Selling More: 4 Steps to Break out of the Sales Doldrums

KeyPoints

1. The key to winning more orders is to “sell more” which means to consistently take actions that will lead to orders.
2. Doing “enough” is never “enough.” More leads to more.
3. Even with an influx of customer initiated leads, it may not be enough to make quota. A salesperson has to do what they need to do to make their number. (Tied to doing More vs enough)
4. Not enough to just do more. Have to create value for the customer.
5. Random sales activity ais not the same as doing “more.” Have to ensure that the steps you take create value for the customer.
6. Sales activity always has to be tied to creating value for customer. Otherwise you are wasting your time and the customers.

Selling More: 4 Steps to Break out of the Sales Doldrums

 As a speaker, consultant and author, I amoften asked by sales managers and sales professionals: "If you had tochoose one piece of advice to give me about how to grow sales, what would itbe?" My standard answer is "Sell more."

Youcan see why I am considered such a sales genius and sales guru.

Ofcourse, persistent questioners, beguiled by the zen-like simplicity of myadvice, demand to know more. Surely there must be some inscrutable truth hiddenbehind the words and I shake my head and whisper softly, so softly that theymust lean their heads in to hear my words, "Not really." I motion forthem to sit at my feet and I reveal this mystery of sales.

Iillustrate the meaning of "Sell More" with a parable about asalesperson for a typical medium-sized business. His name was Carlos. Carlos,who went by the nickname Eckstein, always had a reason for everything. Theseincluded why he would almost always make his numbers but never quite get there.His boss was at a loss. He thought the problem might be spiritual so hesummoned me, the sales guru, to analyze the problem.

ObservingEckstein in action was to see a fairly typical salesperson at work. On thesurface it looked like he was taking the right steps to succeed and he seemedhappy in his work. Unfortunately, his desire, his intensity and his salesthought process matched his performance. It was mostly right. But something washolding him back from taking his productivity to the next level besides themismatched socks he wore each day to work.

Eckstein'sproblem was one of distinguishing between "enough" and"more." He was like most salespeople in that regard. He alwaysthought he was doing "enough" to make his numbers and that ifeveryone else just did their jobs then he would be able to make his quota. Itnever occurred to him that the key to unlocking his success was doing"more."

Ifyou don't have enough prospects, then sell...more. Prospect with existingcustomers to assess if they have new requirements for your products andservices. Call existing customers for referrals and make those connections now.Go to a networking event and meet 6 new contacts. Ask your connections on LinkedInfor two introductions to potential new prospects. And, if you are lacking allimagination, then heaven forbid, go make some cold calls. Fill every hour withselling. Just sell. More often. More persistently. More creatively. Moreaggressively. Sell. More.

Ifyou have enough prospects, but aren't hitting your numbers, then you also needto sell more. Be responsive in Zero-Time to customer requirements forinformation, instantly follow up every lead with the answers the customerneeds, turn around all requests for quotes and proposals and informationimmediately. and then fill every spare minute with productive sales activity tosell with maximum impact in the least time possible. Just sell...more. Moreresponsively, more quickly, more forcefully, more actively, moreenthusiastically. Sell More.

SellMore does not mean to engage in random sales activity. That is what gets salespeople like Eckstein into the hole they are in now. To 'Sell More' means tofill your sales time with intelligent, productive, creative, responsive salesactions that create value for your prospect, customer and company.

SellMore. Win More Orders. Simple.

DoingWhat You Need to DO

Thereis a lot of talking and blogging going on about cold calling and whether it isa necessary or even desired part of the sales mix. I can't resist putting in mytwo cents on this discussion.

Ihave recently seen a couple of studies and listened to some presentations aboutthe changes taking place in how sellers and buyers are interacting that areworth considering as we leap into the fray. In general, the trends discussedare reflected in the 2010 DemandGen and Genius.com study titled "Insidethe Mind of the B2B Buyer." One of their key findings was that more than90% of B2B customers/buyers said that on their transactions that they hadinitiated contact with the seller. Only 10% said that they were contacted coldby the seller.

PersonallyI'm not convinced that the 90%, is an accurate reflection of the salessituation today. But that is really beside the point. The key takeaway is thatit is an indicator of how your customer's perception of the role of sellers haschanged and how the actual role of sales is continuing to evolve at a rapidpace. The Internet and social media have irrevocably transformed howconversations with some significant fraction of your prospects are initiated.And, even if you, as a seller, initiate contact with a prospect, chances arehigh they are going to possess some level of pre-education andpre-qualification on your product and service on that first call (or they aregoing to acquire it by browsing your website while on the phone with you.)

Whatdoes this mean for cold calling? In an ideal world, cold calling wouldn't benecessary. In our fantasy, marketing departments would prove capable ofgenerating well-targeted (or "sales worthy" to borrow a term from myfriend Nancy Nardin) in-bound sales leads in such large quantities, week afterweek, month after month, that all available sales time would be consumed withresponsive follow-up. Wouldn't it be great if the world were handed to you on asilver platter like that?

