a Sales Lead

Shoppers don’t yet know what they want to buy so how do you turn them into quality sales leads?. This is how a person’s mind is working when they are shopping for, say, a new kitchen. “I know I want a new kitchen, but I don’t know which style to choose; I don’t know how much I can afford; I don’t know what kind of sink, or taps, or oven, or worktop, or fridge, or … to choose? You may find this kind of response is familiar for shoppers in your industry.

Do you send them off with a brochure? Do you take the lead anyway in the hope that the prospect would have “got themselves sorted out” by the time the sales appointment comes round? Do you try and help them make a decision on product ranges before you take the sales lead? Do you dismiss them as time wasters? Most of these responses to a shopper will generally develop into a sales lead that does not sell.

Buyers, on the other hand, will generally know what they want and spell out or list the ingredients of their required purchase. Their mind is working in a more focused way and slight changes to their original order can easily be made to the final sale through the introduction of “value added” products and services such as labour saving equipment and insurance backed guarantees, etc.

A few qualifying questions asked of a buyer are quickly answered. They are open to suggestions based on new technology or better quality materials. They want to get to the next stage of their buying cycle as quickly as possible. However, they are still looking for one more ingredient to turn them as a qualified sales lead into a satisfied buyer and customer. If you are thinking … discount or special offer, you are way off the mark! Before this question gets answered, let’s go back a step and look at a few tips on how to tell a shopper from a buyer.

Shoppers:

  • A shopper will meander around a display area and will probably be trying to compare ‘apples’ with ‘pears’ from your product portfolio.
  • Physically, a shopper will walk and touch things more hesitantly.
  • Shoppers will generally wait to be asked if they need help.

Buyers:

  • Alternatively, a buyer will be more focused at what they look at from a product point of view.
  • A buyer is more likely to read point of sale information.
  • A buyer will ask more in-depth questions and will probably relate these questions to specific circumstances – their reason for wanting the product.
  • Buyers generally approach or walk towards a product or sales assistant more confidently and will be more likely to open the conversation.

 

For the person taking the sales lead, it just needs them to watch the customer’s activity and change the opening comments or questions to fit their assessment. However, the opening question can be the making or breaking of converting the shopper into a buyer. Although these are generalisations, it is a basic human characteristic of how knowledge, or lack of, affects the psyche.

Now for the answer to above comment of what additional ingredient is required to turn a buyer into a qualified sales lead and subsequently a satisfied buyer and customer. This is also the same ingredient that helps shoppers become buyers. It is confidence and you will never get anywhere near the completion of a sale with any prospect until you have installed this characteristic into the shopper or buyer.

Taking this a stage further … if you agree with the precept that people buy people first and the product after, the feeling of confidence from a prospect must be in the sales person not necessarily the organisation they represent although this may be a consideration later.

Getting the “first contact” right every time means understanding how this element of the sale forms an important part of the complete process that takes a sales lead to a successful sale. However, there are many companies that sell their products and services direct to the public that do not successfully link the sales lead with the sales presentation and, as a consequence, will always be working on the wrong aspects of conversion ratios.

Ian D Ludlow helps sales and customer service people and organisations in the business-to-business, direct sales and retail environments to improve their current performance.

As a Master Practitioner of NLP and Accredited LVT Practitioner, he uses fun and creative techniques to change unproductive behaviours and to help individuals and teams THINK FASTER and REACT QUICKER to ever changing market conditions.

He states, “If you carry on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Ian’s specialism is knowing what to change and how to change it with minimum effort and maximum return.

Ian helped improve the average sales value for a retail business by 14% which added £34M in sales revenue over one year from 320 stores. He also helped increase the sales conversion ratio by 7% through quality sales training and lead generation programmes for a kitchen and bathroom installer; increasing sales by £24M over one year.

Ian D Ludlow can be contacted on +44 (0)1795 55 56 83 whilst his website is under construction.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Ian_Ludlow/104607

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Sales Coaching

Sales Coaching – How to Successfully Follow Up

When I accompany sales people on their appointments in my capacity as a sales coach, I very rarely see the follow up used as a sales tool. However, I have witnessed two extremes of sales follow up technique that left me cold.

