When I am driving to a destination, unless I am in site-seeing mode, I plan my route and look for the fastest way to get there. That’s true for many people. But when it comes to selling, it’s astonishing how this simple concept isn’t tackled with the same fervor and consistency.
A client recently told me that the sales cycle for their business is a “long process and it just takes time.” I hear this a lot. In fact, it’s what I told myself in my early selling years. I was selling an intangible, high ticket service to multiple buyers. I told myself that this was a complex sale and it just takes time. That was then. Now I ask myself and the people I coach different questions.
- “What if your sales cycle is long because of what you’re doing? Or not doing?”
- “What if you could shorten the sales cycle from 8-10 steps to only 3?”
- “What if you could map out and document the shortest route possible to achieve the most profitable sale?”
Continue reading “Selling Cycle is NOT One, Two, Skip a Few”
I’d like to challenge you to try something different this week in your sales process. For example, to improve your sales success, you could change your opening question. Be surprising. See if you can wake up people – and yourself – by saying the unexpected. See if you get better sales results.
A blog post by marketing expert Seth Godin reminds me of a best practice that has worked for me consistently through my sales and personal life– to ‘try different’. Not try harder, but try different. Continue reading “Sales Not Working? Try Different for Sales Success”
In a previous post I told Jim’s story about how he self-sabotaged his sales with a client. Jim was a client of mine who was already successful in sales. He had doubts that the Intentional Selling™ program could add anything new to his sales results. But he gave it a good try anyway, with much encouragement.
He ended up gaining new respect – and new sales – from his client. Had Jim continued to work under his previous assumptions about the client’s needs, without delving deeper into the discovery process, he would have missed a big opportunity.
Anytime you operate on assumptions without adequate discovery, without exploring with the client what they really need, you can self-sabotage your sales results.
What Can You Do About Sales Sabotage?
You may think you know which assumptions you hold that creep into your thinking when it comes to selling. However, a word of caution: This is not easy to uncover and discover. Unless you devote time and effort to learn your own limiting assumptions, many of your beliefs risk remaining out of your conscious awareness, operating in the background to sabotage your best efforts.
It is difficult to discover this on your own without a structured program and process, or without a coach to help you work your way around your own self-limiting and sabotaging barriers.
Exercise: Continue reading “How to Avoid Sales Sabotage”
Sales professionals clearly understand the need for structure and process for the delivery of their products and services and yet, many of the smart sales people I talk with don’t have a clear process for selling. Having a clear sales process is very important and here’s why.
A clear sales process allows professionals to be who they are and to demonstrate their expertise during the selling process. For example, in all our sales training we incorporate a 6-step process that easily aligns the selling process with your identity as a consultant.
The 6-step sales process is a framework that guides you through the face-to-face meeting (it can also be used for ear-to-ear phone meetings). The important thing to know is that there is a clear and structured process that works to produce consistent sales results. And, when you learn to use the process, you will be seen as a true professional, demonstrating genuine care for your prospective client – and your results will skyrocket. Continue reading “Smart Sales People: A Common Mistake Even They Make”
As service professionals, one of the ways we help our clients create breakthroughs is to raise their awareness of the assumptions and beliefs that sabotage their results and limit their potential. Many times, sales people aren’t even aware of their own assumptions about selling, or about their client’s needs.
In my coaching work, this is one of the first things I address with my clients. What are you assuming to be true, without examining it in light of the current situation and/or client? Even the smartest, most brilliant sales professionals are amazed at the ways in which they actually undermine their own success.
With the Intentional Selling™ program, we begin by examining these limiting assumptions and beliefs. I ask you to take a hard look at what your underlying assumptions are and the impact on your behaviour.
If we are unaware of our limiting assumptions and their implications, we will likely continue to self-sabotage success in developing business.
Through my Intentional Selling™ coaching process, clients self-identify their limiting assumptions and then, for each assumption, we explore the impact on behaviour. Most limiting assumptions are based on faulty thinking or logical fallacies. Some examples are illustrated below.
Continue reading “Self-Sabotage and the Sales Process: Jim’s Story”
When I am driving to a destination, unless I am in site-seeing mode, I plan my route and look for the fastest way to get there. That’s true for many people. But when it comes to selling, it’s astonishing how this simple concept isn’t tackled with the same fervor and consistency.
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