Unfortunately,that dreamy ideal world doesn't exist for most companies. Using the figure fromabove as an example, even if you meet 80% of your sales goal today fromprospects that originated as sales worthy in-bound sales leads, where will youfind the remaining 20%? You will find them from proactive prospecting (i.e.,cold calling.)

Ifyou're in Sales your job boils down to this: doing the hard work required tomeet your goals. Whenever there is a gap between in your pipeline between thenumber of qualified prospect your need to meet reliably meet your goal and thenumber of qualified prospects in your pipeline generated from in-bound saleslead conversions, and there will almost always be one, it has to be filled inby prospect activity generated by you. This means fulfilling yourresponsibility as a salesperson to do what you have to do in order to meet andexceed your assigned goal. If this means spending a portion of every dayfollowing a disciplined prospecting process (i.e., doing some research to picktargets, making connections online, getting on the phone or going out andmaking calls) then that is what has to be done.

Inmy first professional sales job out of college, in the pre-Internet dark ages,I was selling big computers. Everyday involved getting kicked out of the officeat 8am and venturing out to make cold calls out in my territory. I have toadmit it didn't come naturally to me. So I developed another approach. I hitupon a system of hosting a seminar in our branch office every Wednesdayafternoon at 4pm during which I would demonstrate our system. I used businessdirectories to research names of potential prospects in my territory and mailedout 10 postcards with a hand-written invitation every Thursday. I'd follow upwith everyone on the following Monday morning and again on the morning of theseminar. Usually I'd end up with one or two attendees each week. Within monthsI had a strong, constantly renewing pipeline and was killing my numbers. Aftera couple years, I was getting two thirds of my business from existing accountsand referrals. But every Thursday, I was still sending out 10 postcards andevery Wednesday I was playing host to new prospects.

Nomatter how many leads you receive, cold calling, or proactive prospecting,remains a necessity for most salespeople and most sales teams. Clearly theamount of time a salesperson has to devote to cold calling could shrink asincreasing numbers of prospects pre-educate themselves online and initiateconnections with potential vendors. But the role sales prospecting plays inbuilding a strong pipeline of qualified prospects to ensure that you make yournumbers is will never go away completely.

Sometimesyou just gotta do what you gotta do.

Don’tConfuse Sales Activity with Selling

CreateValue with Each Customer Interaction

Iread a blog posting recently about what a salesperson could do to increasesales. The title was something catchy like "A Billion and One Tips toIncrease Sales." It was hard to argue with the premise of the post.Everyone in sales can use good advice on increasing sales. It's the reason Icontinue to read everything I can about sales. There is always something new tolearn.

Inthis case, this author's useful quick tips were all about creating more salesactivity. He was asking the question 'What should you do if you have prospectsbut they aren't moving forward fast enough?' and providing answers that weredesigned to create a flurry of sales activity around prospects to stimulatethem to engage and move forward with the seller.

Butis selling the same as sales activity? And, if a prospect is not yet fullycommitted to the buying process, is random sales activity the way to get themengaged?

Nothingis sometimes better than something

Ihad a salesperson, named Arte, working for me once who had confused activitywith selling. He came into my office one day and told me that he had inventedhis own method of selling that he called SWARM. The acronym stood for SurroundWith Activity to Regain Momentum. His thought was to envelop his prospects in aconstant swarm of sales activities such as of phone calls, visits, emails,voice messages, invitations to webinars and seminars, product demonstrations inthe hope that eventually something would stick and the prospect would relentand engage.

How'dthat work for Arte? Not so well. But he got high marks for creativity.

Unfortunately,similar to Arte, many salespeople fall into the trap of believing that doingsomething, anything, with a prospect is better than doing nothing. This happensall the time when the prospect has gone radio silent. There are lots of reasonswhy this occurs and it is the job of the salesperson to determine the answerand respond appropriately and with content that has value for the prospect. Butrarely is the correct response to bombard the prospect with trivial,time-wasting requests and interactions.

Keepin mind the customer's objective

In asales situation, or buying situation, it is important to keep in mind that thegoal of the customer is to gather the information or data they need to make aninformed purchase decision with the least investment of their time possible.This is not to say that customers won’t spend the appropriate time to purchasea product or service. This just means that they don't want to invest a minutemore than they have to.

Createand deliver value each time you talk to your prospects and customers

Ifyou are selling you should only be taking actions with a customer that have adefined purpose, deliver clear value and support the customer's goal. To thatend, instead of unthinkingly reaching out to the customer and demanding some ofhis or her time with a trivial request, consider the opposite approach: makesure that every interaction you have with a prospect or customer achievesMaximum Impact in the Least Time (MILT) possible. It requires planning andthought to make certain that each time you interact with the prospect orcustomer you are providing information that will bring them closer to theirgoal of making an informed decision. But the result is that you will bringvalue to the customer through your selling. If you want a customer to engage,create value for them by your actions. Wasting their limited time with"sales activities" does the opposite.

Sellinghas a purpose. It is not the goal of your prospects or customers to spend timewith you. In fact, the opposite is true. They want to accomplish their job,which is to buy a product or service, while spending as little time with thesalesperson as possible. The winning salesperson will usually be the one whoknows how to make that happen.