It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up How to quickly incre ase your bottom line by up t o 20% By Bruce Bowen All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author. © Bruce Bowen Published by Bruce Bowen [email protected] llustrations/Cartoons sourced from Presenter Media presentermedia.com Cover Design © Dani L Bowen 2012 Powered by Pothi.com http://pothi.com ISBN: 978-0-646-58509-3 Acknowledgements More often than not there are people and influences behind any project. This case is no exception. I would like to thank my many colleagues and leaders who have influenced and added to my library of knowledge, and who have encouraged me along the way. A man is fortunate to have a special woman in his life. I am extremely fortunate to have three. To my daughters Shelley and Danielle who have put up with much, yet never doubted their “old man” and have encouraged, supported, and lent their own skills and talents to this cause. To the MOST amazing woman I know. My wife, friend, partner and soul mate, Jenny. Your belief in me, your un-ending sacrifice, commitment, and your tenaciousness all add up to being my immovable rock. Thank you XXX 3 About the Author Bruce Bowen has over 30 years’ experience in teaching, training and as a sales professional. In recent years Bruce has been researching, developing and validating the training material that makes his approach to sales training powerful and effective. Bruce’s personal success in the sales arena has given him great insight into the needs and requirements of the sales professional, retail sales staff and small business owners. Bruce realised that traditional sales training whilst very important, was no longer enough for our buying patterns today. This understanding inspired Bruce to write a unique and extremely potent training course that combines three different skill sets that will be outlined in the following pages. Having been on both sides of the fence, as a teacher/trainer, and in the field as a very successful sales professional, Bruce has a perfect balance of theory and practice. Having “done it”, Bruce knows how to “teach it” and his passion and enthusiasm to see others grow and succeed makes him an extremely effective trainer and communicator. 5 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up To have Bruce speak at your function, or to train and develop your biggest asset - your staff, or to help your small business get the edge in the markrt place you have always dreamed of; please go to www.softskillsti.com 6 Chapters 1. The Void .............................................................9 2. It’s time to move on ........................................17 3. So What Now? .................................................25 4. The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM - Pt 1 The “Sales Roadmap”TM ...................................27 5. The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 2 “Soft Skills” .......................................................37 6. The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 “Abundance Of Mind” ....................................51 7. A few tips for Small Business. .....................75 8. Dare to Change ................................................85 7 Chapter 1 The Void The Void If you’re anything like me, you’ll not be the fastest reader, so I am typing this slowly ☺ First lets have an extremely brief look at the history of sales. It is well recognised that sales is the oldest industry in the world where everyone is a sales person. We either sell a product or service, and idea or ourselves. We can go back almost to the beginning of time with a particular serpent doing a pretty good sell job on Eve with that apple. So why is there the need for a sales process? Is it a need, or a perceived need? A want; a desire to have something we do not? A desire to have more? Is it greed, or necessity? Is it emotional or spiritual, envy or addiction? Of course, it is all of the above. With the powerful emotions involved in all of the pre-mentioned, comes the sales person who could satisfy every one of them, and with it, the product or service that soothed the often-burning desire within. History is full of stories of great salesmanship and those of, well, less than savoury tactics. We will however 10 The Void move forward to the modern era and look at what has perhaps most impacted our sales culture of today. In the circles of sales and personal development it is recognised the father of today’s thinking is Napoleon Hill. His most recognised teachings are found in the 20 million copy best seller “Think and Grow Rich,” published in 1937. It is still used by the majority of trainers, teachers and training organisations worldwide. It is the bible of our industry and a must read for all readers of this book …….. perhaps finish this one first. In short, the principles in “Think and Grow Rich” are based on empowerment, personal growth and emphasising the attributes of an era when integrity, courtesy, and ethics were held as imperative building blocks both for society and one’s own character. They focus on the thought that if you truly help enough people get what they want, then you will automatically get what you want. It also takes the reader on a journey of responsibility for one self and the empowerment to think big and achieve. Another significant author and contributor to our sales culture as we know it today, is Dale Carnegie and his book “How to win friends and influence people.” This is another must read for anyone who has to communicate with people on any level. Dale Carnegie explores and expands the important skills of 11 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up communicating and relating to others. He highlights the need of understanding others and how they think, act and process information and emotions. It is not all about me; there is someone else involved in a 2-way conversation. Then came along the master of sales, the consummate ‘closer’ Zig Zigler. If you were exposed to any training in the late 1970’s and into the 80’s (yes, ok, I’m 50 yrs old) then the first, second, and third course was Zig and for dessert along came Tom Hopkins. Both of these gentlemen are responsible for in one way or another shaping and training more than half of the world’s sales force. They were household names, and in almost all sales staff meetings around the globe you would hear the words: “Zig says this” and “Tom says that”. Their teaching became the foundation of how to close a sale, how to get someone to buy anything, and we all had a list of 27 ways to do it in our back pocket. Armed with this list we could knock on any door with whatever product or service we could get our hands on and go hammer and tongs at the person in front of us, and yes, we often walked away with more money in our pocket than when we arrived. Do you think this would still work today? Heck no. And it’s a good thing too. Today’s consumer is educated more than ever before. They are armed with more information on the ‘tricks of the trade’ of the sales 12 The Void person, they are skeptical of “the deal of a life time” and more often than not can smell the proverbial rat a mile away. The customer is much more aware of their rights as a consumer, and now, there is this wonderful thing called Google. Enough said. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that many of the skills we learnt from Mr Zigler and Mr Hopkins are no longer valid. On the contrary, there are some that will be the support structure for every sales person in the world. There are however, many, or at least the interpretation of, that will just not cut it in our society today. I recently overheard a Salesman in a jewelry shop who was assisting a middle-aged couple buy a diamond ring. As the wife was admiring the enormous rock on her finger with a likely equally enormous price tag, the salesman turned to the husband and said, “do you still love your wife as much today as the day you got married?” Now if you are a salesperson of the same ilk, you will be saying, what’s wrong with that? If you’r not, then you are probably lining up behind me wanting to take a swing at him. That sort of sales crap might have got you somewhere in the 70’s but not today, and it’s not wanted by the majority of the sales fraternity either. So why have I brought us to this point? 13 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up As the heading of the chapter says, there is a widely reported void In much of today’s sales training. This is not just my comment; you can open the business pages of newspapers and magazines across the country and read reports from HR and sales managers, and even research and audit companies explaining the shortfalls of sales training. One research company said a report showed the overall enquiry rate, to the actual sales ratio had fallen to 2.4% and that consumer buying patterns and our sales strategies are simply no longer on the same page. Now that is quite alarming to say the least. We as consumers have moved on from the culture of the 1970’s and 1980’s. We have evolved into the consumer that we are today with our extra savvy awareness, our clever searching out skills and with all the other things the ‘WWW.’ has educated us with. Our sales approach has not. Sure, there have been sales courses with different colours and fancy names added, they have been wrapped up in bright shiny paper and make us shout in the mirror and jump up and down and do what ever else. What you will find, however, is that underneath many of them they are still the same content that we had 30 years ago. They have not changed with the times, which is why the reports are coming out that “today’s sales training simply does not last.” Sure there is the initial boost in excitement and enthusiasm and the sales figures even increase……………for a while. 14 The Void But it does not take long for the effects to fade and the status quo is returned. Again, do not get me wrong. I am not saying that the content is no good or not relevant, much of it is. It is however lacking elements that are consistent with our evolving culture and thinking. Okay, I am saying that some things should just be left behind. What are they I hear you say? Read on dear friend, all will be revealed a few pages on. 15 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up We need to bring our sales culture into this century. 16 Chapter 2 It’s time to move on It’s time to move on First, let’s try and paint a picture or at least sketch out some of the goings on in the 1970’s and 80’s that are relevant to this chapter. The baby boomers and the early gen X’s will relate well and understand this. As for the rest, well you have just inherited the sales culture from this era so this may give you a small insight as to why we are facing the sales void we are now in. It is indeed time to move on. Actually it is long overdue. Not only have we evolved and been educated as consumers, society and much of what is important to us has changed. We have had massive generational change. How on earth does a baby boomer even try to understand the gen Y? And what about the Builders, also called Matures, that came before the Boomers. For them trying to communicate to the Gen Y’s must be like talking to Aliens. Now before any of my Gen Y readers get upset, I am not saying that you are wrong or implying any other negative inference. I’m just saying your thinking and what is important to you is different from Gen X, who are different from the Boomers, etc, etc. 18 It’s time to move on The world is getting smaller and our global knowledge base is now doubling every decade. In the 1970’s if you travelled overseas you were considered by many to be extremely wealthy and at least, very fortunate, and/or were among the elite of society. Today kids are traveling while still at school, and when they leave school, on goes the backpack and off they go into the wild blue yonder and turn back up on the doorstep when their money has run out. Can you see a picture of change forming in front of you? As sales people, we not only need to come to terms with these changes, but also the need to fully understand the massive change in the cultural diversities and the integration of a plethora of ideas, tolerances, tastes and approaches to doing business. We are now truly multicultural. I can remember as a kid on a special occasion going out for dinner as a family. It was the local restaurant or steak house, serving 3 varieties of beef, 2 chicken and veal for the expensive taste. If we were really daring, and completely stepped out of our comfort zone, we would visit the only Chinese restaurant in town. Now that was not only special (fried rice, No 62 - sorry, couldn’t resist) but it was really stretching the cultural borders and anyone who did was considered 19 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up rather game and adventurous. Today I can walk for 10 minutes in any direction and eat at one of 14 Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Greek, French, Nepalese, and other restaurants. Thank goodness these wonderful people had the courage and intestinal fortitude to emigrate to this fabulous country, or we would still be eating meat and 3 veg, six nights a week. This cultural change means many things, and has many ramifications to it, but I will try and keep it relevant to sales. Not only as a sales person do we now have to be at least a little aware of cultural differences in how we serve each customer, but the opposite is true as well. When I go shopping, I can be served by people representing 15 different ethnic groups in the space of an hour. So how does that make me feel as a consumer? Are my traditional Aussie cultural buying needs and habits being met? Can I shop with the same approach, the same tactics on my side of the fence? This is all a bit strange. All of a sudden I am out of my comfort zone, I have to adjust to a different style, a different approach, a different way of thinking, a whole different thought process towards what I want and how I am going to get it with my game plan. After all, I am the customer here, and I’m always right, right? 