Improve Your Sales Results Immediately

Hello again!  Chances are you’re here because you recently took our National Sales Challenge – THE assessment for serious salespeople who really want to know more about whether or not their selling skills are ready for today’s selling challenges.  And chances are you weren’t satisfied with your score.

Selling Has Changed…Salespeople Haven’t

The changes have been subtle, no announcements were made, but it’s a new selling world, and if you haven’t made the adjustment, you are being left behind.  And that’s why selling is such a struggle for most folks today.

“Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon…everything’s different.”

Calvin, of Calvin & Hobbs

According to Thomas Stewart, editor of the Harvard Business Review, “Customers’ buying processes have evolved in our world of ubiquitous, instant, global communication, but companies’ selling processes have for the most part stayed the same.” And this is the essence of the problem with selling today.

Customers are more sophisticated and better informed than ever.  Competition has increased; even the venerable “old” names (like Microsoft) have upstarts nipping successfully at their heels.  Deals are larger, increasing buyer’s concerns about making a bad decision.  This extends sales cycles and brings more decision makers into the equation.  Trust between the seller and the customer becomes more important than ever.

Unfortunately, salespeople haven’t kept pace with the changes.  Their perception by customers is still negative.  Never ones to inspire a great deal of trust due to the pressure-filled, manipulative tactics used by the stereotypical salesman, even today salespeople are treated with suspicion by customers, yet for different reasons.

“Reinventing Selling?” (More Proof)

That’s what an article in the Wall Street Journal suggests.

Ram Charan, a business consultant that works with the senior executives at the likes of General Electric and Verizon Communications, says that he “began to see companies with good strategies, good technology, and good costs asking, ‘Why are we not getting better results?’”

He found that companies had been focusing on the “back end of the business: operations, accounting, finance, overhead.  But the sales force had been neglected.”

So what has gone wrong?  Charan suggests the following.

“The sales function has traditionally been about execution.  They get training to know the product, and they beat the competition on price.”  But the world has changed.  Copying a product has become easy to do.  As a result, “It has become very hard to differentiate yourself in the eyes of the customer for business-to-business sales.  So salespeople should not sell the product any more.  They should find out what the customer needs.”

He continues, “Salespeople need to learn the business of the customer.  They need to learn how to ask the right questions.  They need to have analytical skills to diagnose a customer’s business.”

Yes, selling has changed.  No doubt about it.   Unfortunately salespeople have not kept pace, and they’re paying the price.  Their selling skills are obsolete – created for the low dollar, one call close sale that is going by the wayside.  In today’s complex selling environment (bigger dollars, longer selling cycles, more people involved in the decision process) traditional approaches just don’t work any longer.

Selling. Does it Seem Like Groundhog Day to you?

As the wise man said, “We learn from our mistakes.”  But do we?  We’ve seen many, many (way too many) salespeople make the same mistakes week after week, month after month, year after year.  They proudly call it “experience.”  It almost seems like even though it’s not getting results, it’s the “way things are.”  But they still don’t change.  The status quo is a tough thing to shake.  Comfort zones are comfortable.  Change is risky.  The habits just become harder to break.

And the worst part is that the ever changing marketplace demands a new approach.

After training thousands of salespeople over the past 20 years, we know that to keep making these mistakes over and over is a slow boat to oblivion.  Groundhog Day.  “Déjà vu all over again,” as Yogi Berra opined.

How many of these mistakes are you making?  Each one of these is a killer on its own.  Compound the problem by putting several together on each opportunity and you’re really up the creek.  Can you afford to keep this up?

But Wait! Some Good News for Salespeople. You’re Lucky! Competition Stinks!

Well, not exactly.  I don’t mean the companies that you compete with.  They’re probably pretty decent or they wouldn’t still be in business.

I mean the salespeople that work for those companies that you compete with probably aren’t so hot.  They have trouble maintaining their prices, are quick to undercut your prices to get you out of the picture.  It’s tough for them to get to the real decision makers, probably calling a level or two below you.  They get their proposals shopped by the prospect.  (You’ve probably seen copies of some of their proposals.)  They probably took a page from your playbook for their elevator speech…”we’re the best, have very competitive prices, lots of satisfied customers, great products and our service levels are as good as anybody’s.”  Something like that.  Sound familiar?

Boy, are you lucky.  With competition like this, selling should be pretty easy.  Shouldn’t it?  So what’s the problem?

Your Personal Sales Objectives

Was one of your goals to make more money this year?  If so, what’s your plan?  Wait ‘til the economy improves?  (Unfortunately, a rising tide raises all boats, so an improving economy will help your competition as well.)  How about working harder?  (Bet you’re already doing that.)  Um, what’s left?
If you’re serious about making more money (and we think you are since you took the time to check out your skill sets), there’s just one thing left…improve your selling skills.

Maybe you’re even wondering how we can help.  We can, of course.

Here’s the Deal…Sales Coach Learning Library

If you don’t want to be AVERAGE, if you really want a bigger slice of the pie, then our Sales Coach Learning Library is right for you.  Tons of our best content covering everything from the Inner Game to Prospecting to Sales Process, Stalls & Objections, Closing & Keeping the Business, and much more.

The Sales Coach sales training is delivered in using a state of the art learning management platform.  You will have unrestricted access to all of the video training content that has been specifically designed to ensure your sales success.  We have tested this system with before and after results and you would be astounded to the degree of change that you can achieve by watching the videos and listening to the easy to consume audio lessons.

It truly is a “no-brainer” for any salesperson who wants to take his or her game up a notch or two.