I think we would all agree that we’d be better at selling our product or service if we were qualifying our clients better.
It’s very frustrating for owners and sales managers, when their salespeople do not qualify correctly.
Don’t make this mistake.
If a call is going well, you’ve done your work correctly and solved a problem for a client, for them to then say that they need to take it to someone else, is heartbreaking.
I’ve run large sales teams, carried out thousands of sales calls both face to face, and on the phone, and have made this mistake.
That’s because maybe, just maybe, you’ve not asked these questions.
Ask powerful questions
Here are three questions that you might find useful.
You have to get the right answer from question #1 first, as this often determines the next two.
1) “What role do you play in helping your decision maker make the decision?
The answer will determine if the person can help you secure the business. If you feel that “hey this dude I am looking at here is not going to help me” then stop and start again.
2) “How does the decision process work in your company?”
Ask them to take you through the decision-making process.
It gets better conversions.
For example; if your lead channel or pipeline is full of potential clients and the conversion rate is low, then those questions might need to be asked a lot more.
If you do not have enough leads, you have a marketing problem. If you have too many leads and they are not converting, you have a sales problem.
3) “Is there anything you can think of that might stand in the way of us doing business in the next few weeks. Do you like the proposal, and what specifically do you see that you like?
You have to be satisfied with this answer, it’s an attempt to see how serious they are when it comes to making a decision.
We used to call it a ‘trial close’, (they are still around) and all you were doing is making sure you did not get the run-around.
While some sales journeys do take a little longer, it’s important to qualify, qualify, qualify.
I can assure you that asking these questions will get you more sales, and ultimately that is what we are after, that’s what we are in the business of.
Have a great week.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
“What people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself”.
Does it have a bit to do with timing?
When it comes to getting testimonials from clients, it’s all about the timing.
If you do a really good job for a client, and they’re really, really, pleased – that’s the time to ask for a testimonial.
One of my staff members and founders of our US operation at NRS Media Kerry Marshall, used to call it the curve of gratitude.
Gratitude pays.
The curve of gratitude is when a client is over the moon because of work that you’ve done, and they’ve personally told you that you’re ‘the best’, and they would use you again in a heartbeat.
Well, what are you waiting for?
That’s your opportunity, to either renew a contract, create an upsell opportunity, or ask them for a testimonial.
These days, with the power of video, it’s a great opportunity for any salesperson to use the device that I’m using right now – a phone.
Ask and you shall receive.
Right there, is when you should ask that client for a testimonial.
Testimonials work, add value, and support your expertise.
In the end testimonials help you through your clients, to support that old saying at the beginning of this article.
“What people say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.”
At the top of this blog there is a video with a couple of examples of what a testimonial looks like, and how you can present them to a client.
I hope you enjoy them.
Thanks again for your time and I’ll catch you again next week.
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
Here’s my tip for this week, and it’s to do with verbal skills.
We don’t talk anymore.
It’s something I’ve noticed more and more, and it’s become so bad, that the market has been conditioned to accept it.
It’s the phone.
The reason for the lack of verbal skills is this amazing computer we hold in our hands.
It’s an amazing computer that we use every day. Right now, I can record a video and send it to my PA. She can then tidy it up, put captions on it, and put it on LinkedIn – to which I’m delivering this particular bit of content on. And you’re reading or listening to it right now, amazing.
What about a new phone?
However, wouldn’t it be great for your sales team if we asked this question?
“Why don’t we do this? Today we’re going to lock away our phones and introduce this new phone, it’s actually a real phone. It’s got a receiver and all of these buttons on it, and it’s not connected to the internet.”
Cause the truth is?
The truth is that it focuses us on one task – verbal skills.
The skills to communicate verbally with no distractions, a fixed focus on getting face-to-face, qualifying your clients, and finding out their problems.
What it does not do.
It doesn’t allow you to hide behind email, hide behind text, and other digital options.
Sure, we might have to do all of those things, but my view is, the best relationships are face-to-face, sitting down, talking with your clients and finding out what their problems are.
Review your success.
Do this simple exercise. Select your 10 best clients and ask yourself this question:
“Did I get these clients without face-to-face verbal communication? Have I met them? Do I meet them regularly?”
The money is often made simply by staying in touch.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
80% of your sales revenues come from 20% of your clients
In this week’s article I’m going to talk about the 80/20 principle when it comes to selling and doing the same tested methods over and over again.
The principle is: The 80/20 rule is one of the most helpful concepts for life and time management.
Also known as the Pareto Principle, this rule suggests that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent of your results.*
If you’re in sales, then that might mean that 80 percent of your revenue comes from 20 percent of your clients.
