Heavy Hitter Sales Blog

Improve You Sales Call Memory to Strengthen Your Sales Intuition

The average person only remembers about forty major events of their entire life. However, Jill Rose has a very unique talent. She can remember every detail about every day of her life. As a result, memory researchers at the University California at Irvine have been studying Jill's memory recall for the past eight years to understand how her memory works.

      

As salespeople, we spend most of our time trying to predict the behavior, intentions, attitudes, and feelings of our customers. In essence, the goal of every salesperson is to be able to anticipate the future. The "tool" you use to accomplish this is your "sales intuition." Memory plays a fundamental role in determining the strength of your sales intuition. Your ability to store more sales call experiences in your memory will actually strengthen your sales intuition. With this goal in mind, here are six principles to help improve your sales call memory:

      

Sensory information. During the sales call, consciously gather as much information as possible from your sight, sound, and touch senses. A vivid event is more likely to be memorized than a dull one, and the more sensory information that is incorporated into your memories, the higher your likelihood of recording it.

      

Association. Thoughts and experiences are more readily recalled when they are linked to a specific association. A very simple association would be the success or failure of the call. The association may be further defined by the customer's technical and business requirements or their objections to purchasing your product.

      

Specificity. The persistence of a memory is directly related to the precision of details that are input at the time of the experience. During a sales call, you may even want to tell yourself that some information is important and is not to be forgotten.

      

Unique events. Many sales calls are free-flowing events that lack a strict organization of facts. Therefore, it is easier to remember any unusual and unique aspects of a sales call that stand out from the ordinary and mundane.

    

First and last. Most salespeople are quick to remember how a sales call began (the big opening) and how it ended (the grand finale). This is a natural characteristic of memory, whereby we tend to remember the information that is presented first and last more than the details in between. This particularly applies to longer sales calls, more than an hour. One way to help remember all of the in-between information is to mentally break the sales call into smaller segments (or chunks) either by time, presenter, or topic of discussion.

    

The good, the bad, and the ugly. Be forewarned, your brain has been trained to block out unpleasant images. However, it is critical that all information during a sales call, both good and bad, be stored.

    

Never forget, how something is remembered will determine how much is remembered.

Account Qualification: The Importance of Accurate Information

The internet and political talk shows were abuzz last week with a salacious rumor about Vice President Dick Cheney… The reason he was smiling in this photograph was because he was looking at a naked woman! However, after closer evaluation you can see that the image reflected in his glasses is not a naked woman, but his hand holding his fishing pole. In Heavy Hitter Selling, I wrote about how the mind misinterprets information. Here’s the excerpt:

Since the eyes contain more nerve endings than any other part of the body, they are not only the most sensitive but the most trusted sense. People will say, “I saw it with my own eyes!” and “I’ll believe it when I see it!” In reality, our sensory limitations negatively influence our judgments.

 

Some people will swear they have seen a flying saucer, when in reality the brain has added visual imagery in its attempt to distinguish an obscure object. The term for this is “pareidolia,” and everyone has experienced one. Perhaps the two most common pareidolias are the visualization of the face of the man on the moon and a mirage, the illusion of water in the desert. Pareidolais aren’t solely limited to images. When I was a youngster, I remember listening to the Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields” over and over to hear what seemed to be “I buried Paul.”

   

Salespeople are not immune to similar ambiguities and delusions. Salespeople with “happy ears” tend to believe whatever they are told by the customer. Others view the world through rose-colored glasses and will always interpret information emanating from the customer in a favorable light.

   

Ambiguities and delusions are disastrous for salespeople. These conditions cause them to work the wrong deals and make mistakes. However, Heavy Hitters work their deals differently. They have a method and strategy for selecting their battles based upon the individuals they must persuade to buy.

Unhappy Customers: What to do When an Account Goes South

I have flown millions of miles on American Airlines over the course of my career. I am a loyal customer of theirs. However, this past week American Airlines cancelled thousands of flights which infuriated many loyal customers like me.  If you are in sales there’s no doubt you’ve faced your share of angry customers before. I received this e-mail from American Airlines and it provides valuable lessons for dealing with unhappy accounts. 

1. Be proactive in contacting the customer because bad news should always be told ASAP.

2. Apologize.

3. Explain what happened and why.

4.Tell them how you will get better and avoid the problem from happening again.

To: Steve Martin

Subject: An Apology from American Airlines

Dear Steve Martin,

As one of our most valued customers, please accept my apology on behalf of American Airlines^® to you, your family and your fellow AAdvantage^® customers for disrupting so many peoples' lives with the recent flight cancellations related to the inspection of our MD-80 aircraft fleet.

