There are a number of simple rules to follow to “prospect” for more buyers without going through the “starting from scratch” phase. It has been my experience that many sales staff forget some of the basics. Attracting buyers far outstrips old cold calling and advertising techniques.

1) ALWAYS ASK FOR AT LEAST ONE REFERRAL. Everybody knows at least one person that they can think of that may be in the market for what you sell (and most will know a lot more). If you close a sale, make a call or talk to anybody about your product or service and if you don’t ask for the name of at least one other prospect or referral may the fleas of a thousand camels may infest the hairy parts of your body and stay there for the rest of your life. This is just a simple act and if you have a good relationship with your customer chance arse he or she will make the introduction for you. So encourage the person you are talking to, to call the next prospect on your behalf, don’t just grab a phone number and run.

2) KNOW THY NEIGHBOUR. Visit your neighbours and say hi and tell them what you do. How many thousands of people work within walking distance of you’re office or factory? Remember this can be a high cost activity and should be used sensibly, HOWEVER… if you do it two days a month, fifteen calls a day, you meet 360 people in a year. What I am saying is get to know your neighbours and help them to get to know you and your business. You could even call it a ‘hello, I’m your neighbour campaign’. The funny thing is that you will meet these people over and over again, at the lunch counter, the bus stop or just in the street on the way to work and they will say Hi… and they will know what you do… and they will at some point say to one of their visitors, ‘I know someone that sells those’, just around the corner why don’t you give them a call.

PEOPLE BUY FROM PEOPLE AND WOULD RATHER BUY FROM PEOPLE THEY KNOW (AND TRUST), REGARDLESS OF PRICE!

3) JOINT VENTURES. Find other companies that sell complementary or related services/products and offer some ‘dollars’ (or physical effort) to be included in their marketing campaign. Look at how credit card companies, airlines and hotels do it. Use your imagination and talk to all your suppliers and customers about their marketing efforts and chances are you will find a few that will provide a way for you to reach lots of people at a minimum cost. This activity can be particularly well used if you can get yourself added to high volume Internet sites. You must add value, so find something that will interest the market… industry stats, legal developments or technical advice and offer it for free. You will, over time, be noticed.

4) SET UP A PERSONAL WEBSITE.  Post useful information for the world to see. Include the site address on everything you hand out. The idea is to provide an information source for people interested in your product or industry. If you’re in, say the car industry… what about a list of repair shops, service station locations, after market parts dealers, baby seat retailers, stereo suppliers, air conditioning service centres, tyre shops, spanner sellers, tune up shops, turbo charger fitters, air fresheners, seat covers and auto clubs. A rainy day can be well spent. Look at it this way, you give out your business card to your buyer, he, she or it looks at your site, he says to a friend look at my new car, the friend says, I wish I could update but I think I’ll just repaint the and reupholster, oh says the your proud customer, you should look at this site its got a great list of car stuff and there is a list of paint shops… and one more person knows who you are and that you sell cars… and they tell one or two others and so it grows.

I MET A GUY THAT HAS BEEN A TOP SALESMAN FOR YEARS, HE STILL KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT COMPUTERS, HE’S JUST LOST ANOTHER JOB… PAST GLORIES AND OLD WAYS OF DOING THINGS WILL NOT SUSTAIN YOU… CHANGE, INNOVATE AND PROGRESS IN YOUR ATTRACTION SELLING TECHNIQUES.

Ref: Hilton Johnson, http://www.salesuniversity.com

Seminars – Some Additional Thoughts

Last post I mentioned seminars. They are such a great way to attract buyer I thought I’d just add a couple of more reasons to get involved.

An additional benefit of giving public seminars or at least being the guest speaker at someone else’s is that the more you engage in this activity the more competent you will become. Lets be honest a key attribute that all buyers are looking for in all sales people is competence. Now one of the fears we all have when speaking or conducting seminars is that we will be confronted by ‘expert’ naysayers. So what can you do? If there are one or two cynics in the audience you can overcome any problem they may cause by only taking questions after the presentation, one on one. To ensure this happens you can say, “I have a limited time to speak however I will remain after in case any of you would like to talk to me personally”. If some smart individual tries to corner you publicly just say that you do not consider it wise to have the entire gathering held up while you answer personal queries. If after some time you feel you can successfully field any ‘difficulties’, allow open questions, HOWEVER don’t feel you must always have a question time after a presentation.

