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The POWER of Sales Success is 100% in Your Control

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Every salesperson wants to think of him or herself as powerful but, if asked, would have no idea where their power actually comes from.

Most salespeople fail to understand their own power. The reason they don’t is that there is a heavy concentration on what cannot be controlled or what is not being done.

This manifests itself in complaints about: price, unreturned phone calls, bidding, loyalty to others, and other various excuses about why a sale does not take place and the relationship isn’t being built.

As a salesperson, you have all the power in the world to make your own success happen. It’s not market conditions; it’s your mental conditions. It’s not customer conditions; it’s your failure to perform in a powerful way. And it’s certainly not the competition’s conditions; it’s your inability to prove value beyond doubt and risk.

Let me share with you the 20.5 powers that you do possess and how you might be able to use them and take advantage of them to build sales, build relationships, build referrals, earn testimonials, and achieve the sales success that you are striving for…

1. The power of a positive attitude. The way you dedicate yourself to the way you think creates the foundation for your entire life. Sales is part of your life and requires a positive attitude as fundamental and foundational to success.
2. The power of daily attitude actions. These are actions that you take both in your favor and in the favor of others. They’re not just positive; they’re powerful. Attitude actions create sales actions.
3. The power of belief. Belief in who you work for, what you’re selling, your ability to differentiate yourself from your competitor, and belief in yourself create the four cornerstones that enable your belief to be transferred to the customer.
4. The power of self-confidence. The power of self-confidence comes from thinking about past wins, and thinking about past accomplishments. Those thoughts become your inner confidence builder and manifest themselves in the self-confident appearance.
5. The power of thinking YES! The difference between thinking you can and thinking you cannot, will determine outcome and fate. KEY: Think yes to get yes.
6. The power of keeping conversational control. Salespeople have very little idea about what it takes to keep control of the sales conversation. The answer is in one word: ASK. When you ask you’re in control of the conversation. When the customer asks you, you have given up control. Control keeps you on the path to the sale. Want more control? Easy! Ask more questions.
7. The power of preparation. Most salespeople make the fatal mistake of only preparing in terms of themselves, when in fact the customer only cares about him or herself. They want ideas, value, and answers – not your canned slide show. They want to know how THEY win. Why not spend twice as much time preparing in terms of the customer? Preparation determines outcome.
8. The power of creativity. Creativity is a science, and you can learn it. It’s based on the perspective from which you see things. And once you begin to see things a little bit differently than others, you’ll become more creative. Your customer wants to know why and how you’re different from your competition. Creativity makes it evident.
9. The power of being memorable. For years I have said, “Find something personal. Do something memorable.” It’s all about a random act of kindness that has a direct emotional trigger to the heart of the customer. Whatever it is, it must relate to the customer and their passion. Whatever it is, it has to have a WOW impact.
10. The power of value. My mantra is, “Give value first.” That way the customer forms an impression of you that’s both positive and powerful. The more value you provide, the more powerful you will become, and the more sales you will make. And just so we understand the word value, it’s preceded by the word ‘perceived.’ If the customer perceives value, then it is.

That’s the first ten powers of sales success. Study them to get a better understanding of your sales power sources. Implement them into your sales process, start to feel the boost, and get ready for the next 10.5 next week.

I have created a page of ideas to get your attitude rolling in the right direction. If you’d like them, go to www.gitomer.com and enter the words ATTITUDE STARTERS in the GitBit box.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Help! My main contact left, and I’m panicked!

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Letter from a fan:

Dear Jeffrey, I sell copiers in NYC, and this year I finished as the number one rep in the nation. I truly believe that would not have been possible had it not been for your Little Red Book of Selling. I do have a question and would greatly appreciate your advice. Recently I have been noticing a high turnover of people (including executives) at my accounts. When this happens it’s almost like the reset button has been pressed and the replacements have no allegiance to me or my service and are usually unaware as to how hard I’ve worked to earn their company’s business. How should I conduct myself when I know there is a new person in a company I have to work with? Is there a specific process I should follow? Thank you in advance. Dan

Common problem. Uncommon answer to follow.

Loss of key contact (the person that buys from you) happens often in business, and most salespeople (not you of course) are totally unprepared for it.