20 It’s time to move on So if that’s the conundrum of the customer, how must the sales person be feeling? And more than likely they haven’t had any training! They got the job, were trained in all things I.T., occupational health and safety, food standards, fire drills, how to mop a floor, use a cash register and one of those things you swipe your card through that sucks all your money out. But rarely sales training, or god forbid, customer service. They were just pointed in the right direction and simply told, “there is the customer, go get ‘em tiger.” They are just trying to do the best they can, with whatever skills they have. They are trying to deal with all this cultural stuff and work with the sales culture they have inherited, trying to make sense of the confusion written all over the customer’s face. Oh, and also have to handle the aggressive and sometimes abusive ones. We could of course train them how to do this, but that would cost money, so they will eventually sort it out by themselves…………………won’t they? The truth is, many of these aggressive and abusive customers are just incredibly frustrated. They are trying to deal with all this change without any real structure, boundaries or guidelines, just like the rest of us. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s we were told that as a country we Aussies had grown up, apparently. We were big boys and girls now and can stand on our 21 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up own two feet. Complete with our own strengths and weaknesses, with our own idiosyncrasies, and idioms. Independent of the rest of the world and we really don’t need Charlie or mummy now. So does that mean we can think for ourselves and make our own decisions as to what is good for us as well? Surely we know what is best for us. We have even won a few gold medals along the way. So why have we left our sales culture the same? So just how big is this void thing? We have established that much of our sales culture, as well as the origins of our sales skill set is still back in the 70’s with Zig Ziglar and Tom Hopkins. This is in fact the beginning of the enormous void in sales training. Way back then, the sales culture may have been fine and acceptable for that era and the American cultural influence of sales on our society was accepted and may have even been relevant. Today it is not quite the same. It is important we keep the sales culture relevant to our societies culture and let it evolve as we do, culturally, and generationally. So let’s move on from the old era of sales and leave behind what is no longer relevant but indeed keep all the good things from Ziglar and Hopkins; the skills that 22 It’s time to move on are relevant to sales and fit with our culture. These are the skills that indeed have no time limits or expiry date, and should form part of every salesperson’s tool kit. The sales problem is now 2 fold. We have evolved as consumers, and now we have stripped back the conventional sales approach of the last 30 years. In fact what we do have is a fantastic opportunity and a starting point to rebuild the sales approach to be exactly what is required for this point in time, and for our wonderful culture. 23 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up 24 Chapter 3 So What Now? 25 So What Now? With all the changes this country has gone through, It is time for our sales culture to grow up, and catch up. 26 Chapter 4 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM - Pt 1 The Sales Road MapTM 27 The Sales Roadmap TM Before we start I need to briefly explain what the “3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM”is. We have realised the great big hole, the void in the approach to traditional sales and sales training. The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM fills this hole. I start with the basics of sales training as we know it. I then add 2 extra skill sets which not just fill the void, but complement and inter-relate with the first tier, and each other. We now have 3 skill sets all interactive in every way, which now takes the customer on a simple but co-driven journey with the sales person to a mutual end. The sales suite has variations for different applications. The sales professional in a high end industry, the retail sales person, and small business. It is in fact a “suite” of sales suite’s. Lets move on. We can take 2 approaches here. We can reinvent the wheel, and start over, or we can take all the good bits form our predecessors and what is needed to fill the void and paste it together. Perhaps a bit of both is required. 28 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 1 In my time as a sales professional, I was always hungry to learn. My behavioral style is one that likes to win, to be the best (I can see my past colleagues nodding their heads). My sales managers soon learnt that it only took a carrot or a prize to be offered and I was there. Head down, bum up and I was off and running. What that also meant was that I was keen to learn new skills, new and better ways of doing things. Faster, bigger, better, stronger. All the things that would get me that prize on offer. You know the type of person; there is always one in every organisation. The result of this hunger to succeed, was that I developed a sales strategy that was producing fantastic results. Although I have to admit, as much of it happened by accident as it did by careful design. Most sales people start out their sales career with their first sales job and undertake some form of sales training. Some is in-house by the sales manager or training and development manager, some companies send their staff to a seminar or two. This training period generally lasts anywhere from one to six weeks. So now the training is done and the sales professional is let loose on an unsuspecting world. How many sales people actually revisit their own training and their ‘sales roadmap’TM? Most are still doing the same things they did when they first started. 29 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up If they started in January of 1975, then it is likely they are doing the same things now and have not evolved their skill set a great deal. Perhaps a brief description of what the sales roadmap is, is required at this point. The “Sales Roadmap”TM is the map of the journey a sales person takes their customer. It has a beginning which we generally call qualifying. This is simply to find out where the potential customer is in the buying process. Are they ready now, or just looking for ideas. Perhaps they are looking for someone else. This is to find out how best to serve the customer. Then comes a series of questions to find out the nitty gritty. All of the details and customers needs and wants so we can provide the best fit for our range of products and services. After questions back and forth we then try and come to mutual agreement with the customer and shake hands on the transaction. This is of course a simplified version, and there are sometimes many stops and starts which need to be well sign posted for the customer so they understand and agree with the journey. It dawned on me that my “Sales Roadmap”TM was evolving and I was becoming more efficient. I was providing my product and service to more people, in less time and with healthy profit margins. 