STRATEGIC SELLING!
DRIVE CAREFULLY!
DRIVE CAREFULLY!
76 percent actually complied with the second request (versus 17 percent without prior request)
FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR TECHNIQUE
“YES”
BIG
SMALL
of
Dean Rieck “Influence and Persuasion: The Rule of Consistency”
“Consistency is beneficial, a practical survival skill in a
complex world.”
DECISION
FIRST REQUEST
• Small enough favor so the person is likely to agree
• Big enough so the person feels good about doing it
• The request should serve a meaningful purpose
• Should be completely voluntary (no financial incentive)
• Best requests improve person’s self-image (i.e., helping others)
“Like us on Facebook.”
“Would you look at a new product sample and give me your opinion?”
“I see you’re an active networker on LinkedIn. Do you have a
phone number for…?”
SECOND REQUEST
• Should be similar in nature to the first request
• Timeframe between two requests is unimportant
• Even more effective when a different person asks for the second – but related – favor
• It’s beneficial to mention that others are also helping by agreeing to the second request
“Would you arrange a lunch meeting to introduce me to…?”
“The foot in the door technique works by
…people often look at their own behavior to decide what their beliefs are.”
FOOT-IN-THE-DOOR TECHNIQUE
1. The best time to reach a decision maker is early in the morning, before the secretary arrives. (Second best time is 1:30 p.m., when the secretary is at lunch.)
2. “I’m sorry to interrupt you.”
3. “I wonder if you could help me.” [pause]
4. “Did I catch you at an okay time?”
5. Never assume you’re not talking to the decision maker.
6. Cold calling produces a multiplier effect; everyone you speak to becomes a resource.
7. “Would Tuesday be okay, or would Wednesday work better?”
8. Always ask a question in the initial two or three sentences to engage the other person in the conversation.
9. Avoid saying, “Hi, my name is…” That’s a sure signal that this is a cold call. Say, “George Brymer from The Image Group here,” instead.
10. If you can’t determine who in a company to call, ask for the sales department. They will understand.
BONUS. Ninety percent of executives do not answer the phone; therefore, have a voicemail script ready.
“Please listen carefully, as our menu has changed.”!
Erica Feidner!The Piano Matchmaker!
Feidner sold more than $40 million for Steinway & Sons in eight years. Steinways sell for $2,000 to $152,000.
by referral only!
THOSE WHO CAN THOSE WHO CAN’T
“After they meet her many soon find themselves in the grip of musical ambitions
they never knew they harbored.”
James B. Stewart, The New Yorker
psychological adventure
“If it’s not a great fit for the client, I refuse to sell it.”
Erica Feidner
Inc. Magazine
“Having been branded an expert, Feidner finds it’s much
easier to close deals.”
WHICH SALES METHOD IS BEST FOR YOU?
diagnostic SELLING
“Most salespeople lean on establishing credibility through
presentations about their company, it’s reputation, and the wonderful products and
services it provides.” Jeff Thull, “Diagnostic Conversations: The Optimal Source of Differentiation,” Inc.com
present immediately
Our tendency is to
and offer solutions we presume match our customers’ needs.
Before you can provide your
customer a solution, you need
to properly diagnose that
customer’s challenges.
“Diagnosis is meant to maximize the customer’s objective awareness of their dissatisfaction.”
Jeff Thull
Where does it hurt? How badly does it hurt? How long has it hurt?
Customer Pain Types
! High costs
! Poor quality
! Boredom
! Time constraints
! Feeling neglected
! Unfavorable results
Jeff Thull
“The beauty of [diagnostic sales] is that it allows you to guide the customer through the process without ever resorting to the
‘sales techniques’ that customers find so distasteful.”
For change to occur, an individual must believe that any pain caused by change is less than the pain caused by not changing.
“Our ability to understand customers’ problems and help them understand their situation more clearly will set us
apart from the competition.”
Jeff Thull
relevancy
On the other hand…
57 percent of each purchasing decision is
made prior to contacting a supplier
SOURCE: Adamson, B., Dixon, M., & Toman, N. (2012). The end of solution sales. The old playbook no longer works. Star salespeople now seek to upend the customer’s
current approach to doing business. Harvard Business Review.
Adamson, Dixon, and Toman
“Sales reps are adept at selling ‘solutions,’ but customers have become skilled at finding their own; they don’t need reps as
they once did.”
