Think Before You Speak !!

You are talking to a customer and after you present your product, service or solution, she asks, "What discount can I get?" or "What can you do about the price?" Think before you speak otherwise this innocent-sounding question will cost you money right off your bottom line. While it's tempting to offer a discount or better price resist the desire to do so. Here's why.

First, just because someone asks you for a better price, does not mean they expect to get it. Some people ask for a discount because they have been told to. They are often uncomfortable doing this and will seldom press the issue. However, professional buyers and key decision-makers know that many sellers will drop their price at the first sign of resistance so they ask everyone for a discount-and they can be aggressive in their approach. Plus, experienced negotiators lose respect for people who drop their price too quickly. Standing your ground and refusing to cave in right away is also a show of strength and executives respect this type of behavior.

Second, when you drop your price too quickly, you teach your customer to repeat that behavior in future transactions. Remember, everything you do now affects your customer's behavior toward you in the future. When I first started my private practice, I gave a client a discount on a package of services. The next time he contacted, he demanded that same discount which put me in a somewhat precarious position-did I give the same discount or risk losing the sale? A business executive once told me that she knew which of her suppliers she could browbeat into giving her a better price and she always took advantage of that perceived weakness. So, what is the best way to respond to a request for a discount or better price?

Professional negotiators will tell you to flinch. A flinch is a visible reaction to a request or demand and goes something like this, "You want a discount!?! Even though we have been working together for four years and you know our services will help you get better results you still want a discount?" When coupled with the right facial expressions and body language, this technique is extremely effective. However, I have found that most people are extremely uncomfortable using this approach and even I find it difficult to apply on a consistent basis.

An effective way to respond to a request for a better price is to ask, "What did you have in mind?" or "What were you looking for?" When you ask one of these questions, you get the other person to tell you how much of a discount they want. In many cases, their expectation will be less than you are prepared to give which means you will increase the size of the sale and save money at the same time-a double win. One word of caution here-an experienced negotiator will say, "Well, I want a better price than this" which means you need to be prepared to ask the question a couple of times.

This also applies to email correspondence. Many people will ask their sales person for a discount via email which makes it next to impossible to use some of the standard negotiating techniques. Before you respond by offering a better price, take the time to properly craft your email. Here is what you can say, "We might be able to do something for you. What did you have in mind?" The key is to give the indication that you have flexibility without committing to something you might regret later.

This sounds like an easy technique to use but it's not. You have to train yourself to listen for your customer's question and be prepared to respond with your own. I hate to admit it but I have fallen for this question because I wasn't expecting it. In one situation, an existing client asked me for a package price on some bundled services. Instead of responding by asking what price he was looking for, I automatically offered a small discount. I kicked myself afterwards because I felt that I should know better.

It is essential to listen carefully to what your prospect says and to think before you speak. It is also critical to practice asking your question until it becomes second- nature so you can respond quickly when a prospect asks for a discount or better price.

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Win the Battle, Lose the War

Dealing with customer concerns, problems and issues is a fact of life when you sell a product or service. And every person in sales has to certain customers who are more challenging to deal with. Some situations start as minor difficulties but quickly escalate into huge drawn-out battles. Unfortunately, many sales people unknowingly cause situations to escalate. Here is what I mean.

My wife overhead a conversation in a local grocery customer even though the customer's original concern was well-handled and properly taken care of. From what my wife could gather, the customer had bought some fruit (seven plums) that were not to her satisfaction. She wanted to exchange them and the "customer service" person told her to get the replacement plum and verify them her with before leaving the store. The customer did so. End of story. Problem solved. Quickly, easily and without hassle.

Well, not quite.
You see, as the store employee bagged the new plums she said a condescending tone, "You know, , we normally charge for the difference in price. So you're lucky today." I guess she was assuming that the weight of the customer's new plums weighed more than the returned ones or perhaps the price had increased since the original purchase. As you can well imagine, this did not go over well with the customer. She immediately exploded, "I should be happy? You should be paying me for my time and trouble and be happy that I'm not shopping at your competition. In fact, based on your tone with me, I will go to your competitor." And she stormed out of the store.

