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Why Waste Time Waiting for Events – Trigger The Reaction – Sales eXchange 197 (#video)0

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

A few weeks back I had the opportunity to sit down with Ago Cluytens, for one his Coaching Masters Series interviews. All this week, the posts will feature snippets of the interview, below we will also tell you where you can find the whole interview, but now let’s go to the first extract.

Trigger Events are fine, but there is no escaping that you have to wait for the “event”. But here’s the deal, what you are leveraging is not the event, but the buyer’s reaction to the event. So why not take the training wheels off, forget the “event”, and learn to trigger the reaction without having to wait, with the others looking for the same sign.

Take a look at what I mean.

If you would like to see the entire discussion you can either visit my You Tube channel, or go the Ago’ site by clicking here. Always open to comments and views.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Unlearn To Earn2

by Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

There is an ongoing debate as to whether training, specifically sales training, is effective and whether it truly delivers results over the long run. As you would expect there usually10 more opinions than there are participants at any given time, and as it is with most things in sales there is no absolute or right answer. But there some basic that when followed, will deliver measurable improvement in both execution and results.

There is one fundamental that you need to embrace, not a silver bullet, but a simple practice that will facilitate the adoption of new skills, methodologies, and practices that will ensure continuous learning, improvement and results as measure in revenues/clients gained. This is the ability to unlearn.

This is not always easy and somewhat counterintuitive, we have always been taught to accumulate knowledge build on our experience. While this may be true in the broader aspects of life, when it comes to selling it doesn’t work so well. There are only some many things we can bring to play in a given sale, and if we do not make room for new ideas and practices, it will be hard to learn them, practice them and ultimately benefit from them.

By unlearning dated or ineffective practices we not only make room for new methodologies, we train the mind to reach beyond its current limitations. As we replace the old with newer or reformatted ideas, we stimulate even greater progress as the new blends with the existing, and leads to new combinations that continue to be refined as we put them into practice, in this case the results do evolve beyond the sum of the two. While you can refine existing practices, there is no denying that if you don’t change the fundamentals, you are not likely to change the whole. If we don’t unlearn, we not only create clutter in the mind, we create a stagnant environment where while we do accumulate knowledge, we at the same time prevent ourselves from putting it into practice and improving our skills and ultimate results.

We have all met that rep who has read the latest best seller, attended the most up-to-date Sales 8.0 conference, can speak all the right buzzwords, and be proficient at the latest apps and gizmos; while they have everything going, everything but making sales and quota. As you work with them you quickly realize that they spend all their time, energy and creativity stacking things, rather than combining the right elements to succeed in selling. One analogy is urban redevelopment, you can keep building up, or you can selectively raze existing structure to make way for improvement; again making space for the new, creating a more vibrant environment.

I paraphrase the old saying that what you are doing now is perfect for the results that you are attaining. The reality of sales is what you achieve this year will not be enough next year. While everyone will tell you that the only certainties in life are death and taxes, well if you are a seller there is a third, your quota will grow next year. I can confidently guarantee that you will not get any more time to deliver those quotas, your only option is make room for new skills, by unlearning some unused, space and thought consuming old ones.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Solving The E-Mail Black Hole1

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

I have always been a fan of Star Trek, and intrigued by some of the possibilities presented in the original and even Star Trek NG. Interesting how some of the things that seemed farfetched, now are not. One that always fascinated me was the black hole; little did I think we would experience it in selling, specifically when using e-mail.

We all wonder when we hit that send button “what will happen with this e-mail?” Will it reach its desired destination will it invoke the desired reaction, what reaction will it initiate, what will its fate be, ignored, read over and over, create action? Hard to tell in the black hole that is e-mail.

Sure, you can ask for a “read receipt”, so what, the is still an information void because all you know is if the opened it, you don’t know if someone read it more than once, where, if they read it on their phone or office or both, or if there is any interest. For salespeople, this creates “prospect paralysis” because they don’t know whether to follow up and, if so, when and how.

But recently I discovered a tool that helps me have a better grip in the black hole. ContactMonkey, a new smart email tracking service for Outlook and Gmail that tells me in real-time if, when, how many times and where a message is opened, as well as what device or browser was used.

Armed with this knowledge, a salesperson has valuable and actionable insight to make better and more informed selling decisions and actions, so they can focus on the most promising prospects and opportunities.

The idea for ContactMonkey emerged when Scott Pielsticker, a serial entrepreneur, was frustrated with not knowing if his sales pitches were getting read or were resonating. To solve this problem, ContactMonkey’s developers created the software, which was recently launched.

