On a sales call/meeting, there are loser-winners and there are loser-losers. We’ve been both, and we learned the lesson the hard way.

 

Sales is a game that’s played in multiple rounds. Like with board games, not every round is positive for our advance to the endgame. Losing a round, in no way implies we lost the game.

 

Losing a round can either be messy or graceful. Opting for the latter, is what differentiates loser-winners, from loser-losers.

 

We can’t recover from a messy loss. It’s usually the result of uneducated sales processes, detachment from the product/service we sell, more push to our agenda than prospect discovery, aggressive pitches and empty promises that don’t lead anywhere.

 

How can we lose gracefully? We start by expecting/accepting the possibility of a loss.

 

Expecting that not everyone is positioned to accept our product/service is the first step. Our job in sales, is to calibrate the prospect into accepting our product/service. The faster the better, but it doesn’t have to be today. In many cases, this calibration is done by the company’s marketing efforts. Sales in these cases are immediate, even automatic with no real handling.

 

In every other case, the prospects’ mind is nowhere near where you need it to be, to close the sale. If you have no need for a new TV, then you’re not open to discuss about TVs, or buy another one for that matter.

 

A loser-loser’s mindset can’t accept that prospects are not ready to buy. With no relationship buildup, no prospect calibration and no reason to be heard, the push is unconditional and prospects shut down with no turning back.

 

Be a loser in your own terms, and you will never lose a sale.

On a sales call/meeting, there is no such thing as playing dress up. A good product/service will always be good and a bad one, will always be bad. Or is it?

 

Dressing our product/service with tactics like building rapport, transparent frameworks, emotional impact and handling objections, don’t make it a good product/service.

 

We’re strong advocates of all that encompass sales including all of the above, as long as they complement a “good product”. But the product is what it is, and we still have to sell it. What if it’s not a good product?

 

“Good” is a subjective term. Every person defines things, people, emotions as “good” or “bad” based on preference. Based on taste. What’s good for one person, might be bad for another.

 

Accepting a position as a sales rep, comes with only one requirement. A buy-into the product/service so we can remove labels of “good” and “bad” from the situation. There’s no better time than the early days, to do a thorough due diligence:

 

• Learn all about the company and its products/services
• Understand the industry as a whole
• Follow the company’s online history (no surprise is a good surprise)
• Find the value and the added-value (comparatively) of the product/service we’ll sell
• Buy into the product/service and into the workload that comes with promoting it

 

If we’re still of the opinion that the product/service is “bad”, should we really be in the front line selling it? We’ re not doing anyone a favour (including ourselves), to be promoting something we don’t have strong opinions of.

 

Secure your position with a “good” product/service, and you might never really have to sell again.

On a sales call/meeting, a “contract” is struck before exchanging information. It’s not a legally binding contract, but it’s as important (or even more).

 

Clauses of this contract can include permission to take the prospect’s time, openly laying our cards on the table, acceptance of negative feedback, respecting the rules of engagement and more.

 

And all of the above, just to get the conversation started – how is it even possible?

 

Sales in its core is a game. Can you play a game, without agreeing to its set of rules? Without rules, stakes are high, confrontations take more time than playing the game itself, it turns into being our word against our opponent’s word.

 

A “contract” is required to create a low-pressure environment since both parties understand the rules of the game, they know each other’s intentions and they have a clear exit plan (“I need 30 seconds to explain why I’m calling, if not relevant, I’ll be on my way”), should things go south.

 

Sales come with ulterior motives (not referring to dishonest ones). Disarming the fight or flight mode of prospects is our number one priority.

 

Prospects have no reason to disarm. Their natural defense is to just not engage.

 

Consider this funnel:

 

• The “contract”. Politeness, gratitude, appreciation, humour, can all work in our favour when laying our cards on the table.
• The conversation. Less is more when not enough information is provided. We can be more active in getting this information, than pushing our agenda.
• The challenge. Picture an environment where our product/service is not around. Problems can’t be solved, pains persist, prospects get left behind, opportunities are lost.

 

A successful result doesn’t mean we hang up our boots.

 

Buyer’s remorse is more common than we think. It’s in our nature to second guess every time we part with our money. Post sale service can be more valuable than getting new customers sometimes.

Retention is not a tool that jumps in out of nowhere. It’s part of the process.

Secure the invisible handshake early on. Trial and error will fine tune the rest.

On a sales call/meeting, we can be well on our way to a close, and then the dreaded “ghosting” happens.

