To be successful, every meeting you attend, every email you send and every call you make must directly contribute towards moving the sale forward to the next milestone in the sales campaign.

Here are 6 quick sales tips that can help you move your sales in the right direction when working in a commercial environment.

1. Uncover buyer needs and desires

Uncovering a buyer’s needs and desires is crucial to the progression of any sale. Failure to do this will prevent you from identifying and solving the buyer’s wider problems. In turn, uncovering needs and desires will help you to maximise value for the buyer.

To uncover these needs and desires, ask open questions about the customer’s world. This will get the customer to open up about their pressures, problems and desires for improvement. Make sure that you actively listen to the buyer’s responses and probe any opportunity to align these needs and desires with one of your solutions.

2. Create urgency

After uncovering the buyer’s needs and desires, you should be in a great position to establish a compelling event that creates a real sense of urgency in the buyer’s mind to progress the sale.

The key is to make sure that the compelling event (or pressure) is external to the buyer’s control. It needs to be something that keeps the buyer awake at night, something that cannot be solved through internal changes, and something that will not go away if ignored.

To achieve this, you should ask probing questions that make the buyer wallow in the implications of ‘doing nothing’. By funnelling from open questions – that expose the buyer’s needs and desires – to probing questions – that make the buyer wallow in the implications of ‘doing nothing’ – you will create a real sense of urgency for your solution.

Funnelling from open to probing questions is a natural process that should result in a joint commitment from both sides (i.e. from the sales person AND the buyer) to commit resources to moving the project forward and ensuring that a solution is put in place that aligns with the customer’s own pressures.

3. Start with the implementation of the solution and plan backwards

Having created urgency in the buyer’s mind, you should then get the customer to buy-in to the key milestones and actions that you believe are necessary to moving the sale forward.

To maintain the momentum of the sale, this should be done by discussing the implementation of your solution in relation to the customer’s needs and desires and planning the key milestones backwards. This should create more urgency because it will further align your solution with the buyer’s pressures, while making the buyer (and you) realise the key milestones that need to be achieved to successfully implement the solution.

4. Gain a commitment to work together to meet the buyer’s deadlines

Remember to constantly remind the customer of their external pressures and the implications of not responding to these pressures or missing their deadlines.

This should help make the sales process a joint collaboration effort that delivers benefits to both sides. At every stage of the sale you should agree joint actions with the buyer to take the project forward.

5. Get senior sponsorship and publicise joint agreements

Always know who the ultimate decision maker is that will approve the sale. It is crucial that you get his or her buy-in to the benefits of your solution as early as possible and keep up their interest right the way through to the close of the sale.

By gaining senior sponsorship and publicising the joint actions and agreements at every stage of the sales process, you will be able to maintain the pace of the sale to meet you own deadlines for closing the deal.

6. Follow-up on your actions and check on the progress of others

It is up to you to ensure that the benefits of your solution are realised and make sure that your senior sponsor sees the tangible value you have created.

If you can follow through and achieve this with a tangible measure of the return on investment you have delivered through the sale, you can be almost guaranteed that you will be asked to deliver more of these benefits.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase

Traditionally, Key Account Managers (KAMs) have been sales farmers. That is, they work hard to sow, nurture and grow their account relationships over a long period with the aim of reaching the coveted status of being seen as ‘trusted sales advisors’. This status has historically been viewed as the ultimate goal because it results in protected differentiation, premium prices and income predictability.

The problem in today’s world is that this type of sales person is an expensive overhead for both selling and buying organisations, not least because KAMs often take years of investment before they deliver rewards. We also see that many sales farmers receive great customer satisfaction scores but go totally unnoticed at the senior decision-making level and lose 90 percent of the opportunities they bid for.

But in today’s tough environment, the hard truth is that NEITHER the selling nor buying organisation can afford to wait years for their farmed relationships to bear fruit. They are BOTH impatient and want to create value rapidly, while seeing a quick return on the time and money they invest in their business relationships.

In these high pressure times, if a KAM hasn’t ‘harvested’ significant value from a relationship within six months, there is a problem for all concerned!

Today’s Key Account Manager needs to be a leader and a challenger

Today’s Key Account Manager is expected by both the selling and the buying organisation to innovate, challenge and hunt down new opportunities that will quickly create tangible and mutual value. To achieve this, KAMs need to challenge the strategies of buying organisations, hunt down opportunities that will make a difference, and lead the sales process to deliver a solution that transforms the performance of the buying business units they sell into and the performance of the sales team they lead.

This means that today’s Key Account Manager needs to be a leader and a challenger. KAMs must aspire to be the perfect hybrid of, on the one hand, a trustworthy sales farmer and, on the other hand, a proactive sales hunter.

Hybrid hunter-farmer Key Account Managers should lead their teams to hunt down game-changing opportunities, develop strategies that both the buying and selling organisations buy into, and farm mutually transformational value that can be measured. If you can be this hybrid who has both types of selling skills and behaviours, you can be a world-beating sales person and will have a great selling career.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase

In recent posts we have talked about the importance of having a positive attitude and acquiring a superior set of selling skills to enhance your sales performance.

