Three Essential Steps to Establishing Trust

, ,

Trust is a crucial aspect of business and relationships. Developing trust over the duration of a customer relationship takes attention and focus. Creating a good first impression can go a long way in establishing trust in business relationships. The initial encounter sets the tone for future interactions and can significantly impact how others perceive you or your company. 

I’ve shared how the concept of trust was uniquely presented to me as I went through airport security on an international trip. After responding to the standard questions, the security agent asked a final question, “Should I trust you?” I answered in the affirmative, of course, but the unconventional question got me thinking!  

Reflecting on the experience – which was used to gauge my response under pressure and assess my overall demeanor – I gained real insight into how trust is perceived and established. In business and personal relationships, trust develops through a combination of communication, consistency and demonstrated reliability. Verbal and non-verbal cues also play a significant role in establishing trust.  

When meeting with a prospect for the first time, how do you establish trust? This is not the same type of trust you have with a family member or friend. It’s the trust that allows someone to have a candid conversation about their business issues. 

Plenty is written about what not to do, such as being pushy, talking too much or just falling into stereotypical selling behavior. But in that critical window of time (which can be as short as a minute) how do you make a connection that allows the prospect to feel comfortable sharing information with you? How do you show that you genuinely care about understanding their business situation? 

Here are three actionable steps to help establish trust during your initial interactions.  

  1. Be prepared with questions about the prospect’s organization and needs, not statements or brochures about your product, service or organization. 
  1. Allow the prospect to set the pace of the meeting. Help the prospect discover their needs by listening to what they say. A few well-constructed questions will help the prospect come to their own conclusion. And only offer suggestions for items to review after they have expressed their priorities. 
  1. Be sincere. Being sincere means doing what you say you are going to do. The first way to establish sincerity is a prompt, written follow-up after that initial meeting that captures the important components for the prospect and their organization. 

You can shape the trajectory of a long-term customer relationship by establishing trust early on. While some think trust takes years to cultivate and develop, the agent at the airport thought it could take one second, a reaction to a question. One thing is certain; establishing trust is a central component of all healthy relationships. Successfully lay the foundation and watch a lasting and fruitful customer relationship unfold.   

zp8497586rq
/by

Four Skills That Make a Good Sales Manager Great

,

I am often asked by management teams to participate in their sales meeting. They look for me to provide feedback, as well as perspective, based on my customer experiences around revenue development. Many of these meetings incorporate team-building events – perhaps at a tropical location or golf resort – while others are more dialed down and focus on a theme such as setting the company’s vision. Whatever the atmosphere, I enjoy the opportunity to provide insight into customer needs, preferences and pain points while observing the company’s top performers.

Not long ago I reflected on what makes a good sales manager outstanding, after all, a terrific sales manager is central to the success of a sales team and the overall performance of a business. We know a manager’s primary role is to develop the sales rep and the sales rep’s main responsibility is to develop opportunities and win business.

But not everyone gets from A to B. Here are four skills that a sales manager must master to become great and keep the pipeline moving.

  1. Determine Objectives: I have seen managers who set objectives based on their personal experiences with no buy-in from their sales reps. Does this sound familiar? “All sales reps must call on five opportunities a week and make 20 cold calls a day.” While this method may work, a better approach is to establish objectives with your sales reps. For instance, “Here are the revenue objectives we are trying to meet this year. What do you think we need to do to achieve this objective?” Managers who can secure buy-in from their sales reps and set clear, well-defined objectives will foster amazing performance.
  2. Schedule Reviews to Share Agreed Upon Information:Once objectives are set and expectations are clear, what happens next? Letting your sales rep “wing it” is not the answer. It’s crucial to provide guidance and structure. If the objective is to win $500,000 of new business, you and your reps should discuss the types of customers they need to talk to. How many of each of those customers should they talk to to reach their goal? Are corporate systems in place where reps execute follow-up correspondences? Emphasize the importance of being proactive, addressing client needs and maintaining professionalism in all communications. Have reps share their customer touchpoints with you for accountability. Walking them through follow-up expectations and processes will create a framework for repeatable success.
  3. Evaluate and Coach: In my experience, you can learn a lot about a sales rep’s performance from a prospect’s reply to a follow-up correspondence. Are enough letters being sent to show an ample pipeline? Is the rep talking to the right people? Are customer goals clearly stated and can your service or product move the customer closer to those goals? Letters should tell all these things and more. After your evaluation, choose one or two skills to coach your reps on. Do more than that and your limited time together will feel jam-packed and your coaching will be overwhelming. Tackle one skill at a time to foster improvement. For example, try role-playing with a rep and listen to how he or she positions your company’s capabilities. Tackle another skill the next time you talk or meet and solicit feedback on how the skill is developing.