There are two variations to this scenario:
1. Someone is promoted from within. If you’ve done your homework, built multiple relationships within your customer’s company, and you know the replacement,then you should be fine. If you don’t know him, you have to scramble and start over.
2. Someone was hired from the outside. This is basically a start over situation and all the answers you need are stated below.

There are 5.5 specific things you can do to prevent a total tragedy. NONE OF THEM are options.
1. Start with prevention. This is a major point of understanding: You have to ask yourself, “What would happen, what would I do, if all my prime contacts left tomorrow?” Begin to plan and act from there.
2. Then ask yourself…

How is the purchase made? Discover the chain of purchase, and know everyone who impacts purchase. Add them to your CRM notes.
Who’s the boss? Get to know the boss and make sure they know your value.
Who are the users? Talk to and meet with the people that USE your product or service. They are not the ones who purchase, but they can play a major role in the decision to purchase. And they tell the real story of quality and service response.
Who else is influenced by or involved with your product? When you meet, add others from the inside. Get to know co-workers.

 
3. Meet the key decision-maker outside the office AT LEAST monthly. Coffee at 7:30 AM will build the personal relationship.
4. Get known and recognized. Your weekly email about office productivity, communication, and morale will get passed around if it’s valuable – even forwarded to other professionals in other companies. And when you visit the customer, they’ll recognize you as “you’re the guy who…” smiling as they say it!
5. Build reputation across the company. Know everyone, but more important, have everyone know you – not just know you as a person, but as a person of value.
5.5 Gather video comments after every service call and delivery. Post them where anyone can view them. Your blog, YouTube channel, Facebook business page and weekly e-zine are a great start.

If all of this seems like hard work, it pales by comparison to the work you’ll have to do if you’re unprepared after the fact.

Okay, so the new person starts. Did the departing person tell you or was it a surprise? If the old person told you in advance, that’s a sign your relationship was strong. If the relationship was really strong, the departing person will put you on a preferred list of recommended vendors. If you’re blind-sided by the news, that’s a report card, too.

Let’s take worst-case scenario – new person, no history with you, bringing HIS or HER contacts, connections, and vendors:
1. Introduce yourself and offer help acclimating. Gain access.
2. Have coffee with them ASAP – get the personal relationship in gear. Share the history. Ask for their wisdom, their experience, and their goals.
3. Print your CRM history and present it to the new person so they can see your relationship and your value. (All of a sudden, CRM diligence can have an impact.)
4. Enlist others to speak on your behalf.
5. Follow ALL the ideas above.
5.5 Find the person who left. They represent the best possible NEW customer.

The key to having a new person in charge of your future sales is to be ready. It’s a simple rule of ‘the more the more.’

The more mature and solid a value-based relationship has been built with the key contact AND the rest of the company, the more likely it will be that the new person will continue doing business with you.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

StrategyDriven Podcast Episode 45 – Marketing & Sales: Closing the Value Gap

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StrategyDriven Podcast - Marketing and SalesStrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Episode 45 – Marketing & Sales: Closing the Value Gap examines the evolution of the business-to-business selling process and the gap between what customers want and what their service providers and vendors provide. We explore the value of focusing on customers’ business results and how to implement such an approach so to earn greatly increased customer loyalty and higher profits. During our discussion, Lou Schachter, Managing Director, Global Sales Practice and Rick Cheatham, North American Sales Practice Leader at BTS USA, shares with us their insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • the evolution of the sales process and what customers are looking for today
  • how Accelerator Selling addresses the customer’s desired focus on business results
  • the difference in sales behaviors between Accelerator Selling and Product and Solution Selling
  • actions necessary to implement a selling process focused on achieving business results

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights Lou and Rick share in this edition of the StrategyDriven Podcast are the resources accessible from the BTS website, www.BTS.com.

Final Request…

StrategyDriven Podcast iTunes RatingThe strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Lou SchachterLou Schachter is the global leader of the BTS Sales Practice. He is the co-author of the book, The Mind of the Customer: How the World’s Leading Sales Forces Accelerate their Customer’s Success, which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2006. Before joining the BTS team, Lou had a long career in sales for professional services firms.
 
Rick CheathamRick Cheatham leads the BTS Sales Practice in North America. Previously, Rick was a sales leader at Avery Dennison, a leading producer of consumer products and pressure-sensitive adhesives materials. During his tenure, he transformed his organization into one that changed its focus from selling products to accelerating its customers’ business results.
 
Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:52 — 38.5MB)

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Who is taking responsibility around here? Nobody!

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With all the dumb laws on the books these days, you’d think they’d have one smart one for taking responsibility.

Wouldn’t it be cool if every politician wasn’t allowed to blame anybody else, and had to take full responsibility for their own actions and results?

Well, the same is true in sales.

I’m pretty sick of salespeople still telling me, “the guy said he wasn’t interested” and “the guy is happy with his present supplier” and “the guy won’t set an appointment with me” and, my all-time favorite, “the guy wouldn’t return my call.”

As you read those excuses, they seem kind of lame don’t they? Wait! Are they lame? Or are they pathetic excuses for poor salesmanship, poor preparation, lack of ability to transfer a passionate message, lack of belief in your own product or company, lack of perceived value, inability to differentiate yourself from your competitor, and most important, lack of proof?

Whether you’re in politics or sales, the burden is the same: take responsibility for all that happens. And if it’s not happening in the best way possible, take responsibility to make it happen in a better way.

It’s funny how you can picture responsibility and blame in terms of a politician. I mean, come on! Can you imagine a politician saying, “The bill didn’t pass and it was all my fault.” Could you ever imagine that in your lifetime?

That’s why I want taking responsibility to be a law. If it was a law, everyone would be forced to tell the truth, admit their shortcomings, and go back into the battleground and return with a winning result. Politicians included.

Aren’t you sick of blaming? Aren’t you sick of politicians blaming each other ad nauseam for what the other guy didn’t do? Isn’t there a biblical phrase that begins, “Let he who was without sin cast the first stone?” I think if it were law, there would be a lot less stone casting, and a lot more people taking responsibility to make something happen.

Let’s get back to the objection of not getting your call returned. When I hear a salesperson say, “The guy wouldn’t return my call,” I really want to punch somebody in the face (gently, of course).

Let’s take a look at the real reasons someone won’t return your call to help you understand the difference between blaming and taking responsibility:

1. The message you left had no value.
2. The customer has no intention of buying from you and just doesn’t want to tell you.
3. The customer is not ready to buy yet and was too busy with their stuff to deal with you and your stuff.
4. The customer does not consider you a value provider, and is out there looking for one.
5. The customer does not perceive you as being genuine.
6. You are unaware of the customer’s motive to buy, and as a result have a hard time perceiving what their urgency is. Better stated: you don’t know why or when they intend to purchase.
7. The customer is still shopping.
8. You failed to connect emotionally or intellectually with the customer, and they would rather not do business with you.
9. You failed to offer enough proof to eliminate risk and create peace of mind.
9.5 The customer has decided to buy from someone else and feels no sense of obligation to inform you of their decision.

Those are accurate descriptions of some of the real reasons why. “The guy would not return my call” is not a problem. It’s a symptom. ‘Why’ the guy would not return my call is the issue. If I can find out why, and correct it, then more if not all of my calls will begin to be returned.

Wow! What a concept.

Here are three new ways of thinking:

  • I’m going to uncover my customer’s intentions and motives for purchase.
  • I’m going to share with him or her how they produce more and profit more after purchase.
  • I’m going to bring in several of our existing customers who will do video testimonials to corroborate my claims.

A ‘taking responsibility’ law could revolutionize this country. Can you imagine a politician actually having to tell the truth instead of blaming something or someone else?

For the past 100 years, it’s been the same sales. Salespeople and sales trainers conveniently called reasons for not buying, or not communicating, ‘objections,’ thereby shifting the blame to the customer.

HERE’S THE REALITY: There are no objections.

There are barriers. There are symptoms. There are circumstances. But there are no objections. And all of those barriers, symptoms, and circumstances would disappear if the salesperson takes responsibility, studies the outcome, and implements a better way.

Or you can just blame and whine.
Like a politician.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The evolution of SOCIAL MEDIA ATTRACTION that leads to a sale.

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I am on it.
I am into it.
It’s attracting customers.
It’s making sales.
It’s free!

What is it?
It’s almost social media.
It’s BUSINESS social media.

It’s your ticket to customer and prospect awareness – who you are, how you think, how you serve, what you believe, what your value messages are, and what others think of you. And did I mention? It’s free.