Indeed, it is true that the best sales people tend to be highly motivated individuals who have spent a lot of time and effort finely tuning their sales techniques and sales process.

But successful selling relies on much more than this…

This is because our fundamental values and beliefs have a significant impact on our approach to selling.

By paying attention to your values and beliefs (particularly those holding you back) and taking action (if necessary), you can lay the crucial groundwork needed for a successful career in selling.

Fulfil Your Values

Values are the things that are most important to us. They might include things like autonomy, respect, honesty, trust…or even having fun!

As a sales professional, it is important to pay attention to these values because the extent to which you fulfil them is likely to have a direct impact on your sales performance.

By adopting a selling approach that supports your values or (at the very least) an approach that does not actively contradict your values, you can create the foundations for a positive attitude and high motivation when selling. In turn, this will most likely have a positive impact on your success when selling.

If ‘honesty’ is an important value, for example, you are more likely to achieve sales success by seeking opportunities that facilitate an honest approach to selling. By targeting those deals that allow you to be honest with your customers, you should develop a more positive attitude and higher motivation than might otherwise be the case.

But be aware – if you ignore your values, you may well suffer from a negative attitude and low motivation when selling. This can seriously inhibit your sales performance and, in turn, the amount of sales commission you will earn in the future.

If you value ‘trust’ but only target deals that serve to contradict this value, for example, it is likely that you will develop a negative attitude and suffer from low motivation.

By being aware of your values and actively seeking to support them, you can thus sow the seeds that will enable you to grow a successful sales career.

Align Your Beliefs

While values are the things that are important to us, beliefs are those things that we feel are true.

Similarly to values, beliefs are important because they can have a great influence on our actions and approach to selling. In turn, beliefs can have a significant impact on our ability to sell.

By holding positive beliefs about selling, you will naturally communicate more passionately and convincingly with your sales prospects. You will be more confident and inclined to plan ahead of sales and you will be much more determined to drive the close to win deals.

In contrast, holding negative beliefs about selling will most likely hinder your ability to communicate effectively with prospects. The chances are that you will be less enthusiastic about your product which, in turn, will kill most of your deals and inhibit your ability to hit your sales targets.

But, if you naturally have a negative perception of selling, what can you do about it? After all, beliefs are highly personal and can be very difficult to change…

If your beliefs are holding you back, you should actively seek evidence that contradicts any restrictive beliefs. It may seem obvious, but by seeking evidence that contradicts your restrictive beliefs, you can gradually erode these beliefs over time until you hold more positive beliefs about selling.

If you believe that every cold call you make irritates your prospects, then actively look for evidence of times when you (or others) have actually helped a potential customer when cold calling. By seeking evidence of sales where you have provided benefits to your prospects, you should soon gain a more positive outlook on selling and, in time, lay the groundwork for a more successful career in selling.

In summary, an awareness of your values and beliefs is crucial to enhancing your sales performance. Once you are aware of your values and beliefs, it is then up to you to take the responsibility to fulfil these values and actively seek evidence to align your beliefs towards a positive perception of selling. By fulfilling your values and acquiring a positive perception of selling, you can dramatically enhance your success when selling.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase

This traditional “wisdom” holds that selling skills can be honed over time, but they need to be based on a highly confident personality, a dogged determination, and a desire to be successful that drives every action.

Meanwhile, sales leaders have traditionally been thought of as “alpha” individuals who command the respect of their sales forces and drive income growth at any cost.

Times have changed

While these observations may have held true in the past, times have changed and many are now challenging such conventional views.

In recent years, buyers have become more “business-savvy” and have a much greater choice of suppliers than was previously the case. Legal and ethical concerns have been raised towards best sales practices in the media. Technological advances and social trends, such as an explosion in the use of social media, now ensure that brand-damaging news can travel around the world in a matter of seconds. Furthermore, the economic downturn has resulted in most purchases having to be supported by a clear commitment to deliver a return on investment.

In this challenging new world, such external pressures have made the sales process more complex. This has encouraged many companies to rethink fundamental questions, such as “What makes a great sales person?” and “How do we make our sales people great without overhauling the entire sales force?”

A structured and continuous approach is needed

Successful selling organisations are now realising that, to gain a competitive advantage in today’s marketplace, they need to develop a structured and continuous approach to developing best practice consultative selling skills, world-class sales techniques and processes, consistently professional behaviours, and role-model attitudes that will drive organisational performance and reputation.

These organisations are finding that successful selling does not simply come from excellent individual sales performances. Rather, they realise that true success is achieved only when their sales people perform well together, in a collaborative and consistent manner.

Successful selling organisations are also realising that, to become world-class, their sales leaders must: be able to plan and lead the execution of a compelling sales strategy; have the behavioural agility to adapt their leadership style to different situations; have the self-motivation required to constantly learn from others; and both lead and manage any change with the courage, conviction and determination that befits the term “hero”.