A wise person once said to me… ‘often the things you do for nothing will pay you of the most dividends’. This I have found is also true of seminars. For many years and in more than one industry, I have given talks to small business groups and ‘clubs’ and much of my business has come from this activity. One of the ‘free’ seminars I conducted for a professional group on a quarterly basis lead to a request for an industry magazine article which was then republished across a wide range of industry publications, which again lead to more talks and more business. Sure it’s a bit of work at the start, however it’s a lot less stressful than cold calling for the rest of your life.

Oh! Have a fear of public speaking? Train yourself out of it, or don’t sell, become a ‘techi’ or a ‘number-cruncher’. Sorry, however it’s a necessity for salespeople to be able to hold an audience.

WHO HOLDS REGULAR INDUSTRY MEETINGS, WHAT SEMINARS OR EVENTS ARE COMING UP IN YOUR CITY THAT NEED SPEAKERS? FIND OUT!

Sales lead generators, two quick ideas

Market yourself: by attending networking functions, discussion groups, business luncheons, civic events and conventions and by volunteering to be involved. If a speaker is present, always when you are given a chance, ask a question. To formulate your question listen carefully to what is being said and ask something sensible, the other listeners will be watching you. A good question can attract lots of focus on you and of course hopefully  some potential buyers.

The people you know: can be a great source of business. Attach your business card to everything you send out. I once had a salesperson that attached her business card to her electricity payment every month. The person who processed the payments bought a house from our company. Tell your uncles, aunts, friends and old school mates, what you do and for whom you work. Talk with enthusiasm about your company and products, however remember short is sweet, don’t become a bore and talk about nothing else.

ACTIVITY CREATES SALES, BE ACTIVE IN YOUR COMMUNITIES AFFAIRS

Depending on the size of area you are able to service you may find some locations more fruitful than others. I once trained bank mangers to cold call to look for prospects. Almost to a man they wanted to travel miles to “industrial areas” often over an hours drive away. Depending on what you are selling often you can find prospects next door. The point I am making is that the search for business needs time spent on research. Say you are selling restaurant equipment you need to find the very new i.e. just being established and the getting older, needing plant renewal type businesses. Just calling “willy-nilly” can be a great time waster. Also be careful not to develop a “milk run” where you are just calling on your old favorites because they are easy to talk to.

As part of your territory analysis you need to put together files on your target market players using such sources as government surveys, census information, trade publications, local newspapers and customer feedback.

Giving speeches or delivering seminars in your geographic area can also uncover potential customers. Local Rotary Clubs for example are always looking for speakers. You can’t go along and do a sales pitch however you could talk about, as an example: “the latest technical and cost saving benefits of modern air conditioners” if you were in the business of selling air conditioners. If you establish yourself as a local expert in your field buyers will often seek you out. In other words as well as knowing the potential customers in your territory you need to have a good grasp of the ‘third party’ lead generation opportunities within your geographical area and how to best utilize them.

Define customer “trigger events” and develop systems to alert yourself when they occur.

(An important facet of finding hot prospects from an article on BNET Australia and from which the basis of this article was built.) “Trigger events are circumstances that make it more likely that a customer will buy from you. For example, if you sell management consulting, a trigger event might be a customer announcement of a management change. Similarly, if you sell supply chain software, a trigger event might be the announcement of a merger.”

To expand on this concept I offer this. A true professional in sales will not just be an expert in his or her product. A true professional salesperson needs to an expert in the user of his/her products business as well. One of the best salesmen I ever met was a finance broker who specialized in arranging finance for earth-moving and construction equipment. He was great at his job because in addition to understanding finance and banking he knew as much about earth-moving and construction as his customers. He particularly new when new projects came up for tender and who the likely winner would be and off he would go to see them.

Recognizing trigger events is one of the most powerful attributes that a successful “hot prospect” focused salesperson can develop.

For every product or service there is an expected or at least likely set of potential users. The first place to look is of course your current customer base. Look at who has been buying recently and for what reasons. It is likely if your customer company “A” is expanding or spending due to his/her industry conditions, his/her competitors, companies “B” and “C’ are doing likewise. Secondly research who has money to spend. Its good to remember the old collection adage from the finance company I once worked for. “There are those that can’t pay (read buy) and wouldn’t even if they could. There are those that can’t pay however would if they could. There are those that could pay although they won’t and there are those that can pay (buy) and will.” Hot prospects only come from the last group.