I’ll give you three examples. One is an example of a sales manager and what they tend to do when it comes to managing unproductive people.
Secondly a story about a retail friend of mine who has also had challenges with a supplier.
Thirdly how McDonald’s apply the 80/20 rule to their business.
Sales Managers hang on too long to non-producers
So let’s start with the ol’ sales managers. Many sales managers frequently invest the majority of their energy trying to help the worst salespeople they’ve got, who in truth, don’t really want any help themselves.
Look after the top performers
Instead look after and figure out who are the peak performers, who are the top clients, and ensure you make those people better.
It’s a real trap and if you’re a sales director reading this, go away and do the numbers.
It’s always in the numbers. 80 percent of your revenue comes from 20 percent of your clients in most cases.
I know in my own experience with one client when I was asked to evaluate their team and client list, 80 percent of their revenue was coming from 9 clients.
I say this again, 9 clients!
That’s pretty scary.
I recall saying: “We better be looking after those 9 clients for a start”.
And the second one is retail. A mate of mine owns a pretty successful retail store and 80 percent of his revenue is generated through 1 vendor/ supplier.
In fact, when you look at his numbers, he’s number one or two in the market.
Well you wouldn’t know. The service that he gets from that supplier is almost non-existent.
They would rather go to someone down the road that buys three or four of their products.
As he says it’s most likely that the ‘new’ client down the road has either nagged them to death or they want more sales, often it never happens.
The reality is if they just went to my mate’s business and sat him down and said:
“Hey look, how can we grow the business with you because you’re actually generating 80 percent of our revenue? What can we do? How can we help?”
Cause guess what? If my mate went somewhere else, they’ll be all over him like a cheap suit.
Do the few things many times over
Finally, the third observation around the 80/20 rule as it applies to McDonald’s.
Looking through some of my research for this subject I came across some information regarding what they’re really good at.
What they do consistently.
They’ve got dozens and dozens of ideas and concepts, but stick to five strategies.
I got this from an old Dan Kennedy blog that I saved years and years ago.
Basically what Dan said was that they use five strategies.
McDonald’s very good at understanding what works for them. For example, their billion dollar statement annually.
‘Would you like fries with that?’ is a classic example.
Let’s look at these five strategies.
The first one is discounting for a limited time.
The second one is a two-for-one special for a limited time.
A special item for a limited time.
A movie or a TV theme with a company such as Disney, for a limited time.
And a contest or game promotion for a limited time.
So what they’re doing is they’re using those strategies over and over and over again because they know they work.
Think about how it works if you’re a sales manager, retailer, or service business.
In summary, the 80/20 rule:
If you’re a sales manager? Make sure that you do your numbers and look at your clients that are generating the most revenue and your salespeople that are generating the most revenue and look after them with a passion.
If the ones that aren’t as good aren’t prepared to help themselves, get rid of them.
You don’t need them.
That might include a few clients as well.
At the end of the day, go and support the people that are prepared to commit to your business.
Second thing, if you’re a retailer or business owner, or a supplier, have a look at your clients and think does this apply to me?
Finally, like McDonald’s, do you have five strategies that you use consistently, to generate most of your revenue?
I believe the 80/20 rule plays a big part in a lot of what we do in business, every day.
You have a great week.
Selling is easy.
*Source: Wikipedia
Whatever career you decide to take in sales, it’s always good to get some help.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
One of the key components to selling is selling yourself first.
These days, where online content is just a click away; where your clients often already know a lot about the features of your product thanks to the likes of Google, online reviews and such being so readily available – selling yourself still plays a big part in the sale.
Emotion plays a part
Any sale is made up of a client understanding your product and then taking an emotional attachment seeing it work in the future.
Future results – if you think about it – is what a client has to know first, so you are then able to engage them emotionally to buy your product or service.
This is not new by the way.
Including the future
Understanding what future your client wants, and delivering that solution, is one of the key aspects to discovery.
Mike Brunel started mikebrunel.com after being a successful entrepreneur and founder of NRS Media. He co-founded NRS Media in Wellington, New Zealand, expanded it into a global powerhouse in media sales and training, and was eventually responsible for opening offices in London, Atlanta, Toronto, Sydney, Capetown, and Bogota. He has hired hundreds of salespeople around the world.
He made a lot of mistakes when it came to hiring his superstars. Check out his How to Hire A Super Salesperson Each and Every time – It’s packed with tips and ideas on how to hire great salespeople. Don’t ever Hire Bad Salespeople Ever Again. Promise!