The route to successful selling for organisations in the new world is a joint commitment to the continuous professional development of their sales forces, sales management teams, and sales leadership teams across the organisation. Selling organisations we are working with that share this vision are currently investing in – and reaping the rewards from – organisational sales development strategies to embed the necessary changes at the heart of their culture, systems and processes.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase

In today’s world great sales people are really not the pushy, over-confident stereotype that most people think of when they hear the word ‘sales person’ or ‘salesman’. The highly male-oriented, winner-takes-all environment that many associate with sales is dead for any organisation that wants to be successful, regardless of their target industry.

This is because buying organisations across all sectors are polarising their purchasing decisions and responsibilities between commodity purchases (those dealt with by transactional procurement teams and based on price with low margins) and strategic purchases (those dealt with by senior business sponsors and multi-discipline business improvement teams and based on value with high margins).

This means that, unless selling organisations are confident that they can win high-volume, low-price contracts by having the lowest cost base, they must establish capable business development teams that work together and use best-practice consultative selling skills to consistently win high-margin strategic sales.

Traditional sales techniques are no longer enough

Traditionally, people have thought that a good knowledge of the target client (and sector) and a good knowledge of the selling organisation’s products are the critical success factors when it comes to selling. Indeed, these attributes have formed the basis of many recruitment policies for organisations developing a sales capability in their target sector.

But successful selling organisations are now realising that a good knowledge of the target client (and sector) and the selling organisation’s capabilities is just one dimension needed for successful selling. Best-practice selling in today’s world requires consultative sales techniques, professional selling attitudes and behaviours, the ambition and poise to be seen as a trusted advisor, and innovation at the decision-making level.

Develop consultative selling skills

To be successful at strategic business development in any industry, you need a consistent consultative selling methodology that enables the selling organisation to:

a) rapidly develop unique insight into the implicit and explicit needs of the buying organisation and the individual members of the decision-making unit (DMU); and

b) build trust and a perception of value.

This is because consultative selling skills are highly effective and transferrable across any industry.

By applying a consultative selling methodology and the right business development framework, a high level of knowledge of the target client (and sector) and the selling organisation’s capabilities can be rapidly developed and aligned to the point where competitors using traditional ‘Feature Advantage Benefit‘ (FAB) sales techniques become redundant and ineffective.

Individuals and organisations that are able to develop best-practice consultative selling skills (along with professional business and relationship development methodologies) and realise a positive shift in their attitudes and ambitions can therefore quickly achieve success in any (existing or new) target sector.

The emergence of Sales Academies

In today’s environment, many selling organisations are failing because they miss the fact that the selling skills, behaviours and attitudes of their customer-facing people represent a major part of the proposition that differentiates the great selling organisations from the “also-rans” in the industry.

This is why forward-thinking selling organisations are establishing Sales Academies to develop the right behaviours and attitudes in their sales people, in addition to the right knowledge, selling skills and sales techniques across their sales forces that will enable them to consistently beat their competitors and win over the trust and value-perception of the senior decision makers in their target markets.

By putting their people through a Sales Academy, the selling organisations we are currently working with are experiencing a real, positive shift in the selling skills, behaviours and attitudes of their sales forces. By developing consultative selling skills that are transferrable across any industry and refining the attitudes and behaviours of their people, these organisations are realising huge benefits that are enabling them to drive their performance despite the difficult economic conditions.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase

The Feel, Felt, Found method is one of the most familiar objection handling techniques available to the modern day salesperson.

Although it has been around for years and some buyers are wary of it, we feel that it is still a highly effective means of handling objections in most selling situations.

Here is how you can make it work for you…

Feel

First, empathise with the prospect’s objection. Let them know that you understand how they feel.

e.g.

“I understand that you feel that way about [the high price], Mr. Smith.”

“I know exactly how you feel about [the level of service], Ms. Jones.”

This should enable you to build rapport with the client as you will be seen to be harmonising with their objection.

Felt

Second, tell the prospect about another client that (initially) felt the same way.

e.g.

“I spoke to a client last week who felt exactly the same way as you do about [the high price].”

“Many of our clients have felt that way about [the level of service].”

By providing the prospect with an example of another client who has felt the same way as they do, you should further convince them that you understand their objection. This should enable you to build trust with the prospect.

By demonstrating to the prospect that other clients have felt the same, you should also make the prospect feel as if their objection is completely natural. This should make the prospect feel more comfortable as they may no longer think that they are not alone in their objection.

Found

Finally, tell the prospect about how this other client found that he or she actually had a positive experience from buying your product or service, despite their initial reservations.

e.g.

“But when she started using our [widgets], she actually found that she [reduced her labour and maintenance costs].”

“But when they went ahead with the deal, they found that they [received a much better level of service than they had with their previous suppliers].”

By showing the prospect how somebody else has been able to overcome a similar concern, you should make the prospect feel much more confident that they can overcome the objection themselves. Since the prospect should feel as though they are part of a group of individuals that have overcome the objection, they may well change their own mind accordingly.

But be careful…

The Feel, Felt, Found method is great in most situations. But be careful. If used too early, it may fail to address the real objection. This may lead to you comparing the prospect’s situation to clients that are in a completely different situation to the prospect. In turn, this may create further, more complex objections rather than defeating the real objection.

To make this objection handling technique work for you, make sure that you have fully probed the prospect’s objection and understand their concerns first. Ask open questions and carefully listen to the prospect’s response in order to find out as much about the prospect’s objection a possible before clarifying it with the customer.