As you can imagine, American's decision to cancel thousands of flights this week was difficult, and it undoubtedly created concern among our best customers – even those who had no travel plans during the period.

If in your travels you were among the many who have been personally affected, I sincerely regret the inconvenience you have experienced. Our employees will continue to work around the clock to accommodate all who still need to reach their desired destinations. We anticipate returning to a full schedule by Monday.

While the media reports have documented the reasons why American took this action and the steps we're taking to re-accommodate and compensate affected customers, I've also attached an explanation of the events for your understanding. It's a bit complex, but at the end of it all, please know this:

First, your safety and the safety of our employees remains our number one priority.

Second, we will learn from this experience, and we will get better.

Finally, we wholeheartedly appreciate your loyalty to American Airlines, and we remain committed to earning your business each and every day.

Respectfully,

Dan Garton
Executive Vice President
Marketing

P.S. You may have already contacted us via AA.com^® or by writing directly to Customer Relations. Let me reassure you that we will respond directly to your contact just as quickly as practical.

Selling in a Recession: The Best Recession Sales Strategy

 

I have no doubt that our economy is already in a recession. Whether or not they’ll admit it, the Federal Reserve’s recent actions surely prove this as well. However, I would like to offer two of my own economic indicators that truly reflect the dismal state of the economy.

1.    In my recent conversations with sales leaders across all industries (technology, finance, manufacturing, etc.) there is a foreboding sense of gloom about the coming months. In most cases, they tell me that sales are down or flat since January. Regardless of their past successes, they feel saddled with annual quotas they will be unable to achieve.

2.    Over the past ninety days an ever increasing number of VPs of sales and sales executives have contacted me because they have lost their jobs through “reorganizations”. They are panic-stricken they won’t find work. For them the old adage applies, “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose yours.”

Selling in a recession is not only difficult, it’s downright scary. Knowing how to appeal to the “Bully with the Juice” is a mandatory strategy in tough times like these because even though you may win the selection process, you still haven’t won the business.

Who is the Bully with the Juice? The Bully with the Juice is the financial decision maker who will ultimately approve the purchase. It’s the person who controls the company’s purse strings. He could be the CFO, VP of finance, VP of purchasing, or even the president. Unfortunately, this person has the economy on his mind and is less likely to approve spending money more than ever.

There are many different ways to classify people involved in the selection process during the sales cycle including title, influence, and orientation (technical, business or financial). Another interesting characterization is a person’s insistence that things be done his way. This is called being a “bully.”

A bully will get his way at any and all costs. Being a bully is not necessarily a negative term, nor does it mean that the person is physically intimidating. It is simply the description of people who will tenaciously fight for their cause.

Another concept by which people can be measured is if they have “juice.” Simply put, juice is leadership, authority, and charisma. During the selection process you will encounter bullies and evaluators with varying degrees of juice. However, only one person within the customer’s organization can be the Bully with the Juice. Even after the vendor selection has been made, releasing the funds must be approved by the ultimate decision-maker, the Bully with the Juice. Single-handedly, he imparts his own will on the selection process and will approve or deny the purchase to be made.

The Bully with the Juice is the company’s equivalent of emperor Caesar. Only he can give his thumb up or down on the life-or-death decision to spend the company’s money. So even though you have won the evaluation and been assured that a purchase will be made, you are actually in the most critical part of the sales process. You must win the approval of the Bully with the Juice.

Some people believe that the economy has changed the way products are purchased. People will argue that some purchases are truly made by committee without a Bully with the Juice. While a committee does put more fingerprints of accountability on the product selection, behind every committee (and its creation) is a bully who has the juice. In addition, every committee has to present its recommendation to someone, and that person is the Bully with the Juice.

There are four important rules regarding the Bully who has the Juice. First, if you cannot accurately determine who the Bully with Juice is in your deal and none exists, be prepared for no decision to be made. It takes a Bully with the Juice to make a major purchase happen. This is a reality in today’s economy. Second, if there is a bully with the juice in your deal and this person will not meet with you, always assume they are aligned with someone else or are against the purchase from being made at all. Therefore, the deal is lost. Third, if a Bully with the Juice does exist but you aren’t able to identify the person, be prepared to lose. You are in a position of extreme risk because you have no idea which economic decision-maker you must win-over. Finally and most importantly, you MUST meet with the Bully with the Juice as early as possible during the selection process! This is the only way to know whether or not a deal really exists.