 

  1. Offer Feedback and Reinforce:Look for what your sales reps do well. You’ll need to continually reinforce the positive to maintain the foundation you are building on with your reps. If objectives have not yet been achieved, focus on what’s going right and how a particular skill helped to get them halfway there. Then, work together on skills that will get them the rest of the way.

American business magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller said, “Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.” By mastering these four skills managers will get superior people producing superior results.

If interested in developing these skills, reach out to learn more about our workshops and services.

zp8497586rq
/by

On The Road Again: Panama & Columbia

This month I had the pleasure of visiting Columbia and Panama, my 59th and 60th countries. And also toured one of the modern marvels on this planet, The Panama Canal. Listen above for how this applies to sales success.

/by

Make Training Worth It

, ,

Have you ever spent several thousand dollars (and then some) on training only to see no change or short-term boosts at best? If your sales training is striking out, it’s probably due to a lack of prep and follow-up. There are ways to achieve long-term positive changes through training but you’ve got to know what you’re signing up for and consider some clear-cut strategies.

For starters, different types of training accomplish different goals. Over the years we’ve been hired by clients for one-hour kick-off motivational keynotes, three-day intensive sales process training and everything in between. We’ve learned a few things along the way including – sales training conducted as an “event” simply doesn’t work.

If your goal is to transform your organization so that it’s achieving goals like increasing sales or increasing profit margin, the training itself is only 10% of the overall process. To make your training investment stick, consider the following before you spend valuable dollars.

You Need an Implementation Plan. Start your transformation with the end in mind. What metrics will be used to measure the success of the salespeople, manager and related team member(s)? Will leadership hold them accountable for achieving these goals? For example, to achieve 10% growth in revenue you’ve calculated that each salesperson needs to meet with one additional qualified prospect per day. The skill being developed is new business development. How will you hold each person accountable for that number? The measure of success could be an email the salesperson sends to the customer that summarizes their meeting. This is an auditable measure that a manager and a manager’s manager can use. The email not only provides quantitative measurement, but the leaders, and even the CEO, can review the email and see the quality of customer interactions. How well was the new skill captured in the follow-up e-mail? Does this contact meet the defined metric of adding one new qualified prospect per day?

Have a Strategy to Reinforce and Coach Learned Skills.

Sales skills that are enhanced or gained in a training session are 80% forgotten after the first 30 days. Why? When not practiced or measured with a 3rd party, there’s often little to no change in behavior. The formula for reinforcement is: a) apply the learned skill b) share results with the coach and then c) reinforce the behavior. For coaching, first get attendees to apply new skills in the field. This could be verbal or written sales skills – but only introduce one skill at a time. Then it’s time to coach. Ask specific questions about the desired outcome. For the example above, did the salesperson meet (or converse) with one new, qualified prospect a day? Frame questions that help them understand what went well and where correction needs to happen. Next, ask them how they can improve their results. Effective coaches help people find their own answers. Finally, ask what would happen if the next time they tried … and then insert a specific recommendation. Reviewing a video of someone good at executing a skill is a way to fine-tune a new sales method. Rehearsing a future conversation with a recording is also a good practice.

When changes are reinforced, salespeople will remember how inspired and motivated they were at training. And with effective measuring, they’ll know these skills and behaviors will be recognized.

/by

Tried-and-True Tactics That Sell Value

, ,

When I’m retained by clients to help their sales team, the first thing I do is to ask to interview their top performers. My purpose is to decode their selling DNA and identify the markers that make them successful.  

Invariably, effective salespeople sell value, not solutions or services. They recognize that it’s the ‘why’ that resonates with buyers – the business value. Equally revealing is illustrating how today’s problems impact the overall bottom line. But selling value and the total cost of problems facing a customer is where many sales teams run into trouble.  

Pinpointing and helping customers articulate these positions may not come naturally but it’s a necessary practice if you want to meet or beat your goals. Top performers use the following three tactics to draw out the answers to business value and the cost of challenges.  

