Dudley summed up the recent experience of the world’s largest ever oil catastrophe thus: “BP will emerge out of this terrible tragedy smaller and wiser”.

BP isn’t the only company thinking small and wise. With talk of a recessionary double-dip, the big companies are thinking small and nimble, and the small are thinking creatively.

Most of us are a bit smaller, and more than a bit wiser than we were 2 years ago. Why? Because a recession breeds innovation. A recession makes us shed people who don’t contribute. A recession makes us leaner, meaner and as we learnt in my last OMP, more of a sales streetfighter.

I have heard that Microsoft sent out an internal email to all employees about 18 months ago with the simple message: “We might not make much money over the next 1-2 years, so let’s focus on getting market share and mind share. Get into every account and build relationships to make sure that when clients do have money to spend, all they think about is Microsoft.”

Here are four more examples of smaller and wiser companies:

1. Amazon threw caution to the wind a couple of years ago, pouring marketing and R&D money into an unproven product called the Kindle. This electronic book reader and associated spin-offs has pulled Amazon right through the recession, and is tipped to be a top 3 stocking filler again this Christmas. Gutsy, smaller and wiser, Amazon is now in a superb market position, with 40% of their sales e-books. Clever.

2. Closer to home (in fact just around the corner from Natural Training), the funky  Hoxton Hotel in London. The Hoxton has now had to endure around half of its life throughout the recession. Yet it’s booming – business is great. The secret? Twice yearly, well-publicised “rooms for £1” internet promotions. Everyone in London hears about the Hoxton and the promotion, it gets people sampling what a great hotel it is, and results in thousands of fully paid bookings. The hotel staff are happy, the place is bustling and its 205 rooms are almost always fully occupied.

3. Firebrand is a company that provides accelerated, residential IT certified “bootcamp” type training. Owner Robert Chapman realised right at the start of the recession that geographic diversification was the key to survival. So, he opened in the Nordics and threw more resources into Germany. The UK was down 5% last year, but the overall company was up by 10%. Result!

4. EMC makes data storage, which I’m sure you agree isn’t a bad market to be in as we all become addicted to saving much more data such as video and massive emails. While other IT companies suffer, EMC has grown. How? By ignoring the hype and watching growth trends. They knew that data storage had to keep rising, and so they didn’t panic. While they lost a few people, they invested money in training to help their team to become even more effective at carrying the EMC message to market. Recently they celebrated some of their highest sales in a very long time. Slightly smaller, but massively wiser.

We too are a little smaller and wiser at Natural Training. We’ve done this by turning traditional training on its head, providing strong measurable ROI from each training session. The National Training Awards agree – Natural Training has just been shortlisted for the most prestigious UK training award.

One of my lecturers at college had a very demonstrative reaction if any student tried to ask a question whilst he was talking – ‘LET ME FINISH!’

It was so much fun to hear him say it that we’d do it sometimes on purpose just to see the eyes roll, notice the huff of indignation followed by the impatient cry ‘LET ME FINISH!’

What’s the link?

Too many salespeople interrupt a client when they’re speaking.

LET THEM FINISH!

Every word a client says to you is important. It’s not just the information they give, it’s their tone, the attitudes they convey, the way they describe their own company and its problems (which your solution is about to solve).

By interrupting them, you lose out on that information as they may never come back to it.

Humans ramble when they speak (most do anyway) and the more you can get your clients to ramble – to talk about things other than the direct answer you seek – the more you learn about them and their company.

And that makes it easier to sell to them.

Also, it’s likely to mean they’ll like you because you let them talk.

Next time you’re with a bunch of friends, listen out for the amount of times people are interrupted when telling a story.

Imagine how annoying that is for a client.  Make sure you don’t fall into that trap.

On Sunday night the World Cup Final featured a Dutch player by the name of Mark van Bommel, who they say was a former street-fighter turned mongrel footy player. Here is a tongue-in-cheek description of him from his Wikipedia page: “Van Bommel can still be seen in this year’s world cup practicing his particular form of butchery. His preferred cuts of meat are ankle, shin, knee and thigh and he prefers his meat tenderised”.