30 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 1 I was saying and doing things when face to face with customers that had me saying to myself, “where the heck did that come from” but it worked and the customer was happy. This process continued for a number of years to the point where I had my career sales ratio down to 1 in 2.3 Today for the majority of professional sales people, the ratio is 1:4 to 1:5 A very good sales person will have a ratio under 1:4 and the top of the class will have one under 1:3 I mention what mine was not to boast, but to explain the power of this thing that had evolved. So why was it working so well? Over the past few years I have been stripping back my “Sales Roadmap”TM, analysing, testing and validating all the components so I could get it to a point where I could document it, and teach it to others. One of my other behavior styles or character traits is that I love to teach. “There is nothing more exhilarating than to see the face light up as a delegate has a revelation of understanding and gains new self-belief.” Bruce Bowen 31 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up What I had done was combine different skill sets which were not just complimentary to, but were also interactive with each other. What had happened was, that a lot of this learning I had done, and much of it was stuff I had picked up 20 years ago and was embedded deep in my subconscious, was just coming out. There were bits of information I learnt from being involved in this particular group, and some more from that organisation at a completely different time and place and had no relevance to the other stuff I had learnt….. or at least at the time I didn’t think so. There was a principle from this book and something from that book or cassette tape (Gen Y’s ask your parents what that is) a bit from that video given to me from some bloke I can’t even remember. As I was developing my “Sales Roadmap”TM and realising the gaps and voids left by the traditional sales training, stuff was literally just coming out of my head and filling those voids. Even more surprising was not only did it make sense, it actually worked. There were three fundamental skill sets. First were the basics of sales. All that good stuff from Mr Ziglar and Mr Hopkins. From qualifying the customer, finding what their needs are, meeting the benefits of my product and service to their requirements, isolating any objections, right through to closing the sale. 32 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 1 Actually I hate the term closing . No one should be “closed”- nor do I appreciate being closed. I think if we’re all honest we would say we feel the same. The words negotiating, satisfying the need, solving the problem and mutually winning are all much more fitting terms for the way we buy today. So in order to start a new sales culture that is fitting with the ethos of this book, we will from here on refer to it as “the agreement” The most important part of this skill set is having a clear and defined “Sales Roadmap”TM It is the journey that you and your customer go on together. Notice I said “go on together” It is not one that you take the customer on. It is not you doing all the driving and steering. Besides, that is far too much hard work. Is it not better to have the customer do some of the steering and feel they have driven themselves to the final destination? Now that takes a whole new skill set. Actually that is exactly what I am on about in this book, and the workings of it will be unfolded for you shortly. Your sales roadmap needs to have all the stops planned out with clear direction and well sign posted. It needs to be flexible to add or delete a stop or two depending on the customer. Remember there is always more than one route to take on any journey. 33 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up I have asked many sales people to explain their sales roadmap for me and I am amazed at how many either don’t have one or can not give it to me simply and clearly. If you do not have a sales roadmap in place that you can explain clearly in less than one minute, then I fear you are missing many sales opportunities. If you don’t know, how can the customer know where they are going and have any confidence and trust in you, their co-driver. A rally driver relies on the navigator to give the correct information, the right sign posts at the right time. Then the driver has the confidence to make the driving decisions. Being organized and professional is part of the roadmap. Please have enough respect for your customers to do that. Have respect for everyone’s time, respect for the sales process and for yourself. There are many sales roadmap formulas out there and they can be easily found if you do the research. Mine is a 5 part plan and I like to keep it simple. It is not one that I have consciously copied from anyone, it is the one that has evolved over time. Feel free to use it. Although without detailed explanation it won’t make complete sense. 34 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 1 Here it is: Preparation Qualify Face to Face After the Call Sharpen The Axe Is that it I hear you say? Yep, that’s it. What makes it work is the different skill sets and the way they all work together. It is not the purpose of this book to teach you the traditional sales skills. I am going to assume you have at least the basics, like qualifying the customer, and basic agreement skills. That being said this is the first skill set in the “3 Tiered Sales Suite”TM Sales Skills 35 Chapter 5 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 2 Soft Skills 37 Soft Skills Interpersonal skills, communication skills, relationship skills. These are known as “soft skills” Lets have a look at a few definitions of “soft skills” Soft skills are: • The character traits and interpersonal skills that enable us to deliver our knowledge and occupational skills with purpose and success. • Behavioral competencies. Also known as Interpersonal Skills, or people skills, they include proficiencies such as communication skills, conflict resolution and negotiation, personal effectiveness, creative problem solving, strategic thinking, team building, influencing skills and selling skills, to name a few. • They lead to great customer service, and a customer who has received great customer service will keep coming back and tell others of their good experience. • An important part of their individual