Another hot prospect group can be found through referrals. Talk to your existing customers about who they think may be interested in your product, of course still apply in the finance company test above. Two other simple places is through reading the newspapers and industry journals to look for those who are “movers and shakers” in your target market. One good starting place, at least to get a list of potentials that is often forgotten is… the yellow pages. Social media watch: If your potential buyer’s businesses have a Facebook page check periodically on what they are talking about to see if they mention relevant problems or expansion plans that you may be able to capitalize on.

Research and define your target company positions.

Only call on the decision makers. Remember that committees often make decisions so you must engage all players from the outset. If this is too difficult at least make sure you are dealing with to those that have the ability to greatly influence purchasing decisions for your product or service. If you just can’t get to them all spend as much time as you can in coaching your contact on how to sell the other executives on your proposal. Example I once had a lead on a leasing transaction and the company secretary/financial controller had to present his findings to his board. To assist I had to explain an eight centimeter high stack of printouts containing a bunch of numbers to him. He understood however thought the board would have difficulty understanding the figures. I coached him to say… “Leasing through Ric’s company is it most cost effective option, the figures prove it and here they are.” I told him to drop the heavy binder on the boardroom table with a thud and bet him no one would open it. They didn’t and we got the deal.

More soon… I will tweet ( @rictownsend ) when I have finished writing it.

Although this is a relatively new state for some I can remember some time back while training some Indian colleagues commenting that they were, to put it kindly, “very verbose and that they would do anything to keep talking”. They smiled and said Richard… “here in our country there are many people and limited opportunities, we learn at a young age to stand up and have our say due to a need for us to compete to be noticed”. One participant even suggested, “if you don’t get noticed here, you just fall of the edge”.

So why is a skill in public speaking, as opposed to effectiveness in one on one conversations so important. Firstly learning to speak in public will force you to come to terms with the need to clearly and succinctly articulate a point of view. As you learn to speak in public you will be trained to build your ‘argument’ in a logical fashion and present your points so that one point builds on another. This training in thinking and speaking in a structured and logical manner is a great life skill to develop. If you persist and become proficient enough in your topic to allow for questions you will additionally improve your ability to “think on your feet”, obviously another essential skill for a fast moving environment. All these public speaking experiences of course should, in the normal course of events, enable you to increase your self-confidence, a major key to all success.

A few additional payoffs from learning to speak in public

If you speak regularly (and well) it will make you more comfortable when dealing with strangers, rather than just those that are close to you and particularly in taking the lead in what could be a relatively hostile environment.

Being comfortable and confident when speaking in public improves your employability, as it is a skill sought after in all managers by pretty much all organizations.

This skill will lead to you being better able to persuade people, as you practice and get feedback, which will allow you to improve your chances to appeal to them as human beings that have emotions, desires and thoughts that are often similar to your own. As another writer (source unknown) put it, “this is the difference between distinguishing between a simple [view of an audience as] bosses, employees or clients and transforming them in your mind into people with real problems, hopes, fears, dreams and desires”.

If you have ambitions to be a leader obviously you not only have to come up “big ideas” and a sound vision of the future you will need to express those ideas and your vision with passion and conviction to large groups of people from whom you will need to gain support and co-operation. Becoming a proficient public speaker will be essential if you are to reach a sizeable following.

So the conclusion must be that becoming an effective public speaker is a key life skill and will likely be the difference between success and failure in your life at home, at work and in the community in which you live.

Rule 1. Write like a journalist, or as some call it the A:B:C way

Obviously good journalists are experts at getting their message across so the skills they display give a great skeleton to use as a guide to our writing. The A B C stands for:

A – Accuracy
B – Brevity
C – Clarity

In journalism’s ABC they add “coherence,  emphasis, objectivity  and unity” which are perhaps a topics for another day. So lets just look at the basic ABC’s of effective business writing.

What can you do to ensure your accuracy?

As a writer one of the most difficult issues to come to grips with is to judge how well your writing covers the topic, how well the ideas flow or if you have answered the questions being addressed. A key to good writing is to ensure what you have stated in your writing paints an accurate image in the readers mind.

A great exercise to develop this skill is to write some instructions on how to use a calculator plus solve a maths problem. Once done hand what you have written to a another person to see what happens and if the answer is correct. You can also use a geometric shape as a model to  write a description of how to draw it and then see what others come up with as a result of your written instructions.

Proofreading your own work is difficult however if you have the time, leave your piece of work for a day and then read it again. Using this method can help you find the weaknesses in what you have produced. Of course the best method is then to hand what you have written to a colleague to see if you have made sense,

It’s desirable if not essential, even today, for you to ensure that what you have written is grammatically ‘correct’ and that you have followed the conventions that your organization requires. As another writer on this topic puts it: “This is one of the most important post-writing tasks that you need to do.” Grammar in most cases is what difference between a readable and understandable piece of work and a nonsensical one. Remember grammar can change your meaning dramatically!