It was obvious to my wife that the customer service person made an unnecessary comment. The interesting thing is that this occurs more frequently than people think. Too many sales people feel that they have to point out a customer's mistake or get in the last word to show the customer how much effort went into solving the problem. But your customer doesn't care about that!

If the problem was caused by you, someone in the company, or a defective product, it was your fault! And if the situation is your fault then you owe it your customer to solve it quickly and without hassle. They don't need to know why the problem occurred or how difficult it may be to resolve. They just want a solution. Here is an example,

We used to buy two to four cappuccinos per day from a well-known coffee chain and the barista frequently added too much milk for our liking. When we questioned how the coffee was made we usually got a response like this, "Oh, it's made properly, you just want a dry cappuccino." No, we didn't because a dry cappuccino does not have enough milk. Because of the hassle, we invested in a cappuccino machine and now make our own.

From time-to-time, I get calls and emails from people who order my audio CD's. While I take great pains to ensure high-quality, sometimes the sound quality is less than perfect or the CD simply does not play. When someone contacts my office, we do not challenge them or ask them twenty questions before we issue a replacement. We send out a new item that day.

This may sound like a simple concept to apply. However, the challenge is your ego. Most people feel the pressing need to get in the last word. They want to make it clear to the other person where that individual went wrong because it helps them feel less taken advantage of. Many sales people have large egos. After all, this helps deal with the rejection and challenging customers. However, it is critical to recognize that these situations are not about you. They are about helping one of your customers get what they want and resolving their problems.

Behaving in a manner similar to one described above may make you feel better and lessen the pain of dealing with a challenging customer. But let's look at the financial impact for a moment. The comment from the baristas at the coffee chain caused us to buy our own machine which represents a financial loss of fifteen to twenty dollars per day for that particular coffee store. That's $5400-$7300 in lost revenue every year for that store!

Here is the bottom line. Getting in your last words may help you win the battle. However, even if you do win the battle, there is a good chance you will lose the war. That means your customer will find a reason to jump ship and shift their business to one of your competitors. Are a few last words that make you feel better worth that loss?

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Being a Professional Salesman

I am sure you have heard about salespeople earning $300-400k, a million or even more. Do you think this sales person is better than you are? They are not much different from you; they are not geniuses or impeccable experts in their field. They probably don’t know much more about their products or service than other salespeople in the same company. So you are probably asking yourself – how is it that they can make six or seven figures and you are struggling month by month to make ends meet and reach your quotas? The first and probably the most accurate answer is that they see themselves as professionals. How can you grow if you don’t adopt new ideas or learn about new things in business and in sales? How can you expect to advance to better, higher paid positions if you stop investing in your knowledge?