Then, and only then, should you be in a position to apply the Feel, Felt, Found method in a manner that effectively aligns the objections of others with that held by the prospect.

By demonstrating that you clearly understand the way the prospect feels, providing the prospect with an example of a client that has felt exactly the same way as they have, and showing them how this client has experienced positive benefits despite their concerns, you should put yourself in a far greater position to defeat the prospect’s real objection.

But still be aware… this is an objection handling technique that has been around for years. Many buyers will be highly wary of the Feel, Felt, Found method an on the lookout for salespeople who implement it.

To make it work, try to use this technique as naturally as possible and, preferably, when dealing with prospects that have not been “sold to death” by many salespeople in the past. If selling to savvy buyers that encounter salespeople on a daily basis it is probably best to use this method with caution.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase

In an earlier blog post, Steve Eungblut showed how important it is for salespeople to be aware of their own personality. This is crucial for salespeople to be able to adapt their communication style to fit their circumstances and to be aware of their own biases and blind spots. He also spoke about the importance of being able to identify and understand the personality of the buyer.

This latter ability is probably one of the most useful in the sales person’s arsenal. A proficiency in identifying and understanding your buyers’ personality will lead to a better qualification of opportunities, greater value creation, more accurate sales proposals, higher win-rates, and faster close times.

If you’re able to reliably identify and understand your buyer’s personality, then you’ll be able to ensure that information is presented to them in a way that will let them easily make use of it. In turn, this should encourage clients to make informed buying decisions regarding what you have to offer.

The best salespeople seem to be able to do this almost naturally. However, for the more mortal amongst us, it helps to have a framework to use. This is especially powerful when working in teams because it will provide a reference system and a vocabulary we can use to share our thoughts and test them with others. It also helps to build a coherent contact strategy.

There are many tools and methods that are available to help diagnose and define personality types. The majority of these are based on the work of the psychologist Carl Jung. Although Jung’s research was conducted in the first half of the 20th Century, his theories have stood the test of time and are, to this day, widely regarded as being both useful and accurate.

Broadly speaking, Jung’s model shows three dimensions of personality based on: a person’s preference for being with others (Extraversion/Introversion); acquiring information (Sensing/Intuition); and coming to a decision (Thinking/Feeling). Combinations of these preferences lead to 8 possible personality types.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is probably one of the most well-known diagnostic models based on this theory – it is certainly the most rigorously researched and validated. Myers and Briggs added a further dimension based on how people prefer to act on their decisions (Judging/Perceiving). This enhancement therefore creates 16 possible type combinations.

For the salesperson, there are two important aspects embedded in all this theory:

Firstly, how do you recognise the preferences of another person and secondly, how can you use that information to radically improve your win-rate as well as your value to the client?

Although it is beyond the scope of this post to provide the full picture, here are a couple of examples of how this may be achieved:

If you’re meeting with someone who talks about the finer details of their issues then it is likely that they prefer ‘Sensing’ as a way of acquiring information. If, on the other hand, they make leaps of thought or discuss the “bigger picture”, then their preference would appear to be more inclined towards ‘Intuition’. There are a whole host of visual and vocal clues that can quickly help you make an assessment of a buyer’s personality type.

The question of what to do with this information is where the real treasure lies for the sales professional. The key to this question is in the various combinations of buyer personalities.

For example, if you know that someone prefers ‘Intuition’ as a means of acquiring information and ‘Feeling’ as a way of arriving at a decision, then you can reliably infer that they will be seeking to understand the strategic value behind your proposal. Consequently, you should spend less energy on the details of how a solution will be implemented and more energy on how it will impact on people, the business as a whole (especially), and how it will fit with their value system and their customers’ needs.

Similarly, someone who has a preference for a ‘Judging’ style will be more eager to move to closure than someone with a preference for ‘Perceiving’, who will prefer to take time to think about their decisions and reflect. This is crucial information when it comes to deciding how to handle that most delicate part of the sales process, as well as forecasting close dates more accurately to your own manager.

Written by: David Vachell, Managing Director of Coley Learning

In terms of fundamental selling skills, the list could be endless. To just scrape the surface, a great salesperson should be excellent at pitching and persistent in their approach to selling. They should have an advanced array of negotiation skills and closing techniques that enable them to sign off favourable deals in line with their forecasts.

They should also be confident and competent at crucial aspects of the sales process, such as cold calling, objection handling and writing winning sales proposals, while they should have a positive, “get up and go” attitude to selling.

But there’s more to an outstanding salesperson than first meets the eye. What really separates an average salesperson from an extraordinary salesperson is a constellation of attitudes and behaviours that have a considerable impact on an individual’s – and, indeed, an entire selling organisation’s – sales performance.

Here I am going to run through these critical selling attitudes and behaviours that sales managers should look out for when hiring or evaluating the performance and capabilities of individuals within their sales team.

1. Does the salesperson understand the customer?

Having already qualified their prospects, the best salespeople invest a lot of time getting to understand what really drives their potential and existing clients and how they operate. They ask a lot of questions to uncover the specific needs and desires of their prospects. They also ask questions to uncover what the buying organisation is doing well and where there is room for improvement.