  1. Get to the cost of today’s problem. Buyers face a number of problems and challenges.  Great salespeople help buyers define – in totality – all of the costs these problems bring. While costs may be non-monetary, such as frustration or low morale, the numbers that hit the bottom line are those that are heard by every person involved in the buying decision. Great sellers shape and frame conversations around the costs of the buyer’s problems. This is especially important if the solution’s value comes with a higher price tag. Early conversations around costs will help sell more and ensure that the necessary margins are hit in the end. 
  1. Tell stories. Stories help buyers discover for themselves the problems that they are facing and the solutions they need. High achievers have several stories at the ready that they can tailor and share based on the buyer’s situation or desired outcome. When the conversation lulls and the buyer is unable to explain their problem, share a story! Start by framing who the experience is about. Then identify the problem, turning point and resolution. Buyers who hear successes and failures of industry peers become more willing to share details about themselves and have an easier time finding their voice. Stories not only get to problems, they also help describe how others use and derive business value from your products. Stories have purpose and great salespeople use them again and again. 
  1. Summarize conversations in writing. This is a tactic that all sellers tell me they do, but few do it well. I sell my services to many companies in different industries. I constantly refer to follow-up emails I’ve written after conversations. The emails sum up problems a client is facing and the associated costs, the solutions we discussed and their value, and of course, proposed next steps. These emails help the customer and I keep the focus on the problems we are trying to solve. Top performers don’t rely on memory. They simplify, write the plan down, share it with the customer and allow the customer to give feedback. 

If you want to sell the business value your products bring, incorporate these techniques and the process will be habit in no time.   

/by

Who do You Know In Cartegena, Columbia and Panama City, Panama? Let’s Meet!

My travels for business and adventure continue, and I am pleased to be traveling to Cartagena, CO and Panama City, Panama from Feb 7 to Feb 16th.

Do you live in or near these exciting cities? Or who do you know that does who would enjoy a Global Sales conversation? I would welcome a chance to meet. You can message me below or reach me on WhatsApp at +1 858 518-7039

It’s always refreshing to understand the buying behaviors in the countries we travel and work in. This will be countries 20 and 21 for Flannery Sales Systems and 59 and 60 for me on a personal level.

/by

Turn Top Sales Performers Into Great Sales Managers 

, ,

Many new sales managers think they are good at managing salespeople because they excel at selling. While selling may have come naturally to them, it’s not innate for everyone. And now, a frontline manager, it’s their job to recognize performance barriers and empower their reps. 

 

But a promoted salesperson often has a hard time letting go of the adrenaline rush that comes from being in the action and chasing big deals. He or she may end up taking charge of a customer relationship and finish the sale, undermining a rep’s motivation and confidence. Equally problematic are first-line managers who expect everyone to produce the same exceptional sales results they delivered – but without providing any coaching or constructive feedback.  

 

A recent report from Gartner found that the average sales manager spends only 21% of their time coaching – it simply gets pushed aside. Turnover becomes high in situations where businesses are not producing skilled reps who have learned to achieve revenue growth on their own. Progressive organizations, however, recognize that teaching managers how to deliver personalized coaching and training – which ultimately produces high-achieving team members – has a greater impact on overall sales performance than just training the sales reps alone.  

 

We were recently hired by such an organization. Their new sales rep team was being managed by their superstar salesman – who was also new to the role. With his compensation tied to the team’s revenue numbers, it was understandable that he wanted to “make it happen.” He was involved in every account, micromanaging the reps, constantly asking for updates, solving problems, and often stepping in to save the sale as quarter-end approached. While the compensation was good for all of them, the manager was exhausted and the reps felt unappreciated, unmotivated, unfulfilled and eventually, unable to work under such conditions. 

 

Major change was needed and teaching their first-line managers how to coach their direct reports on sales skills was priority one. We helped the organization link its sales process to practical, teachable selling skills, setting up a structure for skills coaching based on individual sales reps’ needs. The change came slowly but steadily. Because the managers were trained around conversations on current account strategies and within the parameters of their busy schedules, they developed muscle memory around their new coaching skills through practice with their teams.  

 

Results followed, with an 11% increase in revenue from existing customers, a noticeable increase in the new opportunity pipeline, and a happier, more productive team. So remember, if you’re looking to drive sales productivity, make sure coaching is a part of your process.   