However he lost his crown to the ultimate street-fighting move on the night: the “foot in the middle of the chest” from team-mate Nigel de Jong.

Whilst not that extreme, today’s OMP is bare-knuckled and a touch on the aggressive side: today we are talking about fighting for every sale.

There are plenty of selling opportunities to be closed right now. There are successful and very happy sales people in all of our customer organisations. The classic 80/20 ratio still applies: the top 20% of the sales people are making 80% of the money. This ratio hasn’t changed from 5 years ago, nor the 20 years before that. There is money to be made.

The difference with the most successful sellers we see is their attitude. They simply don’t give up. They sense the urgency, smell the opportunity and really go for it until they get a yes or a no. They aren’t afraid to take it right up to their prospective customers and scrap their way to a sale.

How do you know a successful sales streetfighter from a recession-accepting has-been?

Here are the 5 Hallmarks of Sales Streetfighters:

1. They don’t mention the war. There is nothing to be gained by getting involved in a discussion with a customer about the recession. They instead stay positive and focus the customer on the buying advantages, such as making them or saving them a lot of money.

2. They play aggressively, but fair. No point hiding behind email when you’re streetfighting, is there? Successful sales people today punch out phone calls, box their way through gatekeepers, meet 3 clients a day, and don’t believe a thing unless it comes straight out of the buyer’s mouth.

3. Today’s streetfighters understand sales heat. They know when they are close to landing the killer punch, and they refuse to let the sale cool down at that point. We have a free e-book on this very subject – how to keep the heat in the sale. Click here to download your copy.

4. Sales streetfighters don’t buckle under pressure. They don’t roll over and discount needlessly. They preserve and defend their value.

5. Sales streetfighters understand ratios. If they were making 60 phone calls a day in the good times to hit target, they are making 100 a day now to hit the same target.
If you feel you or your sales team is missing out on business, it could be time to start instilling the right fighting attitude. We have loads more ideas and short training sessions that can help – give us a call on +44 (0) 20 7613 7830 to find out more.

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Pregnant Pause

-  £2,000 Bounty: Recommend a sales person to Natural Training and if we hire them you earn £2,000. At Natural Training we are after a sales streetfighter to join our team. You’ll need to be fearless & jump on the leads given to you. You’ll need to be passionate about training too, while providing customers with our unique style of consultation and care. If you have what it takes, or if you know someone who fits the bill, then please recommend them. To apply email a CV to recruitment@naturaltraining.com. More information here www.naturaltraining.com/careers

- Last minute open workshop places:

- 2 places left on Advanced Sales Consultation Skills on the 4th August (max 8 participants)

- 1 place left on Complete Telesales Skills on the 12th August (max 8 participants)

- Sales tip of the week: tap into the free sales and business podcasts readily available on i-tunes. There are thousands of them and they will all give you a few ideas on the way to work. Here’s a direct link to one of my favourites: http://billcaskey01.libsyn.com/

- Dragon’s Den is back! Our Managing Director & sales expert Paul Owen had an observation about it here.

- Our free training for a year promotion is finishing tomorrow. Tell your colleagues to subscribe to One Minute Pause to be in the running! More information here.

- Client quote of the week: “I was extremely nervous coming to this course – Greg made it fun and enjoyable and made me feel at ease. This is the first bit of training I have had and I would definitely like to do more courses. Thanks for a great training course – perfect for new sales reps!” Carissa Penfold, Cook Trading. Carissa went to our Introduction to Sales open workshop on the 13th of July.

Last night on Dragon’s Den there were two pitches where the questions asked by the Dragons were either ignored or skirted around.

 
Naz Choudry with his Bollywood pitch was one of these.  For those in the UK, you can see the full pitch here:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/entrepreneurs/nazchoudhury.shtml  – the area I’m talking about is roughly 36 minutes.

