RAISE YOUR BAR! How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results

RAISE YOUR BAR!How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results

by Andre Belloforeword by STEPHEN ANDERSON

The e-book is free for your personal use. You can print it, e-mail it or share it with friends and colleagues. You are not allowed to alter it in any way, take credit for any of its content, make paper planes with it or use it for group training without the author’s permission.

And he’s watching you (but not in a creepy way).

RAISE YOUR BAR!How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results

by Andre Belloforeword by STEPHEN ANDERSON

RAISE YOUR BAR! How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results

Copyright © 2011 by André BelloAll rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy-ing, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Kiwi Publishing, IncP.O. Box 3852Woodbridge CT 06525Tel/Fax: (866) 836-7913info@kiwipublishing.comwww.kiwipublishing.comIllustrations and images under a Creative Commons license: Frits Ahlefeldt at http://hikingartist.com and “Stop_hand” image at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stop_hand.png

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult a professional when appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

ISBN-10 1935768107ISBN-13 9781935768104First EditionPrinted in the United States of America

Contents

Who this book is for vi

Foreword vii

Acknowledgements ix

Three ways to use this workbook x

Is selling an art or a science? 1

Why behavior matters most 2

Behaviors. Accountability. Results. 3

Technology can help! 5

Step to success 6

Start with ambitious targets 9

Suspects 10

Outbound vs. inbound leads 11

Are you scared of rejection? 13

The language of the approach 15

Who else do you need to talk to? 18

Your product has great benefits. So what? 20

Right message, wrong timing! 22

The attraction of doing nothing! 23

The art of questioning 25

Look beneath the surface 27

Expand your discussion beyond price 28

Align your proposal with their problems 30

You may have some hurdles to overcome 31

Eight ways to handle objections 32

What proof do you have? 36

Close the sale! 37

Accountability! 39

Results! 47

Bridge performance gaps! 53

7 really cool things about Goal Smashers! 55

Hit bigger targets than your competition! 63

About the author 64

v

Who this book is for

THIS BOOK IS for you, especially if you believe that great salespeople can be developed through the consistent practice of proper techniques.

There are those few “naturals” who seem to be born with an innate ability to win new business. But when we ask about the secrets to their success, we frequently discover that they don’t really know what makes them better than the rest. Some have a knack. Some have charisma. Some put in hours of effort. It’s often a mixed bag of attributes that are very difficult to transfer to others.

This book is written in the belief that everyone can raise his or her BAR (Behaviors, Accountabil-ity & Results). It will provide a step-by-step methodology to give you predictable and repeatable improvements in your ability to sell more, supported by online resources to help you to solidify your habits for the long term.

This book is for anyone who would like to sell more!

vi

Foreword

One of the great challenges of the next few decades will be exactly how to manage -- and make sense of -- all the information we’re gathering. From the knowledge we share and create online, to the growing burden of personal commitments, regaining a sense of control over this information will be a vital skill. And one for which tools are beginning to emerge.

Fortunately, humans have dealt with information challenges before. When words fail, we revert to images. We have drawings on cave walls that precede written history by thousands of years. It is natural to think first in pictures. If I ask you to list how many appliances you have right now on your kitchen counter, you begin by “seeing” your kitchen and your assorted appliances. Even text -- like these words you are reading now -- is simply a collection of symbols, each coded with meaning based on how they are grouped.

While this written word may be nuanced and specific, illustrations are clear and compelling. When words fail, images can step in and speak with clarity using colors, shapes and the arrangement of these visual elements.

In my own work, I’ve combined skills of the print-oriented information designer with all the varia-tions associated with dynamic, changing data. I have a love for information visualization, repre-senting complex information in a way that is understood through simple visual treatments.

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When André first approached me to work on Goal Smashers, it was precisely this visual repre-sentation of information that I found so appealing. As you probably know, managing dozens or hundreds of sales opportunities, each at different stages in “the pipeline,” is a challenge. Sales agents everywhere have devised their own solutions to this problem. Some solutions involve pen and paper. People have created clever Excel spreadsheets. And others have turned to software applications that can make life difficult by doing more than they need to do.

With Goal Smashers, we’ve focused on the essential things you need to be successful: Who should I contact next? Which skills do I need to work on? How am I doing? While there are several screens within Goal Smashers, it is essentially a one-page application. We’ve tried to create a system that brings focus and clarity by representing everything you need to see on one page. One succinct and visual page. While visualizing a sales pipeline is nothing new, using this visual as your primary means of interaction is something new. Our hope is that you will be able to cut through the noise and focus on the essential things that make you successful -- without clicking through a bunch of screens or shuffling through pages. We want to help you simplify the onslaught of information and introduce some measured control over your sales process.

Our goal . . . is to help you smash your goals.

viii

Acknowledgements

ENDLESS THANKS GO out to Jakub for his tireless work on Goal Smashers. His work is simply incredible and this project simply would have not been the same without him! My gratitude also goes out to my official “goal-watcher” Scott Hilton-Clarke for sharing his invaluable insights and resources on the software business. I have to salute Stephen Anderson for the way he turned the pipeline ideas into visual candy, while putting the user experience first. Frits Ahlefeldt’s illustra-tions* are spectacular and truly help to communicate the ideas in this book.

