All posts tagged: Sales
The Sales Story
Playing Dead: A Terrible Way to Sell – Scott’s Sales Yoga Thought for the Day
So, what will they do this weekend? The zombie run? The stunt double play?
In case you missed it, college football added something new last weekend to the playbook. During a fake punt attempt against the Miami Hurricanes this past Saturday, Arkansas State’s Booker Mays attempted to distract his opponents by falling over, stiff as a board, at the start of the play. While laughable, that’s the extent of the benefit from this ridiculous attempt at innovative play as the punt turned pass was intercepted by the Hurricanes.
All too often, how some people sell isn’t much better than the histrionics employed by Mays. Dramatic diatribes about the competition, long-winded feature-benefit laden presentations, and other selling stunts are no better than just falling over and playing dead in front of the customer. In fact, I’m sure many buyers would rather the salesperson keel over than have to go through all of the convincing, influencing, and convincing that often comes with selling.
The sales experience, done right, is a collaboration wherein buyers convince themselves to buy. Buyers always believe themselves, but only sometimes, if ever, believe a salesperson. We need to let the better closer close, and that’s not us.
Booker Mays was selling, but the Miami Hurricanes weren’t buying it. Are customers buying into you? Play games like Mays and the answer will be a definitive “no.”
When is a good time to hire a salesperson?
Who’s the Next Contestant?
Like a game show where it’s anyone’s guess who’s going to win, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict which companies are going to buy next. At any moment in time, only 3% of companies are buying from a staffing or recruitment firm. During that same moment, another 6% are shopping, comparing candidates, prices, or contracts.
Unless you have only one customer, no one is smart enough to accurately predict, all of the time, who’s going to give the next “yes.” That’s why achieving greater or faster growth for many branches, business units, and companies in our business is as simple as expanding the pool of contenders.
Who’s the next winning contestant in this game for talent? Actually, the better question is:
Is your sales team talking with enough of the right, qualified entrants?
Taking Care of Buyers: After the Sale
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Selling is Simple…So Why is it So Hard?
More people fail than succeed at selling staffing and recruitment services. One element that raises the level of difficulty is that we sell the only product on the market that can change its mind. The bigger, underlying issue, however, is not the product but the approach to selling itself.
Buyers, be they candidates buying into opportunities or hiring managers acquiring the services of the talent we represent, always believe themselves but only sometimes believe those who sell. Yet, most people who sell to these buyers attempt to convince them to buy.
By letting the better salespeople sell and the better closers close, which are always the clients and candidates, sales and margins quickly increase, as does the reputation of our industry. This simple approach simply requires facilitating conversations that allow these buyers to do all the convincing that they need what you have to offer.
Knowing this, why would we sell any other way, unless making things hard on ourselves is the real, ultimate goal.
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Four Steps to Better Client and Candidate Satisfaction
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Taking Care Of Buyers: During the Sale
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Engaging the Buyer – Scott’s Sales Yoga Thought for the Day
Buyers expect salespeople to vomit details all over them, making this expectation a huge opportunity. Practitioners of buyer-centric selling engage prospects and clients in highly collaborative conversations. This is one of the few aspects of selling we can actually control.
To achieve this:
- Eliminate leading (multiple-choice) questions as they confine the buyer to your choices instead of hearing their needs and details.
- Limit the use of locking (yes or no) questions to confirming details and closing the buyer since these gag the buy, shutting down their sharing of important details.
- Avoid open-ended questions as these are usually long-winded, forcing buyers to focus more on the questions instead their own answers.
- Generously use launching questions. These provocative inquiries are ten words or less, allowing those answering to give more details since they slow down the brain and evoke more information.
- Employ integrative questions that frame their answers into additional questions. This fully engages the buyer in a fulfilling, collaborative dialogue that is memorable to them and more helpful to you in meeting and exceeding their expectations.
Taking Care Of Buyers: Before the Sale
This week on GAIN:
Learn about the latest best practice in Weekly GAIN. Access GAIN now