WAY AHEAD OF YOU
• Researched possible solutions
• Ranked their options
• Set supplier requirements
• Benchmarked pricing SOURCE: Adamson, B., Dixon, M., & Toman, N. (2012). The
end of solution sales. The old playbook no longer works. Star salespeople now seek to upend the customer’s current approach to doing business. Harvard Business Review.
Our customers are coming to the table armed to the teeth with a deep understanding of their problem and a well-scoped RFP for a solution. It’s turning many of our sales conversations into fulfillment conversations.
–High-tech company CSO
How are successful salespeople responding?
1. They’re changing their views of what makes an
ideal prospect.
POTENTIAL TO CHANGE.
Companies facing regulatory reform, acquisition, change in leadership, or any other organizational turmoil.
“Mobilizers…don’t want to be asked what keeps them awake at night; they’re looking for outside experts to share insights about what their company should do.”
- Adamson, Dixon, and Toman
Seek not advocates.
WARNING: !Be prepared for
pushback.!
If the customer isn’t skeptical and doesn’t push me, then either I’ve done something wrong or she
just isn’t serious.
STAR PERFORMER
2. They’re rewinding the decision-making clock.
For example…
Average reps see RFP invitations as promising opportunities.
“Here’s our response to your RFP. You can read that on your own. I’d like to spend my limited time talking about three things not included in your RFP that I think should have been – and why.”!
“The star sales rep uses the occasion to reframe the discussion and turn a
customer with clearly defined requirements into one with
emerging needs.”
Adamson, Dixon, and Toman
3. They’re teaching customers how to buy.
“Whereas most reps rely on a customer to coach them through a sale,
Adamson, Dixon, and Toman
Salespeople can often educate buyers about purchasing procedures, possible objections, and internal politics.
“For sales, this isn’t just another long, hot summer;
it’s wholesale climate change.”
WHICH SALES METHOD IS BEST FOR YOU?
David Ogilvy The Father of Advertising!
EARLY DAYS
! Born in England in 1911
! Dropped out of college
! Moved to Paris where he worked in a hotel kitchen
! Returned to England to sell stoves door-to-door for Aga Cookers
! At age 24, wrote a sales manual for Aga that Fortune called “probably the best sales manual ever written”
Ogilvy sometimes wore his chef’s uniform from his Paris restaurant stint when selling stoves.
“The more prospects you talk to, the more sales you expose
yourself to, the more orders you will get. But never mistake quantity of calls for quality of
salesmanship.”
David Ogilvy
Ogilvy & Mather
Hathaway’s shirt sales doubled in five years.
Don’t leave home without it.
“We sell – or else.”
“In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.” Ogilvy
The Business of Selling
David Ogilvy believed that the purpose of advertising is to sell. Therefore, the job of advertising
professionals is to create solutions that improve their customers’ sales.
“Well, may I know the formula?”
DOVE is one-quarter cleansing cream. It creams your skin while you wash!
Dove was profitable in its
very first year, which is extremely rare for personal care products.
“Study the methods of your competitors and do the exact opposite.”
David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy
“Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ballpark. Aim for the company of immortals.”
“Deflation Fears Strike the Dow as
Energy Falls Again” Headline / The Motley Fool / 03.13.2015
Our “product costs are substantially tied to commodities and as such we fully expect to see our supplier’s [sic] prices drop as these commodity changes occur.”
“With rates at historic lows in many of these areas, this
must be something we speak to with our key suppliers/
partners. Let’s think outside of the box on this to show a nice partnered savings delivered.”
Follow-up email from
Procurement Analyst
WAL MART the
S H R E W D O R
SHADY
“When the gains to each side are known, many individuals
simply because they deem the division of gains to be unfair.”
Shrewd bargaining on the moral frontier: Toward a theory of morality in practice.
Burdened with a learned bias toward salespeople, buyers expect you to be deceptive. In their minds, not expecting that behavior from you places them at a negotiating disadvantage from the very beginning.
GAME ON
Some people see negotiating with salespeople as a game, and bluffing and haggling are part of the fun. And
the moment you make your first sales pitch.
U.S. firms are beginning to adopt the approach – common in Japan – of having a handful of suppliers with whom they maintain close, trustful working relationships.
C O L L A B O R AT I V E
BUYER SELLER
“These new arrangements,
have in some instances replaced the short-term, arm’s-length dealings of market transactions.”
With buyers dependent on a smaller
group of suppliers, dependency becomes an incentive for nurturing long-term
vendor relationships.
It’s all about getting the best price. Right?
Usually, but there’s in a buyer-seller collaborative, parties recognize purchasing deception as a breach of trust.