However he does it several times throughout, so if you didn’t see the show it’s worth a look.

Naz was asked a simple question such as “How much money have you made?” and he seemed uncomfortable answering it.  Instead he would talk about his legacy and his potential. 

This frustrated the Dragons, and undermined their trust.

Eventually we learned that Naz had earned £500K but had probably spent a bit more than that, which gave us an instant insight into why he wasn’t happy sharing!

I think we can all fall victim to avoiding questions from time to time – even if by accident.  And when we are selling or presenting, it can be fatal.

While the answer is being avoided, the following dialogue may be going on in the mind of the questioner/customer:
• What are you hiding?
• Why won’t you tell me?
• Why do I have to ask again and again with no answer?
• Is he listening to me?
• I don’t trust him. I won’t buy from him.

I feel Naz’s pitch would have gone much better if he offered plain, honest answers that gave the Dragon’s a sense of who he really was – rather than the person he wanted to be.

Interested in your thoughts!

These organised, planned and more complicated buyers usually reside in the Procurement department of most organisations.

Procurement Officers  and Managers need to ensure that they are getting the best deal for their company – not just in terms of price and trading terms, but also for legal and compliancy matters.

When we’re selling to a large organisation we have two choices:

a.  Treat Procurement like “blockers”, headaches and frustrations, or

b.  Give them what they need to make the sale happen the way you want it to happen.

I believe the latter is clearly the option in today’s economy.  If you agree, then you might like to consider the following few strategies.

1.  INVOLVEMENT

You might circumvent procurement in the early stages of the sale, but eventually they will still get involved.  Most relationships you have – be it personal or work related – are made more productive & enjoyable when there are clear lines of communication and few “surprises”.  Procurement people are the same – they would like to know early on so that they are able to work together with you within deadlines that are reasonable.  So approach them, let them know your plans and they will enjoy the heads-up.

2.  MUTUAL CUSTOMERS

Don’t forget that Procurement’s customer is the same as your customer.  Your contact needs Procurement to serve them in a timely manner, and to get a winning supplier-customer relationship.  When you make this mindshift then you are much more likely to see things in a different light.  You can even refer to your customer as “our customer” to jog their minds from time to time.

3.  UNDERSTAND THEIR NEEDS

By getting to know what is absolutely important for Procurement to achieve, then you are working collaboratively with them.  Once you have their bottom line needs listed and prioritised, you both have an agenda to work to.  This gives you more ammunition to move with pricing negotiations too.  After all, if you have made an effort to understand and care for their needs, it’s only reasonable to assume that they will return the favour to you!

During our training we regularly look at roadblocks to a sale, such as Procurement, and by the end people realise that all it takes is a mindset shift to go from “block” to “clear path”.

In this blog which is Part II we look at the commercial roadmap that I created with Zoe which helps her to convert more interested people into fee-paying clients:

Step 1:  We created a database of Zoe’s past and present clients.  

Step 2:  From this database we created two lists:  A Premier client list (10 clients Zoe would really love to receive a file from) and a Supplementary List (max 30).  Following the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) the clients on this list were going to see at least 80% of Zoe’s new business prospecting attention with 20% unallocated time for those clients who simply walk through the door.  This is by far an inverse ratio for most lawyers who will spend more like 0-20% of time prospecting for new business.

Step 3:  Seminar

An effective seminar is one that is focused, well promoted and has a keynote speaker sharing valuable insights into the topic.  If they are treated with the sales and marketing respect they deserve, they can be a goldmine.  If not, they can result in no leads and a general sense of frustration.  I gave Zoe the following four pointers about selling at the seminars:

3.1  Market well

Send out a seminar invitation to your database.  In terms of the messaging, spend extra time on outcomes – what will attendees walk away with?  We brainstormed these benefits together.

3.2  Don’t just exchange pleasantries – persuade!

Zoe and I structured a phone call template to each potential seminar attendee.  This was no ordinary call – we made sure potential attendees were given some exciting messaging.  We added exclusivity and some additional qualifying questions.

