Sales techniques you may have forgotten – or never learned

By: Jim Moody, CAE
CSA President

CSA held a sales seminar last week, with Tim Shaver as the speaker. Tim is out of Nashville. We came to know him through our friends at Stewart Lumber in the Nashville area. Stewart is a member of one of our roundtables, and they’ve used Tim as a consultant for several years. Tim’s also worked with several other lumber dealers, and he has a pretty good idea of what life is like in our trenches.

Here are some nuggets I gleaned from his presentation. Some of this may be old hat to you, but I found much of what he presented to be innovative and different than what I’ve heard from others.

· Many sales people are simply peddlers (where there’s high pressure and low price) or at best vendors (order takers). That may have worked in 2005, but no one can make a living in sales today waiting for the phone to ring with orders or simply dropping the price to get a customer while wiping out the margin.
· As a sales person, you want to be a trusted advisor with complete knowledge of the business. You understand the customer’s needs, perhaps even before he does, and you solve them (and let him know you’ve solved them). You want the customer to believe he can’t conduct his business as well without you. In this environment, price is not so important. It requires a high skill level to be a trusted advisor. Not only do you need expertise in your field, you also need the ability to build strong relationships.
· It’s easy to be a trusted advisor when you are the only source of information. Unfortunately, that’s rarely the case in today’s environment. The internet and competitors ooze with information, so the relationship has to be based on your ability to use the information that everyone has in a way that’s more useful to the customer. Everyone has knowledge; you have to translate it into wisdom.
· Some customers will never see sales people as anything other than peddlers because of their perception of our industry. When you realize that’s the case, think carefully about how much time you want to spend on that customer. Does it make sense to do lots of take-offs for him when he’s just going to use that to get quotes from your competitors and drive the price down below your cost? Many times, sales people spend the most time on customers that contribute little or nothing to the bottom line. Focus more time on customers who have the ability to see you as more than a peddler.
· Far too many sales people get into the business thinking they will get a handful of accounts and then spend their time as an account manager rather than a sales person… because they hate to sell. If you are hiring a sales person, even if they are the No. 1 seller at your competitor, make sure you aren’t hiring someone who’s only been an account manager. Is the reason they are leaving their current position because the gravy train is over and they’ve forgotten how to sell?
· Sales people often dislike systems because they create work and accountability. Yet research shows time and time again that following a system works better than flying by the seat of your pants.
· Old systems (when they are followed) typically involved qualifying a lead, presenting a quote, closing the sale and following up. But this system allows prospective customers to push sales people off with “I’m just looking,” or to take your information without any interest in buying from you. It’s also prone to the “I’ll get back to you” or “Let me think it over” problem.
· A better system involves creating bonding or rapport, being honest with the prospect (“We may be a little higher, but we provide some things that our competitors can’t, and we can’t do that for free. In the end, because of the knowledge and service we provide, you’ll come out better.”). You figure out where he’s feeling pain and offer solutions. Seek out the people who are in some pain (as long as the pain isn’t the inability to pay bills, of course) because they are worth a lot of your time. Solve someone’s pain, and they will be indebted to you. You may have to help them figure out what that pain is by asking lots of questions. You may even have to plant the seed in their mind that they are in pain (a lobster doesn’t realize the water’s getting dangerously hot until it’s too late). When that happens, price becomes a non-issue.
· Never ask “who’s the decision maker.” No one ever wants to admit that they are not the decision maker, so they will almost always tell you they are the decision maker even if they aren’t. Just human nature. Instead, a better question is “Who besides yourself is involved in making this decision?”
· If you don’t measure your time, you can’t be in control of it. Be activity-driven and have goals for the activities you need to perform to be successful (number of site visits to non-customers, contractor lunches, cold calls, referrals asked for, etc.). Track these to see how you are doing compared to the goals. Sales people hate this, but being disciplined about it pays off for the sales person and the company.

The seminar Tim presented was half a day long, and he covered a lot of territory that I’ve not reported here. He also explained these points in much more detail with great examples. If you are interested in more information from Tim (he does sales consulting, training and will help in the hiring of sales people), contact him at 615-399-8700 or tim@nashvillesalestraining..com.