Here is an example, a seller fires off an e-mail to a prospect. After the email has been sent, the salesperson will be able tell if and when the email has been opened, which is a great starting point. The more the message is opened, the more interest someone likely has in the proposal.

But there’s even more insight that can be gleaned. Where was it read, what device was it opened on. ContactMonkey allows you to know if a message was opened on a mobile device, within the Chrome browser or Outlook. If an email is originally opened on an iPhone, and then opened on Chrome or Outlook, it could mean the e-mail and or any attachments generated solid interest.

The same approach works for location. An email opened by recipients in Toronto, Boston and London is another indication of good interest. Especially if you are working with prospects with decision makers in multiple locations, as it makes its way around you gain insight.

For salespeople, this information makes it easier to focus on better prospects interested in their email, while they can quickly ignore or reformulate plans for prospects that paid little or no attention to their email.

For “warm leads”, you can figure out the best time to follow up. If there’s a lot of interest in a message in a short period of time, the salesperson can strike while the iron is hot — knowing that they will likely get a good reception.

ContactMonkey allows you to add a new layer of intelligence to email so salespeople — and other people who want to know if their email attracts any interest — can work better, more productively and close more deals.

I speaking with the team, they tell me they are planning to add a dashboard to let people take a holistic view of their email activity to extract key trends and best practices.

If you are a seller and you want to get more out of your email, check out ContactMonkey and see how it can help you Sell Better.

Please note – I get no commission or compensation from ContactMonkey.

Enter the Art of Sales Contest – Win Tickets

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

Last week I posted about the how trends don’t use calendars and the flaw in trying to tie trends and the start of a new year; people on the other hand are different and do make effective use of calendars and planning to make improvements or changes in the way they do things. This includes sales people and the way they sell, and I would encourage people to set more time based objectives, and develop and execute a plan for achieving the desired results by or within a targeted time frame.

The new year is a natural time for people to set these objectives, hence the ritual of New Year’s Resolutions, interesting concept, not often effective. According to Knowledge Wharton Today, “Nearly half of Americans make New Year’s resolutions each year. Of those, only 8% are likely to succeed.” Not great odds, not even a good closing ratio if you are in sales.

I have seen sales people resolve to make more calls in the coming year, to go after accounts they were reluctant to approach, and other things that they see as a major change in the way they sell. I am all for “stretch goals” in the various senses of how the term is used in sales, but to be effective the “stretch” needs to be reasonable, not extreme. Sure if the extremes were achieved that would be great, but in most instances they are not, and turn out to be negative and discouraging. As the article points out, they become counter-productive.

The goal is to set reasonable attainable goals, building on what is already working, adding new elements of execution or strategy. The key is to set both goals and execution plans. There are times where people set a reasonable goal, but fail to develop an execution plan, and the outcome is negative, and the goal is abandoned. But if you set a series of doable goals, each building on the other, you can truly evolve your sales game. As you succeed at the first goal, you can celebrate your success, reap the benefits of their progress, and have the confidence to move to the next goal/challenge.

This allows one to evolve through the year, through their career without the shadow of a big resolution, and the disappointment of not achieving it. The approach can be applied to a number of aspects of sales, not just sales techniques or skills. You can look at market trends and evolve your product or message to leverage the trend, buyer habits or practices and more. The key is to make sure that you set yourself up to win, not just to play and be disappointed.

BTW, there is nothing wrong with resolving to do big things, just make sure that you have also set to evolve in small ways. If you achieve both, great; but if you miss on the big resolution, you still benefit from your new year evolution.

What’ in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto
Book 15 minutes with me!

Ya right!

Cause you never had an unexpected call from a client in dire need of your help. So first is it really dire? Most of the time not, and if not don’t waste your time, allocate to another part of your day or delegate it. If it is, deal with, but not at the expense of something else as important. Take a look:

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

On Thursday October 18, The Proactive Prospecting Workshop is coming to Houston, specifically to Four Points by Sheraton Houston Southwest, at 2828 Southwest Freeway, Houston.

If you are in B2B sales, and need to engage with more new prospects, mark this date on your calendar, then sign up for this full day interactive prospecting program.

Whether you are with a small company or large, veteran or just launching your career, this workshop will give you the fundamentals needed to connect and engage with more qualified buyers.

We leave dogma at the door, this is not about old school vs. new school, this is about executing a proven methodology for prospecting more effectively and filling your pipeline with the quality prospects in the right quantities. This is the same program that has helps thousands of sale professionals improve their skills and increase prospects and sales. Sales professional in dozens of companies are using the methods and process delivered in the Proactive Prospecting Workshop to deliver consistent results.