3.3  Develop a seminar strategy

Once Zoe had a confirmed guest list for her firm’s seminar, I encouraged her to spend some time on a seminar selling strategy, answering questions such as:

• How many prospective clients will you be able to talk to? 
• How many extra staff from your firm will be available?
• What opportunities are there to talk?  E.g. on arrival, first break, close of seminar. 
• How do you plan on entering and leaving conversations?  Getting tied up in conversations is a hard thing to deal with at times! 
• Can you contact prospective clients prior and let them know that you would like a brief meeting at the seminar? 
• Is there a way of harnessing and collecting referrals? (eg prizes, feedback forms, offering to send the PPT deck).

3.4  Plan the conversation

When talking to the client, how would Zoe envisage moving the client to the next logical step in the sales process?  Is Zoe crystal clear on what that step may be?  Is the segue way smooth or awkward?  Does she go through with the plan to go to the next stage, or shy away at the last moment?

Step 4:  Meeting with Senior Partner

Zoe’s next step from the seminar is a lunch meeting with a Senior Partner.  The idea of this meeting is to explore the client’s world and find an angle to potentially gain the first file.  Critically Zoe recognised that in order to be successful the client must be relaxed and the conversation free flowing, so she would choose both the Partner and the venue best suited to the occasion. 

Step 5:  Client site visit

Zoe’s suggested her penultimate step in her sales map is to suggest a site visit so that the Partners can get a sense of culture, meet key stakeholders and make a short credentials presentation.  I agreed that this is a great thing to do, as it shows a genuine commitment from her, the Partner and the firm.  This step might be combined with Step 4.

Step 6:  Handle Objections

Zoe and I talked about her starting to appreciate rather than dread objections.  They can be genuine reasons not to proceed, and therefore roadblocks to the sale, granted.  However they can also be buying signals.  Zoe and I went through a list of objections such as “we are well represented by xyz competitor” and how to handle them.  The key tip I gave Zoe was to change the way the client feels about the objection.  An objection is a valid concern, and if a sale is based on depth of feeling, which it is, then Zoe must learn to change the conversation to a more positive and forward-thinking angle.

Step 7:  Receive a file (close)

Closing the sale in Zoe’s world is definitely not a crude, car-yard “Would you like it in blue or black?” close.  Yet questions still have to be asked.  Zoe and I talked about some of the more acceptable yet effective softer closing questions for Zoe such as:  “Would you consider us for your panel?” and “Would you consider us for a new file, if or when one arises?”

On the right track

Zoe is on the right track.  We have another couple of sessions coming up in the next 60-90 days, because it is one thing planning all of this activity, it’s another thing managing the time to prioritise sales and it’s a third and most remarkable thing to get it all right first time.  She will make mistakes, and she will need to modify aspects of her sales approach.

It all comes down to attitude.  As long as Zoe maintains her motivation to be a Partner she will introduce many new clients to her firm and absolutely achieve her goal.

If you are at a legal or professional services company firm and see some parallels with what you are trying to achieve, then please do call and give me your brief.  We will be able to change mindsets and map out a process that works to receive lots of new business via our sales training.

1. Don’t go on them if you are prone to putting on weight
2. If they are screening Titanic in the cinema, opt for Toy Story 3 instead
3. They tend to be for passengers in the 60+ age category.

The motivation for this story was point 1 above. 

As you might know, the world of the passenger cruise brings with it the all-you-can-eat, never-ending, put-on-two-stone cruise ship buffet every night.  Which means cruises are only for the self-disciplined or self-deprecating.

I will personally never be able to partake in any sort of buffet, for fear that I would move into caveman survival mode, fattening up for the future famine that never comes.

Last year my Uncle Harry went on a cruise.  He came back and told us about it.  His leading, and most memorable story?  One night they ran out of fillet steak at the buffet.

Uncle Harry loves his steak.  So when he couldn’t help himself to a second serve of the fabulous fillet steak that was like losing a child.