Not least, I must thank my wife, Frances, for her patience and enthusiasm while I spent hundreds of hours harassing her to peer over my shoulder to scrutinize my work in progress.

* See Frits’ portfolio of drawings at www.hikingartist.com

ix

Three ways to use this workbook

READ AND ENJOY! See what new ideas sprout up.

STOP AND DO the exercises. This icon means its time to put your ideas down on paper.

PRACTICE ON GOALSMASHERS.COM. You have 30 days FREE to build your personal sales pipeline and track your performance!

x

Is selling an art or a science?

IT’S A FALSE assumption that selling is more of an art than a science. Consider instead if you “can do” or “will do!” Your performance can be broken into five areas: your capability, knowledge, skills, effort and attitude. Of these, the first three are “can do.” Capabil-ity defines your ability to do the job. Knowl-edge describes your awareness of the infor-mation required to perform. Skills require practice to become really proficient. On the other hand, the “will do” factors are the most

difficult: Are you putting the right effort in the right areas, and are you confident and motivated to sell? Having a well-defined system gives you some structure to identify your shortcomings and helps

you to make targeted improvements. By the end of this workbook, you will have a complete frame-

work in place for breakthrough performance!

1WWW.GOALSMASHERS.COM

Why behavior matters most

SALES DRIVE REVENUE. Customers buy stuff. So you should put your focus on the customer, right? Not so fast! Take a look at the chart on your right. This repre-sents a Balanced Scorecard strategy map. Do you see any potential challenges if your customer-focus is done in isolation? Customers are near the very top of the value-chain. If you create systems to manage customer relationships, but you haven’t developed good sell-ing systems or behaviors, your success will be limited.

Because of this, it should come as no surprise that Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives often show disappointing returns. These programs need to be built on a solid foundation of proper behav-ioral habits, and simple systems to hold salespeople accountable. Team leaders should be able to track performance at a glance, and know instantly where interventions are needed. Results should be transpar-ent, readily available and should drive decision-making. Read on, and let’s see how this can be done!

Financial

Customers

Systems

People

Balanced Scorecard Strategy Map

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Behaviors

SELLING IS MADE up of a series of skills and activities that align the solutions you offer with what’s missing or not working in a person’s life. Of the skills you need to perfect, questioning is by far the most important as it provides a pathway to your understanding of your prospect’s situation. Of the activities you need to perform, we will focus on six steps in the sales pipeline: leads, contacts, qualification, interviews, proposals and wins!

Accountability

KNOWING WHAT TO do and doing it are two very different things. Sales professionals need to keep motivated in order to develop and maintain a consistent level of high performance. This motivation can come from within, but often it’s much more effective to have someone else hold you accountable for your actions, sort of like a personal trainer at the gym.

Results

SALES LEADERS SHOULD be able to easily spot “leaks” in the sales pipelines of their team. A transparent system allows you to see exactly where you and your team are at all times. Coaching interventions can then be made to solve specific performance gaps, which should be quickly identified using dashboards that track all your key metrics in one place! As a result, you will be able to measure the impact of your actions through clear-cut improvements in the numbers.


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Technology can help!

ACCOUNTANTS LOVE NUMBERS. They are great with spreadsheets. Salespeople, on the other hand, not so much! But sales is about numbers. Not just revenue, but the numbers behind the activities required to make the sale. Since following numbers is not a natural attribute of most sales professionals, some help is needed -- a simple, fun way for them to understand the flow of their business, and to put emphasis where it’s required. That’s where Goal Smashers comes in!

Goal Smashers was designed to give sales professionals dynamic and visual feedback on their activities, and to guide them through the behaviors that work best for every step along the sales pipe-line. The web-based software allows you to log on from anywhere you have an Internet connection and a browser!

Many of you have used web-based software before, but never really thought about it. This includes e-mail accounts like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo, social networking sites like Facebook, or even online banking. Goal Smashers will be as easy to use as those programs. It will help you to manage your sales opportunities like you never could before. To use Goal Smashers with this book, simply go to www.goalsmashers.com and sign up for your 30-day FREE trial account. It has been said that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Take the extra nine days to make sure it sticks! Then, you might want to subscribe to the service . . . or not. Whatever you decide, you will already be well on your way to practicing the behaviors that separate star salespeople from average ones!


Steps to success

HAVING A WELL-defined system allows you to know exactly when to do what with your sales opportuni-ties. The types of questions that uncover value, for example, are not the same types you would use in the qualification stage. The ability to see each step clearly will help you determine the most appropriate action to move from “opportunity to close.” Let’s look at the six most important steps in the sales pipeline that will guide you toward success!

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Leads

People you plan on contacting during the month.

Contacts

Leads you’ve contacted or prospects who initiated contact with you.

Qualified

Prospects with whom you’ve communicated in the target audience for what you sell.

Interviewed

You should get a good idea of what’s missing or “not working” through your discussions.

