Every now and then, we get requests for an outline for a sales training manual. We usually respond in the same way:

What prompted your interest in a sales training manual?

Typically, it's because someone told someone else to come up with some sales training. If we've learned one thing after 35 years of sales training experience, it's this: There's a lot more to a successful sales training initiative than the manual.

Simply building a sales training manual -- even a really good one -- won't do any good. The secret to successful sales training is in bringing it alive. Experienced sales trainers can do that. In order to be effective, sales training needs a lot more than a manual.

We've delivered sales training to salespeople all over the world. So that means we've been involved with a lot of sales training programs.

Here's what the successful ones have going for them:

• They're proven by real-world results. Sales training that's all "theory" just doesn't cut it. Salespeople are too cynical to be fooled by sales theory. Instead, they're looking for examples of tactics and principles that have been used in their industry, by their peers successfully.
• They're backed-up by research. Naturally, "back of the envelope" sales tactics aren't going to work anymore, either. Sales leaders expect proof of the effectiveness of training initiatives. And now, more than ever, sales skills can be tested. In fact, this is a tremendous benefit of the Sales 2.0 movement.
• They're individualized. Everyone inside a sales organizations sells in different ways. No matter how much effort is put into "competency modeling" or "benchmarking," there's a certain element of art in sales. And that means training needs to reflect the artists on your team. That takes more than a one-size-fits-all process.
• They're customized to your unique environment. Your selling environment is different than your competitors'. And the sales process they follow will probably be a bit different than theirs. Sales training can't be a one-size-fits-all solution. A truly impactful engagement needs to map to your existing best practices. Not ignore them.
• They're delivered by experienced salespeople and managers. Sales trainers can't tell salespeople what to do unless they've already done it, themselves. Salespeople are quick to pick up on the "Do as I say, not as I do" mantra.
• They're reinforced beyond the training engagement. Changes in behavior do NOT come from a 2-day event. Instead, meaningful sales behavior growth and change must come from a longer-term, reinforced engagement with follow-up coaching.

So, you see, a manual, by itself, simply can't generate the effective change that a customized sales training program will.

- @JebBrooks

Dear Sales Evolution Readers,

The most successful salespeople are the most self-aware. That means they can identify both their strengths and their weaknesses. Here at The Brooks Group, we set out to help salespeople to do that.

That's why we've created a gift for you.

It's a short, self-scoring audit. We'd like to invite you to "give it a go." It's important that you're honest. After all, the only way to improve is to have a good baseline. Once you finish, you'll have access to some additional (free) resources you might find helpful.

Click here to see how you stack up!

In the meantime,

Happy Selling!

@JebBrooks

It turns out that there are a few of you out there who watch our blog, but aren't sure what we do here at The Brooks Group! Please let me fix that!

We help organizations improve their sales performance. We do that by providing sales and management assessment, training, and retention tools. The customer-focused sales process we tailor to our clients is called IMPACT Selling®. And we've been teaching, coaching, and reinforcing it for for a long time. It's won awards and helped salespeople open and "tie up" an untold number of sales on behalf of thousands of our client organizations. We're proud of the work we do helping salespeople, their managers, and their companies grow.

So, even though it's a shameless plug, I thought I'd post a link to more information about IMPACT because it might be interesting to some of you.

Also, keep your eye on us here at "Sales Evolution" to see sales and sales management content, questions, and ideas. (by the way, are you subscribed to the RSS feed)?

@JebBrooks

Whether you're just getting started or you've been selling for years, it's important to remember sales don't just happen. They're the result of pursuing the right activities at the right time. Keep your selling career on track with this handy checklist of essential sales activities.

Pre-Call Planning

1. Are you talking to qualified prospects?
2. Timing: Are you in front of your prospects when they are ready to buy, not when you need to make a sale?
3. Prospecting: Do you prospect regularly and consistently?
4. Positioning (PDF): Do you define how you want your prospects to perceive you, your organization and your products or services?
5. Gather in-depth data about: your prospect's business drivers, purchasing process, decision-makers, challenges, problems, organizational structure, and competition.
6. Have you identified key players within your prospect's organization?
7. Time: Choose your daily activities wisely and treat time like inventory that's too valuable to waste.

Meeting with Prospects and Establishing Rapport

1. Confirm your appointment (don't assume that your prospect will remember your appointment).
2. Double-check for materials (business cards, list of satisfied customers, brochures, pens, notebook, calculator, delivery schedules, etc.).
3. Pay attention to your prospect's personality/behavior style.
4. Pay attention to non-verbal cues.
5. Credibility: You have only seconds to convince your prospect that time spent with your will be valuable.
6. Don't start your conversation with unsolicited small talk (PDF).
7. Trust: Do your prospects believe you and your organization are credible and you will deliver on every promise or commitment?

Presenting and Asking Questions

1. Forget about generic product demonstration
2. Choose the most appropriate product or service for each prospect
3. Tailor your presentation to your prospect's needs and wants
4. Focus on benefits, not on features or price.
5. Clear up any misunderstandings that your prospect may have
6. Don't confuse your prospect or overwhelm them with too many options
7. Ask the right questions
8. Then listen. Listen actively and take notes.
9. Find out: What he/she will buy, how he/she will buy it, why he/she will buy it, and under what conditions he/she will buy it.
10. Don't focus on what you want to have happen at the end of your sales call.
11. Instead, focus on what your prospect wants to have happen.
12. Do you get feedback from your prospect and make sure that your presentation is on-target?
13. Don't make price an issue.
14. Remember: Success in sales is driven by margin and volume.
15. Present price after you create perceived benefits that exceed price and perceived emotional cost.