contribution to the success of an organization. Particularly 38 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 2 those organizations dealing with customers faceto-face are generally more successful, if they train their staff to use these skills. • Occupational Skills or Hard Skills might get you in the front door, but it is the Soft Skills that will get you the business. • The personality-specific skills that determine the success of a person as a leader, a negotiator, a mentor, a mediator, an influencer and a communicator. • Soft Skills are what matter most in dealing with the day to day running of a company. • Your knowledge and qualifications are why people might talk with you; the Soft Skills are why they will do business with you. • It is the Soft Skills that will have the biggest impact on your success. These are amongst the principles and skills associated with the writings of Napoleon Hill and Dale Carnegie. I can not possibly go into all of their subject matter, and not all of it relates directly to The 3 Tiered Sales Suite TM. Besides you can read it yourself. I just needed to mention at this point that that Napoleon Hill in particular is the foundation of the personal development era that we 39 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up hear so much about today. Nearly all of it goes back to his teachings. Hopefully you now have a clearer picture of the soft skills. We all know as sales people that the first thing a customer buys is not what we have to offer. It is of course us. We are told that our subconscious mind takes in information through our 5 physical senses at the rate of 10,000,000 bytes per minute. That is 166,666 per second. We are also told that we make up our mind about someone, or judge them, size them up, in 4 seconds. That equates to over 666,000 bytes of information about a person. So if someone is going to buy us first before they buy our product or service, how important are those first 4 seconds? To put it in an even more powerful context, lets have a look at communication style effectiveness. We communicate in three main ways. By words, by tonality of what we say, and by body language. Which do you think we use the most? It is in fact by words, unless your Italian and then it is by hands. I’m allowed to say that as some of my closest friends are Italian and they gave me the ok. What is the most powerful way of communicating? Here are the figures; 40 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 2 Words Tonality Body Language 7% 38% 55% (using Albert Mehrabrin’s communication model 1967) Surprised! Most sales and HR managers in the past, when looking for gun sales people have searched for the great talker. You know the ones. They can tell you everything there is to know about the product, it’s features, it’s benefits, all the variations and applications. They certainly do not lack in confidence and can talk the dial off a two bob watch. In fact the best sales person is a great listener and knows what questions to ask, and how to talk not just with their mouth . Why do words have only 7% effectiveness and body language 55%? When you talk, the listener has one sense to take in the information. With body language, the eyes see, there is the sense of touch involved with good body language control. The ears hear all the movement, and believe it or not, even the sense of smell gets involved as a memory sense. Let me explain. 41 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up Think about a very special time in the past when a meaningful event happened. Not just think about it, relive it, get involved emotionally with it and experience it all over again. You not only see it in your mind, but you can re-experience it complete with the smells and tastes, the sounds and emotions of that moment. When the subconscious mind is allowed to get involved there is an entire memory bank of information that has been activated. The subconscious mind of the person you are talking to is analyzing every little movement of your body language. The tilt of the head, the dilation of the pupils, the lean of the body, the way we sit in a chair. Are our legs and arms crossed or open? Is there a frown on our forehead, or a squint of the eye? Perhaps a raised eyebrow, or a fidget with the hand or fingers. A tug on the earlobe, a scratch of the chin. The list of giveaways and indicators to the subconscious mind who has been programmed for years is endless. You might think you are being very clever with a little white lie about a product, or when you stretch the truth just a bit. The customers subconscious however knows exactly what is going on, your body language just told them. Getting back to those first 4 seconds. Can you see how important they are? Your customer is going to make up 42 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 2 their mind about you very quickly, so you had better be on top of your game. Is your shirt ironed, are your shoes clean, is your collar straight. Is the diary in your hand in good nick, is your bag clean, fresh and give the picture that you are keen, organized and professional. Not old ragged and tired looking. You mean Absolutely. this stuff can make a difference. An important part of the soft skills equation is building rapport. People who are like each other, tend to like each other. 43 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up People who are not like each other, tend to not like each other. So if someone is going to do business with you, they need to like you. That begs the question, how do you get to be like them, for them to like you? That is worth repeating. How do you be like them, for them to like you? Rapport. It is finding something in common. It is responsiveness to each other. Learning how to build rapport, is more important than learning how to get agreement. IT is the beginning agreement. The next crucial soft skill is the art of listening. No, I mean really listening. Men, get your wives, girlfriends or mothers to explain it to you. Try this exercise. Ask a female close to you how they are going, how they are really feeling……..then shut up. Don’t speak unless they ask you a question. See how long you last, then 44 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 2 ask yourself how well you might be listening to your customers. How many times when you are talking to a customer and they ask a question or say something, and you are already thinking of an answer before they have finished? You have probably missed a crucial point that is valuable to your customer. It may be very small and seem insignificant to you, but if you miss it and do not address it, you have lost their business. As sales people we get stuck in to our routine. The process we have done a thousand times before, saying the same lines over and over, because it worked once, or twice or even more. It does not work with every customer and with just the slightest change to our approach could have got the business. How well do we really listen to our customers? The point about something working for some customers and not all of them brings me to the next crucial soft skill. Understanding who you are talking to. The biggest single mistake sales people make is to relate to people the way they are. We have all heard the saying, Do unto others as I would have them do unto me. 45 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up Now I’m sure the person who wrote this had all of the best intentions and we probably know what they were trying to get at. Unfortunately there could not be a bigger misconception to be found. It should read; Do unto others the way they want to be done unto. What right have I got to say how other people want to be treated? Would I not be in a better position if I actually found out how they want to be treated? Behavior styles and the ability to understand and read these styles is probably the most important single aspect of my sales roadmap. There are a few systems of behavior analysis out there, I have seen them all and I certainly have my preferred system. I could not possibly do this subject justice in the few pages I have available to me but I will attempt to give you the basic understanding. There are 4 behavior styles. Some refer to them as personality types when in fact they are not. Personality is primarily something that we acquire and develop mainly due to our environment and surroundings, and our experiences and influences in life. Behavior style is something we are born with. Firstly understanding who you are and how you think, how you process information, what your inherent strengths and weaknesses are, what motivates you 46 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 2 into action, what your fears are and how you react to situations, is one of the most insightful experiences you can have. To be able to understand and recognise these traits in others will put hundreds of thousands of dollars in your pocket. Oh, and you will build meaningful relationships that will last a lifetime. For example; If you are talking to a person who has a dominant, driving, decisive type of behavior, you would not waffle on. Give them the facts, be short sharp and shiny, do not exaggerate, nor try and make up their mind for them. They will make up their mind quickly and not waste your time. Do you know the type? On the other side of the behavior style is the person who loves to talk. They are socialites, love to tell stories, and generally it will be about them. They will be colourful in attire with exuberant jewelry that makes a statement. They are the ones around the water fountain at the office and will be talking to everyone at every opportunity. Let this person talk. Ask a question, preferably about them and then shut up. You could well be there for an hour before you get around to business, but guess what? They have had their needs met and now they will be more than happy to give you their business. 47 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up I remember a time when I was trying to gain the business in a particular industry. This industry had shut out suppliers like the one I represented for over thirty years on a national level. Everything was done internally. I had a breakthrough in just getting an appointment with a decision maker in this industry. When the appointment came I spent the first five minutes ascertaining their behavior style. They were the one I have just described. Having found out a personal interest close to their heart, and their recent activities, I asked the question. How did it go? (remember those four words) The most important thing I did then was to shut my mouth. This person proceeded to tell me in great detail, for 75minutes. I sat there, and just like Cybil Faulty I answered with, oh yes, really, I understand, I know what you mean, that’s fantastic. With every fibre in my body I wanted to say can we please just get on with what we are here for. ( guess what my behavior style is?) But fortunately my better judgment prevailed and I sat smiling and listened intently. Guess what? I got the business. And it started with four words. It wasn’t a clever piece of salesmanship; it wasn’t part of my sales strategy. I simply related to them in the right way. You see, I could have done unto them the way I want to be done unto. BUT I did unto to them what they wanted to be done unto. 48 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 2 When you are able to recognise a behavior style and relate to their needs, you will do more business, with more people, more often and in less time. You will build relationships that last and you will be the one everyone else refers to as having the midas touch, the lucky one, the person that just can’t do anything wrong. Do unto others the way they want to be done unto. Although there are other ingredients to the “soft skills” set, the ones we have discussed are the most powerful and if you invest the time exploring and developing these you will be well on your way to a more successful sales career. You will find whomever you speak with in you daily activities you will become more productive and It will be more enjoyable. That is after you add the third skill set, of course. The Second Skill Set: Inter-personal Skills Sales Skills 49 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up 50 Chapter 6 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 Abundance Of Mind 51 Abundance Of Mind Why is it that some people seem to just do better? Or are luckier. Have you heard the saying “the harder I work, the luckier I get”? How can we take 2 people who have a similar education, a similar back ground, grew up in the same part of town and even have friends in common, put them side by side in similar jobs, and one will out perform the other? They both have 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, a mouth, a brain, yet one excels in life and the other does ok. Have you ever been around people that just grizzle all the time. They complain about this and that, always the first one to say it will not work, or it’s too hard. Funny how this person always has an excuse as to why they could not succeed. Some even have the excuses all lined Up, as why they can’t even try. Sound familiar! What is it like being around this person? Does it encourage you, inspire you, keep you energized to take on the world? Then there is the person who mostly has a smile on their face. Bubbly, confident, they take everything in their stride, and look forward to the next challenge. If they fail at a task they just get back on track, stand up strong and get ready for the next one. Is it any coincidence that 52 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 they also seem to be the happy ones. They generally don’t complain and are the first to have something good to say about anything. Have you noticed that this person always has others around them, they appear to be popular. Why wouldn’t they? I know which person I want to hang around with. So what is the difference? It’s simple. Attitude. Both have made a deliberate decision to behave in a certain way, to have a particular outlook, and to be a certain type of person. Now there may well be underlying pressures or controls that influence the choice, but at the end of the day it still comes down to a personal decision. My family like watching “The Biggest Looser” (I could not possibly admit to enjoying it myself) What I do like is watching how the contestants deal with the pressures put on them. One has a distinct weight and strength advantage over all the others, and in certain tasks would win by a country mile. But they don’t. Why not? Attitude, and self-belief. Ahh, now I have let the second secret out of the bag. We will get to that later. So I now have to ask you a question. Which of the 2 people described do you want to be? It’s your choice, just make it. Decide right now who you want to be and what outlook you will have. 53 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up I want you to get a piece of paper and a writing stick, and make a list of the character traits you want to have. The things that you would like others to say about you. The type of person that you would really love to be. Seriously, write the list, you will need it a few pages on. Go on, put the book down and get the pen and paper, I’ll wait for you, I promise. Now I want you to look at each one of these on your list and give a reason as to why you possibly could not be like this. You can’t can you? It is a deliberate choice. Make it and start to become this person. It is not going to happen in the next 5 minutes as you have years of behavior patterns to replace. Just make the decision and each day get 1 millimeter closer to being that person. Remember, It is not where you start that counts, It is where you finish. Abundance of mind. If someone has already achieved the thing that you want to do, then apart from a medical condition or physical handicap you can do it as well. Although a bloke called Kurt Fearnley decided to walk the Kokoda track, except he couldn’t walk, he does not have any legs. If any one has the right to make excuses it is he, but he didn’t. He just made a decision. Google him, he is an inspiration. Back on to the bit about others who have already done it. Search them out, work out what they did, and copy 54 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 them. That’s ok, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just ……….. that’s right, make the decision. Ok, we have decided that we want to be a certain way and do certain things. We have decided to achieve certain goals, and become a predetermined person. But do you really think you can? Be honest now, do you really think you can? or is there that annoying seed of doubt that hovers in the background ready to pounce the second you decide that this is the day I’m going to try, and not just try, but succeed? Doesn’t that make you angry! Now there is an emotion that also has a decision attached to it. You can decide to be, or not to be. Isn’t it funny how the situation and people you are angry about don’t give a rats about your anger and it does not affect them in any way what so ever. Your anger only affects you, and and the people in close proximity. There is a volume of books to say on this subject but I will say only this before moving on. Some time ago scientists did an experiment regarding this emotion. They strapped a man to a chair, and through a series of questions and statements and antagonisms, proceeded to get him angry, extremely angry. At the point of what we would say “he is about to blow his top” the scientist drew some of his blood and injected it into a rat. What do you think happened? The rat was dead in less than sixty seconds. 55 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up Anger is a poison that left uncontrolled is going to kill you. Decide to let it go. Back to that seed of doubt. Lets explore why it is even there. At some time in your past you have attempted something, and failed. Now that in itself is fine, we all fail at things. (failure is simply showing you a way not to do something. Now you are one step closer to doing it right) The problem however, is what you or others said about the failure. More than likely it was negative, something like, you idiot, you stupid fool, I knew I would fail, I just can’t do anything properly. I am a failure and I’ll never ever be any good at anything. Sound familiar? Or someone that saw the failure has said this, both to and about you. At that instant your subconscious mind has been programmed for you to fail. Each time you try the same thing, your subconscious mind now instructs you body and conscious mind to fail. It’s doing exactly what you have told it to do. The subconscious mind does not know the difference between fact or fiction, if it is serious or just a joke. It is simply information that is going into the computer. Have you ever heard the saying in computer language, garbage in garbage out? Your subconscious mind is exactly the same. What you put in, is gunna come out. Now for some of us that is plain scary!! 56 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 So what happens is that we set up that vicious circle, that wheel like the one mice run round and round and round on. We program the event as a failure, so the next time we try and do the same thing, we get the result we have programmed for. This further reinforces our failure and poor mind set, and sets us up for future failure the next time you get up enough courage to try again. We need to get off this cycle of failed attempts. But how? Somehow we need to convince ourselves we can actually do stuff and that we are worthy of success. It starts in the mind. It is our self talk, our self belief. 57 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up We need to re-program our subconscious mind, start putting in the good stuff, so the good stuff will come out. The situation is that for years you have been programming with “garbage” so it is going to take an equal amount of the right programming to get things back on a even keel. Remember the bit about where you start and finish! I can remember as a kid going to the country and visiting my uncle’s farm. He had just planted a paddock of wheat and the ground was freshly tilled and looked nice and rich and deep brown. A few weeks later we went to the same paddock and all I could see were weeds. I asked him what happened to the wheat? He said it’s ok, soon that’s what we will see. But shouldn’t we pull out all of the weeds? No, if we do that we will also pull out the wheat. A few months later I went back and in front of me was a beautiful, perfectly even crop of wheat, nothing else in sight. I turned to my uncle and said, what happened to all the weeds. His reply was something I will never forget. “They are still there pal, you just cant see them for all the wheat.” What had actually happened is that as the wheat grew