Proposals

Value you can offer based on the problems you’ve identified.

Wins!

Prospects who have accepted your offer!

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3

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GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! When you enter information on a lead you plan on contacting during the month, it shows up in your pipeline as a round dot. These “opportunity dots” are orange by default, representing a “medium”

probability of success. They can be changed at any time to red or yellow, for “high” or “low” probabilities respectively. They can also be marked as “important” with a star. Opportunities that you get based on prospects who initiated contact show up as a teardrop shape so you can tell the difference.

As your sale progresses, you can move each dot down the pipeline. In each stage you will find specific sales prompts to help you along the way.

Leads Contacts Qualified InterviewedProposals Wins!

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Start with ambitious targets

WHAT IS THE one thing over which you have the most control in any sale? When you call someone, do you have any influence over whether the phone will be answered? If it is answered, how can you ensure that the contact is qual-ified to buy your offer? Of course you can increase your odds by timing your calls better or improving your lists, but the one thing that you have absolute and total control over is the number of people you call! And the number of people you call is strongly related to the number of people you plan to call.

Simply put, people with ambitious goals tend to achieve more. If you have a number you’re aiming at, you have the ability to esti-mate exactly how much energy you need to achieve that goal. If your target is low, you may reduce your efforts as you start approaching your objective. Some salespeople are tempted to be pessimistic with their call forecasts so they can always meet their goals, but this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then they push hard at the end of the year, resulting in a “hockey-stick” effect. Every month, set an aggressive target for the number of people you will try to contact. Be realistic but ambitious. Your expectations drive your actions!


Suspects

PROSPECTING IS THE lifeblood of selling. The number of people who are actively seeking to buy what you‘re selling is relatively low. However, the multitudes who aren’t “looking” may be the ones experi-encing the very same problems you can solve. They may simply be comfortable with their status quo, or not motivated to act. That’s where your real opportunities lie, since that’s where the numbers are. Your job is to mail them, call them, meet them, learn more about them and understand what’s missing or not working in their lives. Then maybe, just maybe, you can help them!

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OUTBOUND VS. Inbound LEADS

THE MORE EXPERIENCED you are as a sales professional, the more likely your contacts will come from inbound calls. These can include sources like “word of mouth,” existing clients, advertising or the Internet. While it’s important to have a steady flow of inbound contacts, you should always keep your emphasis on outbound leads. Those are the people you plan to meet, through networking events, referrals, internal or external contact lists or even cold-calling.

Outbound prospecting gives you direct control over the number and quality of your opportunities, and feeds your pipeline with the activity you need to drive your business. This is the biggest area of weakness I witness in most sales teams, and it’s the number one action you can take to increase your revenue. The bonus is . . . as your outbound prospecting increases, the number of inbound inquires you receive also multiplies.


EXERCISE. You should know what your best sources of prospects are. Particular networking activities may work best for you, or perhaps a new ad campaign from marketing drove a high number of calls. Goal Smashers allows you to keep track of the sources that bring you the most wins. Write down your top five sources of

outbound Leads (names you plan to call) and inbound Contacts (people who initiate contact with you).

Sources of Outbound leads:

1. ______________________

2. ______________________

3. ______________________

4. ______________________

5. ______________________

6. ______________________*Other

Sources of inbound contacts:

1. ______________________

2. ______________________

3. ______________________

4. ______________________

5. ______________________

6. ______________________*Other

*Always leave one option as “other” to allow for sources of opportunities you didn’t predict.

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Are you scared of rejection?

ONCE YOU’VE MADE contact, your main objective should be to determine whether the conversation should go further or not. The only way you can get rejected at this point is if you start pitching your product right away. So you won’t do that, will you? Instead, ask a few simple, short-answer questions to discover if this person is an actual prospect for your product or not.

At this stage, you have as much chance to decide not to take the dialogue deeper as the other party does. So there’s nothing for them to “reject” since you haven’t offered anything for sale . . . yet! When you’ve judged that you have a qualified prospect, your next move will be to get their permission to proceed further.


EXERCISE. Think of five qualifying questions you can ask to help you judge whether someone is a good prospect for your business or not. These questions should be designed for quick, brief responses that help you decide if you should continue further, and if so, in what direction.

I remember a great television scene on Sesame Street with super salesman Grover trying to sell Kermit a toothbrush. After presenting all the benefits of his range of toothbrushes, he couldn’t close the sale. His problem . . . failure to qualify his prospect. Frogs don’t have teeth! (At least puppet frogs don’t!)

Qualification questions:

1. _____________________________________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________________________

3. _____________________________________________________________________

4. _____________________________________________________________________

5. _____________________________________________________________________

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The language of the approach

IN THE MOVIE Hitch starring Will Smith, his character approaches a woman to introduce himself after stepping in to rescue her from another guy who just wasn’t taking the hint. Refer-ring to her and himself in the third-person he says: “. . . but then he would ask her name, and what she did for a living. And she might blow him off, or she might say . . .” As expected, he gets the girl in the end.