A waiter noticed Harry at the buffet looking a bit forlorn and said that we would look after him.  Ten minutes later he arrived at Harry’s table with a massive steak hanging over the edges of the plate.

This was the moment the waiter changed Harry’s world:   out of all the sights, and all the activities, all of the countries and all of the people, this one moment was the highlight of his trip.  This was his leading story, the headliner, the one he told me before anything else.

So really Harry had spent several thousand euros to have a big steak while floating about the Caribbean.  This was his big moment.

This story is a useful reminder about how we can all change our customer’s world with a personal, thoughtful gesture.  None of us really HAVE to go the extra mile like the waiter did for Uncle Harry.  But if we do put some extra thought into our interactions, we can literally change the world of our customer and give them that winning story to tell.

During our sales training we ask you to keep at the forefront the following question:  With this next call, or meeting, how are you going to change their world? 

In other words, how are you going to get from Point A, which is them thinking “another forgettable sales call” to Point B, which is them hanging up the phone and thinking “that’s something I hadn’t thought about before”.

How do you change their world?

A good starting point is that you need to think about your customer from their perspective (that’s called empathy), and imagine what it would take to impact them.

It doesn’t have to be an expensive gift.  It can be a freshly delivered line or question that motivates people to try your product.  Think about saying something different that stands out!  Check out Greg’s recent blog Halve Your Selling Proposition (Then Half It Again) to find out more.

Other ways of changing their world It can be a pdf, or podcast, or article link that might interest them.  It can be an initiation to an event.  Anything that begins with the following phrase “Just thinking of you..”, as in “Debbie I was just thinking of you and the team and I thought of something that could be of interest…”

Challenge yourself to change the world of your customer, not just once in a while, but every time you interact with them.  And watch your sales success follow.

For more on Change Their World check out this blog from Paul:  Change Their World!

During our sales training we are always thinking of ways to help salespeople change the world of their customers.  Happy to share some more ideas with you – just give me a call anytime!

Zoe is just getting back into the workforce after a sabbatical from having kids, and during the conversation I picked up that she really is super-motivated to succeed.

She has a fierce desire to make up for lost time and really hit the ground running at her mid-size, specialist law firm.  In fact Zoe wants to establish her brand and become a partner at the firm within the next 3 years.  In order to do this she knows she has to master something that tends to be “beneath” most lawyers:  the art of selling.  I say “beneath” because many lawyers don’t see it as part of their job. 

While lawyers might not like it, they really ought to become conversant with selling, mainly because it can be difficult to make Partner level unless they can convert conversations into clients, networks into new business and acquaintances into fee payers.  Or to put it another way, turning their back on sales may be stifling their career.

As I chatted with Zoe I realised a few short selling sessions will do the job.  Zoe has the right attitude – she understands just how important it is to bring new clients on board.  And 80% of selling is attitude:  the most successful sellers like selling.  Moving buyers to say “yes” excites them, makes them money and fast-tracks their careers. 

Even better, Zoe understands sales as a process.  She knows concepts like “advancing the sale”.  This term refers to the seller moving the buyer through to the next stage of the sale.  All of the stages of a sale form a type of roadmap that we refer to as a selling cycle (see graphic).

For example, one of the key ways lawyers sell is at networking events such as seminars.  If this is one stage of the sales cycle, (in our diagram Step 3) then some strategic selling effort is required to move the prospective client from a conversation at a seminar to a credentials lunch with a Senior Partner. 

During our discussion it became apparent that Zoe is tuned into these steps, had already experienced them in part, and could see the roadmap pretty clearly.  The way Zoe sells is subtle and based on developing trustful relationships, which is the finest way to move buyers to action.

The next thing we did was to map out Zoe’s sales cycle, with key selling moments and challenges. 

In part two of this blog, due out next week, I will outline the map I created with Zoe because I think it’s something that you can adopt not only if you’re a lawyer but if you would like any tips on mapping out your sales process – particularly as it relates to seminar selling.