In my experience in sales, I have met many sales people who never bought a book about the sales in their life. They never attended a seminar about sales, which was not part of their company at the time. However, they were always complaining about how companies are not investing enough in their sales force, yet expect them to be perfect and up to date. That is the reason why they don’t want to invest in seminars on their own. They believe that if their company does not see the value in it, why would they pay for it by themselves? Also they feel they know everything about the sales, so there is no need for spending money on books and seminars, or finding time for reading magazines or specialized websites. Many of those people who don’t learn continuously wonder why they don’t advance in their career or are skipped over again for a promotion.
I am giving you perfect examples of how the amateurs are thinking while blaming everyone around them for being unsuccessful in sales. You are the one who is making the decision. Every morning, when you look in the mirror, are you seeing the reflection of an amateur or professional?
Sales professional is someone who invests in his knowledge, who reads magazines and web portals dedicated to sales people and attends seminars and conferences. A sales person who follows the trends understands how essential it is to improve him personally. Professionals are ones they know how necessary this is to start selling more. And of course – they are the ones who are earning more. Be different from the 95% of salespeople out there who are not investing in their knowledge, and you will start seeing the change. It will start first inside of you where you will be hungrier for the new knowledge. You will have a better conversation and better approach to your prospects and people around you will see that difference.
Your self-respect that you’ve gained with that new knowledge will make the world your oyster. Don’t wait for your employer to send you to a seminar. Be proactive, for yourself and your career. It will benefit you in the long term - with your career and most importantly you will see the difference in your wallet! You are asking your clients to make a change, but if you are unwilling to change yourself, how can you ask your prospects to?
Your sales process will also depend on your efforts invested in research and understanding your customer base, your energy and enthusiasm about your product. If you cannot transfer enthusiasm to your prospects, you are in deep problems. When you talking about something people can feel if you are insincere, or you really know what you are talking about.
It is not what are you saying but how are you saying it. What does it mean to be sales professional? I am not saying that you have to live, eat and breathe sales 24/7 every day for the rest of your life, but to start seeing your sales position as something more, something bigger than 9-5 job.
Whether you love your sales job or not, you have a choice to do it well or not, to be fully involved or back away, and if you have this attitude of choosing to do your work well, you will enjoy your job itself!
You can be very productive once you consciously choose to be in sales, and if you change your approach from get things done to actually enjoy what you do, you can get the job well done and be rewarded for your efforts. Fulfillment in your life comes with doing a great job, whatever you do. And your occupation, in this case sales profession, is just as important to your personal health as the right food for your body.
Invest in your knowledge; put the seeds in the small steps and watering your skills and constant caring about your sales knowledge. And when the time of harvesting comes, you will have the fruits of your efforts in front of you. To differentiate from majority of people who don’t like what they do, you have to actually enjoy what you do.
Start your day by doing your job the best you can, and try to do it for a week. Then come back next week and do it all over again. The best you can, not waiting for rewards, not asking for rewards. Don’t wait for results to come, just do the job the best you could. When first results came back, when you get positive feedback from your customers, when you close a new deal – ask yourself: What has changed?
You will start loving your job because success will come, first in small steps, but more and more day by day it will grow. Your customers will start seeing you as a knowledgeable person, your colleagues will see you with different eyes, and you will realize that all of that is important, but most important are feelings inside of you that start building – good feelings about yourself.
You will feel worthy, valuable to your customers, colleagues, and you will build that feeling inside of you that you are valuable part of your environment. And you will start feeling that you are helping others – your colleagues to be better, your customers to find the best solution, and by helping them you are actually helping yourself to become a more valuable member of the community.
Does it make sense? Natural order of things is in doing your best at what you do best, and the rewards will follow inevitable. Remember this - you can't fail how hard you try it.

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12 Lessons to Good First Impressions

Within the first few seconds of any encounter you are evaluated by the prospect. Your appearance, demeanour and body language all contribute to quickly create a first impression. This judgement happens primarily on a subconscious level and once made is extremely difficult to reverse. The prospect’s subconscious is asking the question “can I trust this person”. Follow these twelve key lessons and learn to influence this judgement in a positive way helping you to make a great first impression.

Lesson Number 1: Do your research
Do your homework, who are the key people? What are the products? Who are their customers? Are there any big plans for the future? Today you can use the Internet to get lots of information about the prospect but its also always worth ringing ahead a few days in advance to gather any relevant insight.

Lesson Number 2: Get focused
So the baby was sick and traffic is awful. Take a deep breath, leave your troubles behind and ensure that your focus is entirely set on the meeting.
Lesson Number 3: Good time keeping

Plan for unforeseen events like traffic etc and aim to get there with time to spare. Lateness is one sure fire way of killing off any chance of a good first impression.

Lesson Number 4: Be Confident
Expect to do business and your words, tone and body language will send out all the right signals. Successful people give off a successful image so even when you are having a bad month, approach every new business encounter in an open and confidant manner.

Lesson Number 5: Dress to Impress
This is the first visual clue that the prospect gets and making an extra effort will pay dividends. As far as the prospect is concerned If you look sharper than the competition changes are you are sharper then the competition.

Lesson Number 6: Keep an open stance
Ensure that your stance is open particularly during introductions. Try to be aware of giving any negative of defensive subconscious gestures such as folding of arms, putting point of sale materials in front of your torso etc.

Lesson Number 7: Smile, smile, smile
The most powerful subconscious tool you have at your disposal is your smile so use it. When you smile at someone, they will smile back and start to relax in your company. Remember, smiling is infectious.