By asking these questions, the best salespeople are able to align their solutions with the most important needs and desires of their prospects. They are also able to uncover and anticipate previously unidentified problems which may be crucial to creating new sales opportunities.

While average salespeople are usually aware of who makes decisions in the buying organisation and have an idea of when the next orders will be coming through, the best salespeople are already one step ahead of the game. By taking more time to understand their prospects, the best salespeople know when their customers are ripe to buy. While they are eager to make each deal a success, they strike only when the iron is hot and capitalise on the buyer’s needs, desires and outstanding problems when the timing is most appropriate.

2. Does the salesperson use their knowledge to attract customers?

Outstanding salespeople are experts when it comes to their target marketplace. To customers, they are seen as industry experts. This enables them to forge great relationships with their prospects by taking a common interest in, and acquiring a great knowledge of, the buyer’s environment. In turn, the best salespeople compel their prospects to want to do business with them and nobody else.

While average salespeople spend some time to get to know the products and services in their buyer’s industry, the best salespeople recognise that products and services change. The best salespeople also understand that the needs and desires of their customers change over time.

Through their expert knowledge of the target marketplace, they are able to anticipate these changes and align their selling strategies accordingly. This enables great salespeople to build a strong bond with their customers based on a common industry expertise, an ability to analyse buyer needs, desires and problems, and the capability to align compelling solutions with these issues.

3. Does the salesperson maintain close contact with their customers?

In today’s challenging and complex selling environment, buying decisions are taking longer than ever before. With many industries facing a lack of confidence and cutbacks in spending budgets following the recent financial crisis, the sales process has thus become much more difficult and prolonged in today’s marketplace.

Consequently many salespeople are drifting away from those customers that are taking a long time to make buying decisions. Many salespeople, impatient to make sales and close deals in the short-term, are writing off these customers which seem to be taking forever to make buying decisions.

In contrast, the best salespeople are aware that buyers can be unpredictable, particularly during these unpredictable times. They know that buying decisions are taking longer than ever before. But they also know that writing off a customer simply because of a delayed buying decision could be a huge mistake, potentially resulting in lost sales opportunities and prospects being induced by the competition. As a result, they maintain close contact with all their customers – even those that seem to be taking forever to make a buying decision.

4. Is the salesperson good at networking?

The average salesperson spends a lot of valuable time trying to knock down closed doors in an effort to exploit new business opportunities. They spend a lot of time cold calling and chasing customers with whom they have previously had little contact with. Consequently, these salespeople are often perceived as intrusive, turning potential clients away and tarnishing the reputation of the sales organisation.

Although cold calling and new business development remain a crucial aspect of selling, many salespeople fail to have recognised a fundamental shift in the world of selling. They don’t realise that customers are increasingly deterred from invasive sales techniques which indicate that the salesperson is only interested in the sale, rather than satisfying their most pressing needs and desires.

Great salespeople, on the other hand, are aware of this fundamental shift in selling. They understand that their time is often better spent networking with potential clients to create the underlying conditions which will lead to being invited through the door. Rather than attempting to force their way through it and being perceived as invasive, these salespeople are welcomed into the buyer’s office with open arms.

5. Is the salesperson a ‘customer-centric’ consultant?

The best salespeople are highly customer-centric. By this I mean that the most outstanding salespeople have a great ability to make the prospect believe that they are on the same side as the salesperson. These salespeople achieve this by using customer-centric language when talking both to their clients and about their clients to third parties. They subconsciously use terms such as “we” and “us” rather than “they” and “them” to instil greater confidence and comfort in their customers.

By becoming one with the client, these salespeople find themselves in a better position to see things from the client’s perspective. In turn, they find it much easier than the average salesperson to nurture their client relationships while uncovering important needs, desires and previously unidentified problems. This enables the best sales people to open up a wider array of new sales opportunities, while achieving greater success at up-selling and cross-selling to existing clients.

The best salespeople also take a consultative approach to selling. By this I mean that the salesperson takes on the role of a consultant to their clients. They bring their industry expertise and superior knowledge to the table to solve their customer’s most pressing issues.

This creates the underlying conditions which enable the salesperson to subtly align their solutions with the client’s external pressures and internal pains – without being perceived as too pushy or concerned only with making the sale. Instead, great salespeople are seen as a trusted advisor by the client who is there to solve outstanding problems that face the buying organisation. Through consultative selling, these salespeople distinguish themselves from average salespeople and compel clients to want to do business with them on a regular basis.

6. Does the salesperson know when to say ‘no’?

Under many circumstances a sales should simply not be made, no matter how tempting it is to close the deal. After all, if the deal is not in the best interest of the customer it is highly likely that they will experience difficulties in the future that may jeopardise future sales opportunities.

Yet most salespeople are so driven by their targets and commissions that they have conditioned themselves to maximise short-term sales with no afterthought of the long-term implications on both the buying organisation and the selling organisation. When they meet with clients they are so eager to close the sale that they find themselves unable to walk away from deals that are not right for the customer.