What you’ll learn…

Overcome the fear of cold calling
Develop techniques for making successful cold calls
Take a proactive role in filling your sales pipeline
Write effective e-mails – Leave voice mail messages that get returned
Handle Objections – win more appointments

To learn more about the results sellers have realised just click here to read success studies, or watch what they said after attending the Proactive Prospecting Workshop.

Every New Customer begins as a Prospect!

Start filling your pipeline with Real Prospects!

Learn more at www.proactiveprospecting.com
Sign up today, seating is limited to 100 people!

Early Bird Specials Available – Multi-Attendee offers
ADDED BONUS – 500 FREE leads from LeadFerret.com
The Proactive Prospector’s Guide to Objection Handling Booklet

www.proactiveprospecting.com
Call – (855) 25-SALES

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Sep 8th, 2012 Appointments, Attitude, Business Acumen, Buying Process, Change Management, Cold calling, Communication, Disqualify, EDGE Selling, execution, Impact Questions, Leadership, Metrics, Next Steps, Objection Handling, Persistence, Proactive Prospecting, Prospecting, qualifying, Referrlas, Sales Cycle, Sales Leadership, Sales Mistakes, Sales Process, Sales Strategy, Sales Success, Sales Training, Success, Time Management, Voice mail, Workshops

Accountability, Appointment Setting, Appointments, Attitude, cold calling, e-mail prospecting, execution, Houston, how to sell better, Objection Handling, Pipeline Management, Proactive, Proactive Prospecting, Prospecting, qualifying, Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., Sales Technique, Sales Training, sell better, Selling to Executives, Texas, Tibor Shanto, Time Allocation, Voice mail, Workshop

Welcome back – How Was Your Summer?69

Well here we are at that odd part of the year, while not officially the end of summer, most consider it to be; while not the final quarter, for many, September is part of the final run up to year end. In essence, harvest time! You did a lot of planting in the months before, now you want to be in a position to realize your bounty.

Seems everyone is not only back at work, but also have a “back to work” mind set; gone are the excuses (on both the buyers’ and sellers’ part) of summer. Buyers are expected to produce for their companies as much as you are for yours, so leverage that for your mutual success. Get out there and engage with buyers, really dig in with your discovery.

This doesn’t equate to raking them over, or pitching hard (harder), but more to sit down and understand what they need to accomplish in the next four (or so) months for them to count their year as being successful. Again, this will require a balanced approach, while you do want to focus on those thing you can add value to, you also want to ensure that you are driven by their agenda, not solely yours. To get to that, again leverage your knowledge based on past deals, wins, losses and draws, and base your discovery questions and topics on that.

Also remember that while they may have numerous objectives, they only have so much time, so help them prioritize and narrow down what is really doable in a successful way in the next 15 weeks, and what is not. There is no benefit to them or you, if you both go down a road that will dead-end due to deadline and priorities, and leave you without a sale (at least this year).

You also need to prioritize, look at your pipeline and ask yourself two questions:

Do I have enough prospects to help you close the year the way I need to? Remember you will need to handicap based on your closing average; meaning if you need four more sales, and you have a 3:1 closing average, you need to be able to identify 12 prospects, no room for dead wood or wishful thinking.

If you cannot identify those prospects, what is your plan to get new prospects in your pipeline, in time?

Then it’s time to act, much like farmers at harvest time, you need to focus on systematically brining in the crop, not meander aimlessly in your fields. Having said that, farmers are also thinking about the next season, the planting season. Ensuring their fields are ready.

Between now and the end of the year there will be a lot of focus and pressure to “close”. Close deals, and close the year strong. But don’t forget that as soon as the year is done, high-fives all around, the pressure will turn to Q1. 2013 looms large, so make sure that you set enough time aside to prospect for those deals that will give you a healthy and balanced pipeline on January 1, well in reality, January 2.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

Most sales people will tell me “get me on front of the right prospect, and I’ll close them every time”, OK, but getting in front of the right prospect is part of the job. Maybe not the most fun part, but one that has to be executed regularly and consistently.

In addition to learning the skills it takes to engage someone, overcome their initial objections, and get them focused on the issue at hand, sales people also need to become better at being persistent and creative in how they approach people. Too many give up to soon and too easily, and many limit the channels of communication. While social media has changed some of this, at a core level, sellers need to be more persistent and more creative in engaging potential prospects.

Here are some means and reason to focus on this end of the sale as much as the other stages.