Lesson Number 8: Always offer a firm handshake
A firm handshake helps to imply that you are a confidence and honest person. A loose weak handshake says don’t trust me, I got something to hide.

Lesson Number 9: Keep good eye contact
Ensure that you keep eye contact when addressing someone and when they are talking to you. Good eye contact says, you can trust me, I’m interested in what you have say because its also important to me.

Lesson Number 10: Slow down introductions
When you are introduced, slow down the process taking time to remember the names and positions of the people that are been introduced. We generally tend to rush through introductions and later find we cant remember the names and positions of the people we have just been introduced to.

Lesson Number 11: Use first names.
Once the introductions are over, use people’s first names when addressing your audience or asking questions. This helps to quickly build trust with prospects.

Lesson Number 12: Be an obvious listener
Good listening skills require concentration, focus and effort. Let them see that your attention is directly focused on him or her through use of eye contact, nodding and by avoiding any mental distractions.

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6 Misconceptions about Sales

Are You Thinking that you're a terrible salesperson? Get over these classic misconceptions, and you'll be a sales superstar. There are a number of potentially dangerous misconceptions that surround the sales profession. There are always people who are "down in the mouth," complaining that business is down, constantly making excuses as to why. If you believe these cynics, you can sabotage your own business. An attitude of self-pity can be contagious, so get things straight in your own mind first. Let's address the most damaging myths associated with sales and how you can overcome them. Before long, you'll actually have fun whenever you engage in selling activities.

Myth #1: Only Someone Who Talks a Good Game Can Sell
In reality, fast talkers don't really do very well in the world of sales. They have a bad reputation because their prospects can sense the pressure, the insincerity and the lack of concern and compassion. A good listener will outsell a fast talker any day of the week. When you don't listen, you don't learn about the individuals, the companies and their priorities. You won't be able to address their needs, hence your chances of making the sale are greatly diminished.

Myth #2: Sales Is a Numbers Game
Actually, sales is a numbers game--the harder you work, the more money you make! Lots of sales managers are obsessed with numbers: how many cold calls on the phone, how many in person, how many appointments, how many sales. I've even seen tons of forms that salespeople have to fill out and hand in at the end of the day. That's how the sales manager monitors the salespeople. Does this sound like elementary school homework or what? Sales work is about people, not numbers. It's a lot more like brain surgery than bingo. It's about research, information and relationships. No, sales is not a numbers game.

Myth #3: To Succeed in Sales, You Must Have Thick Skin
Yes, we all have to (graciously) call on internal reservoirs of strength to deal with inevitable setbacks. But that's not the same thing as developing an outer persona that is offensively aggressive.

In the name of thick skin, a lot of salespeople have adopted a persona that is, in a word, insufferable. Their attitude seems to be, "I succeed, you fail, see you around!" Professional sales result in win-win situations.

Myth #4: Sales Has Its Unavoidable Ups and Downs
Sales only becomes a roller coaster ride if you let the process drive you instead of the other way around. It only has ups and downs if you don't have goals. Almost every industry is vulnerable to seasonal shifts. Like most other inconveniences, these shifts can be avoided with proper planning.

No matter what you hear anyone else say, there really is no "bad" season. There is always opportunity for salespeople who are committed enough to find it. Picture this scenario: While your competitors moan about everyone being on vacation in July, you target people who are less likely to be away on holiday--and you get through to them more easily, because there are fewer gatekeepers to contend with!

Myth #5: You Have to Be Good at Handling Rejection to Be in Sales
Out of the millions of sales professionals in the United States, I'll warrant that every one of them has heard "no thanks" much more often than the average individual. If they took it to mean that they themselves were somehow inferior, we'd probably need special psychiatric hospitals just for salespeople with bruised egos.

Rejection is a bad thing only if you make a conscious choice not to learn anything from the situation. Otherwise, rejection is an opportunity for growth!