On the other hand, great salespeople know when the time is right to walk away from a sale. When they know deep down that their solution is not in the client’s best interest they raise objections and come up with alternative solutions that will more effectively solve the customer’s problems. They know that, further along the line, an honest and consultative approach to selling will lead to a greater number of opportunities with that client in the future, while it will help them maintain their reputation as an industry expert and a valuable asset to buying organisation.

Again, this is all part of being a consultant rather than a traditional salesperson who is hungry to make the sale, no matter what the cost to the client.

7. Does the salesperson have a vision for the future?

Many salespeople are only driven by what’s going on right now. Driven by their sales targets and commissions, many do not stop to think of the potential future implications of their actions. As I mentioned in the previous point, many salespeople are too eager to make immediate sales and find it difficult to walk away from a sale that will later pose a problem to the buying and selling organisations.

A lack of a vision for the future also prohibits many salespeople from recognising what is really happening in the present. Without spending time to think of the future implications of their actions or business trends, they fail to prepare their customers for what’s on the horizon and struggle to cope with change and the unknown. This significantly inhibits their ability to be preceived as an industry expert, consultant and/or a trusted advisor by their customers.

Outstanding salespeople, however, are constantly thinking about the future. Their vision for what lies ahead enhances their ability to be seen as an industry expert, consultant and trusted advisor because it places them in a much greater position to prepare their customers for future events.

By having a vision for the future, great salespeople are also able to adapt their consultative selling approach to cope with any unforeseen events that might have a negative impact on their sales performance. Consequently, these salespeople are able to anticipate and adapt to future selling conditions which, in turn, further contributes towards their outstanding success.

Summary

While it is important that all salespeople are able to exhibit certain fundamental selling skills, such as closing and negotiating, it is crucial that sales management teams look beyond such individual sales techniques when hiring new salespeople or evaluating the performance of their current sales force.

To ensure that you have the right people on your side, you need to look out for these important selling attitudes and behaviours that truly set master salespeople apart from average salespeople.

By employing and maintaining customer-centric salespeople that are perceived as industry experts, consultants and trusted advisors by their prospects, sales managers can ensure that they get the best out of their sales force on a consistent basis and build up a reputation for the selling organisation that is envied by the competition.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase

One thing is for sure, however. The best salespeople are consciously aware of their natural sales personality. On the one hand, they identify aspects of their sales personality that work in certain situations and actively seek to do more of the same under similar conditions. On the other hand, they identify aspects of their sales personality that is limiting their sales performance and actively seek to change their selling approach in these areas.

The best salespeople are also consciously aware of various buying personalities. They prepare for every aspect of the sales process by identifying each prospect’s natural preferences and habits. They then adapt their selling approach to suit each prospect’s personality and increase their chances of closing the sale.

Although it is important for every salesperson to maintain an air of authenticity, a greater awareness of your own (and your prospects’) preferences and habits is crucial to a clearer understanding of “what works” and “what doesn’t work” in certain situations. It will enable you to focus on (and repeat) “what works” and change (or adapt) “what doesn’t work” in certain situations. In turn, a greater awareness of your own sales personality and your prospects’ buying personalities will allow you to adapt your selling approach to suit different situations, enabling you to significantly enhance your sales performance.

Here we take a look at some of the most common sales personality traits to help you identify your own preferences and habits, providing advice on how to turn a greater self-awareness into a better sales performance.

Proactive or Reflective?

A proactive salesperson is typically great at making calls, booking meetings and following up on any agreed actions with buyers. They are known for making things happen without being pushed into action by their peers. They are highly driven to implement their actions and tend to be highly energetic.

Yet proactive salespeople can suffer from a lack of planning and are often accused of taking action before giving things a lot of thought. This can lead to proactive salespeople failing to uncover their prospect’s greatest needs and desires and frustrating prospects that have a preference for planning and a high level of detail.

In contrast, a reflective salesperson is normally great at planning and thinking things through. They take time to carefully consider the right selling approach and any issues that may arise during the sales process. They are also good at gaining a great deal of information through their conversations with prospecting, making it easier to close the sale later along the line.

However, reflective salespeople are often accused of failing to follow up on discussions with prospects. They can spend too much time discussing and over-analysing the “right” selling approach when they should really be taking action to ensure that they meet their sales targets. In turn, reflective salespeople can irritate action-oriented buyers and can be susceptible to missing out on sales opportunities by failing to meet deadlines.

A greater awareness of whether your sales personality leans towards a proactive or reflective approach will enable you to make outstanding changes to your selling approach.

If you see yourself as more of a proactive salesperson you should consciously make an effort to pay greater attention to those parts of the sales process which you tend to rush in certain situations, such as when planning for a sales meeting or writing a sales proposal. When selling to a reflective prospect, this is particularly important as they will most likely feel uncomfortable and become frustrated if you try to rush them through the sales process.

Likewise, if you see yourself as more of a reflective salesperson you should make a conscious effort to be a little more proactive in certain situations. To avoid frustrating action-oriented buyers and missing time bound deadlines, you should be more willing to make decisions without thorough preparation beforehand.

Visionary or Analytical?