Do you notice a particular word that gets repeated in Will’s dialogue? The word “might.” This non-assumptive word is very effective in building trust early in your rela-tionship. Prospects need to feel comfortable that you’ll go away if you find you have nothing in common with them. They need to trust you enough to share further infor-mation about themselves or their company. They can spot a hidden agenda from a mile away. “May I,” “if,” “you might,” “you may have,” “I’d like,” etc., can help you build comfort as you seek their go-ahead to gather more details about their situation.


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EXERCISE. Sales experts know how to allocate their efforts to get the best returns on the investment of their time. They recognize early when they are “riding a dead horse.” There are many reasons an opportunity can go stagnant. List as many as you can think of. This will help you to identify dead leads early so you can put

more emphasis on prospects who are likely to be more productive for you.

What are some reasons a lead can go “dead?”:

1. _____________________________________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________________________

3. _____________________________________________________________________

4. _____________________________________________________________________

5. _____________________________________________________________________

6. _____________________________________________________________________

7. _____________________________________________________________________

8. _____________________________________________________________________


Who else do you need to talk to?

IMAGINE THAT YOUR prospect is excited about your offer and is ready to buy. Then suddenly you get a call. She says, “My husband (or CEO, CFO, uncle, neighbor, or anyone else you never met) thinks I should shop around (or wait a while, go with someone else, stick with what I have, do nothing).” This is one of the most frustrating calls you can get in sales. But it can be avoided!

You should find out as early in the conversation as possible, who are the people who will have any influence over the buying decision, or who will be affected once the decision is made. This is especially important with corporate clients as you need to understand the perspectives of as many people as possible in order to identify opportunities to create value that your compe-tition might miss. Expand your reach beyond your primary contact.

18 RAISE YOUR BAR!

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Once your prospect is in the Qualified stage, you will be prompted to define their role in the buying decision. You will also be asked to find out who else you should talk to, or who you can connect with a

third-party, so you can deepen your relationship and get a fuller understanding of their situa-tion. Think of a sale you’re working on now and build a contact matrix for the opportunity.

The role of your primary contact is a:

Gatekeeper Initiator Influencer User Buyer Decider

I need to connect:

Name: Role: Contact Info: Connect them with:

1. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________

2. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________

3. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________

4. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________

5. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________


Your product has great “benefits.” So what?

TRADITIONAL SALES TRAINING puts the emphasis on benefits your product can provide, rather than its features. This is tricky! The risk is that you could make a premature presentation of your product benefits to your prospect before you fully understand what’s missing or not working in their current situation.

And often, a trap is set for you. Your prospect wants to get more information from you than he wants to share about himself. So he says, “Tell me more about what you have!” Your eyes light up! “Of course!” you reply. You know your product better than anyone else, and you’ve seen it help so many people that you’re sure it’s ideal for him. You start your presentation and skillfully demon-strate all the benefits of your offer. Your prospect gracefully listens, asks some questions, then suggests you leave your brochures while he thinks it over. He agrees that your product sounds awesome, and he assures you that he’ll get back to you. Sound familiar?

The problem with “benefits” is that they’re meaningless unless they solve a problem your pros-pect is experiencing. Even more problematic is that if their problems are obvious to you, but not to them, your offer is still meaningless. It’s not enough that you identify their needs: they have to recognize that they have such a need. That’s why experienced salespeople should beware! They become practiced at identifying their prospect’s problems before the prospects do. If they lay out their solutions too hastily, the prospects may not see the value. The world’s greatest screwdriver means nothing to a person who’s planning to use nails!

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Right message, wrong timing!

THINK ABOUT THE retirement advertisements you see on television. What are the ages of the actors commonly featured in these ads? People in their 30s? Hardly! Such ads typically portray people who have already retired, enjoying the benefits of their retirement. Is that the target audi-ence? Of course not. But the message is, “If you plan for your retirement with us, when you get to this age, you’ll be playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship just like these happy folks!” What would work better to get viewers to change? A message that relates what’s missing or not working in their lives today. A powerful way to get someone to change is to uncover their dissatisfaction with their current situation before you show them the joy of your solution!

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The attraction of doing nothing!

YOUR PROSPECT AGREES that there is a problem and acknowledges that you have an ideal solu-tion. Yet the prospect still takes no action! What’s going on? Do you remember Sir Isaac Newton’s First Law of Motion? “Every object in a state of rest or uniform motion tends to remain in that state unless an external force is applied to it.”

This applies to people as well. You need to under-stand what their current state of motion is. They have been doing just fine without you and have found ways to adapt to their issues. For example, Goal Smashers is an incredible way to manage your sales opportunities, but if you’re used to using a spreadsheet, you will have to learn a whole new way of doing things. This is going to be uncomfortable in the begin-ning. It’s the same with your product. Pros-pects must see clear value in your solution that makes their initial discomfort worthwhile.


EXERCISE. Choose three features of your most popular product and identify an advantage each feature can provide over competitive products. Next, identify the problems that your prospect would need to have in order for each advantage to be relevant to them.