Myth #6: Sales Is a Dead-End Career With Little Promotional Opportunity
Did you know that 85 percent of the company leaders and entrepreneurs in America today were once salespeople? They carried sample cases, made cold calls, dialed for dollars, did product demonstrations and handled objections. Today, they're the majority of corporate presidents, CEOs and the like. Sales is a dead-end job, all right--especially when you consider that the end may be at the very top of an organization.

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Selling In The Economy Crisis

Watch the news lately? Hard to avoid watching the train wreck on Wall Street, isn’t it? As you listen to people across America, from newscasters to people on the bus, one word seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue: FEAR. There is a lot of talk about things “seizing up” and things “freezing” in an economic crisis. The government is giving dire warnings. Doesn’t sound like a very vibrant economy, does it? Do you believe everything that you hear? Maybe the crisis is worse than the news says. Maybe it isn’t nearly as bad as they say. Maybe they have it right. Whether the news is right or not, the real question is, “What are you going to do about it?” The emphasis is on YOU. Depending on what is between your ears, this is either a horrible time to be out selling, or a great time to be selling. Whether it is horrible or great is truly up to you, not the news.

In each crisis, there is opportunity. Despite the message on the news shows, the world isn’t going to stop spinning. The sun is going to come up in the east, and another day will unfold. That day is a blank slate. That day is the opportunity in the crisis. Each morning, you’ve got a choice. Are you going to be controlled by circumstance that you don’t like, or are you going to make your own circumstance? It can be easy to be paralyzed by fear. After all, FEAR is False Emotion Appearing Real.
Think about that for a second. Think about all the times you’ve been afraid of something and what you were afraid of never happened. Or, if it did happen, it wasn’t nearly as bad as you imagined it would be. Fear is only in your head. It isn’t in the ground, it isn’t in the water, it is in your head. So, you control fear unless you choose to let it control you. No matter how bad the economy may or may not be, people and companies still have problems that need to be solved. And, they will still need help solving them. Sales aren’t going to stop. The true sales professional with great skills will prosper and those without the skills, will struggle.

What are some things that you can do to keep your performance up and prosper in the short and long term?
* Put our metrics under a microscope. Increase your call volume, don’t let it drop. Be more aware of all your activities on a daily basis.
* Time management is key. Are you spending your time worrying about what you can’t control or are you working to develop business?
* Get motive! Prospects have a reason for talking with you. Find out what it is. Knowing motive is a key element in any sale, even in a good economy. When people are afraid, motive is even more important.
* When you are following up with people, add value by giving them something they can use. If you do, they’ll come to you when they are ready to buy. If you just pester with needless follow up, you chase them to your competitors.
* Work on your selling skills, especially asking the right questions. Dig deeper. Ask more follow up questions. “Why do you think that is?” is a great follow up question. There are seven ways to ask that question. Use them all.
* Work on your listening skills. Don’t let vague words pass you by. Soon is a vague word. Ask the question, “What is soon in your world?” Hear a vague word, ask a question!
* Watch your language. Are you using positive or negative words? If negative words, or phrases that voice complaints are creeping in to your vocabulary, get rid of them. They will impact you in a negative way. We are what we feed our brain.
* Keep your attitude positive. Attitude is contagious to other parts of your life.
* Exercise. By exercise I don’t mean jumping to conclusions. Get out and walk, run, jog, stretch, swim, bike, or anything else that gets your body moving. Exercise releases endorphins that feel good.
* Focus on the solution, not on the problem. If you aren’t getting the results you need, focus on what must be done differently in order to succeed. If you focus on the problem, you’ll only get more of that. Focus on the solution and you’ll find the answer.

How the current economic situation plays out for you is up to you. The government is not going to solve your problem. Remember, in every crisis, some people fall by the wayside and some people prosper.

Which one will you be?

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Why Sales Fail

Are your sales cycles longer than necessary?
Are you losing business to the competition when you shouldn’t be?
Are you having trouble differentiating yourself?
Are you getting price objections when your product is clearly superior?

If you face any of the above, it’s because you are using sales methods.
Do I have your attention? Good, because sales operates on a set of myths that perpetuate failure.

