The world of sales is undergoing a seismic shift. The days of traditional, one-size-fits-all training and transactional selling are fading fast.
The world of sales is undergoing a seismic shift. The days of traditional, one-size-fits-all training and transactional selling are fading fast.
At the enterprise level, reps are playing with table stakes. They need to have a handful of relevant skills they can deploy on-demand to win.
The marketplace is changing. Due to the glut of information, customers are less dependent on reps when evaluating solutions. And most sales reps are still struggling to sell virtually.
Think about your most difficult presentation, your toughest audience, or the time where you had little to no shot at changing the minds of the decision-making team. Despite the odds, you showed up anyway. Got it? You remember the day? I promise you it doesn’t come close to the audience Erin Gruwell faced in the early fall of 1994.
When most people think about selling or persuasion, they think of the presentation or the “talk.” While important, there is a more critical step that must occur before the words leave your mouth. And when communicating with those closest to me, I’m ALWAYS tempted to blow by this step – especially if it’s a critical conversation.
It’s probably safe to say that we’ve all had a case of the pre-presentation jitters. The level of nervousness can range from slight anxiety to full blown panic.
Fear. It’s the foe I battle every day. I believe fear is the biggest villain in all of our stories.
The role of a sales leader is complex and nuanced. Sales leadership is really about having the ability to motivate your people to accomplish set goals by empowering each individual. It requires you to focus on their professional growth, as well as their personal growth. Being an effective leader is about seeing the big picture, without overlooking important details. Great leaders drive results by motivating their team to want to do their job.
We now consume the equivalent of 174 newspapers a day, more than four times the average in the late ’80s, and receive anywhere from three thousand to ten thousand messages a day.
There are thousands of movies, books, blogs, podcasts and other resources for sellers that address the final phase of a sales cycle: the close. In many of these it’s often wrongly assumed or purported that closing a deal requires control, manipulation, or some creative strategy to “beat the customer” and win the sale. This is a misconception.
The biggest challenge facing sellers today is that most customers in the marketplace are unreceptive. They are resistant, not to a solution to their problems, but to salespeople and their attempts to engage.
Sellers, what would you say is the biggest challenge you face today in sales?
A few years ago, one of the largest sales organizations in the world communicated the desire to purchase one of our training programs. The scope was to train tens of thousands of sales professionals annually. That got my attention. If we won, it would be our company’s largest and most profitable contract in our history.
Check out this excerpt from CEO Tom Stanfill’s new book, UnReceptive: A Better Way to Sell, Lead, and Influence. Available anywhere you get your books.
I have a celebrity crush. It started in 8th grade, and has stayed with me ever since. I love Bill Murray. It’s a long-distance relationship and probably (okay, definitely) a bit one-sided, but I am committed.
As sales professionals, our time is our most valuable resource. How we invest that time will ultimately determine our success in sales.
As sales professionals, we have limited time; a finite number of hours to hit our sales goals. How we invest that time will ultimately determine our level of success.
Sales reps have less access and limited time with decision makers since the growth of virtual selling. It’s more critical than ever for sellers to spend their time and resources on the right sales opportunities. But how do we know which sales opportunities are the right ones?
As sellers, our most valuable resource is our time. If we had more time, we could close more business. But, since the onset of virtual selling, it’s been a lot more difficult for sales reps to qualify and win opportunities because we have less access and limited time with decision makers. And while we are working one deal, we are losing another. So, we better make sure that we are working the right deals – and those aren’t just the biggest ones. How do we know which are the best opportunities to spend our time on?
I think we need to hit the pause button on prospecting. It’s not working.
Implementing a long-term sales coaching program is a key component of any successful sales organization. In fact, the 2019 CSO Insights Report on sales enablement states that organizations that effectively incorporate a sales coaching program are nearly three times more successful in meeting their sales goals and almost twice as likely to have engaged sales professionals.
Those of you who remember that old 90s show, Seinfeld, will appreciate this story. In one early episode, “The Keys,” Kramer tries to convince George to move to California (check out the clip on Youtube). Kramer has the “acting bug” and wants George to join him as he pursues his new passion. But when Kramer floats the idea by George, he vehemently resists. In George’s mind, he is living his life to the fullest and has no reason to leave New York. This is where the selling begins for Kramer.
Simply put, you are coaching the wrong sales reps.
I still wonder if the lady at the tanning salon really understood the meaning of the title embossed on her name tag in bold letters: Tanning Consultant.