Feature: Advantage: Prospect’s problem that makes this relevant:

1. __________________ __________________ _________________________________________

2. __________________ __________________ _________________________________________

3. __________________ __________________ _________________________________________

24 RAISE YOUR BAR!

The art of questioning

NOW YOU KNOW what you’re looking for . . . prob-lems your prospect may be experiencing that are connected to the advantages your product offers. This is done through skillful ques-tioning. Start by removing all your assumptions about your pros-pect. Building on the responses to your qualification questions, probe for further information by starting with general questions, then becoming more specific. This order is important. If you ask specific questions too early, your prospect may not see the relevance of your question and may hesitate to answer. Your questions should have a sequence that builds on preceding responses. They should not appear random and disconnected. You are trying to identify exactly which of your product’s advantages you should present to your prospect that align perfectly with what’s missing or not working in the prospect’s current situation.


EXERCISE. Select one of the prospect’s problems from the previous exercise. Develop a sequence of questions that you could use to uncover that problem. Your questions should be general to specific and build on preceding responses. You should practice different sequences using a variety of potential problems.

Interview questions:

1. _____________________________________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________________________

3. _____________________________________________________________________

4. _____________________________________________________________________

5. _____________________________________________________________________

26 RAISE YOUR BAR!

Look beneath the surface

AS YOU LEARN more about your prospects’ circumstances, try to explore beneath their stated positions and look for underlying inter-ests. When you get more information about the “whats,” probe more deeply for the “whys.” What issues have you identified? Why are those issues important? Buying motives may not always be obvious.

There are some other aspects you should try to unearth. What are their alternatives if the deal is not done with you? Of those alternatives, which is their best option? At what point do you think the prospect will walk away? What do you think is the prospect’s target price? What broader objectives do you think could be served by this deal? Is there an emotional consideration you may have missed?


Expand your discussion beyond price

WHILE YOU’RE TRYING to uncover openings to create value for your prospect, they may remain focused on the single issue of price. From their perspective, addi-tional value might equal “getting more for less.” So you end up in a cycle of offers and counter-offers, haggling until they’re satisfied. Some deals are best suited to this competitive approach, but you should always be on the lookout for opportunities to trade on differences.

Mutual gains are created when you can identify issues that are high value to prospects, but low value to you, which you can trade for concessions that are low value to them but valuable to you. For example, if price is the most important issue for them, but your main interest is a long-term relationship, you might make a price concession in exchange for ongoing business or referrals. You can then look for ways to expand value for them, maybe by increasing service levels, especially if that‘s something that doesn’t require much effort from you.

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GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Negotiation isn’t just about price. If price becomes an issue, look more closely for other goals that are important to your pros-pects. Arrange the issues in order of importance to them. Then, rank your

own objectives. You will get a clear idea of how both your goals are ranked, and can create value by trading the things they want for things that aren’t important to you, and viceversa.

Negotiation trade-offs:

*What does your prospect want?

1. ____________________________________

2. ____________________________________

3. ____________________________________

4. ____________________________________

5. ____________________________________

6. ____________________________________

*What do you want?

1. ____________________________________

2. ____________________________________

3. ____________________________________

4. ____________________________________

5. ____________________________________

6. ____________________________________

*In Goal Smashers you can drag and drop these issues to rearrange their order. This allows you to speculate on different rankings to see where the opportunities for value trade-offs might be.


Align your proposal with their problems

AT THIS POINT, you should have a really good idea about what’s missing or not working in your prospects’ lives, and you would have helped them to recognize their problems. Your solutions should now align perfectly with those problems. Restate your understanding of their situation to be sure you’re on the right page, then connect your offer directly to those problems. This isn’t a premature listing of your benefits, but a focused offer of value directly linked to the issues that are important to them. The advantages should be clear and tangible to each “influencer and decider” you identified early on, and the new way forward should demonstrate clear superiority over the status quo!

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You may have some hurdles to overcome

OBJECTIONS ARE A natural part of the process and should be welcomed. One of the worst situations is a prospect who gives you a quick “maybe” and doesn’t tell you the truth behind why he’s hesitating to buy. Your job is to artfully reveal the barriers to your deal that may be left unsaid. Other times the objections are front and center, and require a calm competence to over-come. You want your prospects feeling confident in your ability to deliver on your promises. The way you handle their objections often determines what happens next. Let’s look at some techniques . . .


Eight ways to handle objections

AGREE & REDIRECT. Acknowledge their perspective, even if they are incorrect. Don’t agree with a flawed viewpoint, but recognize why they think that way. Then redirect the conversa-tion toward a counter-example or different perspective. For example, “I understand why you feel the price is too high, and would add that the real issue is not so much the price of our service, but how much money you are losing every day using your current system.”

PRE-EMPT IT. You may have a few objections that come up frequently with similar prospects. You can bring up the issue before they do, then put it in perspective for them.

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3

4

5

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BYPASS IT. Some objections might be addressed later in your discussion, and you may prefer to continue your train of thought if the prospect raises them. Simply suggest that you are deferring their concern for the moment, but you will deal with it later.

CLARIFY OR EXPAND. They may object because of an incorrect interpretation of the facts, or insufficient knowledge to form a proper opinion. Provide further or correct information to resolve the misperception.

