Sales advice, recommendations and interesting, useful and fun news from the world of selling!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Don't "Over Respond"
When I'm nervous, I tend to babble. It's definitely something I've been working on, and this advice from communications expert Dianna Booher is a great reminder for me slow down and shut my mouth! Keep Answers to Complex Questions Clear Yet Simple
"Answer a question clearly and succinctly and then stop," says Booher. "Continuing to ramble on about a complex matter can make the issue seem even more complicated and can cause the other person to give up in frustration."
"Give an overview of the "must know" information, then wait to see if the other person asks for further details. If so, you can always add a second layer of detail to the foundational information you have already provided. Let follow-up questions be the guide as to how much or how little detail is appropriate."
"With an over-response to questions, you may find that your discussion gets sidetracked on unimportant issues, and then you're forced to rush through key points to finish within the allotted meeting time," explains Booher.
Shoot for the simple and hit the mark every time.
Author of 42 books, Dianna Booher, CSP, CPAE, delivers keynotes, breakout sessions, and training on communication and life-balance issues. Her latest books: Speak with Confidence, Your Signature Life, Your Signature Work, E-Writing, and Communicate with Confidence. www.Dianna-Booher.com
Sometimes the littlest things make all the difference. We're sure you know by now that listening to everything a customer has to say before responding is an essential. But did you know that taking a small pause after they finish and before you start speaking is just as essential? Probably not! Today sales expert Brian Tracy shares with us the impact of the pause.
"All excellent listeners are masters of the pause," explains Tracy. "They are comfortable with silences. When the other person finishes speaking, they take a breath, relax and smile before saying anything. They know that the pause is a key part of good communications."
Three Benefits of Pausing Pausing before you speak has three specific benefits. The first is that you avoid the risk of interrupting the prospect if he or she has just stopped to gather his or her thoughts. Remember, your primary job in the sales conversation is to build and maintain a high level of trust, and listening builds trust. When you pause for a few seconds, you often find the prospect will continue speaking. He will give you more information and further opportunity to listen, enabling you to gather more of the information you need to make the sale.
Carefully Consider What You Just Heard The second benefit of pausing is that your silence tells the prospect that you are giving careful consideration to what he or she has just said. By carefully considering the other person's words, you are paying him or her a compliment. You are implicitly saying that you consider what he or she has said to be important and worthy of quiet reflection. You make the prospect feel more valuable with your silence. You raise his self-esteem and make him feel better about himself.
Understanding With Greater Efficiency The third benefit of pausing before replying is that you will actually hear and understand the prospect better if you give his or her words a few seconds to soak into your mind. The more time you take to reflect upon what has just been said, the more conscious you will be of the their real meaning. You will be more alert to how his words can connect with other things you know about the prospect in relation to your product or service.
"When you pause, not only do you become a more thoughtful person, but you convey this to the customer," says Tracy. "By extension, you become a more valuable person to do business with. And you achieve this by simply pausing for a few seconds before you reply after your prospect or customer has spoken."
Brian Tracy is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations. As a Keynote speaker and seminar leader, he addresses more than 250,000 people each year. Learn more at www.briantracy.com
Today's topic is a little controversial, but I felt compelled to post it, especially after yesterday's quote about always trying to do what is right. Sales and business growth expert Diane Helbig recently wrote on her blog about rudeness in the business world - read on, and definitely let us know what you think!
"People ask me all the time what to do when people won't call them back," says Helbig. "They'll have a great meeting with a prospect and when they call to follow up, they can't get the prospect on the phone. Or they are cold calling and always getting voicemail. They can't seem to reach a human."
"As businesspeople we've lost the value of communicating directly," explains Helbig. "It's so much easier to hide behind our email and voicemail systems. On the one hand, I'm not sure the majority of people realize they are being rude. I think they need to say "no" but don't like being the bad guy. It's easier to avoid what they see as a confrontation."
"The next time you encounter this situation and have to leave a voicemail message, provide the prospect with permission to say "no." Tell them that "no" is an okay answer and that you don't want to be a pest, calling them all the time. You'll make it easier for them to communicate with you."
"In addition, reality check your own behavior," says Helbig. "Make sure you aren't participating in this practice. When people leave you messages, call them back, whether or not you are interested in what they offer. It seems we've all fallen into this pattern. Maybe we can affect a change beginning with ourselves."