What’s going on here?

For sales reps, the thrill of a great conversation can many times, feel better than a closed sale. That’s because the possibilities are endless to where the deal could go, and most of the work has already been done.

Appointments are set, action items are locked in, the follow up time is there, but the prospect is nowhere to be found.

Here’s the catch;

A good conversation most of the times is full of buying signals. If we don’t capitalize on these signals on the spot, chances of a close will start thinning out fast.

Outside our conversation, prospects have one-too-many options to consider. We just sold them the pain, the solution to this pain but not our product.

When the call ends, this great conversation will be discussed with other people who also have an opinion on the matter. They might say things like “hold on, I know a guy that knows a guy, that works for a company that knows a company, that can do this a lot cheaper and better”.

And before we know it, our prospects end up buying elsewhere, a cheaper but definitely not better product/service, and we haven’t done anyone a favor. We set our prospects on a path of bad service that will deter them from ever looking at their pain the same way again.

It wasn’t our fault that they chose a different/cheaper solution and got themselves in a mess. But it was definitely our fault that we didn’t:

➡️ Read the buying signals
➡️ Capitalize on them
➡️ Set a fearless closing in motion before our chances thin out

“Fearless” doesn’t mean extravagant or aggressive sales. It means:

✔️ Value our time spent to outline a pain
✔️ Value our time spent to outline the solution to the pain
✔️ Removing the “threat” of saying yes, with a sensible win-win value proposition

We have more winning chances if we create them ourselves, instead of leaving them to chance.

On a sales call/meeting, there can be only one leader. If we don’t take control, it will be taken from us and the rest is history.

Prospects are emotional creatures. We’re all prospects for someone, so we can relate to the emotions that are being channeled through the other side of the conversation. And as such, we don’t like being bullied into decision making, but we also choose to ignore weak positions of people who can’t stand their ground or have no thoughts of their own.

To have thoughts/opinions, renders us knowledgeable and up to date with current challenges and solutions. Our thoughts can be confronted, and that’s the beauty of it. If prospects become confrontational, they are by default engaged and we have won half the battle.

We’ve won because everyone is ready to jump on the opportunity to prove us wrong, and no one is ready to admit we’re right. Both cases open a door that will prove so important going forward, that a simple sale (even though successful) will mean very little.

This door holds a new relationship built on mutual understandings, common grounds, shared beliefs, open communication, respect and accountability. It elevates both sides to a level of commitment, far from corporate names and marketing gimmicks.

Challenging a prospect should be part of any call. The first call, the second, and all the relentless follow ups until the decision making. Yet, reps don’t challenge/provoke enough to ascertain strength.

How to challenge? Never arrogantly, and almost always by asking questions. Questions that allow us to control the narrative and gain the necessary authority. Authority is earned. It cannot be demanded.

If we ask the right questions, we will get the right answers and the conversation can lead to gaining authority. If we ask the wrong questions, we will get the wrong answers and we will both end up rambling. Fighting for authority past this point is futile.

Controlling the narrative is binary. It either puts the buyer in our sales process, or us in the buyer’s buying process.

There can be only one winner.

On a sales call/meeting, fear and hesitation are usually personal, and both stem from weak self-discovery during our training/probation period.

Occasionally, reps can overcome gaps created during probation, but as the workload grows⬆️ combined with a disengaged⬇️ audience, the clock starts ticking backwards.

Prospects smell fear & although they might tolerate it, they penalize it by being unreceptive, passive, aggressive, full of objections and worse, rejection.

All of the above are manageable on their own, but not if we’re overrun by FEAR.

What fuels fear and hesitation? Here’s a quick breakdown:

Failure 

Without failure we don’t evolve. We should be searching for failure, not be afraid of it.

✔️ Failure lights up our weak spots, it’s a better teacher than the most expensive universities.

❌ Failure should not put us down, or stop us from pushing harder.

Rejection

With real effort, we’re going to get rejections. It comes with the role and it should never get personal.

✔️Rejection can recalibrate us, ground our push & help us learn from our mistakes.

❌ Rejection should not dictate our emotions, or our willingness to continue.

Performance

Sales positions are always accompanied by hovering targets. If targets become the reason we sell, any success is short lived.

✔️Targets can help us prioritize, maximize efforts & maintain the feeling of urgency.

❌Targets should not dictate our approach or our conversations.