What’s in Your Pipeline?
Tibor Shanto

In the first two installments we looked at the anatomy of the typical objection to a prospecting call, that is being an Interruption, and the Conditioned Response to Interruptions. I also told you how 80% of the time you will get one of five common objections:

Status Quo
Lack Of Interest
No Time
Bad Experience
Wants to Know More First

These will come in different flavours, different rhythms, but they will come, and they will be one of these five. So let’s see how we can take away these objections, bringing to play the new view of Conditioned Response, and get to having some good meetings in the calendar, and prospects in the pipeline.

While all five have common elements, the Status Quo and Lack Of Interest, are more commonly linked. In both cases, it is as much about dynamics and managing those, than taking on the buyer, remember it is about handling the objection not the buyer, if you Take Away the objection, it makes it easier for them to get engaged.

Four step process:

A. Acknowledge – The goal of the exercise is initiate a conversation that for the field rep result in a face to face visit, and for an inside rep a sales call by phone. Conversations take two. When they give their Conditioned Response, address it. One reason people hate the mid-dinner telemarketing call is the one sided nature of the call:

Telemarketer – “if you sign up today….”
Me – “My house is on fire”
Telemarketer – “It will also entitle you for coverage…”
Me – “My daughter’s hair is aflame”
Telemarketer – “And if you switch your balance it will be interest free for…”

Address their issue head on.

B. Create Credibility – Different where there is a Lack Of Interest and Status Quo, but the goal is to leverage the momentum of having acknowledged their response, and moving to build credibility.

C. Involve – The credibility above should also involve the prospect, again leading to conversation.

D. Call to Action – Commitment – Always, I repeat ALWAYS end your response with a call to action, the last thing you want them to think about is the response to the call to action; if you engage them well with the above elements, you want them to think about investing the time.

While approaching both the Status Quo and Lack Of Interest in a similar pattern, there is a key difference between the focus of Create Credibility. In buyers who are Status Quo, content, the goal is to focus on what you can ADD to their current situation that would move them closer to their objectives. Remember, even if they were not 100% content, or even 50%, they are not going to discuss that with an Interruption, that is why you are going for credibility. More importantly, they have been conditioned by all the sales people that they have dealt with in the past, a vast majority of whom have come with “get rid of what you have now, and replace it with my stuff”. Frightening and costly. But if you can enhance what they have in place now, improve their investment in that, and more towards their goal, you have something that neutralizes their Conditioned Response and extends the conversation.

A lot of people I call tell me they have in-house training, or are working with someone already. I also know that no program is complete, and usually could benefit from rounding out, so rather than knock up against what is already there, here is how I respond.

“I am glad you brought that up” (Acknowledge)
“XYZ Ltd., was in the same spot when we first called, but once they saw how our program was able to get their people in front of more prospects, they got to practice Wham Bam Consultative Selling with more buyers, generating mover revenue and ROI on Wham Bam” (Credibility/Involve)
“Why don’t we get together Wednesday at 11:00 and I’ll show you how we did that?” (Call 2 Action)

The goal is to get the appointment not with dislodge the incumbent, once you are in the tent, you are in a different position.

With Lack of Interest, the focus is on value or benefit. The thinking is this, the main reason they are not interest is they haven’t seen the value or benefit a meeting with you would bring. But you have to be specific, not pie in the sky empty words they heard six times already this morning.

Identify where you have delivered tangible value to a similar company, a similar role, the more similar the better. For example, in a specific industry, a number of similar clients have been able to increase their retention of reps, and by extension client satisfaction, up-sell and retention, all because of my program. So when I call on others in similar scenarios, and they tell me they are not interested:

“I can see why you may feel that way, as the CFO at Red White and Blue initially had the same reaction” (Acknowledge)
“Until he saw how our program helped with increased revenue, rep turnover cost, and client satisfaction” (Credibility/Involve)
“I can show exactly how we did, how is Wednesday at 11:00?” (Call 2 Action)

Takes work, you have to know what their priorities are, how your strengths align with their requirements and objectives, and other factors highlighted above, but the payoff is immediate and lasting, and your engagement rate will increase measurably.

Execution – Everything Else is Just Talk!
Tibor Shanto

What's In Your Pipeline?

Why Waste Time Waiting for Events – Trigger The Reaction – Sales eXchange 197 (#video)0

Unlearn To Earn2

Solving The E-Mail Black Hole1

Please note – I get no commission or compensation from ContactMonkey.

Enter the Art of Sales Contest – Win Tickets

New Year’s Evolution0

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

“I Didn’t See It Coming”45

Houston, We Have The Solution!74

Welcome back – How Was Your Summer?69

Prospectors’ Guide To Objection Handling – Part III – “We’re Good”46