Elie Wiesel said, "But where was I to start? The world is so vast. I shall start with the country I know best, my own. But my country is so very large. I had better start with my town. But my town, too, is large. I had best start with my street. No: my home. No: my family. Never mind, I shall start with myself."
Diane Helbig is a Professional Coach and President of Seize This Day Coaching. She works one-on-one and in groups with small business owners, entrepreneurs, and salespeople. Visit her website at http://www.seizethisdaycoaching.com.
3 Rules for Improving Communication with Customers
Are you a people person? Are you always comfortable striking up a conversation with a stranger or new acquaintance? If so, it's probably a big part of why you got into the sales profession, and why you continue to succeed.
While it's very important to be able to talk with your clients, effective communication also includes equal parts listening and understanding - and it's hard to maintain equality if you just keep talking and talking.
If you need some points on how to pare down your words while still making them count, check out this post from sales blogger Scott Sheaffer. With fewer words, you'll have more time for listening and understanding - and your customers will appreciate someone who lets them get a word in for once!
Getting someone to see your point of view can often feel like pulling teeth. Everyone's wired to think differently, and some people really think differently. So what do you do when your client doesn't see your point, no matter how you explain it? Use a metaphor! Sales and communication trainer Anne Miller recently relayed a story that perfectly fits this situation - read on to see how you can use a metaphor to get your point across.
A reader of Anne Miller's newsletter recently wrote in with the following situation:
As Reed wrote, "I was talking to the Vice President of Sales for a California software company that I am assisting in marketing in Japan. He seemed interested of course in numbers, units sold, and where they stood in terms of lower-priced competitive products."
"I suggested that rather than getting into a features fight and the inevitable price comparison, that they brand their product in terms of their company image, people, and the cool projects they are involved in."
"My client stubbornly insisted we stay focused on the numbers. Realizing that logic was not going to persuade him, I sketched my idea on a piece of paper showing ants on the ground fighting it out over the small stuff, the individual features, vs. the insects with wings flying above the melee, the larger branding. I compared it to Muhammad Ali, and his 'float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.'"
"Not only did that seem to work for him, but he came back with an intriguing metaphor of his own seeing my strategy as a way of separating themselves from what he called, 'the bottom feeders.'"
Reports Reed, "The metaphor took our conversation away from the dry numbers and performance stats, into the more interesting and emotional world of metaphors, which ultimately led to his acceptance of my ideas."
"An idea forced on people with logic alone rarely sticks," says Miller. "An idea expressed in images changes a listener's perspective and most often gets the results desired. What result do you want? Who doesn't quite see things your way? What metaphor or analogy can you use to shift that person's perspective?"
When people hear the word "negotiate" they often think of haggling or arguing over price - they don't necessarily think "win-win situation." Yet, according to communication expert Dianna Booher, that's exactly what negotiation can be.
"Only recently have negotiators embraced the idea that all parties can walk away winners," says Booher. "And language plays a big part in setting the tone, shaping how people think and feel about working together, and dictating the final outcome."
Consider these tips from Booher for a "win-win negotiation":
Substitute "we" for "you and me" Let language imply your intention to work out an agreement to everyone's advantage. Examples: "What would we have to do to get X to happen?" "How can we design this schedule so you don't have to work overtime and so we can meet the customer's deadline?" "What can we work out so that I don't have a large cash outlay upfront, and you still feel that you're not walking into a high-risk situation?"
Start with goals, then move to solutions If you start with solutions to a problem and one or both of you can't accept the stated solutions, you may remain at odds forever. If, on the other hand, you state only your goals or motivations, then you can either accept or reject solutions as necessary and still come to an agreement that allows both of you to meet your goals.
Dianna Booher is the founder of Booher Consultants, a global performance improvement firm that works with organizations to increase profitability and market share through more effective communication - oral, written, and interpersonal. Learn more at http://www.booherconsultants.com
Communication is the key to success in sales. Whether it is in person, over the phone, or via email, your clients are buying because they have communicated a need to you, and you have communicated a solution to them.
If communication has stalled between you and your prospect, it could be due to incongruence in the messages your words and body language are sending. Change management expert Kevin Dwyer suggests you watch out for the following communication sin - most people don't realize they're committing it.