Salespeople are constantly placed in an environment where they must differentiate themselves and their product from other attention-getting solutions. Under these circumstances, the salesperson’s job is to create a relationship with detractors as well as supporters. Ultimately, there is one person who makes the final decision and truly matters. In today’s economic malaise, it is the Bully with the Juice who reigns supreme.

Read more about the Bully with the Juice...

Managing the Installed Base

After living in Southern California nearly all of my life, I would like to share an interesting fact with you about the area. Did you know that five of the top ten Mercedes-Benz dealerships in the nation are located here? Why is this so?  Well, I think there are two major reasons.

   

First, cars are a very important status symbol in image conscious Southern California. After traveling all around the world, I I have yet to visit another place where people “are what they drive” like here. In this regard, driving a Mercedes puts you on the top of the pecking order when you sit in the inevitable bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic.

   

But I think the second reason is equally important. In the sales vernacular, they effectively manage their “installed base.” They value customer loyalty and take care of their existing customers better than any other car manufacturer. And, I’d like to share a personal story with you that has made me a Mercedes-Benz customer for life.

   

All Mercedes come with a four year, 50,000 mile warranty. If anything goes wrong with the car during that timeframe they’ll fix it for free. However, my car needed $1,900 of repairs at 55,000 miles when my it was out of warranty. Obviously, I wasn’t excited about this. After paying for the repairs I wrote a letter to the North American President of Mercedes-Benz. Within two weeks, I received a very gracious response and a refund check for the entire amount. “Simply amazing!” I thought to myself...

   

There’s a huge lesson here for salespeople who must manage install base sales of existing accounts. Ask yourself the following three questions:

 

Do you nickel and dime your installed base customers or promote win-win loyalty?

   

Do you visit them only when a contract needs to be renewed or pamper them continual attention?

    

Do you act solely in your self-interests or put the customer’s interests first and strive to do the right thing?

    

There’s a reason why over 75% of all new Mercedes are sold to repeat customers. Because customers remember how they are treated after the sale.

Are You Likeable???

It was just about a year ago today that I wrote a blog entry about the upcoming Presidential election titled, “The Power of Likeability.” Here’s a brief excerpt:

      

Nationally syndicated columnist Paul C. Campos recently wrote a very interesting editorial on the same subject titled, “Idea that Presidential Candidates need to be ‘Likeable’ a Dangerous Cultural Idiocy.”

    

Tongue-in-cheek Campos wrote, “Getting elected President is much like winning a high school popularity contest, except that in high school the cool kids generally aren’t given access to thermonuclear weapons.” He went on to compare Barak Obama’s likeability (“articulate, and clean, and bright, and nice-looking”) to that of Hillary Clinton (“cootie vibes”).

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What can salespeople learn from all of this? Well, given the fact that your product is probably very similar to your main competitor’s and both companies are roughly equivalent, likeability becomes a key factor in customer decision-making. Sometime today, take a moment and honestly ask yourself, “What makes me more likeable in the eyes of my customers than my arch-enemy?”  Whether choosing a president, electing a homecoming king, or selecting between two salespeople, likeability is one of the most important differentiators.

            

Last November, an AP-Yahoo poll was conducted to rate each candidate on single-word-characteristics considered critical to becoming President. Here’s the result of that poll. Based upon how the campaign is turning out, it’s obvious they left off perhaps one of the most important words… LIKEABILITY.

            

Five Presidents Club Meeting Ideas

Although the Internal Revenue Service requires you to conduct business-related meetings at your annual President’s Club, there’s no reason why the meetings have to be boring, unimaginative, and dry. Instead, reward your company’s Heavy Hitters (truly great salespeople) with a unique program they are sure to find engaging, enlightening, and entertaining.

Your Presidents Club is a once a year opportunity to recognize the contributions of the key sales leaders who have helped make your company a success. These top performers don’t want to spend half of their day listening to another state-of-the-union company update. They want to learn something new about the topics which interest them the most. Equally important, they want to share a laugh or two with the other Heavy Hitters in attendance.  With this in mind, here are five Presidents Club recommendations:

1. Focus on Soft Skills Improvements. Because all the attendees have mastered the “process” of selling, the focus should be on improving their intangible and intuitive sales skills. These soft skills include the art of persuasion, building rapport, and maximizing their sales intuition. For example, a favorite topic that I like to present at Presidents Clubs is neurolinguistics (the study of how the mind processes and interprets language) and the role that psychology plays during the customer’s decision-making process.