Buyers who might otherwise succumb to internal pressures to deceive salespeople will stop to consider the ethical consequences on their buyer-seller relationships.
“ ”
Adaptability is about the powerful difference between
adapting to cope and adapting to win.
Max McKeown Author & Behavioral Strategist
Joe Girard The World’s Greatest Car Salesperson!
Girard sold 13,001 new cars over a 14-year career – one vehicle at a time. On his best day, he sold eighteen vehicles.
a fateful funeral
250 LAW OF
On average, every person knows 250 people who would attend their funeral or wedding – and who would be influenced by his or her recommendations.
“Sparks create fires.”
Joe Girard
Girard’s first sales manager fired him when the other salespeople complained that he was too assertive.
“You fired the wrong guy.”
Joe Girard
Service, Service, Service
Girard told customers to come directly to him with any maintenance problems. Then he treated shop mechanics to
dinner once a month. The mechanics loved him so much they gave his
customers top priority.
13 Number of greeting cards Girard mailed to each client every year.
Joe Girard
“I never sold a car in my life. I sold a Girard.”
BROKEN WINDOWS THEORY
“Broken Windows…argued that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken…sending a signal that anything goes.”
Malcolm Gladwell The Tipping Point
72 percent drop in NYC’s homicide rate
SOURCE: Kirchner, L. (2014, January 7). Breaking down the Broken Windows Theory. Pacific Standard.
petty
Sent a thank-you note lately?
Thank You
PROSPECTING CALLS?
Clement L. Buenger 1926-2000
7 x 7 x 6
What’s a snow day?
Are you afraid of getting wet?
Who else would make sales calls in this heat?
Want to play golf Friday afternoon? Sure, just make a big sale Friday morning.
BOTTOM LINE
When you’re not calling on your customers, someone
else undoubtedly is.
“In business, the competition will bite you if you keep running…if you stand still, they will swallow you.”
Victor Kiam
Broken Windows
Once we stop paying attention to the small things, it isn’t long before we begin neglecting the big things.
Rather than trying to find time, try making time instead.
What’s your “broken window?”
BROKEN WINDOWS THEORY
Mary Kay Ash Praising people to success!
1918 – 2001
Finding Her Calling
Ash once accepted a challenge to sell ten sets of encyclopedias to
earn a free set. What typically took the company’s top salespeople
three months to accomplish only took Ash a day and a half.
One of Stanley’s
top producer, Ash grew frustrated watching
men with less talent get promoted over her.
“Oh, Mary Kay, you’re thinking just
like a woman.” –fellow board members at World Gift Company
Ash resigned from World Gift in 1962, after the company named a man she had trained her supervisor and paid him twice her salary.
Setting out to write a book on selling, Ash realized she had the
perfect business plan.
DREAM COMPANY
! Ideal for working women with families
! Where everyone gets treated equally
! Where promotions are based on merit
! Sells product that women would recommend, and that they would use up and reorder over and over
! Could be started with $5,000
$3.5 BILLION
in annual sales
Ash believed in the power of incentives.
Following the Golden Rule, Ash believed in “sandwiching every bit of criticism between two heavy layers of praise.”
“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Not only will you
succeed in business, you will succeed in life.”
Mary Kay Ash
10 Helpful Sales Tips From Dale Carnegie
dalecarnegie
NAMES ARE THE SWEETEST AND
SOUND IN ANY LANGUAGE.
“
D A L E C A R N E G I E !
YOU CAN MAKE MORE FRIENDS IN TWO MONTHS BY BECOMING INTERESTED IN OTHER PEOPLE THAN YOU CAN IN TWO YEARS
BY TRYING TO GET OTHER PEOPLE INTERESTED IN YOU.!
TALK TO SOMEONE ABOUT!
AND THEY’LL LISTEN FOR HOURS!
Dale Carnegie
“ ” D A L E C A R N E G I E !
Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.
THE ONLY WAY TO GET THE BEST OF AN ARGUMENT IS TO !AVOID IT. !DALE CARNEGIE
WHEN DEALING WITH PEOPLE, REMEMBER YOU ARE NOT DEALING WITH CREATURES OF LOGIC, BUT CREATURES OF EMOTION. Carnegie
PEOPLE RARELY SUCCEED UNLESS THEY HAVE IN WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
DALE CARNEGIE
THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO GET ANYBODY
TO DO ANYTHING.
Dale Carnegie
DALECARNEGIE
Personally I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing…I didn't bait the hook with strawberries and cream. !