In the meantime if you would like to talk about getting me over to your firm to help out with more commercial awareness among your fee-earners please give me a bell on 020 7613 7830.

1) Send them an insight – a podcast link, an article about their industry.

2) Give them someone new to listen to – a conference call with your Managing Director, or an audience with your Client Services Manager.  Someone fresh or new always stokes the embers.

3) Buy them a book. Seriously.  A book is such a wonderful, personal thing to buy someone.  It will cost you next to nothing to make them feel great.  Start with the business section on Amazon and see if you can find something in their interest area.

4) Ask them to feature in your newsletter.  Interview them.  Send it to your marketing or PR person.

5) Organise a conference call or webex with one of your current customers, and have your prospective customers all log in to listen to their experiences. 

6)  Put on a lunch, or after dinner drinks, or a site tour at your premises.  Invite them along.  Everyone is busy these days, but equally it’s nice to get out of the office for an hour or so to clear the mind!  Get them reinvigorated again!

7)  Rather than just send a proposal and hope they read it, conduct a read-through.  Again this can be done on a conference call or a webex.  As each relevant department from your company is mentioned in your proposal, maybe that could be read out by an actual representative from that department?

This is an excerpt from our acclaimed e-book called Heat:  Why Customers Buy from You – And Why They Don’t. To download your free copy click here.

In our sales training we will help you to keep the heat in the sale for all of your clients with our natural philosophies and strategies.  Give us a call on 020 7613 7830 to find out more.

It really fits in with the way we approach our sales training too, and I thought you would enjoy it, so I have reprinted it below.

Walter interviewed me on CNN Radio about this very subject yesterday - I’ll copy you on the link when the interview appears online.

Until then – hope you enjoy the below article & as always very interested in your feedback!

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Get in the habit of being flexible and creative

“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, so long as it is black.”

This famous quote by Henry Ford reveals his strategy for mass producing the Model T automobile and launching the great industrial juggernaut of the early 20^th century. For almost 100 years, this attitude also defined the baseline strategy of most sales organizations: “The customer can have any product or service they want, as long as they let us tell them what they can have.”

People have been buying and selling since before recorded history, and during all that time, the sales process has rarely varied. Sellers have identified a profitable opportunity and pushed their product or solution to a likely customer, along the way doling out options and information only as needed and trying to control the process so that the customer was dependent on the sales person and the company for everything.

However, the cumulative technological advances of the past 20 years – not the least of which is the way the entire business culture has been transformed by the Internet – has turned the tables; the customer is beginning to take charge and drive the sales conversation. The Internet supplies customers with immediate and highly detailed information about your company’s products and services, along with information about all of your competitors. The advent of social media accelerates this process by giving buyers real-life and near-real-time reviews and opinions of your product and service.  Now, rather than waiting for a sales person to approach them with something that they might find helpful, customers are proactively leveraging the Internet looking for the product or the company that appears best suited to meet their needs. In addition, these web-savvy customers prefer to do business online, using the tools, interfaces and amenities available through the Internet to do business their way, according to their schedule, to meet their specific needs.

Because today’s more sophisticated customers have a sense of power and entitlement, they are likely to be fully aware of the options and solutions available to them. They are no longer willing to settle for a product just because a sales professional says it is a good choice. Most customers these days aren’t necessarily looking for products at all. What they are interested in finding is a specific outcome. (Most sales professionals think that customers are looking for solutions. They are wrong. Customers generally don’t care what solution they get, as long as it delivers the outcome they need.) For this reason, sales professionals must stop thinking about simply pushing products or solutions. The way to close more business and drive more revenue today lies in first being sensitive to the customer’s needs and then adopting a flexible, creative approach to customizing products and solutions that will help customers achieve their desired outcome.  