But the mere fact you participate isn’t any assurance it’ll pay off. In fact, the opposite is the norm. Most companies, most business people, and most salespeople have no idea of how to actually ATTRACT customers, potential customers, new followers, and connections. Even fewer companies and salespeople understand that business social media must be combined with, in conjunction with, and in harmony with all other internet and face-to-face marketing outreaches.

The key word to understanding and implementing business social media actions that lead to attraction and connection success is VALUE.

Value in the messages you tweet, post, and share. Value to your customers and prospects so they pass your message on to THEIR connections.

SCENARIO: I tweet to my 65,000+ followers. They resonate with it, and those who believe it’s worthy or applicable to their followers RE-TWEET it, or FAVOR it for their followers to see. That allows me to pick up another 100+ followers a day.

SCENARIO: I post a thought, or a quote, or an idea on my LinkedIn home page. It’s broadcast to my 15,000+ LinkedIn connections. Many of them ‘share’ it with all of their connections. It allows me to pick up more than 100 connections a week.

SCENARIO: I upload a new video each week on YouTube. It’s posted on my ezine, on my blog, in my tweets, and on my Facebook page. Somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 people will view it, like it, and not want to miss the next one – so they subscribe to my YouTube uploads.

Those are real world examples that represent a small part of my attraction process. They give you a solid idea it’s not about what I write, post, or do; it’s about the RESPONSE to what I write, post, or do.

It’s not about tweeting. It’s about being re-tweeted.

I REPEAT: All business social media must be combined with your traditional business and Internet outreach.

Here are the business, internet, AND business social media value-based messaging and marketing elements I use to transfer my messages and posts that attract and connect. Study them. Implement yours.

  • LinkedIn Jeffrey Gitomer – The number one business resource. I post my thought of the day or link of the day. RESPONSE: People like it and share it with their connections. That has lead to more than 15,000 connections.
  • Twitter @gitomer I tweet three or four times a day. I usually send out one link a day. RESPONSE: I am re-tweeted or favored more than 100 times a day, and I gain between 50 and 100 new followers a day.
  • Facebook business /jeffreygitomer – Like me, then read a bunch of the posts, then be inspired to comment or post. RESPONSE: All of my followers (likers) read it and all of the poster’s connections can see it too.
  • YouTube channel BuyGitomer – People watch a few of my 300+ videos, RESPONSE: subscribe
  • SalesBlog.com daily posts – Daily value-based posts sent to subscribers and available by search. All emails get you back to the blog. There are lots of offers on the landing page. RESPONSE: People become loyal followers, buy products, and tell others to subscribe.
  • Weekly e-zine SalesCaffeine.com – Ten years of weekly, real-world, value-based sales information. E-zine also has several offers to buy products and services. RESPONSE: People become loyal followers, buy products, and tell others to subscribe.
  • Bought The Little Red Book of Selling, or one of my other 11 books. RESPONSE: Loved it, bought more books, or bought a book for the whole team, or went online and found more about me.
  • Attended one of my public seminars. RESPONSE: Bought a ticket, had a blast, learned a ton, bought more books after the event and subscribed to my full suite of social media offerings.
  • Paid to hear one of my webinars. This came about as a result of our internal electronic marketing. RESPONSE: Person loves it, resonates with it, buys more, becomes loyal.
  • Spent some time on gitomer.com reading my free resources. Found me by searching. RESPONSE: Loved my free stuff, browsed my things for sale – and bought something.
  • Googled Jeffrey Gitomer to find out more about me. RESPONSE: Said WOW when 500,000+ entries appeared. Clicked around and bought something.
  • Googled “sales training” and found me on the first page. That’s a real lead. RESPONSE: Clicked. Called. Bought.

You cannot control how people search. You must be findable by company, person, product, topic, and keywords that will get your name to pop up.

It’s not one thing that creates attraction. It’s a strategic combination of a social, online, and face-to-face outreach MIX to attract interested buyers. It’s a confluence of value-based things that are available to customers and prospects.

I just shared 13 of mine so you could see the diversity of my offerings and the multiple opportunities that prospects have to find you, be attracted to you, connect with you, and buy from you.

ULTIMATE RESPONSE: Someone calls and asks if I’m available to address their sales team at their annual meeting. When they do, we ask how they found out about me, and the customer replies, “He’s everywhere!”

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].