ANSWER & EXPLORE. Even for simple questions it can be useful to find out the reasons behind the inquiry. Dig a little deeper! For example, “Sure! We can do that. But tell me, why is that important to you?” You might unveil hidden concerns that need your attention.

ACCEPT & BALANCE. When an objection is about an issue that is a genuine disadvantage, you should acknowledge the limitation, then counter with value trade-offs based on their specific situation.

REDUCE IT TO ZERO. Your price may be higher than your competitor’s. You can minimize the impact of the cost by breaking the figure down over a shorter period. For example, a differ-ence of $1000 a year is only $2.74 a day. Connect the new, small figure with added value.

END & ASK WHY. If your discussion is not advancing, or you’re getting a series of hollow objections, you can try asking, “Should we end this?” Follow up with, “Since this didn’t work out, let me ask you . . . what went wrong?” They might reveal their genuine concerns to you.

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EXERCISE. Which of the eight ways to deal with objections are best suited to these different situations? Write down the ones you think fit best. There’s no single correct approach and more than one can be used.

Types of objections:

1. NO TIME: “I don’t have time to talk right now.”

_______________________________________________________________________

2. NO VALUE: A lack of perceived benefits from your product or service.

_______________________________________________________________________

3. NO NEED: Value is acknowledged but “not for me!”

_______________________________________________________________________

4. NO MONEY: “I can’t afford your service.”

_______________________________________________________________________

5. NO TRUST: “I’m not sure you have the capability to do this.”

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6. NO URGENCY: “I’d rather keep things the way they are.”

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7. COMPETITION: Perception that a competitor or current provider is superior.

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8. MISUNDERSTANDING: Wrong belief or understanding.

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9. DRAWBACK: A need you can’t satisfy.

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10. NO AUTHORITY: “I can’t make the decision on this”

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11. RED HERRING: False objections to get rid of you.

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12. BRICK WALL: The prospect declines your offer.

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What proof do you have?

THE SLICK COLOR brochure that Marketing produced for you can really come in handy at this stage of the sale. Some salespeople begin their conversation by pulling out their collateral material. Mistake! I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen a prospect take the docu-ment from a salesperson’s hands and wrestle control of the conversation by going through the product mate-rial themselves.

Evidence of your product’s performance should come when you’re getting ready to close. You should be linking it directly to the problems identified earlier. Some useful ways to prove your efficacy are:

- Marketing collateral- Fact sheets or projections- Customer testimonials- Newspaper articles- Product demonstrations- FREE trial period

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Close the sale!

NOW IT’S TIME to close. You’ve identified what’s miss-ing or not working in their lives, they’ve recognized and accepted they have a problem, you’ve aligned your solutions with those problems and uncovered ways to create value, and you’ve handled all of their objections. Your language has to make a switch! You made your approach using non-assumptive words, but as you close your deal, it’s time for your speech to become more assumptive. Phrases like, “We will,” “when can we,” “when you use,” etc. Don’t leave the conversation open without a clear idea of what the next steps are.

You might also want to summarize and re-state your understanding of your agreement to be sure you haven’t misinterpreted anything. Don’t relax and rest on your laurels yet! You may still have some follow-up to do. Set a reminder for yourself. We’ll see later how easy this is to do in Goal Smashers, but a simple diary entry will do.


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Accountability!

HIGH-LEVEL PERFORMERS typically have someone who watches their progress, identifies perfor-mance gaps and coaches them to higher and higher levels of achievement. Master sales profes-sionals are no different. The Goal Smashers system is designed to improve your sales behaviors by holding you accountable in three ways. Accountability to:

Yourself Your peers Your team leader

As a salesperson using Goal Smashers, your activities will be viewed by your team leader. While she will be able to see your progress, she will not be able to edit anything in your pipeline. She will, however, be able to add customized coaching checklists for her team. These checklists feed directly into editable structured notes for each of the six stages down the pipeline. Her prompts ensure that you have reminders for all the important selling behaviors that work best for every step of your interaction with your prospect. Each industry will require its own unique hints, but the exer-cises you’ve completed in this workbook will help you think them through. You will have someone acting as a “goal-watcher” who can identify performance gaps in the key activities you need to successfully complete a sale, and provide the coaching necessary to fill those gaps.

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GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! You can manage all your sales opportunities in your Goal Smashers pipeline. Dots of different colors and shapes let you plan your activities, and monitor your progress for the month.

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OUTBOUND OPPORTUNITIES. Leads from your prospecting activity (Page 8).

OUTBOUND OPPORTUNITIES – IMPORTANT! The star marks them as important.

INBOUND OPPORTUNITIES. Prospects who initiated contacted with you.

INBOUND OPPORTUNITIES – IMPORTANT! These can be “starred” as well.

“GHOST” DOTS. Let you see active opportunities from previous months (Page 57).

“COLD” DOTS. After a period of inactivity, dots turn blue, then drop out (Page 58).

ACTIVITY DOTS. This stage of the pipeline has been completed for this opportunity.