Incongruence
When a person speaks, the audience is attempting to assess whether we are sincere or not about what we say, and they take into account the following:
The words we use - The content and knowledge of our topic, counts for 7 percent of their perception
How we speak - Including our tone, pitch and inflection, counts for 35 percent of their perception
Our visual presence - Our body language counts for 55 percent of their perception
Some examples of incongruence between words, tone and body which scuttles our message are:
Talking about open communication and frowning at difficult questions (body language versus words).
Reading from a speech in a monotone voice about how excited we are about the future (body language and tone and pace of voice versus words).
Saying, "I take full accountability" for an error without expressing what the consequences of the accountability entail (words versus words).
The next time you're communicating with a prospect, try to monitor the messages you're sending. Do your words and body language match up? Do the words in your sentences support each other? Do this, and you'll get the message across - and get the sale!
Kevin Dwyer is President of Change Factory, a change management company that helps businesses get better outcomes by managing a change in their people's behavior. Learn more at www.changefactory.com.au
Buying gas in San Diego is always an interesting experience. Not only is this a commuter city with limited public transportation, it's also an expensive city - the gas prices reflect that, and you never know what you're going to get at the pump.
Lucky for the gas companies, they don't have to speak directly to their customers when they raise prices. Unfortunately, at some time, you as a salesperson may have to do so.
Dave Kahle is a veteran of communicating price increases. Here's some of Dave's advice to help you make the transition with ease.
How do you manage to pass on a price increase without losing business or giving away margin dollars? Anxiety abounds: "Will the customer refuse to accept it? Or solicit prices from a competitor? Will I have to give away gross margin and absorb the price increase in order to keep the business?" These kinds of doubts lead to anxious and intimidated salespeople, declining sales and shrinking margins.
Here's a series of seven specific ideas to help you effectively manage price increases.
1. Set up the situation.
The announcement of an 8% price increase on a major product line shouldn't come unexpectedly out of the blue. Of course the customer is going to react strongly to the suddenness of the information. Nobody likes to receive price increases, and even worse, nobody likes to receive them without any indication that they are coming.
It's like the day I received a bill for health insurance which was 60% higher than the previous month was. No prior notice, no hint of the increase, no letter explaining it was on the way, no preparation - just a much higher premium. I reacted conventionally, and immediately picked up the phone to complain and solicit other sources. The sudden nature of the bad news fueled my negative reaction just as much as the details of the increase.
Don't let that happen to your customers. Don't wait until the price increase is a fait accompli to inform the customer. Weeks before, have a conversation with that customer about the trends in the economy toward more price increases. Share the big picture with him. Then mention other price increases that you have received in the past few months. Be specific with names of manufacturers and products to which he can relate. Mention the soaring price of oil and the inevitable downstream effect that has on all kinds of products. Mention that you are expecting an increase from XYZ component or manufacturer.
Build into your customer the general expectation that prices are going to go up, so that when the deal happens, he isn't blind sided by the information.
For the rest of Dave Kahle's tips for communicating price increases, click here.
Dave Kahle is a consultant and trainer who helps his clients increase their sales and improve their sales productivity. He speaks from real world experience, having been the number one salesperson in the country for two companies in two distinct industries. Dave has trained thousands of salespeople to be more successful in the Information Age economy. He's the author of over 1,000 articles, a monthly ezine, and six books including: 10 Secrets of Time Management for Salespeople and Transforming Your Sales Force for the 21st Century. He has a gift for creating powerful training events that get audiences thinking differently about sales.
His "Thinking About Sales" Ezine features content-filled motivating articles, practical tips for immediate improvements, useful resources and helpful tips to help increase sales. Join for NOTHING on-line at www.davekahle.com/mailinglist.htm.
You can reach Dave by e-mail at info@davekahle.com or by phone at 800-331-1287. Check out his website at www.davekahle.com
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Name: Editor: Kelly McLean
Location: Carlsbad, CA, United States
SalesDog.com, the internet's number one sales success destination for more than seven years, works with America's leading sales experts to bring practical selling tips and strategies to salespeople, sales managers, business owners and entrepreneurs. Over 30,000 sales professionals rely on its free weekly newsletter to keep them abreast of cutting-edge developments impacting their profession.
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