The first was immediately after the sales person had finished the presentation of the price and received a polite, “We’ll have to think about that, it is more than we anticipated paying.” The negotiation was based on discount which still was not bringing the price down to the customer’s expected price level.

The sales person then packed his things and stated that he had to call his manager to tell him how the appointment had finished. You can see it coming … the manager then wanted to talk to the customer and, blow me down with a feather, more discount was offered to close the sale. This technique actually turned the customer off so much that I could see the anger in their face. Something the sales person missed!

What a shame that the only selling skills available was based on discount rather than understanding the customer’s perceived idea of value for this particular product.

The other extreme of follow up was used by a sales person selling kitchens and, at the end of the fruitless presentation, told the customer that he would call in a few days having given them time for thought about the purchase.

What made it worse was the statement, “I have to follow up every call or my manager has a go at me and after a certain period the system takes the lead back and I get nothing.” I don’t know if this was the “sympathy sale” close technique!

The follow up call was made a few days later with this, less than effective, telephone call. “Hello, this is … from … (names withdraw). Have you thought about the price any further, or what other thoughts have you had.” I’m not sure I need to comment on the quality and substance of this follow up call because it is so similar to many I have witnessed in the past.

Here are some tips on how to make sales follow up calls more effective.

 

  • Make an appointment with the customer for the follow up; what day, morning or afternoon, what phone number.
  • Agree what the subject of the call will be about; not just asking about if the customer has thought more about the purchase.
  • Have another reason for the customer to buy; but ensure this reason has a customer based benefit, not just the offer of another discount.
  • Have a progression plan for what happens after the follow up call; many sales people just continually use follow up calls as their method of keeping a sales prospect “live”.

During my Follow Up Workshops the delegates discover different ideas on how to make their calls more effective. Many find that creating a rough script helps to put some structure to the calls. Delegates also coach each other in how the call sounds from a customer’s point of view. Many have reported an up-lift in conversion ratios after implementing a properly thought through sales follow up process. 

Telephone communication for follow up and sales prospecting is a science and I am amazed at how many call centre and sales operations get it so badly wrong. Many subtle messages can be delivered through a well planned, non-visual conversation but this needs to be set up well in advance – even at the point of first contact with the prospective customer.

Ian D Ludlow helps sales and customer service people and organisations in the business-to-business, direct sales and retail environments to improve their current performance.

As a Master Practitioner of NLP and Accredited LVT Practitioner, he uses fun and creative techniques to change unproductive behaviours and to help individuals and teams THINK FASTER and REACT QUICKER to ever changing market conditions.

He states, “If you carry on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” Ian’s specialism is knowing what to change and how to change it with minimum effort and maximum return.

Ian helped improve the average sales value for a retail business by 14% which added £34M in sales revenue over one year from 320 stores. He also helped increase the sales conversion ratio by 7% through quality sales training and lead generation programmes for a kitchen and bathroom installer; increasing sales by £24M over one year.

Ian D Ludlow can be contacted on +44 (0)1795 55 56 83 whilst his website is under construction.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/675666

Sales Coaching

Do You Have A Sales Coach?

Over 35 years ago, I made what I feel is one of the significant decisions of my life. I decided that for the rest of my life I would invest 10% of my time in personal growth. In order to make this time of value I knew I needed a personal coach, a mentor and I needed to belong to a mastermind group. Of the three, the use of personal coaches has done more for my career and life success than any other career decision I have ever made.

During my speaking career I have known hundreds of people and spoken to thousands of salespeople who have said they want a better lifestyle, increased income and greater satisfaction from their career and life. Many of these same people have turned over the responsibility of their personal development to someone else. Unfortunately this is not the most effective way to ensure a life filled with success and personal freedom.

Over the years, one common denominator I have observed in successful salespeople is their willingness to invest in the continued improvement of their skills, attitudes and philosophy regardless of how they did it – books, seminars, audio products and so on. What I have also learned is that the most successful of these, had a personal coach helping them learn new skills as well as the value of discarding unnecessary habits and attitudes.