“DEAD” DOTS. This opportunity has nowhere further to go.


GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! To make this a bit more interesting, have some fun with the Goal Smashers card game in the “How am I doing” section. At the beginning of every month, all cards start face down. Then, things get interest-

ing . . . by getting more than 80% of your average score over the previous six months, you get a “10-card.” Your cards then change as follows:

90% to 99% = Jack 100% to 109% = Queen 110% to 119% = King 120% = Ace!

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GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! As you try to improve your performance, you’ll need to keep score of your progress. For each stage in your pipeline, you will be able to see how your numbers have trended over the previous months.

Simply click on each stage to reveal its history.

At a glance, you will know exactly where you need to place more emphasis in order to improve your results!

Your Pipeline trends for previous months


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Team Member Pipeline rankings

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Team dynamics improve through collaboration within the group. You may excel at certain stages of your pipeline perfor-mance -- for example, interviews and proposals -- but may be slipping at

generating new leads or following up with contacts. There’s a lot of information and advice you can exchange with your peers on the things you do well, as well as the activities you could use some help with.

Goal Smashers allows you to see how your numbers are ranked for each pipeline stage. You can quickly figure out how you are performing relative to your other team members, and who may be best suited to give you some peer-to-peer coaching.


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Results!

THE ONLY WAY to move forward in a predictable and repeatable way is to keep score. But too often, sales managers place their focus on dollars and cents, and although revenue is the most important of all metrics, it quantifies output. Revenue goes up or down as a result of the activities of your sales team, and if these actions aren’t tracked, you are left to guess what to do to advance your business. Metrics must reveal the inputs that drive revenue. Stop working with a blindfold on! You should know, at a glance, how you are progressing in: - Leads vs. your forecast (Are you setting ambitious enough goals?) - The number of people you’ve made contact with (Are your leads accurate?) - Outbound vs. inbound contacts (Are you looking for prospects or are they finding you?) - The number of prospects who are qualified (Are you talking to the right people?) - How many interviews you do (Do they trust you enough to share information with you?) - Your proposals (Are you identifying what’s missing or not working in their lives?) - Your wins! (Do they agree they have a problem and that you have the right solution?) - Your sales cycle (How long is it taking you to close the sales?) - Revenue vs. your target (Are you on track to hit your dollar target?) - The source of your wins (Where’s your business coming from? How can you improve it?) - Frequent objections (What resistance keeps coming up? How can you reduce it?) - Your “dead” leads (What keeps going wrong? How can you do things differently?)

When these numbers are at your fingertips, you can act to create measurable improvements!


GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Each salesperson should be able to review their own numbers. While opportunities can be tracked in the pipeline screen, performance summaries can be found in the “How am I doing?” section.

your pipeline numbers!

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REVENUE THIS MONTH. Figure updated in real time. Arrows compare with the previous month.

AVERAGE MONTHLY REVENUE. Your average monthly sales figure over the past 12 months.

REVENUE YEAR-TO-DATE. Total revenue since January or the month you started using the tool.

WINS THIS MONTH. The number of sales you won for the month.

AVERAGE WINS PER MONTH. Your average closed sales over the past 12 months.

WINS THIS YEAR. The total number of sales you closed since January, or your start date.

OUTBOUND VS. INBOUND LEADS. A quick look at where your leads are coming from.

MAIN SOURCE OF WINS. The top three sources of leads that end in wins.

TOP 3 OBJECTIONS. These three objections came up more than any others for the month.

WHY OPPORTUNITIES WENT DEAD. The top three reasons prospects fell out of your pipeline.

TRENDLINE GRAPHS. How your revenue and wins are trending for the year or since you started.


GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Team leaders will be able to see the pipeline scores for each salesperson who reports to them. At a glance, they will know exactly where team members need to place emphasis in order to win more deals.

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SALESPERSON’S NAME. Members of the sales team can be ranked by revenue or wins. Click-ing on names links directly to individual pipelines for the month viewed.

PIPELINE SCORES. These six boxes display the scores of the six stages of the pipeline. The highest and lowest scores for each stage are shown in green and yellow, respectively.

REVENUE SPARKLINE. This simple line-graph shows the revenue pattern over the past 12 months. This can be used to quickly check for trends or irregularities.

REVENUE FOR THE MONTH. Green or red figures show higher or lower scores than the group average, while green or red arrows show up or down movement from the previous month.

REVENUE YEAR-TO-DATE. Shows a cumulative figure from January, or from the start date. Similarly, green or red figures compare this score with the group average.

AVERAGE DAYS TO WIN. Displays the average number of days it takes from when an oppor-tunity enters the pipeline to the completion of the sale.

MONTHLY REVENUE VS. TARGET. The vertical line in this “bullet-chart” represents monthly sales targets. The horizontal line is not to scale, but gives a clue to relative revenue.

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Bridge performance gaps!