I am going to debunk these myths that have defined the entire industry for decades, if not centuries. Myths that have cost companies, sales people, and clients unfathomable money, time and success. Myths that not only advocate misguided sales methods, but design unproductive marketing and advertising campaigns, and keep management from being able to forecast revenue. And myths that have kept sales people from closing all the sales they should be closing.


The buyer is stupid
Let me begin with a story. I mentioned this at the start of a sales training with a noted hardware provider. Everyone cheered and gave me a standing ovation. I was surprised: for me the title was so silly that I expected laughter. For me the title was equivalent to: I would have had an easier birth if it weren’t for my mother.
These successful professionals were doing the stuff that sellers are expected to do: gathering data, understanding a ‘buyer’s Pain’, learning enough about a buyer’s needs so they could present a relevant solution, developing relationships, offering strategic ways to solve persistent problems, providing good service, following up, having a trustworthy product, being a great Trusted Advisor.
Yet they were not getting the results they deserved, feeling frustrated that given how well they understood buyer’s needs and provided creative solutions (Truly they did!), gave such great service (They care! They care!), had such a good product (The best!), and assiduously followed up (After waiting just the right number of days!), they closed only a small percentage of their prospects.

Indeed, they were perplexed at the prolonged time it took to close, and watched in dismay and annoyance as a prospect often chose the wrong solution or - even more confounding - chose no solution at all. So much wasted time. And the loss of so many prospects who would have closed if they knew how. There could be only one conclusion: the buyer was stupid.

Maybe, I suggested, there is something you are missing. They couldn’t think what it could be: they were smart, rigorous, and professional. They assumed the disappointing results were ‘givens’: that buyers made stupid decisions, didn’t really know what they needed, didn’t appreciate quality, had no loyalty, weren’t smart enough to understand a new product. What if the buyer weren't stupid?

And, so, the problem with sales. Given the best sales skills in the world, given care and responsibility, a great product and branding, and talking to the ‘right’ decision makers, you close only a fraction of your prospects. Telemarketing and scripted calls close ½-1%. Small business bankers close approximately 2% even after a year of face-visits. Software sales close approximately 5-7%. But it’s safe to say that there is a more-or-less 90% failure rate, from time of prospecting, using available selling skills. Yet you have continued to seek perfection over the years. You focused on Customer Care, then Relationship Management, then Trusted Advisor. You’ve discovered buyer Pain, marketed with Neuromarketing and targeted the Old Brain. You’ve done Solution Selling and SPIN, gotten to VITO, and looked for the High Probability. You keep learning how to better yourselves with updated forms of pitching, presenting, prospecting, closing, educating, and handling objections. You learn to put your needs second, and profess to really care that customers get what they need, even if it’s not your product. You hire seasoned professionals, assuming they’ll be more successful – and then play musical chairs as you fire them for deficient numbers and hire someone similar in hopes of greater success. You assume that if you provide the right information, in the right way, at the right time, and brand yourselves fashionably, the buyer will understand why they need to buy. From you.

Sales, advertising, marketing all are based on product placement and perceived-problem resolution – a Problem Management Model if you will. The industry spends trillions on demographic studies, neuroscience studies of learning how the buyer’s brain works, focus groups, market tests. But all that achieves is higher probabilities for specific markets - not a way to manage or influence an individual prospect’s decision-making capacity. But you still fail to close all of the sales you deserve to close.

Regardless of sales vehicle or skill, the industry or the price tag, the same basic set of beliefs about the ‘job’ of sales persists, building in reduced possibilities (a 400 %+ increase over your standard expectations could be the norm), 100 hours a month wasted using your bodies as prospecting tools, and months or years of positioning, strategizing, and waiting. Adding insult to injury, you hire 4X more sellers than necessary because close rates are so abysmal that you have to hire more people to make up the numbers.

And what about the buyer? What if the buyer is getting less than what they need, paying more for it, and not getting their resolution in a timely way because they are just responding to the sales model? What if the buyer has the best will in the world – truly wants the best vendor or solution or time frame - and still ends up with an inferior solution? Where do they go wrong? And why don’t the very skills of ‘sales’ help them get it right?