2. Provide Sales Career Advice. The life of a salesperson is far from perfect. Everyone in the profession has trials and tribulations. They experience incredible highs, tremendous lows, and a constant fear of the unknown. Arm them with mental and emotional training to deal with the stress and uncertainty. This will not only make them a better salesperson, but a better person as a whole.

3. Conduct a Study of your Heavy Hitters. Think about it for a moment, you have assembled your best salespeople from all around the world. Why not conduct a study to understand how and why they are successful? Take some time to interview your Heavy Hitters about the strategies and tactics they use to win business. Document this information so that it can be shared with your entire sales organization. This valuable advice will help every salesperson understand and emulate the behavior of your very best salespeople.

4. Furnish Some Sales Adrenaline! Every long-term salesperson knows they need an occasional shot of sales adrenaline to renew their sense of excitement. Instead of parading the same old company executives in front of the team, bring in a sales-related motivational speaker to provide a fresh perspective and mental refreshment about the noble career of sales.

5. Give Them “Meaningful” Gifts. Forget about presenting the winners with a souvenir beach towel or company pen; give them the gift of knowledge that will last a lifetime. Furnish books about advanced sales techniques and marketing strategies that will help them succeed in the tough times of today so they make Presidents Club next year!

You want to ensure every detail of your President’s Club is perfect and the event to be long remembered because it will be the topic of company conversations for months to come. Never forget, the most frequent question salespeople ask of each other throughout the year is, “Do you think you will make Presidents Club?” Click here for more information about conducting the perfect Presidents Meeting.

2008: Do You Want to Be a (Penta) Millionaire?

In order to be counted among the richest 1% of Americans you must be a pentamillionaire and have a net worth over $5 million. Today, there are more than 930,000 pentamillionaires. Anne Kadet of SmartMoney.com wrote a very interesting article about what it takes to become rich. As you read the excerpts below, note the striking similarities between becoming a pentamillionaire and a Heavy Hitter (a truly great salesperson).

• The people who amassed their fortunes are, first and foremost, entrepreneurs — risk takers for whom wealth is a byproduct of pursuing their passion. Only 10% of pentamillionaires inherited their wealth. One might think that good fortune would play a role, but even luck is largely a matter of one's own making. Psychologist Richard Wiseman has found that people who describe themselves as lucky share common habits that account for their success: They're friendly and fond of new experiences, traits that put them on a collision course with new opportunities. In addition, "lucky" folks simply have higher expectations of success — they're too pigheadedly optimistic to heed the long odds and call it quits.                          

• Not to say that getting rich is simply a matter of having a swell attitude. The path to riches usually involves the kind of risk that would make most people feel a little queasy. Harrison Group head Jim Taylor recently persuaded more than 3,000 pentamillionaires to discuss their path to success. Perhaps not surprisingly, none of them had a cushy union job down at the DMV.

• Surprisingly, today's very rich say that money itself wasn't much of a motivator. Once you've got food in your belly and a big-screen TV, the mere prospect of more Benjamins isn't enough to get you leaping out of bed at 5 a.m. Rather, rich folks often make their fortunes after they make up their minds to solve a problem or do something better than it's been done before.

• Getting rich also requires a certain amount of stubbornness and clarity of purpose. Being rich means freedom: to spend your time as you please, to pursue your real interests and to take a chance without courting utter ruin. Paradoxically, the road to riches often means acting as if you already have that freedom.

The Year End Cesspool

December is the most important sales month of the year? Make sure you don't get stuck in the Year End Cesspool like Brian’s story below…”                  

    

Brian was presenting his forecast in front of his teammates and was explaining why a deal that he had originally forecasted to close in the quarter came in three months later. Here’s his story.

    

Brian was excited that the account he had worked on for months had selected his software solution. After several weeks of ensuing price negotiations, a $300,000 purchase order was submitted into the customer’s capital expenditure software system (referred to by the customer internally as the “CES system”). Since several weeks were left in the quarter, Brian expected that he would receive the purchase order well before the quarter’s cutoff.

    

In Brian’s mind the deal was done. The purchase order would be printed and signed and he forecasted the deal accordingly. However, Brian was quite surprised to learn that the rules-based CES system required that a purchase of that magnitude be approved by twenty-one different people. The purchase order had entered the cesspool of order approval.

   

Between vacations and busy schedules, it would take another three months before all twenty-one signatures were gathered. In the meantime, Brian embarrassingly had to explain to his manager why a deal he had positively guaranteed would close wouldn’t.