10 Helpful Sales Tips From Dale Carnegie
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SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!
10.
When you talk, do your boss’s lips move?
“Ryan is always saying that we should strive to be the
best, not the biggest.”
“Our goal is to be the best, not the biggest.”
Old story:
Two stonemasons are working on the same project. An observer asks, “What are you doing?”
The first stonemason replies, “I’m cutting stone.”
“I’m building a great cathedral.”
The second stonemason replies,
Using your own voice demonstrates your ability to speak for the company, and that you understand your organization’s goals and objectives.
Be the smartest person in the room.
KNOWLEDGE
Identify vital skills that
your coworkers lack, and
then become the expert in those areas.
Be your own best teacher
self-made
Brazenly outshine your peers.
Are you trying to make us look bad?
“ ”
A FORMER COWORKER
Come in earlier, stay later, learn more, do more…in other words, than everyone else does.
7) Be willing to push the stop button.
REASONS PEOPLE REMAIN
SILENT
! They don’t believe it’s their place to voice a concern
! They’re afraid of questioning – and possibly offending – their more experienced co-workers
! They’re worried about impeding approaching deadlines
! They think someone else will step forward
In reality, employees share not only the right to reject
inferior quality, but also to do so.
It’s not what you know, but who...
It’s not what you know, but who
“VOLUNTEER FOR THE
CRAPPY JOBS. ” Tom Peters
“Is it a or is it a – a chance to do
Something Great?”
Tom Peters Re-imagine!
Ask why.
We have a learned intolerance toward questions. Grownups teach us early in
life that
PERCENT of employees say that critical thinking and problem solving
skills are more important in their fields today than they
were two years ago.
Why are manhole covers round?
assumptions “can only be identified by someone who has not become hijacked by the corporate conventional wisdom and whose career success does not depend on being able to apply it unerringly to all business solutions.”
–Mike Brooks, “The Unspoken Assumption Problem” Accountancy, September 2005
“If we have a cardinal strategy that forms the bedrock for all our practices, it may be this: Ask why. Ask it all the time, ask it any day, every day, and always ask it three times in a row.”
Ricardo Semler The Seven Day Weekend
Ask
group think Noun. The propensity for people to seek unanimous agreement, even
when overwhelming evidence points to a different conclusion.
GROUPTHINK occurs when the pressure to
conform within a group interferes with the group’s
decision making ability.
CONFORM
A B C Exhibit 1 Exhibit 2
Solomon Asch
Subjects went along with the clearly erroneous majority 33 percent of the time
74 percent conformed to the majority at least once
28 percent conformed more than half the time
“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those
who cannot read and write, but those
who cannot learn, unlearn, and
relearn.”
Alvin Toffler
By continuously asking questions, you position yourself to provide the answers, too.
3. Share your knowledge.
Wally who?
“A basic function of leadership is to produce more leaders,
not more followers.”
Ralph Nader
TWO.
SET YOUR STANDARDS HIGH,
AND MEASURE YOURSELF TO YOUR OWN STANDARDS.
Winston Lord
“In that case, now I’ll read it.”
Henry Kissinger
Each person is the best judge of his or her ability, and the only one qualified to answer the question, “Did you do your best?”
Others will eagerly offer their opinions on your efforts and your results.
If you did, and others criticize unfavorably, rest comfortably knowing that you did your very best.
1. Get involved (on a nonprofit board)
Serving on a nonprofit board exposes you to other leaders,
group dynamics, and a high-level view of a business organization.
Alice Korngold Fast Company
THROUGH SERVICE, YOU HAVE TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITIES TO DEVELOP AS A LEADER, BECOME A MORE VALUABLE PROFESSIONAL WHERE YOU WORK, AND MAKE A MEANINGFUL CONTRIBUTION IN IMPROVING YOUR COMMUNITY AND THE WORLD.”
LIVE WITH INTEGRITY. THE WORLD IS WATCHING.
ethical misstep
In this age of instant information, any
is just a click away from the world’s desktop.
The barrage of news stories reporting the transgressions of powerful people is creating an overwhelming generalization among the American population:
“A little man may do a great deal of harm; and pray, why not a little man do a great deal of good?”
Cotton Mather, 1825 Essays to Do Good
By choosing to live with integrity, you’ll help to fight
back the onslaught of unethical behavior.
You might not get the publicity afforded business scoundrels and dirty politicians.
But you’ll succeed in proving that there are still
HONORABLE PEOPLE in the world today.
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STRATEGIC SELLING!