Labels

Some sales reps are on top of their game, while others do it for all the wrong reasons. This negative stigma, can stain everyone’s efforts i.e. “sales reps are dishonest, pushy, insincere.”

✔️Labels are there to be proven wrong, and if we do our job well, they can be rewritten in our image.

❌Labels don’t define anyone. Our work defines us and gives back the relevant results.

Training

When soldiers are uncomfortable during operations, they trust their training to get them through.

✔️Proper training takes 80% credit for our success. Contrary to popular belief “if the person has it in them, they will succeed”, numbers speak louder than words.

❌Incorrect training burns time, leads, clients. It discourages, internalizes failures and hinders growth.

Character

There’s an inert discomfort while selling, relative to whom we’re selling to, and also who’s in the room listening in to our work.

✔️Sales are all about spreading the word of the product we already bought into, and how it can solve pains, problems, add value.

❌Sales are not about us, they are not about our prospect, and they’re definitely not about the people listening in while we pitch.

There’s no bypassing fear. The only way around it, is through. It may be as simple as dealing with only one of the points above, or as complicated as all of them and then some.

Self-discovery is about finding our own pains, and working to resolve them.

Only be afraid of being afraid. Everything else will follow.

On a sales call/meeting, all bets are on. A good sales bet? Sell as if we’re selling the product/service to ourselves.

💡If we are not convinced to buy our own product, why would anyone else be?

In every other conversation 🗣️, we do exactly that. Whether discussing politics, social, with our inner circle, casual, formal, business or other, our strong opinions reflect our personality and our belief in what we consider true.

If we don’t have a strong opinion, we normally concede or stay quiet. Conceding or staying quiet in sales is not an option ❌.

We are the first and last defense of a product/service so valuable that:

1. It solves painful problems, whether superficial or deep
2. It compliments existing solutions and adds value through competitive advantages
3. It boosts growth (potential and realized growth)

Before creating our script, we should ask ourselves:

👉What pains does my product/service solve❓
– Start by the abstract/superficial pains and dig deeper to find the serious ones.
– Do we relate with these pains❓
– Make them personal and challenge our product/service to solve them all.

👉What added value does my product/service provide❓
– Start by looking at similar providers and what they offer. Compare our product/service to theirs and find our advantage 🤓.
– If there is none, discuss our value proposition with the management. Find true value and not regurgitated online material.
– Don’t stop until we personally (not the company) buy into this value ✅.

👉How does my product/service encourage growth❓
– Start by picturing an environment where our product/service is NOT available.
– The pains discovered above and the added value, are all real and they are now also personal. If they are not solved, we miss valuable opportunities, we concede to weaker options, we stay behind.
– This is the opposite of growth📈. Would we knowingly not choose growth over stagnation?

💡We bought into our product? Why keep this knowledge to ourselves?

Instead of looking at sales as the repeating chore🥱 we have to do day-in-day-out, the purpose becomes clearer. It’s about sharing this discovery, with the intention to inform📢, educate📖 & support🤲 others who just don’t know about it yet.

Don’t sell – reach out to as many #prospects as you can, and spread the love❤️.

On a sales call/meeting, we have seconds⏱️ to determine if we’ll get a close on the spot, or fix the agenda for further follow ups.

Too soon and we get nothing. Too late and we get less than optimal results.
To make things worse, targets cloud judgements and the line blurs even more.

So, what do we do?🤔

To begin with, here’s the hat-trick mindset of winners:

👉 Paint the right picture🖼️ – the prospect willing to close today, will do so if the right conditions are met (we’ll get to these conditions in a second).
👉Accept to lose the battle but never the war – the correct #relationship 🤝 with a prospect, will feed #targets for longer. Pushing to close today, will destroy tomorrow’s opportunities.
👉Realize that today’s win🏆, won’t be there tomorrow but targets will – Build the relationship, and gauge the possibilities. If it’s there, go for it. If not, live to fight another day.

What conditions must be met for the prospect to buy (today or later)❓

✅Our product/service is in line with the prospect’s needs.
✅Our product/service is better than what the prospect is currently using.
✅Not using our product/service is causing some type of “loss”
✅Risk factors are minimal to non-existent, mainly because of the relationship we have built.

Experienced prospects don’t need much to make a decision if their conditions are met. New comers might need that extra TLC 🩷to see how they fit in the picture.

Different people, have different standards. For some, assessing risk is number one while for others, the fear of missing out is enough to take a leap of faith. Are we worth taking that leap of faith with?