I see a lot written about effective strategies for dealing with objections, and I agree with most of the common wisdom about handling real/honest objections. What I think most experts, and reps, fail to understand, though, is that the typical strategies or steps that are effective in responding to a real objection fail miserably when faced with a “false objection.”
I think I found the secret to building a teachable team.
One of the most advanced skills required in virtual selling is telling a story. You need your customer to experience the emotional connection and the payoff they would receive by embracing your recommendation.
Here’s a disruptive truth for you: the receptivity of your audience has more impact on your success than the power of your message.
None of us like wasting time divulging information to someone who can’t solve their problem. There’s no reason to provide a detailed explanation to your neighbor about an engine problem if he or she is not a mechanic. Studies have revealed that only 13% of customers believe sellers can understand their needs. The keyword is can. This reveals how customers and prospects enter into the selling process – skeptical that what they need to share will be understood. The deck is stacked against you.
What are we going to do about all of these Millennials? If you are trying to sell to this important part of our demographic or if you work with them on your sales team, this article is for you.
For the past 25 years, we’ve been studying what I (and most sellers) believe is the most difficult aspect of selling: prospecting or “cold calling” as some may remember.
Truth. A powerful word, but a destination seldom attained when talking to people we seek to influence.
What do you really want? It’s a good question. Some of us have an easy answer, while others struggle to describe what they really desire.
In July 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. took off from New Jersey in his small, private plane and headed for the Kennedy compound on Martha’s Vineyard. Even though a storm was rolling in, he made the decision that it was safe to fly.
This may sound familiar… You’re attempting to vet a few training providers, and as you navigate the process, you realize that choosing the right firm is far from easy.
There is a lot of buzz right now in the industry about redefining a sales person’s role.
As sales reps, adjusting to the new norm of selling virtually presents an added set of challenges to overcome.
The beginning of any sales relationship is most difficult. Actually picking up the phone or crafting that first email can be intimidating. If you have been selling face-to-face over the years, this is even more frightening now that we are all conducting business virtually. Remember this one thing when you start ANY conversation: no one wants to look at your photo album.
Up to this point in the series, we’ve been focused on creating a framework and setting the stage for a drop-the-mic presentation. In Part 3, I want to shift to delivery.
As explored in Part 1, the first step to delivering a killer presentation is understanding the right framework. Here I want to explore another critical element of the perfect performance – controlling the stage.
Combined, over the last 30+ years, I’ve watched and made hundreds of sales presentations. Here’s the most important thing I’ve learned: the best presentation wins, not necessarily the best solution.
The amount of information we receive daily is staggering. We now consume the equivalent of 174 newspapers a day, over four times more than in the late ‘80s. Marketing experts will tell you we receive anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 messages or ads each day. And not only are we barraged with massive amounts of information, there are more choices as well. Research suggests we are now making 35,000 decisions per day.
Have you ever been completely bored by a presentation, zoned out as someone drones on and on? Or thought,
Should we be selling in the middle of a pandemic?
To my fellow CEO, Owners, Sales & Learning Leaders,
I love Cinderella stories – when someone overcomes impossible odds to do something great. It doesn’t matter if it’s an athlete, teacher, rockstar, mom, politician, or accountant, the story always moves me. This weekend I heard a new one.
If you’ve been following me on this step-by-step approach to filling your pipeline, you already know how to capture the prospect’s attention and the best answer to the question: “Why meet?” Next, we need to move this total stranger from “this looks interesting” to giving up their most precious resource: time.
If you understand and implement the principles offered in Step One, you will get the prospect’s attention. As the suit guy says, “I guarantee it.” Like unexpectedly jumping out from behind a door, there are some predictable things you can do to control eyeballs when facing obstacles to prospecting. The next step is a bit more challenging:
Managing a sales team has its own unique set of challenges when it comes to selling and building customer relationships — especially when prospecting over the phone. Even the most well-meaning sales reps might be unsuccessful when encountering certain obstacles in the prospecting process.
You are sitting in a coffee shop, or maybe at your cubicle, prepping for your first prospect meeting with sales discovery questions. (At least I hope you’re prepping). You know you need to learn more about their needs, so you begin thinking about ….what? What do you typically focus on?
For the past 25 years, we’ve been studying what I (and most sellers) believe is the most difficult aspect of selling: prospecting.
We’ve recently discussed the biggest pitfalls of sales training objectives, from believing sales program effectiveness relies solely on the front-line to trying to tackle too many deficiencies at once. For this last post, we’re honing in on the last, and maybe the most important, pitfall: The assumption that generic sales training strategy will work for your sales team.