A visionary salesperson likes to look at the “bigger picture”. Similarly to proactive salespeople, visionaries prefer to summarise rather than pay a high level of attention to detail. They tend to be good at putting things into perspective and interconnecting aspects of a sale to provide the prospect with a compelling overview of their solutions or proposals.

But looking at the “bigger picture” can also prove to be the downfall of many visionary salespeople. When dealing with prospects that prefer a high level of detail, visionary salespeople tend to be seen as lacking attention as they can neglect to mention crucial details in their sales proposals and conversations with buyers.

In comparison, analytical salespeople prefer to pay a high level of attention to detail. They feel more comfortable when they know all the facts and other information that might be required during the sales process. This high attention to detail can provide for a more comprehensive and complete approach to selling and is likely to be highly effective when dealing with like-minded prospects.

However, analytical salespeople can fall into the trap of paying too much attention to details that are unimportant and may focus on the wrong information. When dealing with visionary buyers that prefer scope to depth, this high attention to detail can irritate “bigger picture” prospects who have little time to comb over the finer details.

If you see yourself as a “bigger picture” salesperson you must keep in mind that analytically-minded prospects need more information if you are going to compel them to buy. When selling to analytical prospects you should think about which aspects of your sales process would benefit from a greater deal of information. Sales proposals and sales presentations often benefit from a higher attention to detail when dealing with analytical prospects. During sales presentations, you should use handouts to provide prospects with additional information. This will allow you to present the “bigger picture” to your audience while, at the same time, facilitating the comforts of analytical prospects with calculations and finer details in the handout.

If you see yourself as an analytical sales person you should make an effort to focus more attention on the most important details during the sales process. When selling to prospects that prefer the “bigger picture” you should try to summarise messages in your sales proposals and sales presentations. Think about including diagrams that help you articulate complex ideas on just the one page or slide to maintain the attention of visionary prospects.

Driven By Desires or Fears?

Most salespeople can be distinguished between those that are motivated towards their desires and those that are motivated away from their fears. On the one hand, those motivated towards their desires tend to position their actions in terms of compelling objectives that can be achieved. On the other hand, those motivated away from their fears tend to position their actions in terms of problems that can be avoided.

Salespeople who are motivated towards their desires usually set themselves goals around their ambitions and seek desirable outcomes rather than avoiding problems. This may be great when dealing with like-minded prospects who are also driven by their desires. However, these salespeople often fail to see the potential dangers that ought to be avoided. By chasing their dreams they neglect these dangers and encounter problems which they have not prepared for later on in the sales process.

In contrast, salespeople who are motivated away from their fears are determined to avoid problems and the negative implications that may result. In doing so, they tend to be better at foreseeing problems that may arise during the sales process and are relatively successful at avoiding them. However, an overriding focus on fear means they often lack clear and compelling goals in terms of each sale and their career. Furthermore, they tend to be perceived as too negative by buyers who are motivated towards their desires.

If you are motivated towards your desires, you need to take a step back and take greater care to think about the potential problems that must be avoided to successfully close each sale. This is particularly the case when dealing with buyers who are driven by their fears. These buyers will feel uncomfortable if you neglect to raise concerns about potential pitfalls, potentially hindering your success in such an environment.

On the other hand, if you are motivated away from your fears, you should take a step back and start thinking instead about the compelling objectives that motivate you and your prospects. When dealing with prospects who are driven by their ambitions and desires, you need to ensure that milestones and objectives are predominantly expressed in terms of strategic desires to avoid being perceived as too negative.

Summary

The best salespeople are consciously aware of their own sales personality. They are conscious of their natural preferences and habits that affect the way they sell and, with this clear understanding, they actively repeat the positive aspects of their personality that work in certain situations while actively seeking to change the negative preferences and habits which do not work under certain circumstances.

The best salespeople are also highly adaptable. Having established a clear understanding of their own sales personality, they seek to identify their prospect’s preferences and habits from the moment of their first conversations. They then adapt their selling style to suit the personalities of their prospects to increase their chances of making successful sales.

Although the above observations are somewhat generalised and, in reality, there is a vast range of sales personalities, a greater awareness of these selling and buying preferences and habits will make it easier for you to adapt your selling approach on a deal-by-deal basis to suit certain circumstances and will dramatically enhance your sales performance.

Although the above observations of differing sales personalities are generalisations, an awareness of these preferences and habits in yourself and in your prospects will enable you to appropriately shift your selling approach on a deal-by-deal basis and will dramatically enhance your sales performance.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase

Sales proposals are therefore a critical component of the sales process that every B2B sales person should master if they want to increase sales and hit their targets.

But why do so many sales proposals fail to captivate the interest of senior decision makers?

Here we outline some of the key reasons why sales proposals fail and what you can do to ensure that you don’t fall into similar traps when preparing your own proposals.

1. The sales proposal is too long

Sales proposals often fail to make the right impression because they are too long. This has the effect of diluting the powerful messages within the proposal or losing sight of the buyer’s needs and desires. If a sales proposal is deemed to be too long, there is a good chance that it will end up being tossed aside before the buyer has even had time to finish reading it.