This classic example will perhaps demonstrate the point:

a) A woman without her man is nothing.
b) A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Once more – you must proofread your work as another reader may not know that if your intent was to express point a) above or point b)

Accuracy is also governed by giving the appropriate amount of information, too little and mistaken image will  occur in the readers mind and too much will lead to reader confusion. That leads me to part two beginning with brevity.

Before we move on, finally on accuracy: Check your facts, shouldn’t really need to say it however, don’t believe everything you read and try to confirm information – ‘facts’ – from more than one source.

Go to part 2 brevity and clarity or through direct post writing-brevity-clarity

5) Facilitative Listening This goes beyond even empathic listening because it implies and requires that you are able to extend an especially helpful approach to the other person or people. A crucial factor here is “the capability to interpret the cognisance or self-awareness  of the speaker and the extent to which you are hearing and observing genuine ‘adult’ sounds and signals as distinct from [the senders] emotionally skewed [‘child’ or ‘parent’] outputs”. Again according to Business Balls ‘facilitative listening requires that you as listener will pause to think and prepare your responses during the exchange’, which is not a common trait with many listeners. They go on to say, “facilitative listening contains a strong additional element of being interested in helping the other person see and understand their options and choices”. To be a facilitative listener ‘you need to be devoid of any selfish personal motive, other than to extend help and to place the other person’s interests are at the forefront’. In my experience sound practitioners of this form of listening are able to use effective questions rather than making long winded so called ‘statements of fact’ to help the sender get where they need to be in their conversation and thoughts.

As I said the type of listening we use can have considerable outcomes in terms of our relationships and we all have a natural tendency to use one type or another. Again different situations or message senders will tend to influence our listening behaviour. I guess the most important thing to understand is that there are different forms of listening or listening behaviours and whether you see them as a hierarchy of “seven stages” or “eight levels” implying ‘improving progressions’ or you just accept my “five types” model you must be aware of how you are perceived as a listener and the consequences.

references

(1) http://www.managementblog.org/archives/2010/04/09/seven-stages-of-listening/

(2) http://www.businessballs.com/empathy.htm

3) Listening to understand. Business Balls states here “you listen only to the content and fail to receive all the non-verbal sounds and signals, such as tone of voice, facial expression, reaction of speaker to your own listening and reactions”. “Attentive data-only listening is typically driven by a strong personal results motive. It can be highly manipulative and forceful.” With this type of listening no effort is put into trying to build a relationship with the speaker. Here the listener is often asking lots of questions to reaffirm facts and can akin to the interrogator or inquisitor type of behaviour as described in the Johari Window model. This form of listening can at its best become listening to learn or active listening and can be quite difficult as we as listener attempt to come to “grips with new ideas or views to consolidated some long term memory”(2).

4) Empathetic listening or as Tom calls it “listening for the intersection where someone else’s experience meets our experience on which we can build trust.” Business Balls describe this as ‘listening with full attention to the sounds, and all other relevant signals, including: tone of voice, other verbal aspects – e.g., pace, volume, flow, style, emphasis facial expression body language, cultural or ethnic or other aspects of the person which would affect the way their communications and signals are affecting you.’ “This requires you to have an overall collective appreciation through all relevant senses of how the other person is feeling you able to see and feel the situation from the other person’s position.” With this type of listening “you are also reacting and giving feedback and checking understanding with the speaker. You will be [selectively questioning,] summarizing and probably taking notes.” Here you will be able to disagree constructively, signal understanding and use appropriate emotion controls. If you are able to engage in this type of listening behaviour you will be able to create an “improved relationship” and hopefully reach a state of “mutual awareness” with the other party.

If you are having trouble getting anyone to listen to you, perhaps its time for a change, so take a look at the free blank resume form to find some better listeners!

go to listening skills part 3

Many connections or interactions are not much more than rituals which are just “meaningless, repetitive routines devoid of real contact”. If you find that each interaction with another individual always seems to be nothing more than a polite conversation that is just following an almost rehearsed script you are obviously not really communicating or building a relationship. These situations are often built around “pastimes that fill up time with others in social, however superficial activities”. A more dangerous scenario is when these ritualized interactions become the sum total of our ‘working activities with all tasks strictly following the rules and procedures of contact and nothing more’.