 

/by

Are You Selling What Your Customers Are Buying?

Selling is harder than ever. Sales cycles are longer, budgets aren’t always clear and the balance of power is no longer in the hands of the seller.

According to Global Newswire, 95% of customers in 2023 read product reviews before making a purchase. And according to Trustpilot, 89% of global consumers say checking online reviews is part of their buying journey. Having informed buyers isn’t a bad thing, it just means your sales process better include insight into the buyer’s habits. This includes not only how they buy, but also how they research, compare vendors, shortlist and make final decisions.

Many customers still go through five stages when completing a purchase – awareness, consideration, intent, purchase and re-purchase (renewal) – the difference is the order may not be linear.

Nowadays, buyers can move halfway through a buying cycle without much direct seller interaction. They already have information or “misinformation” from other sources. To simplify your evaluation of where they are in their buying process, ask questions and listen intently! This will help you plan your pitch accordingly.

And remember, you’re guiding them to options and/or a solution not telling them what to buy. Do timely research on your customer and current trends in their industry. Your value proposition is critical. Tell them something they haven’t heard before – make them want to learn what you have to say and how what you have to sell will make their business better.

A successful sales team knows that how customers move through the sales process has changed. Multiple touchpoints are needed and the process often takes longer. High-pressure sales will likely backfire.

Do you know the ins and outs of a successful sales process in today’s landscape? Flannery Sales Systems can help. Organizations turn to us to develop and implement a customizable, effective and repeatable sales process. We research your unique needs to help us understand where your team can benefit from improved skills and sales processes. Flannery Sales Systems works with a broad cross-section of industries and we are confident we can enhance your results. Contact us to learn more.

/by

On The “Trail” Again: San Jacinto Mountains

Happy New Year from the San Jacinto Mountains. John discusses articles from our upcoming newsletter that include Your Pipeline, Your Success and How to Use Stories to Connect with Prospects and Qualify Leads. Altitude, Solitude and Gratitude. Wishing you all a wonderful 2024.

/by

Your Pipeline, Your Success 

Missing sales goals is not what an executive team member sets out to do. Invariably, however, quarter or year-end surprises happen. Being able to trust your pipeline will minimize those blunders. But that’s the rub – discounting, the rush of quarter-end contracts and erroneous optimism impact forecasting.  

If you want a pipeline you can count on, follow these best practices: 

Define Your Sales Process
Know how long each type of opportunity takes to move through the pipeline. Is the buyer just including a discounted offer within negotiations and keeping their original timetable? Don’t devalue your offer too soon. A discount on the wrong solution doesn’t help anyone.    

Develop Opportunity Profiles
Different types of deals have different types of characteristics. Use that data to create opportunity profiles. A review of those profiles will show the sales team (and management) what the portfolio looks like in real-time. Is there a good mix or are all opportunities tied to discounting? Will a new decision maker or stronger value proposition bring about the sale? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.  

Grade Each Opportunity
We know not all opportunities are created equal. Use standardized milestones to assign a grade to opportunities in the pipeline. With measurable fact-based rules and grades, you can forecast your pipeline accurately.  

Capture Enough Opportunities
This number varies depending on the length of your sales cycle and your win ratio. You should have at least three times as many opportunities in the pipeline as your sales goal. 

Continuous Business Development
If you’ve ever had your pipeline run dry you know it’s not fun. To avoid that, salespeople should spend 10-20% of their time every week or month on business development. There’s a constant ebb and flow with any pipeline as opportunities are downgraded, closed or deleted. This is an effective tool that builds relationships and turns your team into playmakers.   

Ongoing Review
When a management team values opportunities and leads salespeople know it and act. Have you ever met a salesperson who doesn’t want to meet expectations? When those at the top take the time to evaluate and measure the pipeline, your sales team will appreciate the focus and pay attention too.   

In life and in sales, a goal without a plan – and measurable steps – is just a wish. It takes discipline and drive to manage progress and adjust as needed. Achieving your goal depends on evaluation – it’s worth it.  

Flannery Sales Systems helps organizations develop and implement a repeatable sales process. Improving the effectiveness of your sales organization is the key outcome we provide to clients.  We would welcome an opportunity to explore your needs and understand where you could benefit from improved skills and sales processes. Flannery Sales Systems works with a broad cross section of industries and we are confident we can enhance your results. 

/by