With sales proposals, less is often more. In today’s marketplace, senior decision makers are pressed for time so try to keep your sales proposals short. Try to keep the proposal to a maximum of one side of A4 paper. If selling a complex solution and you need to go over this limit, make sure you include an executive summary for the buyer and be sure to get all of your key points across on the first page.

2. The sales proposal is too cautious

Sales proposals often fail to impress because they are too cautious in their approach. Sales proposals that use cautious words such as “possibly” and “might” tell the buyer that you’re not entirely confident that your solution will satisfy the buyer’s needs. This can result in the messages of the proposal creating fear, doubt and uncertainty.

Overly cautious sales proposals can even suggest that you are frightened of legal action if you let the buyer down. This is a big put off because it creates the impression that you are unwilling to make a firm commitment to fulfilling the buyer’s needs.

By using more assertive words in your sales proposals, you will provide senior decision makers with greater assurance that you will satisfy their demands and fulfil your commitments as outlined in the proposal. Your proposal will be viewed as more credible and will be more likely to create interest and a sense of urgency on the buyer’s behalf.

3. The sales proposal is overconfident and reckless

On the other side of the spectrum, sales proposals frequently deter senior buyers because they use over-confident and reckless words. Some proposals make outrageous claims such as “100 percent guaranteed” or being the “perfect” solution to the buyer’s needs.

Although confidence can be a good thing, unreasonable and unrealistic assertions may create the impression that you are either naive or trying to mislead the buyer. Overconfident and reckless words may also give the impression that you are desperate and care only about making the sale. If your sales proposal creates the impression that you are naive, misleading, or desperate, you can be assured that the sale will grind to a halt.

It is important that your sales proposal achieves a ‘middle ground’ between being too cautious and being too overconfident. While sales proposals should be assertive to provide buyer’s with greater assurance of your capabilities, this is not to say that you are entitled to make overconfident and reckless claims. Be assertive but also be measured and confident that you can follow up on any commitments that you make in the sales proposal.

4. The sales proposal is full of unnecessary detail

Many sales proposals fail because they are full of unnecessary statements that should have been covered earlier in the sales process. Proposals that talk up the wonderful features of your products and how wonderful your company is, for instance, are most likely a waste of time since the buyer should already be well aware of these details by now. Buyers are also put off by sales proposals which make generic statements such as “We’d be delighted to work with you”. This is needless and tends to lengthen what ought to be a short and refined letter.

To make a better impression, make sure that your sales proposal is succinct and not overcomplicated. Do not go into detail about your products or your company. To create interest, your sales proposal should immediately discuss the imminent external pressures and challenges facing the buyer and the internal improvements the buyer needs to achieve in order to overcome these pressures and challenges.

Once this is done, you should discuss exactly how your solution aligns to these improvements and the buyer’s needs. Remember, the products and services by themselves don’t offer the buyer benefits – it’s the solution as a whole that should offer real value.

5. The sales proposal is too late

Perhaps the most criminal error, a late sales proposal is guaranteed to create a bad impression. This is especially the case if you have no existing relationship with the potential client.

A late sales proposal will lead the buyer to question your time management skills which will, in turn, cast doubt on your ability to fulfil future commitments. Handing in a late sales proposal also exposes you to the risk that the buyer will have already received proposals from competitors. If the buyer has already read, and is interested in, the sales proposal of a competitor, he or she might not even spend time to open, let alone read, your sales proposal.

To avoid this trap, get a grip on your time management skills and make sure that you provide the buyer with a sales proposal within two days to a week of your initial meeting. Whether you should wait two days or a week to hand in the sales proposal really depends on the complexity of the solution you are offering. The more simple the solution, the less time-consuming the sales proposal should be and the sooner you should send it to the buyer.

6. The sales proposal offers little value

Countless sales proposals are rejected because they offer no obvious value to the buyer. Often, the salesperson has neglected to include clear calculations in terms of the buyer’s return on investment, leaving it up to the buyer to figure out the potential value and return offered by your proposal.

Given the busy schedules and time constraints faced by most senior buyers in today’s environment, many will simply disregard a sales proposal that requires the buying organisation to work out the value and return on offer. It will be seen as an additional cost that is not worth pursuing.

To offer the buyer real value in your sales proposal, you need to include a tangible value proposition with a clear indication of the return on investment that your solution will deliver.

Having already discussed the external pressures and challenges facing the buyer, you need to include the financial implications that will be experienced if these pressures and challengers are not addressed. This should be followed up with the positive performance and financial improvements offered by your solution that satisfies the buyer’s needs.

Finally, you should take time to describe the value-added capabilities that your company will provide which separate you from your competition. Make sure that the value offered by your solution is at least three times its overall cost – this is the sort of return on investment buyers are looking out for in today’s tough marketplace. Ideally, you should also include a payback period indicating the time it will take take for the buyer to recoup the costs of buying the solution.

By including a tangible value proposition with a clear indication of the buyer’s return on investment, the value-added capabilities offered by your compnay, and the payback your solution will deliver, you can be sure that your sales proposal will stand out from the crowd and create both interest and urgency on the buyer’s behalf to move on to the next stage of the sale.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase