Stephen M. Haines - Tips for sales professionals

I've taken a six month hiatus on writing, but there's many topics for me to catch up on.   After recently onboarding a half dozen new hires, I have realized one question just keeps popping up: "Stephen, how do YOU overcome objections?"  I've had answers for that one over the years, but I recently came to grips with an interesting fact: I don't. What I mean is, I am not the one who overcomes objections - the person raising them does. Allow me to explain further: You go out to eat and order a diet Coke (because ordering anything else in the Atlanta area is paramount to a sin, and could be met with legal ramifications in some jurisdictions).  Anyway, the server says "We have diet Pepsi - is that OK?".  Now, YOU have a choice. Please forgive my simple example, but it matters with large purchases, too. In my example, it is the restaurant patron that must make a choice.  You, as the customer, have some choice responses: 1) "I think i was clear. I orde...

In my last blog I told you about Rachel, and how to recover from a really BAD presentation.  Luckily, you can avoid that, too!  What if there were a foolproof way to AVOID bad presentations in the first place, thereby ALWAYS giving you the right to close, thereby increasing your conversion rate and your wallet?!?  What would THAT be worth to you? OK, nothing's foolproof, but I do have some suggestions! First, begin with the end in mind.  Stephen Covey said it best in 7 Habits, you should always launch your ventures knowing where you ultimately want to land.  Imagine working hard for a vacation, packing up the family cruiser with tons of luggage, toys, kids, grandma, and the cat- then heading down the road.  About an hour into it, your spouse lovingly looks at you and innocently asks, "so, where we goin'?"   Ridiculous, right?  Who would go through all that trouble without a plan?   Well (sheepish pause), we've all done that with a sale, ...

Forgive the title, but I figured if I was going to promise something big, I should Go REALLY big! In the last blog, I challenged the big, fat, lie about closing- which is that it is Only a numbers game, that if you aren't selling enough, you simply aren't closing enough.  Now, this may be partially true, but I submitted that what really is probably going on is that you are holding back.  You aren't closing enough because you aren't building trust, demonstrating value, and creating separation from your competitors- so your gut is telling you that you haven't earned the right to ask for their business! So, how do you earn the right?  Well, you'll have to read the next Blog for that!  The feedback I got from the last blog tells me that you agreed, that's why you're not closing more often.  So, as promised, I'm going to help you with that  scenario first - the "what if I screwed up already?" answer. Let me answer with a story.  One of the great...

When visiting with a group of students at a University recently, the issue popped up about when and how to close. I find it interesting how much it is discussed, yet how bad most people in the profession actually ARE at it. Now, I know that people can close. Just about every person that is on this planet is here because someone closed the deal: to go out with them, to date them, to marry them, and then to have kids. OK, I'm not that old, I know many of those get jumbled now, but still - a close occured, and boom - billions of people are on this planet. Somehow, without the pheromones and emotions connected with my analogy, however, when it is only...your livelihood... on the line, salespeople gradually get worse at it. That is why most trainers have summarized and watered down the close into simple phrases you are supposed to carry around for motivation: "Close hard, close often." "You don't ask, you don't get." "It takes 5 "no"...

In a sales slump?  I have been in some in my career that made me question EVERYTHING.  "Should I quit sales?", "I wonder how much money a ChickFilA manager makes in the first year?", and "As a professional truck driver, what happens if you space out and miss a weigh station?"    I have a reminder for you that is true no matter what your product is.  So, before you give up on your career in sales and move to Helen, Georgia to pick up the trade of glass-blowing or wood carving civil war chess sets and Star Wars memorabilia, you might want to check out how you are doing on this simple fact-finding mission in your sales presentation.     The truth is that there is no sale with no pain.  Someone enters a restaurant to buy food typically because they are hungry.  Someone enters a car dealership typically because they need transportation, or theirs is aging or failing.  Someone buys medication typically because they have an ailme...

It rarely fails - I am coaching one of our sales counselors through a negotiation, only to recommend a negotiation point that strikes fear into my counselor.  Not just "I don't think that will work, Stephen." kind of fear - no - I'm talking sweaty palms, dilated pupils, "I don't want to get shot", and "I'm-going-to-be-so-broke-my-three-year-old-will-have-to-go-to-community-college" kind of fear.  Why is that?  Because the closer you get to realizing a sale or a deal, the more one fears losing it.  However, we homosapiens are funny creatures, because this phenomenon goes way beyond sales, it's true for all aspects of our lives. It is our nature that anything that we care about, we want to keep.  At the very least, we wish to stake our claim in what we already have firmly prior to evaluating other options.  This is why a high school senior may really want to ask out the head cheerleader, but will keep his current date UNTIL he gets a fi...