As humans are political animals by nature there will always be the risk (or opportunity) for the communicators to be plying games which are usually “subtle, manipulative interactions which are about winning and losing”. If those around you are engaging in game playing fruitful communication and the chances to build any meaningful “closeness” is unlikely.

Maybe your communication problems are in part due to your body language or your facial expressions however they are topics for another day.

So where do you start to build your skill to become a more effective communicator. I still find that if you can be brutally honest with yourself  a reflection on how you behave with others based on the old however still valid JOHARI WINDOW model can give you some insights. A better road if you can stand it is to have your friends or colleagues assess you based on the model.

For a quick look at your style are you fond of using any of the following tactics during interactions with others?

1. Attacking -interrogating, criticizing, blaming, shaming or scoffing

2. Being overly reliant on “You Messages” – moralizing, preaching, advising, diagnosing or talking about you and what you have done or achieved.

3. Showing your actual or perceived power with most your communication taking the form of orders, threats, commands or giving directives

4. Falling victim to other verbal barriers can including poor use of tone, shouting, name calling, verbal abuse, berating or even pouting and refusing to speak.

We need to remember that if any of these undesirable verbal tactics are used trust will be lost and no real interpersonal relationships will be formed.

Before I finish direct page viewers can go to main blog to check out other posts by clicking on the white “orglearn.org” in the header panel above!

While you’re here take a look at the free blank resume form!

Finally: For effective communication to occur it must be two way, involve active listening, ‘reflect the accountability of speaker and listener’, utilize feedback, be free of stress and of course be clear and concise. The basic requirement for good communication is perhaps to develop a “closeness” with others that is built on open communication, mutual respect and above all trust.

refs:

wiki.answers.com/Q/How_can_you_overcome_communication_barriers

www.coachingachievement.co.uk/overcoming_communication_barriers

Helping the prospect through the buying process should be a conversation not a one person narrative. If you are using a script you are probably not listening to the customer nor understanding their wants… you are just pitching and pitching isn’t selling.

Are you working very very hard and still not making the sales?

THEY KEY TO BETTER SALES IS TRAINING YOUSELF TO BECOME THE CUSTOMER’S ‘ASSISTANT BUYER’

Do you look for the five steps of the buying process?

ATTENTION
INTEREST
CONVICTION
DESIRE
PURCHASE

Do you know how to respond effectively to the prospects state of mind and emotions at each of the five stages?

Have you done a sales training course, read a book or even an article on sales in the last 30 days?

If you want to be a real “SALESPERSON” which of the following phrases describe you…

1. long term associate
2. partnership seeker
3. trustworthy individual
4. communicative and a good listener
5. human relations expert
6. product/service expert
7. problem solver
8. referral getter
9. lead generator
10. attractive and well presented
11. caring and considerate
12. often with the customer
13. welcome if you call in unexpectedly,
14. always positive and active
15. someone to respect.

FLOGGING OR PITCHING IS NOT SELLING, IT’S A CON, SELLING IS KNOWING HOW TO BEST SOLVE A CUSTOMERS PROBLEM WITH THE APPROPRIATE SOLUTION

If you need the sales script you have not reached the level of selling competence in the product knowledge area (features, advantages and benefits) that you will need to succeed!

DO YOU UNDERSTAND AND PRACTICE THE “DON’T SELL, LISTEN” PRINCIPLE?

Being sold makes us all uncomfortable; pressure is pressure no matter how slickly it’s applied.

The book ‘High Probability Selling’ (Abba Publishing Company), by Ruben & Werth, proposes that the salesperson’s objective is ‘not to get the prospect to buy, rather to find out if there is a mutually acceptable basis to do business’. Sales success comes from being an expert in human relations; it’s about earning respect, using effective communication and particularly it’s about listening.

LISTENING to what you are being told during a sales appointment is still the best way to find a sale. By listening rather than talking you can uncover what the prospect is looking for and then you can provide the ‘fix’.

Just before I finish…

*Here is the link for direct page viewers return to main career success blog to check out other posts!

While you’re here take a look at the free blank resume form just in case after the last two posts you think selling as a career is just a bit too hard!

REMEMBER it is hard if not impossible to listen, think and talk all at the same time!

Finally: If you do stay in sales and practice long and hard enough it can be on of the most personally rewarding and financially rewarding careers you can have.

AND

Its the product of the product that your customer is seeking… they don’t want your ALKA SELTZER nor even relief from pain they want to get on with what is important to them!