Nothing beats a properly structured pitch💫. One that engages, informs, picks up from where it left off prior and finally resonates in an unscripted and mechanical way.

It takes practice – We won’t get it right the first time. We won’t get it right the second time. With practice, we will definitely get there and that’s all that matters.

Keep your eyes on the prize. And it’s not today’s payout.

It’s getting the pitch right consistently ✔️ ✔️✔️…

On a sales call/meeting, we interview our prospects and we are being interviewed every single time.

Which side of the table are you sitting at? And does it really matter?

Here’s the thing. There’s a nervousness clouding every sales attempt. It’s unavoidable but manageable.

This nervousness kickstarts our defense mechanisms, and instead of prepping the ground to listen (which is what better sales people do), we prep the ground to talk – so we can be vetted.

We are inevitably prepping the ground to be interviewed. This is followed by a more passive/reactive attempt that hardly ticks any of the sales mechanics, and we end up answering questions instead of asking them.

Do we leave room to find out:

– How our product/service fits into the prospect’s current environment?
– If they already have what we offer, and what they are missing from the solution?
– What their biggest pain points are?
– If there are budgets in place for what we’re promoting?

➡️ How easy do you find your way, with your eyes closed?
➡️ How do you hear the music, with your ears covered?
➡️ How can you navigate a conversation, when you don’t have enough information?

✔️Just like that – the tables turn. Our mindset from an interviewee is turned into an interviewer.
✔️Just like that – the nervousness, awkwardness, uncertainty, all disappear.
✔️Just like that – confidence, security, attention, all kick in.
✔️Just like that – the prospect is the one being vetted.

Bottom line:

It’s not about you. It’s not about the prospect.

💫 It’s about the results that you can help them realize.
💫 It’s about the progress you can help them achieve, and how fast you can get them there.

Take a breather and start again.

And so it begins… you pick up that phone, you dial a number and YES, you get an answer… at the other end of the line an angry, tired from a difficult morning at work individual, who registered on your website because he saw a promotional banner that he doesn’t remember, doesn’t know what it is that you do and has no interest whatsoever in spending any European, American or Japanese currency on your offering.

On the other hand, online and offline campaigns, a massive pool of media buying options, countless possibilities for lead generation… With online marketing going nuke and the cost of acquiring more precious forex leads hovering above your rise or fall, I ask “is canvassing for prospects still an option?”

The general trend is that you still have the option to canvas for prospects. But then the dreaded report comes only to show that a massive percentage of your forex leads are indeed irrelevant. I named these leads irrelevant, since the term is synonymous with not here nor there, non material and unrelated. Since they have no idea what they’ve done, why they approached you, don’t know who you are, what you do or what you are offering, the term seemed appropriate.

While some people would argue that time well spent is time that makes money which reflects time spent where interested prospects rule, I will tend to disagree. With those irrelevant leads, Sales Reps differentiate themselves from the swarm.

 

Between these irrelevant forex leads and the goal of you making a paying customer out of them, lies a far thinner line than most Sales Reps think. This line includes:

 

Making yourself relevant to them before they become relevant to you
Spending the same amount of energy as you would on a prospect
Ask questions and understand the lead’s surroundings, work, interests to find a connection
Provide information and educate
Send material, links, videos, reading material to gain interest for further follow ups
and what do you know…? That report is not so dreaded anymore, is it?

We are living in the era of blaming each other and the same as in every civilized realization, we need to find someone to blame right? So if we’ve come to agree that canvassing for prospects is bad, who’s to blame for “it” happening? Definitely not the irrelevant forex leads that found a way to crawl into your report and surely not the Sales Rep that has not been educated about what sales are not about.

Sales are not just about knowledge and skills. Through time they evolved into a new-fangled monster called Attitude. So ask yourself and determine whether your attitude is to over think and canvass rather than closing one more sale.

 

Conclusion

 

To conclude, if you are a Director who promoted a Sales Manager just to fill a role, or a Sales Manager who accepted this role with not enough know how to carry out the task, or a Sales Rep that despite the aforementioned still canvasses to make a sale…

Can you now say “Guilty as charged”?

“Anyone can achieve their fullest potential, who we are might be predetermined, but the path we follow is always of our own choosing. We should never allow our fears or the expectations of others to set the frontiers of our destiny. Your destiny can’t be changed but, it can be challenged. Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one.” Martin Heidegger.