Stephen M. Haines - Tips for sales professionals

While counseling Sales Pros who have been slumping, the conversation often moves between technique and strategy.  Too many I have met focus completely on technique and ignore strategy altogether.  Oddly, they often also lack on technique!  Technique is usually focused on how you handle the interactions with a client.  How you present, how you handle concerns, and how you close.  Strategy typically is how you plan or prepare for interactions, whether for an individual client, or for your month or year in general.  Today's post is both technique and strategy.  As a strategy, I feel it is wise to always learn what you can from the client.  The customer has some pain, some problem that needs to be solved, and they have chosen to discuss it with you, the sales pro.  I have a very funny family physician with a heavy Russian accent that, whether I go in for routine checkup or a cold, enters the examination room with a so...

courtesy of jscreationzs Take yourself to the simplest of all transactions.  You've undoubtedly been through a drive through.  Countless, I'm sure.  How many of those transactions can you remember?  Seriously, of ALL time, how many can you remember?  Probably, the best and the very worst. Well, I had a memorable one this week.  I just wanted coffee and a yogurt parfait.  Nothing complicated, as Bon Qui Qui would shout "I gotta complicated order!".   Just a coffee and yogurt.  I sat staring at the callbox for a good three minutes, feeling myself aging.  I glared at the box, thinking that somehow that might get translated to the disinterested person on the other end.  Finally my order was taken, and I progressed, irritated, through the line.  I get to the window to find a very entertaining lady talking to herself and shaking her head.  She occassionally would look at me, inviting me to join the conversation, but I...

Buzzwords in the Sales profession come and go like fads.   As I sit here in my parachute pants and tie-die shirt listening to Depeche Mode, I realize that not all buzzwords that are new and current are necessarily fads!   I’ll try to make my point quickly, as my Jackson 5 tribute band has practice in 20 minutes. Selling from Strength seems like a passing buzzword, but it really should go into your mental inventory as a true north principle-based habit.   True north on the globe doesn’t change.   It doesn’t matter what time of day or night it is, which season, or where Haley’s comet is in the solar system.   True north always stays the same (magnetic north does change, but this isn’t a science lesson now, is it?) One of the biggest behavioral observations I have in the post-2008 market environment is that most buyers are looking for value.   Shoot, I went to Sonic drive in last week for happy hour and made the manager top off my vat-sized 85-cent diet Coke b...

In a "down" market, I have seen few principles as clearly as I have seen the principle of BATNA. What is it? It is the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. Said simply, it is your next best choice if this current deal falls through. I'll never forget being in 9th grade in Greer, South Carolina. I was attending my first year of high school, which I began with much intrepidation. Towards the end of the year, a senior girl I had met invited me to her prom. Me? A 9th grader? I know what you're thinking - she must have been a dog! Did she have fleas? Did she kick her leg when I scratched behind her ear? Actually, she was pretty cute, just shy. My brother, who was a senior that year at the same school, was incredulous! How could his little brother be going to his prom? He begged my parents to not allow me to go, he bribed me, and maybe even threatened. At the end of the day, I still went. K (I'll protect her full name in case she is some huge re...

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...

Few things are as frustrating as being in front of a customer that you can tell is holding something back, but is "chesting their cards." I have found that the best recipe to overcome the tight-lipped buyer is simple...ask!  You should assume a few things before we get to this point: First, the fact that the customer chose to visit with you at all is proof that at some level they respect you or the product you represent. The customer hasn't up and left or kicked you out yet, meaning they haven't ruled you out entirely yet - they are waiting to be wowed! They are DYING to tell you what is holding them back.  OK, that might be a little dramatic, how about we agree on they are "willing" to tell you if only asked. So, with our assumptions tied down and squarely in place, we endeavor to smoke out objections.  It's actually quite simple - you hear that phrase that we all love in the sales arena "Thanks!  I need some time to think about it."  F...

We did a fun event with the team today at a midtown Improv comedy theatre.  On top of side-splitting laughter and acting like fools, we also learned some invaluable lessons from the world of Improv. Cut loose - too many people take themselves too seriously.  By getting out of one's own way, they open themselves up to become real to those they are dealing with.  It's amazing how customers soften and open up when they feel their salesperson is being "real" and transparent Be creative - Most of the games are versions like games we played as kids.  That being the case, it's amazing how hard it is for adults.  I mean, one game is telling a story, one word at a time, as we went around the room.  It is staggering how many adults struggled to come up with one noun or verb!  When that creativity is stimulated, it becomes infinitely easier to become a problem solver with customers and come up with real life solutions to objections that used to stump you. Jus...