During my daily discussions with salespeople around the world, we have been talking about the challenges they have been facing due to global supply chain issues, which means that they need to sell under extraordinary conditions regarding the delivery lead times, which are extremely long compared to pre-Covid period.
In the last twelve months, I observed two main reactions. The first one is…
A sales meeting is almost like a date. And your attitude is clearly defined by your expectation of the outcome. If you would like to build a long-term relationship, you would be more interested in the other party. And you would be genuinely curious about their lives. If you are looking for a short-term benefit (a one-night stand or one-off sales transaction), you would be more talking about yourself because you would like to cut to the chase.
Ironically, most sales trainings teach salespeople how to present themselves and talk about their companies and their products. Even in line with the trend of “problem-solving,”…
From my point of view, we do not even need to provide sales training at all. On top of a clear training on the offering, it is enough to create a constant and unfiltered feedback mechanism….
Focusing on efficiency can result in doing the wrong thing most efficiently. But, how can salespeople know if they are doing the right thing?
In sports, the secret of winning all the time is straightforward indeed… The sames secret is valid for sales as well…
As salespeople we all have one primary objective of a customer meeting… closing the deal. I am suggesting to replace this primary objective with learning. Learning about what really matters to the customer.
And in order to put it into practice you can look for the answers of three questions…
In sales, we are all obsessed with win/lose rates. We call it winning the deal when the customer decides to buy your product or service. If there is a winner, by definition, somebody has to lose. This approach makes selling a zero-sum game. I think sales can be a positive-sum game if we change the definition of winning.
Let’s do the exercise together and redefine winning…
It is counterintuitive to refuse some large deals just because they are not profitable enough; it may sound strange to go back to market to prospect for new customers while you already have a historical customer database. It is a painful process to say no to your historical customers.To help make this shift, below are some tips I think can be helpful:
When salespeople lose a deal, most of the time, the reason is price, competition, lead times… in other words, losing a deal is primarily external. I have never met a salesperson telling me that it was his fault.
In fact, it is the fault of the salesperson. Not because they are not good at sales. It is because they choose the wrong customer. Let me give you an example…
Almost every day I talk to salespeople (but also friends, colleagues, customers, executives…) telling me that they are very open to learn. Yet, few of them realize that it means being exposed to be proved wrong. And even fewer people know how to deal with it. Thus, it makes them vulnerable…
Learning for Performance