All posts in Your Sales Mind

Recommended Reading for Sales and Selling Organizations

Here’s a short list of books on sales and business that I recommend to clients who want to reach the level of sales they desire and deserve. These are tools that every high-performing salesperson should have in their sales toolkit.

 

Baseline Selling by Dave Kurlan – Systematic approach to selling  that gives salespeople more results and control over the sales process.

Hope is Not a Strategy: The 6 Keys to Winning the Complex Sale by Rick Page – Use the strategies to navigate the complex sale and land your next whale account.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz – Learn how to use the psychology behind negotiation and the correct use of ‘no’.

The Platinum Rule for Sales Mastery: How to Adapt Your Selling Style to Match Every Prospect’s Buying Style by Tony Alessandro, Scott Zimmerman – Achieve quicker bonding and rapport with others and improve communication in any and all other situations.

Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide for Modern Marketing by Harry Beckwith – A collection of short, practical strategies with insights on how markets work and prospects think.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini – Still the foundational book for understanding the principles of persuasion and the psychology behind why people say “yes”.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey – Filled with practical wisdom for people who are looking to take control of their lives and careers.

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Want To Sell More? Rela-a-a-a-x!

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. 

                                                                                          –Chinese Proverb

Think about this question for a moment. When you (or your salespeople) are engaged in the sales process, are you relaxed, at ease, calm on the inside? Or are you tense, uptight, anxious, nervous?

Most people will want to know what's happening at any particular point in a sales call before they answer the question. Encountering resistance from a prospect? Receiving a stall or objection to product or service offering? Or are they having a great meeting where quality information is exchanged and a next step is clearly defined and understood by both parties? Most salespeople will react differently to the first set of circumstances than to the second set.

Of course, for sales mastery, the objective is to be relaxed at all times, no matter what's occurring in the sales process. Only when we are relaxed can we perform in a manner that allows us to use our knowledge, skills and abilities effectively.

It's when we "tense up" that we get in trouble. Some salespeople are still stuck in the old "selling" mindset of "I have to go in and sell/show/convince them why they should buy from us.". These salespeople think they should be 'salespeople' and 'sell' their prospects. What happens as a result? They look, act and sound like salespeople which is the opposite of what prospects prefer. They want to work with problem solvers who will fix their problems, issues or concerns and add or create value as part of the sales interaction.

When a sales professional moves from the old "selling" mindset to the new "problem solving" mindset, all of their tension melts away and disappears.

Why? Armed with a way of thinking and belief system that says that prospects must sell the salesperson that they have a problem worth fixing and they want the salesperson to help them with the solution, the 'relaxed' sales professional feels more confident and in control when executing their sales process! They don't sell the prospect. The sales professional creates the environment where they don't have to close. Instead the prospect buys!

Which method do you want to use? Which method do you want your sales team to use?

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Lost and Found

"You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3."   Paul F. Crickmore (Test pilot)

I don't know about you but I have never had the experience of being 'lost' at Mach 3. I'm sure it's something you don't forget. 

Sometimes in a sales career we can get a feeling of being 'lost'. This can result from a sales slump, a poor economy or personal issues. We have all been there. Let's talk about some of the things we can do to go from lost to…..found.

Here are a few suggestions that can help you get back on track and in focus:

1)  Re-connect with your written personal and business goals.

 What do you want for yourself and/or your family? What rewards will give yourself in exchange for all the hard work you will put in? If you have written goals, are they still important? Do they need to be fine-tuned?

2)  Re-connect with your values.

What drives you? What motivates you? What gives you energy and passion? Do your values help you live consistently and help you perform well in your personal and business life?

3)  Re-connect with your vision.

What is it you are moving toward? What is it that you (or your organization, sales team, company) want to become? What does it look like? Can you describe it specifically? Vividly? Make it look and sound real?

Here is the interesting part.

There is a very good possibility that our goals, values and vision haven't changed very much from one year ago to the present day. What has changed is our focus on them and our awareness of using them in our everyday lives. It's not unusual to lose that focus and awareness, however, given all the things that come at us daily that steal our attention. It's easy to lose sight of these important 'guideposts'.

Here is a suggestion: If you are part of the sales function of your company, set a time once a quarter, to take some quiet time and sit down to review your goals, values and vision. Use this opportunity to get back in focus and re-energize yourself! 

 

 

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Selling With Purpose

Often in working with salespeople, I find one of their biggest challenges in performing effectively in the sales process comes down to being able to detach themselves emotionally from the selling situation. Instead of limiting their emotional involvement they tend to start to think too much during the sale. The thinking could include analyzing, creating, worrying, panicking, getting excited and strategizing on the fly–all activities that can sabotage a sale. This thinking is often caused by a lack of mental discipline.

Right about now you are asking yourself, "What is mental discipline?" It's a structure of behavior and attitude that helps a salesperson (and non-salespeople) execute in the 'moment'. (Saying the right thing to the right person at the right time.)

Behavior shapes thought. If a salesperson disciplines his behavior, then he will also discipline his mind.

And more importantly, it is a structure that reduces the sales process to a series of simple tasks. The salesperson's personality isn't at the center. The salesperson's talent isn't at the center. The task is at the center.

By putting the task at the center, we shine a light on the way the body and mind communicate with each other. It was once thought the mind existed above the body–remember the advice to "be a third party in the sales call'?–but that belief is disproved by the evidence. In fact, it's easier to change the mind by changing behavior.

And by putting selling task at the center, the salesperson quiets the self. They push their thoughts away from their own qualities–their expectations, nerve and ego–and allow the salesperson to lose themselves in the task.

What lesson can professional salespeople take from all this? First, the importance of following a sales process that can be broken down into a series of tasks to be completed. Examples would be: Setting the ground rules for all sales calls, asking great questions, getting commitments as to 'what happens next?' that help to advance the sale. Second, following this process repetitively (not robotically) will enable them to develop the mental discipline requred to quiet their mind and detach emotionally from the sale.

Often in working with salespeople, I find one of their biggest challenges in performing effectively in the sales process comes down to being able to detach themselves emotionally from the selling situation. Instead of limiting their emotional involvement they tend to start to think too much during the sale. The thinking could include analyzing, creating, worrying, panicking, getting excited and strategizing on the fly–all activities that can sabotage a sale. This thinking is often caused by a lack of mental discipline.

Right about now you are asking yourself, "What is mental discipline?" It's a structure of behavior and attitude that helps a salesperson (and non-salespeople) execute in the 'moment'. (Saying the right thing to the right person at the right time.)

Behavior shapes thought. If a salesperson disciplines his behavior, then he will also discipline his mind.

And more importantly, it is a structure that reduces the sales process to a series of simple tasks. The salesperson's personality isn't at the center. The salesperson's talent isn't at the center. The task is at the center.

By putting the task at the center, we shine a light on the way the body and mind communicate with each other. It was once thought the mind existed above the body–remember the advice to "be a third party in the sales call'?–but that belief is disproved by the evidence. In fact, it's easier to change the mind by changing behavior.

And by putting selling task at the center, the salesperson quiets the self. They push their thoughts away from their own qualities–their expectations, nerve and ego–and allow the salesperson to lose themselves in the task.

 

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