The Sales Hunter’s Sales Motivation Blog

Selling is about uncovering needs and determining benefits don’t make your price offering the benefit your customers remember the most.  I caught myself watching in infomercial on television yesterday and I was struck by the number of solid benefits that were being shared.  I was struck by the approach the spokesperson was delivering a very compelling perspective filled with questions and benefits.  In my eyes the spokesperson blew it at the end by focusing extensively on the “discounted price.”  He kept hammering it home to the point where all of the other benefits became secondary at best to the price point.  Too bad because in my perspective the spokesperson was setting himself for buyer’s remorse due to people buying the item without realizing the importance the item could play in their life. 

My take away is this, keep the focus on the real benefits and make your price as only part of the benefits / value equation.  Never make price the primary benefit.

New sales ideas pop up when we least expect them but, we also owe it to ourselves to allow new ideas to pop up.  This week I’ve been in the Bahamas conducting sales training programs.  Being in the Bahamas does something to the brain…it’s get it thinking in different ways.  My trip is only 3 days yet during this time I’ve come up with at least a half dozen new sales ideas I’m anxious to put into play.  The reason is simple, despite the work I’m doing while here I’m also allowing myself time to merely think and reflect and bingo, the ideas are flowing.

What are you doing to allow new ideas to develop?  What are you doing to seek out new ideas?  What are you doing to continually change and thus improve your selling process?  For me it’s times like this where I find myself in a different environment and then taking the time to think, read, process and voila…new ideas.

Staying motivated in sales requires a continuous flow of new ideas, make sure you allow yourself the time to seek out new ideas.

Confidence sells! Sales motivation requires you to have a level of confidence and over the past week I’ve had more conversations with key sales leaders where this has come up than I can ever remember.  The lack of confidence in salespeople destroys more sales than we can ever begin to imagine.  The lack of confidence comes through in the quality of a response, the speed with which a message is returned and level of conviction that is conveyed when talking about price.

If you’re a sales manager you have to make it a priority to reinforce the confidence you have in your salespeople if you ever expect them to be confident.  If you’re a salesperson you have to truly believe in the service you’re providing to your customer and the results they will achieve by working with you.  A salesperson’s level of confidence is worth anywhere from 10 - 30% in sales.  On the profit side a confident salesperson I believe will achieve anywhere from a 20 - 50% bump in profit over a non-confident salesperson.

When making a critical phone call make sure you’re standing up.  It’s amazing how much more energy you’ll have when you make a critical phone call standing up.  Your energy will come through in the fullness and energy of your voice.  This applies to both a live call and a voice mail message.  By the way when you’re leaving a voice mail message make sure you state your phone number slowly and clearly twice!

Selling your intellect is not just spouting out everything you know about what you’re selling.  In fact, it’s actually the opposite.  Selling your intellect is all about not telling the customer everything you know about what you’re selling.  Your intellect comes out best in the questions you ask.  It is displayed when you are able to find out information from your customer and then help them understand what their real need is.  I like to tell salespeople that the best way to demonstrate your sales intellect is by not having to share even half of what you know.   Spend your time imparting only on that part of your wisdom the customer wants to hear, not what you want to say. 

I’m fortunate to call Omaha home.  Warren Buffet is a fellow resident.  Known for his investment expertise, he is, according to several reports, the richest person in the US and probably the world.   What makes Warren so amazing is his patience in cultivating opportunities. 

This past Saturday at his annual shareholders meeting, he talked about his upcoming trip to Europe to seek out potential investments.  He made a comment that a key reason for his trip is to get the word out regarding what he looks for in making an investment.  I found that very interesting.  Here’s the richest guy around with a highly publicized business strategy saying he needs to get the word out.  Then it dawned on me that he’s really talking about networking to build relationships that will ultimately create business opportunities.  

If anyone thinks they don’t need to network, stop and reconsider why Warren Buffet is going on his trip to Europe.  Everyone in sales needs to network, no matter how big your current network is, no matter how well-known you believe your company’s reputation might be.  The need to network will never go away.  Ask yourself who you are planning to meet with this week that will help you strengthen your network.  Who can you meet with this week to help them build their network? 

Nobody can sustain a low price image forever.  Competing on price will only provide a short-term volume bump at the risk of destroying the value of your long-term potential.

I’ve talked about low prices for a long-time.  Relying on low pricing to make a sale often causes the customer to not accept anything but the lowest price from you.   They tend to see you only as a low-price provider.  When this happens, you lose your opportunity to convey confidence.  Remember, features are sold at cost; benefits are sold at a profit.  

Think for a moment about Wal-Mart.  If I need something and I know exactly what it is, I’ll go to Wal-Mart because I don’t need any questions answered or any confidence in what I’m buying.  They will have a low price and that’s all I’m looking for.  On the flip-side, if I have a pain, I’ll visit my doctor.  He will supply the confidence I need to help solve my problem, and, regardless of the price, that’s what I’m looking for.

Passion sells!  Last week I hosted a discussion with nearly 20 vice-presidents of sales.  Our discussion centered on the need to find ways to sell more effectively and more efficiently.  One of the key points that came up very early on was how important it is for salespeople to have passion for what they’re doing.  Several of the sales VPs shared striking examples of how they had seen sales fall due to a lack of passion in their salespeople.  Even though I’ve talked about the need for passion for years, I found it interesting how often it came up in our two-hour discussion and that there was a concensus amongst them that it is necessary to be successful.  I didn’t even prompt the discussion on the topic! Passionate salespeople have the ability to create sales, to overcome problems, and to create long-term customer relationships. 

I am not just trying to validate one of my core sales principles.  I truly believe it is critical to not just hire people who have the ability to show passion, but to make sure that you too exhibit passion for your customers, your fellow employees, and for what you’re providing your customers.

Never giving up is foundational to being motivated in sales.  Those who are highly motivated never allow themselves to be defeated.  In today’s Wall Street Journal, there’s a great column written by Melinda Beck (page D-1) where she talks about “positive psychology” and how it drives people.   She refers to many of the classic examples of people turning failures into successes, including Michael Jordan getting cut from his high school basketball team.  One of the more amazing examples is one of the Warner Bros. who, during the silent movie era, didn’t think people would ever want to hear an actor talk.  That rejection didn’t stop those who thought it should happen.  You can read the entire article on page D-1 or follow this link (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120940892966150319.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_pj).  They even have a slideshow of other well-known figures who overcame setbacks.

Overcoming obstacles is what separates average people from great ones.  Think for a moment of a challenge you’ve faced.  How can you leverage the challenge into a win?  Now, go out make it happen!

If a customer has bought from you once, even if they had a bad experience, you can still get them back.  More importantly, you need to find a way to do it!  Customers who have had bad experiences will talk to others.

This is a huge area for improvement for all salespeople.  As good as anyone may think they are, I have yet to find someone or some company that does such a good job that an old customer doesn’t slip through the cracks. In reality, for most salespeople there are customers who quietly fade away, not because they weren’t happy, but because the salesperson merely failed to remain in contact.  Over the years of my work with hundreds of salespeople, I’ve come to believe there is at minimum a 10% increase in sales that could be obtained by doing a better job of reaching out to lost customers.  Now, I don’t know of too many salespeople who couldn’t use a 10% increase in sales!  No matter how old or lost you may feel the customer is, there’s no better time than right now to start reaching out to them.