As yet, few have questioned the model itself. You’ve just built in failure as being an expectation of the field, and continuing the frustration of finding new ways to do the same thing differently, with the same results - better and better skills at doing the same wrong things better and better.

What is going on here?
Where sales fails

I’m here to tell you that you are wonderful, your product is great, and your buyers are smart. It’s the model itself that is broken.

Let me begin by naming a few overarching myths that sales perpetuates:

* buyers buy because they are in Pain;
* buyers recognize a need when they notice a problem;
* buyers buy on price;
* buyers buy on emotion;
* buyers need to have a ‘face’ visit with a seller to develop a relationship;
* buyers buy from a seller they like because they like and trust them;
* good branding and great products will drive sales;
* being professional, doing great information-gathering, being a great Trusted Advisor, will teach a buyer how to trust and choose a vendor;
* sellers need to understand a buyer’s problem/’pain’;
providing and gathering the right information will enable buyers to make sense of their need.

If the above were true, buyers would have solved their problem yesterday, or make quicker decisions, or choose the very cheapest solution every time. But they don’t.

As a result of operating out of the wrong beliefs, sellers:

* have sales cycles up to 5 times longer than necessary;
get unnecessary money objections;
* assume that a 90%+ failure rate is the norm (and build these inadequate projections into their budgets);
* chase prospects for months or years and then possibly lose the sale;
* assume the Pain + good solution + good service + good price + need = purchase;
* don’t know when they have lost the sale until it is too late to recover;
* work arduously on attempting to know all of the answers to ensure they sound professional, represent their company well, and attempt to be seen as true professionals;
* spend zillions of dollars figuring out how to present and pitch information that buyers may not need in order to buy;
* don’t recognize that a buyer will never buy until they have spent too much time on them.

Sales has failed because it assumes that you can sell product by fully understanding the Identified Problem and positioning and pricing and presenting your solution appropriately, using the most appropriate medium, in front of the ‘right’ people.

When I ask sellers why they lost a deal, they ultimately say – after first complaining about what a jerk the buyer is - that if they had done their job ‘better’ the buyer would have bought. So... it’s the seller who is stupid?
It's always a systems problem

Given your skill set, you do a wonderful job. Truly. I’ve met very, very few of you whom I would call unprofessional. Across industries and market segments, from telemarketers to senior Partners, I find that you truly care about your clients, and really want to do a good job. You somehow weather the daily rejection (also built into the profession) and keep on keepin’ on. Each day you fight the good fight. You read more books on your profession than professionals in any other industry – working ever harder at getting that ‘edge’ that will help you close the deal. One half a billion dollars a year are spent on sales training world wide. It’s a very very professional group with ethics, standards, and commitment.

Yet, through no fault of your own, you haven’t been taught the secret: that a buyer’s Identified Problem – that problem or ‘pain’ that you work so assiduously to understand and resolve – can’t be fixed the way you’ve been taught to help fix it. You haven’t been taught that sales should be a systems competency, that a buyer’s Identified Problem is only a small piece of a much larger issue they are facing, unwittingly held in place daily by the company or team, history and rules, politics and relationships.

Indeed, the buyer’s Identified Problem is only the tip of the iceberg – the visible part of some much larger, unresolved, set of issues. And having a product that will ‘fix’ the perceived problem is like putting a band aid on a broken leg: it treats the Identified Problem as if it were a relatively isolated event.

Systems thinking believes that nothing stands alone, that everything is somehow related, that nothing exists in a vacuum, that there are ‘…key interrelationships that influence behavior over time. These are not interrelationships between people, but among key variables…” (pg 44, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge).

The Neuroscience of Human Relationships by Louis Cozolino says, “Our experience of the world is constructed around the notion of the isolated self…. Yet… all of our biologies are interwoven” (pg 3). Nothing stands alone. Nothing is isolated from the system that creates, surrounds, perpetuates, and constrains it. In other words, to change, the very elements within the system that created and maintains the problem must seek, and then embrace, the change.
Not an isolated event

Here’s a simplistic analogy: Imagine driving down a street and seeing a “For Sale” sign on the house of your dreams - and going directly in and buying it. Unthinkable! Your spouse will most probably object; your budget and funding would have to be considered; your time frame would need to be organized; you’d somehow have to manage an array of interrelationships (schools, playgroups, soccer practice, moving schedules, weather) that are unique to you and your living situation. Great house, great price, great location, you have the money, you need to move anyway…. And your spouse might want to change jobs and need to relocate. Or you are waiting for interest rates to drop. Or you need to have knee surgery next month. Or or or….