   

His assumption about the purchase order turnaround time was dead wrong. If only he’d had the foresight to ask about the details of the procurement process before he committed the deal on his forecast.

Tip: Always ascertain the customer’s procurement process with the same diligence you devote to understanding the customer’s selection process

How to Select a Sales Kickoff Meeting Keynote Speaker

Let’s assume you are in charge of planning your company’s annual sales kick-off (global sales conference, annual sales meeting, or national sales meeting), the most important sales meeting of the year. You’ve picked the best location, chosen the right hotel, and are in the process of finalizing the meeting agenda. However, one critically important task remains to be completed--you must select the perfect keynote speaker. After keynoting more than one hundred sales kickoffs, I’d like to share my sales meeting ideas with you.

There are four main types of keynote speakers to choose from; celebrity, motivational, industry mavens, and sales experts. Celebrities (entertainment stars, sports heroes, business icons, politicians, etc.) will speak mainly about their personal experiences. Conversely, industry mavens are analysts and consultants who talk about current issues and future business trends. Meanwhile, motivational speakers exuberantly try to touch listeners’ emotions. And finally, there are sales experts who share their specific sales-related wisdom and knowledge with the audience.

So, how do you decide which one is right for you? Here are five questions to ask a potential keynote speaker in order to help you determine whether or not he or she is right for your meeting.

1. What is the profile of the typical audience you present to?

There aren’t any two sales forces that are exactly alike. Every sales force is unique in three different ways; complexity of the sales process, the average level of sales experience, and the state of morale. Perhaps the biggest mistake when selecting a sales kickoff presenter is picking one whose main message doesn’t apply to the products you sell or resonate with the sophistication of the sales force. For instance, even though a keynote speaker has successfully presented to mid-western real estate agents in the past, he or she would not be a good fit to for a software company.

Ensuring that the speaker is in tune with the sales forces’ morale is another critically important consideration. Even though it is an imperfect world, you are in charge of creating the perfect experience for an audience that is in a variety of states of contentment. Many salespeople are happy, some are apathetic, and others are downright despondent. Ideally, you want a speaker who is experienced in speaking in this type of difficult circumstance. For example, if your company has been part of a recent merger you want a speaker who is familiar with the intricacies of this situation and how it affects morale.

2. How would you prepare for our meeting?

Even though you may sell the same products as several other companies, your sales force faces distinctive competitive challenges. For instance, there’s a big difference between selling for an eight-hundred-pound-gorilla-sized company than an upstart competitor.

The successful keynote presentation should include major messages that are applicable to the realities of your company’s competitive situation. Therefore, the presenter should conduct extensive pre-presentation interviews and diligent background research to ensure he or she understands your marketplace, products, and salespeople.

3. Do you customize your presentation?

Since salespeople present for a living they know when they are being fed a “canned” presentation. The most successful keynote presentation will incorporate elements of the salespeople’s daily lives into the actual presentation. This may include tangible advice to defeat your archenemies and tactics to present your products more effectively. As a result, the presentation needs to be customized so that it helps address the toughest obstacles your sales force faces.

A one size fits all presentation delivered exactly in the same way over the past five years has a high likelihood of falling flat today. Audiences appreciate a presenter who has taken the time to understand their challenges and provides them with strategies they can put to use immediately.

4. When do you typically present at sales kickoffs? At the beginning, a nightly dinner, or the meeting’s end?

You wouldn’t use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail. Similarly, the particular speaking slot you are trying to fill requires a specific type of keynote speaker. If the speaking slot is at the meeting opening, you most likely want a powerful presenter with an impactful message (because he or she is probably speaking right after your company’s chairman, CEO, or VP of sales). A keynote to be delivered during a dinner gathering should be fast-paced, up-tempo and include a healthy dose of humor. Conversely, a closing speaker needs to be able to rally the troops and reinvigorate them with a sense of purpose.

5. What takeaway materials do you provide?

A typical keynote presentation will last just an hour or two at most. Given such a short timeframe, how can it be more than just a “feel good” experience? The best way to achieve lasting impact is by providing takeaway materials that the salespeople can reference over the long-run. That’s why I’m a big fan of presenters who provide copies of their books, informational CD’s, and PowerPoint presentations to the audience.

Finally, one of the most important factors you should continually remind yourself of during the selection process is how well does the speaker dovetail with your sales kickoff theme. The best speaker will center their presentation on your theme and work his or her material around it. If you’re still not one-hundred percent certain what your theme should be, they should possess the practical experience to help brainstorm with you on an appropriate theme. Because the best speakers understand that your success and their success are intimately intertwined.