There are different coaching relationships and I am distinguishing here between a coach and a mentor. I have a lot of mentors who are no longer with us. I can think of people like; Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Will Rogers as three very important ones. I can learn from them through the written words they left behind but learning from a coach is different. A coach is in your life to help you; self-discover, think, create, unload old baggage, re-invent yourself, learn new skills, improve your powers of imagination and much more.

Do you have a personal coach? Have you ever had one? Every professional athlete from Olympic champions to the tennis and golf greats of the past and present have or have had personal coaches. Why? Because a good coach doesn’t have to have the ability to be better than you on the court or course. Their role is to help you get more out of you.

I am a personal coach to a number of salespeople, speakers, authors and CEO’s. Each month we talk about their objectives, goals, challenges, decisions etc. My role is not to tell them how they should be or what they should do. I don’t have that right. One of my coaching clients runs a $300 million dollar company. I have never run even a $10 million dollar company. I do not have the right or the ability to tell him what he should do different or better. My only role is to help him become a better CEO by asking good questions, holding him accountable, listening between the lines and helping him get in touch with his real intent.

Life is an interesting relationship between paying the price and winning the prize. Between self-investment and rewards. Between investing time in personal development and your ultimate success.

It takes commitment, patience, persistence, and goals to invest wisely in yourself over the long haul. It takes nothing whatsoever to postpone investing in yourself until it is too late and the die is cast. We are talking about a philosophy of ‘life-long learning’ – not learning as an event. It is never too late to begin an aggressive on-going self development program.

Many of the salespeople I coach want praise that they don’t get from their supervisors, validation of their methods or attitudes and permission to do something new or different. That’s not the role of a coach – that’s the role of a mother.

Where can you find a coach? Do you have to pay for coaching? What will you get out of a coaching relationship? How long will it or should a coaching relationship last? These are all very good questions so let me give you a couple of things to consider.

A coach can be anyone you trust, respect, knows how to listen, is not judgmental or critical, does not give advice and believes in you and your potential.

You can find them anywhere but there are organizations and professionals in all walks of life who spend a certain amount of their time coaching others. This may take a little digging on your part but it will be worth it.

A personal coach can:

-Improve your performance

-Save you time and resources

-Help you identify personal weaknesses

-Accelerate your career

-Help you learn new skills faster

-Improve your lifestyle

-Sharpen you existing skills

-Increase your income and net worth

-Improve your effectiveness

-Help you make better decisions

For personal coaching to be effective you must be willing to:

– Be held accountable

– Accept new ideas and approaches

– Change behaviors

– Get in touch with your real intentions

– Spend 5-6 hours per month working on your goals, plans and actions

What can a personal coach cost you? Anywhere from: $500 to $75,000 a year.

A coaching arrangement if it is to be successful requires commitment, follow-through, persistence, time and a desire to improve. There are no guarantees. Life offers no guarantees, but after over 30 years coaching a variety of people I have learned that if you will bring these attributes to the coaching process you will get back – ten times or more – the investment you made. Remember you are investing in yourself and your future.

Tim Connor, CSP is an internationally renowned sales, management and leadership speaker, trainer and best selling author. Since 1981 he has given over 3500 presentations in 21 countries on a variety of sales, management, leadership and relationship topics. He is the best selling author of over 60 books including; Soft Sell, That’s Life, Peace Of Mind, 81 Challenges Managers Face and Your First Year In Sales. He is also the CEO of Sales Clubs Of America. He can be reached at tim@timconnor.com, 704-895-1230 or visit his websites at [http://www.timconnor.com] or [http://www.SalesClubsOfAmerica.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tim_Connor/43189

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Sales Coaching

It’s How You Say It That Increases Sales – Sales Coaching

The way you present your services is how you package them. The way you package your services determines “sale” or “no sale”. Even when what you’re offering is the very same thing it’s how you say it that makes the difference and increases sales.

When you were a newbie you were trained, perhaps I should even say grilled, to follow a prepared presentation. It didn’t take you long to figure out when you use a “presentation” you’re selling no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And people hate to be sold.

And now, you’ve put your presentation away and you focus on holding a sales conversation. Good for you. However; you may have some of those old features, advantages, and benefits statements hanging around keeping you from selling more.