When you consider offering a solution to a prospect, it’s important to remember that all of the stakeholders and ideas and unspoken biases and hidden, historic events and policies and rules that reside within the prospect’s company, team, or family have conspired to create, maintain, and perpetuate the Identified Problem.

So what is perceived as the prospect’s Identified Problem is merely a highly visible segment of a much larger problem within the buyer’s culture – like having historic money issues that would preclude you from easily getting a loan on that perfect new house. Add this to the challenge that the problem has become part of the fabric of the system and will continue to maintain itself daily (and will resist change) until something else replaces it that the entire system buys-in to.

This tangle of interdependent components (sometimes invisible even to the prospect) creates an Identified Problem that needs so much more than just recognizing, understanding or resolving. And, because your product probably does resolve the visible part of the Identified Problem, you dangerously assume that your product could be the prospect’s solution, leading you to continue the ‘push’ strategies invoked by sales.

But by then you’re not only facing unnecessarily long sales cycles, you’re also facing a resistance problem. That’s why you end up getting objections, excuses, confusions, time delays, contact problems, and decision issues, and closing such a small percent of your prospects.
Sales can't discern systems

As you can see, it’s quite simplistic to think that your care and professionalism, product, or any external solution coming in at the wrong time – even when the Identified Problem seems to seek a resolution - cannot resolve this. Of course, some prospects show up and buy. I call this the Lucky Stripe - that magical place where everything shows up just right and you close a sale quickly. This happens because the prospect has already managed their systems decisions.

Make no mistake: this resolution of systems components needs to happen anyway - with you or without you – and the time it takes buyers to accomplish this is the length of the sales cycle.

The entire model of selling is based on the wrong assumptions. Buyers buy not when they discover a need, or have pain; they’ve been living with that for a period of time. They buy only when they have defined their own internal questions, resolved and discovered their own unique path through their systems issues, and figured out how to bring in change without disruption. Once this occurs, they will know exactly how to buy you and they will actually need your sales skills and product knowledge. But until then, the sales model potentially slows down any comprehensive resolution.

Sales fails because you are pushing, pulling, influencing the area surrounding the Identified Problem, handling just the tip of the iceberg. Sales fails because it assumes that great products and well-positioned data will teach a buyer to buy. And sales ultimately fails because the system will fight change until all internal systems elements are managed. Sales must become a Systems Resolution Event – not a Problem Management Model.
Success is possible

It is indeed possible to help buyers manage their buying decisions. To do this you will have to learn an additional set of skills: new ways to listen and new things to listen for, new types of questions to ask, new curiosity, new focus and a new way to enter the seller-buyer interaction.

Your results will be profound. You will:

have much, much shorter sales cycles as buyers will be able to make all necessary decisions much more quickly;
have a much broader range of prospects, including folks who hadn’t been seeking a solution but indeed need your product;
be able to discern the difference between a real prospect and someone needs to be dropped (even on the first call);
quickly become part of the buyer’s decision team and lead them efficiently through critical systems decisions;
differentiate yourself from the competition because you are facilitating the real issues – helping resolve the Core Problem vs. the Identified Problem;
and hear no objections as there won’t be anything to object to.
Adding this front end to your current sales approach will give you a shorter sales cycle overall. Remember: the buyer has to do all this anyway; s/he might as well do it with you. Doing it with you will save time, differentiate you, and create a lasting bond. And your buyers will have found their own answers, melding your solution into the solution they design.

Change the game. Selling and buying are two different activities and handle the two distinct phases necessary for a buying decision – the buyer-led systems management phase, and the seller-driven product placement phase. Do you want to sell? Or have someone buy?

Read more detail about “Why Sales Fail”