Even in the most commoditized industries, highly successful sales professionals understand that when you can create options that are aligned with the customer’s needs and desired outcomes, you will differentiate yourself from a competitor who only sells widgets, and you will be able to sell on value and not price.   For this reason, it is vitally important for sales professionals to refocus their efforts on exploring ideas and options with their customers that may be outside of the normal box.  And all of this can only happen if the sales professional is creative in their thinking, curious about their customer’s business, and flexible in how they structure the product and solution mix to achieve the only thing that matters: the customer’s desired outcome.  

Where does creativity come from?

Because creativity is such an important component in being able to work with customers to develop the outcomes they need, we need to stop and take just a moment to address it directly. Most of us would probably say that we are not particularly creative, because we don’t write music or novels or create visual art. Creativity is so much bigger than that. Creativity really refers to the ability to generate something unique that didn’t exist before, and you can apply that to literally any aspect of life. We were all born with the drive to be creative. When we were kids we were given a box of crayons and creativity flowed out of us in ways that were unique to us and which gave us joy.  We asked lots of “why” and “how” questions. We used our imaginations to bring life to toys and invisible friends. Eventually, though, that box of crayons was replaced with a geometry book and our creativity was replaced with rules and memorization and regurgitation. This “memorize and regurgitate” paradigm became the means to help us reach certain ends: pass tests, fit in with the system, meet acceptable standards, etc., but it came at a price; it suppressed our enthusiasm for creativity, because creativity didn’t seem to fit in with the way the rest of the world functioned.

This memorize and regurgitate process extends even into professional sales careers, as sales professionals are continuously exposed to product and service announcements, value propositions, and endless lists of features which are designed to be easily memorized and regurgitated.  We quickly accept the proposition that in order to become successful sales professionals, we only need to thoroughly memorize all these items and then effectively regurgitate them to our customers in order to make a sale. However, as we have already pointed out, today’s customers are much too sophisticated to have any patience at all with sales professionals who “show up and throw up.” Instead, you must “create and collaborate” to deliver the outcomes your customer is looking for.

Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup, has built a highly successful leadership philosophy around the following phrase: “You can’t talk your way out of something you behaved your way into. You have to behave your way out of it.”[1] In a nutshell, the point here is that there is no shortcut to success and no substitute for clear, comprehensive, creative behavior change. If you want to truly succeed in helping your customers achieve their outcomes in ways that differentiate you from everyone else, you must change your behavior: stop regurgitating pre-conceived solutions and start creating options that make sense to the customer. To accomplish this, you will need to dedicate yourself to re-building your creative muscle and apply it religiously in every customer interaction.  

Here is a specific list of actions you can take to re-build that muscle. Like anything else, you have to work at this consistently:

Expand your horizons.

• Broaden yourself to more than one field.
• Read widely.
• Work on different projects at the same time.
• Use visual as well as verbal representations.
• Don’t follow “the pack”.
• Use multiple methods.
• Seek novel approaches.
• Find new ways of making problems soluble.

Build enthusiasm.

• Pursue projects that are fun.
• Play with ideas and things.
• Ask interesting questions.
• Take risks.
• Have a desire to understand the “why”.
• Build different cognitive muscle

Associate and Communicate.

• Associate with smart collaborators.
• Organize good teams.
• Study how others are successful and learn from winners.
• Communicate your work to others.
• Have confidants to rely on

Persevere.

• Focus on key problems.
• Be systematic and keep records.
• Confirm early, disqualify late.
• Concentrate tenaciously on a subject.
• If someone says it can’t be done, do it.

More than anything else, the suggestions above demand that you get out of the selling rut you have plowed for yourself and learn new ways of doing things. The late Senator Harold Hughes was fond of saying: “The more you do what you always did, the more you will get what you always got.” If you are tired of getting what you have been getting, it is time to learn to do things differently.

As you start freeing up your creative, collaborative side, you will be able to integrate that creativity with these six best practices to connect with customers in new, exciting ways:

1. Stop thinking about what you can sell the customer and start focusing on how you can help the customer reach his goals. – We have already thoroughly addressed this topic in previous articles, but it really is the only way to keep you grounded in today’s highly competitive selling culture. By thinking in terms of helping the customer meet his needs, you will avoid getting locked into a product mentality and maximize your ability to stay flexible and creative.