Believe me you want to have a sales conversation because when you do it feels far more natural for both you and the prospect, and you close nearly every prospect who’s a good match. To do that you have to identify where the prospect is in the buying stage, and then you adjust your conversation to meet them where they are. This makes it possible for you to achieve far greater success in less time.

By the way, sales people have a tendency to either presume each prospect is in the first stage or the last stage of buyer readiness. When you’re wrong you start off on the wrong foot and it’s very difficult to connect with the prospect, and obtain them as a client. You’re out of sync and they won’t feel comfortable with you or buying from you.

Just think about it: when you connect with a prospect

  • they may have no idea they have a need for your solution,
  • they may have some recognition they have a certain level of need for your solution but they aren’t ready to do anything about it,
  • they may be thinking about your solution and investigating their options,
  • or they may have an immediate need for your solution and be looking to buy now.

These are the four very distinct levels of buyer readiness. You don’t want to treat each prospect as though they’re in the same stage of readiness. The only way you can know is by asking questions. 

Listen to what they say before you respond and adapt how you respond to what they say. You’re very familiar with feature, advantage, and benefit statements. All three are absolutely worthless if they don’t match the buyer’s needs.

Plus those statements are focused on selling someone something not helping them buy what’s right for them. Instead, you only talk about features you’ve determined from your conversation are of interest to the buyer. You’ve gotten down to the details of their current situation and what they need, so you know when something about your service is an advantage and only point that advantage out if it’s relevant. You also understand the only time something is a benefit is if it directly fulfills a want the prospect says they have.

You’ll be glad you’ve made these little adaptations in your sales conversation because you’ll immediately notice an increase in sales. You’ll also notice both you and your prospects feel very comfortable talking to each other because they don’t feel like they’re being sold, and you don’t feel like you’re swimming upstream in a white water rapids. It’s a win-win leading to loyal clients willing to do repeat business with you and refer you to others.

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Sales Coaching

Live Sales Coaching

“Live” coaching is coaching that you do based on your observations of your people. Certainly it is critical to look at the metrics of how salespeople are performing against objectives to guide your coaching. Equally and maybe more important is to sit down and work with your salespeople to find out firsthand what they are doing, what they know, and where they need support so they can achieve the metrics.

Since most of you have come up through the ranks of sales as top performers, you may be tempted to keep on selling during team calls. But the role of the sales manager is not to sell but to develop others to sell to achieve their objectives. In reality it is sometimes necessary for you to sell, but “when and how” is what differentiates great sales managers from sales managers who continue to be great salespeople.

Let’s examine your role during a team call:

  •  First, make sure there is a compelling reason why you are going (i.e., add value, coach, show commitment, uptier …).
  •  Then make sure it is a team call and don’t go in place of the salesperson or you may have difficulty extricating yourself.
  •  Before the call, clarify roles by asking the salesperson what he/she thinks the roles should be and then give your view.
  •  Make sure the salesperson leads the call — not you.
  • Remember, all team members on the call must have a role and that, while there can be only be one lead, you must have a role. Together, look at the agenda and decide what it will be. For most sales calls, the salesperson should lead 85 to 90% of the call.

– As said before, there will be times when it is necessary for you to assume the primary sales role. For example: developing brand new salespeople, a very important opportunity/final presentation which calls for your skills (assuming in this case the sales manager is more skilled — which is not and should not always be the case — Think about a coach for a top athlete — the star athlete is the better performer, but the coach is nonetheless essential.). But you assuming the sales role should be an exception, not the rule. By preparing, debriefing, and coaching your salespeople, you will accelerate their development.

Debrief the call against those objectives and what you observed.

“Live” coaching is the best way to get the information you need and accelerate the development of your people. You will take a big step in making the challenging transition from exceptional salesperson to exceptional coach.

About Linda Richardson

Linda Richardson is President and founder of http://www.richardson.com, a leading sales training and consulting firm. She is a recognized leader in the sales training industry and is credited with the movement to consultative selling, which is the corner stone of Richardson’s methodology. Ms. Richardson has written 9 books on selling including her most recent, The Sales Success Handbook. She has been published extensively in industry.

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