Hey, Jay here,
Recently one of our new business coaches admitted to me that they were fearful of selling. “It isn’t that I hate selling, it’s just that I don’t really like it” said Sarah. It was a preference. Sarah didn’t see herself as the ’sales type’.
How many sales people do you think really feel like this?
Many of the sales managers and sales people I speak to, admit there are times when they don’t actually like selling. Many say that there are certain sales tasks or aspects to selling that they don’t like.
“I have just the assignment for you then Sarah”, I said.
The assignment was to find a lead generation company (outsourcing or b2b telemarketing) to generate leads for one of our clients, a software developer. I told Sally I wanted ‘the best lead generation company in the Australian marketplace’.
The client’s criteria was this:
Must be professional
Must be able to show ROI (value for money)
Have a good track record in software (our client was a software developer)
Be willing to provide customer referrals
Their people must have experience talking with HR Directors, CEOs and top level execs of top 100 companies
Have a simple approach to their fee structure (no hidden charges)
Be customer centric in their approach (by providing a high level of customer service)
Understand the new developments in sales language (e.g. reframing, presuppositions etc.)
“OK”, said Sarah, “Sounds like a reasonable laundry list - i’ll get to it, but before i do, what does this have to do with learning how to sell?”
Good question - “Just take note of how these guys try to sell to you during the process” I said.
I left the decision on which Lead Generation company we would recommended to our client, up to Sarah. I call that the responsibility model - you’d be surprised how well it works!
3 days later Sarah reported her findings to me (there were questions/brief discussions in between). The discussion went like this:
Sarah: Wow, what an experience that was. It was an exercise in how not to sell…
Jay: Why what happened?
Sarah: Where do I start? Most of the sales people talked at me and only one actually asked what it was I was looking for… One company! Aren’t these guys supposed to be modelling their sales skills at this point?
Jay: Bad start eh? So what’d ya do?
Sarah: I listened to loads of their crap and tried to wade through it - that’s what I did.
Jay: How many companies did you speak to?
Sarah: 12!
Jay: Wow, that’s a lot of conversations, so what’s the upshot?
Sarah: I found 2 companies that come close to matching the criteria, and eliminated one by asking “So, say I gave you the business right now, tell me what we would do next?”
Jay: Oh no!
Sarah: Yep, the response was a long winded diatribe of excuses and responsibility shuffling. And when I asked for references, they said their policy was not to give out client information. What the…..? It was a big ‘bedow’ (Sarah’s a big sale of the century fan) from me.
Jay: So you’ve decided?
Sarah: Yes, I decided on one of the more expensive options because they addressed that majority of our client’s criteria, particularly their experience with execs and hey they specialise in calling for software companies! This guy had the referrals and the language down pat. But the part that won me was that they asked questions that I didn’t have answers to. They challenged me to go and find them (and liase with our client).
Jay: OK, pull togther a brief and we’ll present to our client on Monday. Hey, what else did you learn?
Sarah: I think that I learned how to sell by learning how to buy. I learned that sales is about being curious - about asking questions to help the client understand what they don’t already know, yeah, that’s what I learned!
Jay: Great job Sarah, and where’s the fear of selling gone?
Sarah: I haven’t quite got an answer to that yet - though I will say that my ability to sell is definitely connected to my belief and values systems…
Jay: Huh, how about that!
That’s it, as usual, comments are encouraged; hope this helps!
Jay
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