1. Start thinking of your product as only one aspect of the value you can provide to your customer. It seems that almost over night, the philosophy of selling has shifted from a focus on products or services to a focus on consultative interactions to create outcomes. Highly successful sales professionals today want to be valued for their expertise, experience and ability to collaborate with customers and design customized solutions to deliver specific outcomes. The product or service is definitely a part of the solution, but the highly successful sales professional will also work with the customer to uniquely position and deploy that solution within the organization to produce maximum benefits, which adds extra value for everyone.

1. Get used to a longer sales cycle. – The nature of this more creative, collaborative process may necessitate a longer sales cycle than you are accustomed to, even for products that might be considered commodities. You need to allow time to really get to know the client and understand their situation. This might require several conversations spread out over a few weeks or – in some cases – even a few months. You also need to devote more time to asking questions, processing answers, researching solutions and developing customized recommendations. These recommendations will then need to be socialized throughout the customer’s organization to get feedback and buy-in from key players. However, the longer sales cycle generally leads to a higher trust level between you and the customer; it also very often leads to bigger deals that close at higher margins, with a higher potential for developing into long-term relationships that drive greater revenues year over year.

1. Focus on real discussions about real concerns, and steer away from cookie-cutter solutions. – The customer must feel absolutely comfortable throughout the sales process. Unfortunately, some sales professionals may feign interest in the customer’s needs and goals just long enough to steer the conversation in the direction they need it to go to position the solution they already want to offer. Customers won’t tolerate being manipulated like this. Once they sense that you are setting them up so you can deliver your preconceived solution, without spending the time to listen to their needs and understand the outcomes they hope to achieve, they will withhold their trust and become more resistant.

1. Tell the truth, even if it means telling customers what they don’t want to hear. – This is a hard practice to follow, but it may be critical to helping you develop the kind of credibility with the customer that will pay off in the months and years to come. As a rule, sales professionals are very competitive, and they work very hard at winning new business. However, never let this desire to win tempt you to promise something you can’t deliver, or – what might be worse – agree to a solution that won’t really produce the outcome the customer needs, even if the customer asks for it and even if it will make you a lot of money. It is one thing to be flexible and creative; it is quite another thing to overpromise and then fail to deliver the outcome the customer expects. You and the customer may both be disappointed if, in the end, you aren’t able to recommend a solution that you feel will effectively meet their need, but when you face that fact honestly with the customer, you will be reaffirming that your true motivation was to help him instead of just sell him something. Without a doubt, the customer will remember your integrity the next time you call on him.

1. Know when to assert your expertise and when to defer to the customer. – As a qualified sales professional with many years of experience within your industry, there will be times during the sales process when it is not only appropriate it is also important for you to respectfully assert your expertise when recommending solutions. Usually, these times will come towards the end of the process, after you have built a strong relationship with the customer and have patiently, carefully developed a thorough understanding of the outcomes the customer desires and the solution options he prefers. Ultimately, though, the customer is the expert on his business needs and the solutions he feels most comfortable with. After you have made your recommendation, you must be willing to trust the customer to make the choice that he feels is best for him. If you have maintained your commitment to be flexible, creative and collaborative during the rest of the process, you can usually trust the customer to make the choice that works out best for both of you.

Action Items:

• Think back to your five most recent customer calls: did you already have a preconceived solution to offer, or were you focused on gaining a clear understanding of the customer situation in order to help design a solution that would meet their expressed needs?

• How effective are you at presenting value to the customer based not only on the product you have to sell but on your ability to create customized, collaborative solutions that go beyond the features and advantages of your product?

• As part of your planning for your next customer call, create a set of questions you can use to demonstrate to the customer that you are not just interested in a selling them a product, but you are even more interested in collaborating with them to design a solution that will effectively provide the outcome that will meet all of their needs.