Previously, we discussed Why Sales Training Programs Aren’t Exclusively A Front-Line Responsibility and the importance of involving top-level leadership in your sales training strategy. In this blog post, we’re highlighting another leading problem with sales training programs: cramming everything into one program and applying the training to every possible service.
In our previous post, What’s More Important in Top Sales Training Courses: Measuring Behaviors or Outcomes? we discussed the importance of measuring the effectiveness of sales training courses by behaviors rather than outcomes. In this blog post, we’re highlighting another leading problem with sales training programs: focusing the initiative exclusively on front-line employees rather than involving mid-level and top-level leaders, too.
In our last post, 2 Ways Sales Training Courses Can Develop Your Sales Management & Reps in 2019, we talked about a serious problem in top sales training courses: Investing more in what happens in the workshop than after. In this post, we’re focusing on another leading problem with sales training courses: measuring behaviors instead of outcomes.
In our last post, 4 Things You Should Consider Before Committing to A Sales Training Program, we recognized a severe pitfall of training initiatives: Focusing on the WHAT vs. the WHY. In this post, we’re uncovering the next pitfall of sales training: what happens after sales training courses.
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: Most sales training initiatives fail to deliver.
Over the past two decades, I’ve learned that there is a critical concept in understanding how to close more deals. And it’s perfectly illustrated by what’s on my calendar today: Two calls that couldn’t be more different.
If you are responsible for training, leading, or developing a team of inside sales representatives (or your field team spends a majority of time selling over the phone), you understand the unique challenges of selling and prospecting over the phone. Every aspect of selling has a different set of challenges and requires a unique skill set.
Reps are struggling.
It’s one of the oldest questions in the book: How do you make people care about what you have to say? It’s not just about your sales tactics; it’s more about how you’re delivering your prop.
Why is every rep struggling with sales prospecting? Here’s why. Most everything we’ve learned about selling sabotages our chances of converting the disinterested.
In our last post, “Is What You Learned About Sales Coaching and Performance Assessment Wrong?” we asked a tough question:
In our last post, Is What You Learned About Sales Coaching and Performance Assessment Wrong?, we asked a tough question: Are you developing the wrong people with your sales training? With this post, we’re going to explore another big mistake in sales coaching and performance assessment: Measuring behaviors instead of results.
For much of the sales world, the notion that sales coaching is an essential ingredient in improving sales organizations is not up for debate.
Congrats, you made it! Welcome to the sixth, and final, installment of our series: Exposing the 6 Myths of Call Center Training. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the previous posts, you can start with the first post in this series, or download the full series for free here.
Welcome to the fifth installment of our series: Exposing the 6 Myths of Call Center Sales. Be sure to check out the first, second, third, and fourth posts in this call center training series.
Welcome to the fourth installment of our series: Exposing the 6 Myths of Call Center training. Be sure to check out the first, second, and third posts in this call center training series.
The last few blogs have focused on the #1 characteristic of high-performers: desire, including how to create it, how to measure it, and how it affects coaching. Now I want to attack a myth about evaluating performance.
With the last blog in our sales strategy series, we explored a topic that’s even more important than coaching: igniting the desire to be coached.
In my last blog, the message was simple: Developing your leaders has more impact on sales performance than any other strategy, productivity tool, or sales methodology. Here my goal is to shift focus from awareness to application.
Welcome to the third installment of our series: Exposing the 6 Myths of Call Center Sales. Be sure to check out the first and second post in this call center training series.
The last thing you need is a whole new set of demands and challenges. But you’ve got them anyway, because now you’re now being asked to generate new revenue in addition to providing great customer service. Chances are, you’re already taking some steps to incorporate a sales element into your call center. But it’s not an easy transition.
I’ve recently attended two conferences for sales management and sales enablement leaders. They were different events, but they both had the same focus: Even though the economy is growing, sales performance is not.
You’ve already identified step 1 of how to assess the sales strategy of a large organization, so know it’s time to close the gap and bring the sales management of your large organization full circle. Here’s what you need to focus on next:
When you’re ready to assess the sales strategy of a large organization, here’s the first step: Simplify and quantify what you want to measure. An easy way to start? Think about how you would assess a golfer.
When you’re trying to assess the sales strategy effectiveness of a large organization, your first goal should be this: to understand the needs of the sales organization and build the perfect training program.