ONCE YOUR ACTIVITIES become quantified and visible, you will know exactly where the “leaks” are in your sales pipeline. You can focus on strengthening the specific behaviors that are unsatis-factory while you continue to master those actions you perform well. You can re-examine the five areas of performance. Answer these questions: - Do you have the capability to sell? - Do you need to improve your knowledge of your products, markets or customers? - Are there skills you need to acquire or practice? - Are you making enough effort in the right areas? - How’s your attitude? Do you need to boost your confidence or motivation?

You should be open to feedback from your team leader or your peers. Feedback shouldn’t just be given during periodic evaluations, but should be shared informally on an “as needed” basis. Don’t be defensive! Become more introspective and learn to focus on what you really want. Then ask yourself, “What do I need to change to get there?” Develop action-oriented checklists and keep yourself accountable to the tasks you set.

Finally, be open to coaching. You are not alone. There’s someone who has already perfected the behavior you need to improve. Seek their guidance. Focus on the facts and check your emotions. Have someone watch your numbers and constantly check for improvements or shortfalls. You’ll be amazed at the growth you will experience when you put your energy in the right places.


7 really cool things about goal smashers!

#1. GOAL SMASHERS MAKES your life easy! If you get an e-mail from a pros-pect on your Smartphone while you’re on the road, you can simply forward the message to your account, and the software automatically adds your prospect’s

name, e-mail address, website and the body of the message to your contact list. Then you can update the information or make changes later on. How easy is that?!


#2. AT THE BEGINNING of every month, you will be alerted to set your goal for the number of leads you plan on pursuing. This is the one activity over which you have the most control, and it helps you to set the pace for your entire month. You will get an immediate look at how you’ve been doing over the past months, compared to your forecasts.

You’ll also get a quick view of your revenue since the past January, or your start date. Then you can set or edit your annual finan-cial target for the year, to give you an idea of what you’re aiming for in the month.

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#3. AT THE END of every month, each active oppor-tunity will move forward to the current month as a ghost dot. These ghost dots actually allow users to see active oppor-tunities from preceding periods, but do not count as current activi-ties until the salesperson advances them to a following pipeline stage. They then enter the current pipeline for the first time, revert to their previous state and count toward the statistics of the current month. Ghost dots do not leave behind green activity dots until they are activated in the current month.


#4. SALES TEAM LEADERS can set how long an opportunity will stay in the pipe-line before it expires and drops out. By

default, if an opportunity is not moved forward for 45 days, it will warn

users by turning blue. This means that if no action is

taken, the opportunity will NOT move forward

to the next month.

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#5. MAKE SURE THAT you never forget to follow up with an opportunity again! You can set a reminder to yourself for tasks, phone calls, meetings, or to send out an e-mail to your prospect. Write yourself a note, and an e-mail reminder will be sent to you on the date you specified.

At any time, you can review, change or remove your reminder. You will also get a countdown indicator of the number of days left till your follow-up is due!


#6. THE MORE YOU use the software, the more it remembers about you. As you begin typing in certain fields, you will find drop-down options of information

you’ve entered previously. This is especially useful if you’re entering a new opportunity with an

existing contact. Why waste time typing when you can be out there selling?

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#7. MANAGING YOUR CONTACTS is effortless! You can easily select the contacts you plan to follow up with during the month and move them into your pipeline. But that’s not all! If leads have been generated by marketing or another external activity -- for example, a trade show -- team leaders can import those contacts and assign them to their team members. All with a couple of clicks!


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hit bigger targets THAN YOUR COMPETITION!

NOW YOU HAVE the techniques and tools to blow your competition away! Not only do you understand how to systematically improve your sales behaviors, you have a simplified interface for entering the details on your sales progress and tracking your performance. The only thing left to do now is to put what you’ve learned into action.

Here’s the problem . . . you are just like your prospects. You have an existing way of doing things. Maybe you use a spreadsheet to track your sales numbers. Maybe you use a diary. Some of you use nothing at all. And you know your current system well. After all, it’s gotten you this far. So the new skills we’ve covered in this workbook won’t seem right at first. You’ll constantly be tempted to revert to what feels most comfortable. Overcome the power of the status quo! Habits need to be broken and rebuilt, and that takes practice.

But this system monitors itself. It allows you to see where things aren’t working, then prompts you to take corrective measures to develop your business. It helps you to sharpen your positive sales behaviors. It encourages you to set more ambitious targets, makes it easy to plan, and data-entry couldn’t be simpler. All these elements come together to create a methodology that produces more wins. At the same time, you’ll be deepening your relationships with your clients and recog-nizing new sources of value for them. They’ll reward you with repeat business and referrals. You’ll see the shift in your number of inbound contacts. I want to encourage you to use this know-how to RAISE YOUR BAR to a new level of performance. Your competition won’t know what hit them!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANDRE HAS LEARNED a whole heap of stuffabout selling and loves sharing it with people :-)He created Goal Smashers to give you a compre-hensive way to improve your sales performance!

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ANDRE’S OTHER BOOKS


“. . . illustrates more clearly what we mean by a ‘mutual-gains approach to negotiation’ than one hundred repetitions of the theory could accomplish on their own.”

- Professor Lawrence Susskind on “The Sword & The Spirit”Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School

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RAISE YOUR BAR! How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results