Closing the Sale

1. Never make a claim you can't back up with facts.
2. Do you provide testimonials from your customers?
3. Try to involve happy customers with your prospect
4. Convince prospects that what you say is true and that the benefits of your product/service outweigh its price.
5. Handling the details: Try to work out any objections or problems.
6. Don't give them canned responses to objections
7. After the sale I: Do you tell the prospect they've made a wise decision?
8. After the sale II: Do you invite your customer to buy more?
9. After the sale III: Do you service your accounts as enthusiastically as you sell them?
10. Be responsible and accountable for your own sales results.

The conclusion of good questioning skills. Have you studied up for the second part?

Download audio file (059-Questioning_Skills2.mp3)
Click the green play button (twice) above to play the audio

OK. Good job! You got the appointment with this important prospect. Now what?

You better plan carefully and intelligently. No winging it - you're better than that. You're a professional salesperson - a value resource, a consultant to your prospect, not a product pusher or a data dumper.

So - be PREPARED. But how?

Start with the critical questions that every prospect wants answered when you show up for a sales call:

• Who are you?
• What do you want?
• Why are you here?
• Who do you represent?
• What's in it for me?

Here's how you can do it:

"I'm (your name) from (your company) and the purpose of our meeting today is to meet you, get to know you better, talk with you about (whatever your product/service is) and to discuss anything you might like to discuss with me."

NOW SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOUR PROSPECT'S RESPONSE

You'll be amazed at how this simple, direct way of approaching your prospect takes the tension out of those first few seconds of your encounter. Notice that the wording of this phrase gets to the point and answers all of your prospect's unspoken questions quickly - AND you're putting the focus on the prospect..."Get to know you, talk with you, and discuss anything you might like to discuss..."...That last point is critical because you're letting the prospect know that you're interested in talking about THEIR concerns.

Next, you can use a "bonding statement" like this one:

"We work hard to make sure our customers get exactly what they want, and that's how I'd like to work with you. In order to see if I can do that, do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

NOW SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOUR PROSPECT'S RESPONSE

Usually you'll hear, "OK, go ahead."

So let your prospect do the talking (if they choose to). The best way to encourage talking is to ask reflective, open-ended, easy-to-answer questions in a conversational way.

But sometimes you might hear, "I don't have time to answer questions."

In that case, you can ask, "When would be a good time to continue?" After all, the reality is simple: If a prospect won't talk to you, they probably won't buy from you either!

Listening is one of the most important skills to be a successful seller. But if you don't have good questioning skills it's difficult to listen to the answer from your prospect. This week Bill uncovers the first part of his presentation of good questioning skills.

Download audio file (057-Questioning_Skills1.mp3)
Click the green play button above to play the audio

Last week I talked about preparing questions that allow your prospect to verbalize, identify, their chief, dominant needs, desires and wishes - the source of their pain, their greatest challenge, their primary issue etc. - the "heart" of what they need.

Yes "needs" here, because our products are "need specific" - products do specific things that only they are designed to do. So, we say products are "need specific" and we also say, "If you can't sell to a need then go do something else." With all due respect, this is the essence though not the totality of selling. Because people still buy what they want! (Another blog!)

Let's look at some questions that invite your prospect to verbalize:

• What specifically do you want / need to accomplish?
• What are you looking for that you haven't been able to find?
• What do you like most about your current provider?
• What have your seen that's particularly interesting to you?
• Why would you consider another vendor?
• What time frame do you have in mind?
• What budget do you have established?
• How soon would you like to get started?
• Who else other then you of course, in involved with this decision?
• And on and on...you could easily think of 500 more questions just like these.

Your preparation determines which questions you ask. Did you notice all of the questions were open-ended? All encourage dialogue. All help the prospect verbalize THEIR concerns. And require you to give them your undivided attention (listen).

Some will talk more than others. Be patient! Listen! Prospects buy at their pace, not necessarily ours. Let them do that with your guidance, not your domination. And enjoy the results.

Submitted by: Richard Dickerson

In all my years of selling and facilitating (quite a few), one of the things I've noticed most consistently about salespeople is that they are so eager to get to the close. We as salespeople have been indoctrinated to believe that sales success is measured only by completed sales. But we could complete more sales by NOT focusing so much on the close.

Stop trying to get there so fast! Getting there quickly means forcing the prospect to make a buying decision based on OUR timetable not theirs - and that simply doesn't work. We could complete more sales by spending more time -- slowing down so we could speed up.

We should spend more time on pre-call planning and formulate powerful questions that would lead us to a prospect's pain much more quickly and efficiently. We should uncover pressing needs, desires and wishes by spending extra time preparing our questions, and referring to those questions to sell our solutions. After all, isn't this what our prospects really want?

Investing extra time early in the sales process means having to spend less time later in the sales process - time that's often spent floundering around in front of the prospect if we haven't done our homework.

For example, if through my pre-call planning I realize that a prospect is facing certain issues or is likely to be dealing with particular problems, I can develop my questions around these issues or problems. By doing this I focus my sales interview on confirming my information and allowing my prospect to talk to me about his or her situation. The more they talk, the more likely they are to buy (all things being equal).

As I listen to my prospect's response, I can ask additional questions in a conversational way to demonstrate understanding, empathy, and attention to my prospect's situation. This enhances trust, rapport and attention and increases the likelihood of closing the sale - which is exactly the goal we set out to achieve!

Submitted by: Richard Dickerson