It’s March Madness. For some, that phrase is just a reminder of the time of year when the rising pollen count pushes you to the brink of insanity. For basketball fans, it’s your favorite time of year, when 68 teams compete for the title of the best basketball team in college. And once again, the University of Kentucky is in the mix.
I’ve been looking at nice watches since the Rolex my father gave me tragically fell into the lake in 1988. I’ve always wanted to replace that extravagant graduation gift, but with four kids and 12 grandchildren, it’s hard to justify spending that kind of money on something I really don’t need. But I like to look.
If you fall into that category or you just want to sell more in the coming year, here are seven questions and some New Year’s resolutions to consider as you start 2019. I promise if you thoughtfully consider the questions — and follow through on the resolutions — when the clock strikes midnight 2020, you will clearly see (I know but couldn’t resist) why you had a great year.
Is it a slick brochure on the programs offered? Probably helpful but it’s hard to condense a two or three-day program down to 500 words.
“Where did the name ASLAN come from?” It’s a common question I hear when meeting a prospective client. “Is it a combination of the founders’ initials or an acronym of our sales methodology?” No, it’s much more than that. The name reveals the deeper purpose of our company.
In December of 1995, I was reading The Chronicles of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis to my two young boys. It’s a series of books set in the mystical land of Narnia that appeals to both children and adults. Much like the Lord of the Rings, the story is filled with deep meaning about good and evil, with creatures foreign to this world. The villain is the white witch and the hero is a lion named Aslan.
If you had to characterize Aslan in one word, it would be servant. Yes he was the most powerful creature in Narnia but instead of leveraging that power and strength to serve himself, he chose to serve others. I instantly knew that this lion called Aslan captured the essence of what we were about. But I’m getting a little ahead of our story.
The desire to start our company first bloomed when my ASLAN co-founder (Tab Norris) and I decided to test our unique approach to selling. Prior to starting ASLAN in 1996, we were both running a large inside sales organization. Selling and prospecting over the phone was tough and we needed a training program. As we explored all the traditional sales methodologies, we quickly discovered they failed to address the unique challenges of selling over the phone. Worse, the programs perpetuated the adversarial relationship – the root cause of why selling is so difficult. So we decided to build our own program based on what had worked for us individually for years.
Getting an accurate pulse on a large sales organization is like getting input from 500 people about an upcoming dinner party — it’s not easy. And if you miss the mark, the most vocal people in the company have no problem communicating how they feel about the “party.” In order to get it right, it’s crucial to accurately assess skill rather than the client’s ability to answer a few questions about what they deem important. Many focus on surveys and while this is an important tool, it doesn’t reveal actual sales capability. In order to assess a seller, you have to watch the seller.
There are two immediate challenges: Inside sales is different and selling over the phone is difficult. If you manage an inside sales or telesales team, you realize these as the unique hurdles to selling and managing customers over the phone. The purpose of this eBook is to share with you experience gained from research in hundreds of organizations since 1996 that will help you respond to areas that are inhibiting the performance of your inside sales organization.
In an effort to boost revenues within accounts too small to be supported by the field organization and the distribution channel, the manufacturer decided to create a telesales team to sell their products direct.
This insurance company engaged ASLAN® Training & Development to design a program dedicated to recruiting qualified and high-volume agent partners.
This leading, multi-location, upscale spa and full-line catalog company had no standard call model or coaching schedule for their call centers. The company worked with ASLAN® to identify the gaps in their selling and customer service skills. The goal was to demonstrate to customers that they are the spa experts who target services to meet the needs of the customer. To achieve this goal, the representatives and management team were trained on ASLAN’s Other-Centered® Selling program.
Along with the training for reps, managers went through ASLAN’s Catalyst program. They were taught skills to help them effectively coach the reps on their team. They learned to assess reps relative skill levels in each of the competency areas covered in the workshops – diagnosing reps skill mastery.
This large regional bank wanted to improve customer experience and increase customer loyalty.
Doing the same thing and expecting different results wouldn’t work. ASLAN® helped equip these reps with key skills they would need to help them manage calls differently. Rather than approaching calls in a responsive role and relying on the customer to take the lead, participants were equipped to assume the leader role in calls and proactively explore the full range of customer’s needs.
Check out this article recently published by TrainingIndustry.com and written by ASLAN CEO and co-founder Tom Stanfill on how we validate the impact of our training initiatives efforts.
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Email: Sales@AslanTraining.com
Phone: (770)-690-9616
Address: 375 Northridge Rd Suite 485 Atlanta, GA 30350