and became taller, it blocked the weeds from getting any sunlight and they just withered away. That is exactly what we need to do in the reprogramming process. We need to plant so much more 58 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 of the good stuff, that we just can’t see the garbage any more. It is called the law of saturation. Also note that energy was not given to pulling out the weeds, the bad stuff. It was to concentrate on the good. Don’t focus on the weeds and bad stuff in your life, concentrate on the good stuff you want, and it will eventually over run it. The real power of self belief. There are plenty of stories about mind over matter, of great wins against adversity, and the impossible becoming possible. Here is one of my favorites that not only is a great feat in itself, but it’s effect is profound. Ever since time was given a structure and segmented into even portions that will forever remain constant, eg hours minutes & seconds, man has been trying to beat the clock. The pursuit of being better, stronger faster etc. Why? because we can. When Sir Edmond Hillary conquered Mt Everest he was asked why he did it. His reply……because it’s there. 59 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up For over a hundred and fifty years man has set himself against the clock and tried to run the mile in under 4 minutes. Hundreds tried and failed time and time again. It was determined that it was impossible and could not be done. In 1954 Roger Bannister was in full training and peak condition as an athlete. On the 6th May 1954 Roger Bannister became the first man in history to run the mile in under 4 minutes. How did he do it? His training was set in place just like it had always been. He did the same things physically he had always done. What did he do differently in May than what he did a month earlier in April, or March or February? Simple, he changed his mind set. He said to himself, this can be done and I’m going to do it. He changed his self belief. That is where it started. 60 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 But here is what is interesting. In the following month after the impossible became possible, 30 other people also ran under 4 minutes. Now just hang on a minute here. Your telling me that for one hundred and fifty years no one could do it, and now 30 people did it in 30 days. Yep. What Roger Bannister did was change the mind set of the entire world. All of a sudden it could be done. The whole world could now have a self belief of I can, instead of I can’t. In fact in the next year over 300 people ran a sub 4 minute mile. What is stopping your self belief? Start asking yourself why not? A personal story. In a particular discussion with a mentor, I was encouraged to write this book. When the idea was first presented to me I said, “you have got to be kidding. I can’t write a book. I didn’t even do well in English at school”. How rediculous! me write a book? I argued, they said you can. I argued some more and had just the best excuses, and they said, you can. So to keep them happy I said ok, Ill have it started by Dec 2013.(it was now Oct 2011) I thought they might forget about it by then. But something changed. I took my own advice and changed my own mind set, and my self belief. 61 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up I sold to myself. I put my sales road map together, I listed all the reasons for writing and the benefits, and I started to re-program my computer, my subconscious mind. I changed my self-talk to why not, why couldn’t I write a book, and then into I can, I can, I can. After all, some amazing books have been written by people with no education whatsoever. I don’t need to have a double degree in English or a doctorate in where to use a full stop or a semicolon. All I needed was something valuable to say. You see, it is all about perception, about self belief. So I changed my perception and self belief, I sat down at my lap top with a glass of red wine, ok, a bottle of red wine, and one week later I had finished my book, this one. It needed a few tweaks here and there but basically it was done. (I hope my mentor doesn’t read this, I will never hear the end of it) Change your self-belief and see what you can achieve. So how DO you change your self-belief? Here are some tips. Before we start we need to be reminded that psychologists tell us it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Some say 28. I like 21 better, let’s just get it over with. 62 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 Also it is important to understand that you do not break a habit, you form a new one. So don’t focus on the old, focus on the task at hand. Just like the weeds in the paddock of wheat. No one took them out, they were overpowered with something new. Tip No 1. Start to eliminate all, no, ALL negative talk. Let your family, friends, and colleagues know what you are doing and ask them to pick you up when you say something negative. It is also a good idea to have something physical attached to this. Perhaps a sintin. Every time you say something negative, in goes a dollar. This will make you more aware and keeps it in 63 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up the forefront of your mind. After all you can’t go all that broke in 21 days, can you? The rule is that every time you blow it, your 21 days starts again, they must be consecutive. (feel free to tell me how much ends up in the tin, and how many days it took, I would love to know.) Not only watch what happens to you and your life, both at home and at work, but take note what happens to the people around you. Look at how they now start relating to you. Also you will see changes start to occur in their behavior and how they think and act. You might even start a new culture in your surroundings. Tip No 2. Affirmations. Don’t underestimate the power on an affirmation. So what is it? There a few rules in having an affirmation. It must be personal. It must be a positive statement. It must be present tense, as if you already are. And it must be said aloud. There are a few invisible principles or laws at play here. Why do I have to say it aloud? Can’t I just read it? Nope. The first principle at play is the law of command. Way back in the beginning of time as we know it, God said “let there be light” “let there be this ….” “let there be that” etc etc. It was spoken into being. That’s why affirmations need to be spoken out loud, to bring them to life. 64 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 The other law that comes into play is the law of building faith. In the other end of the Bible, The New Testament. It says, “faith comes from hearing………..” Not by reading, watching television, brail, smelling, face book, texting, or anything else. It is by the spoken word once again. When you say the affirmation, you are not only reading it, you are hearing it. This makes it doubly effective and builds your own faith and self -belief in what you are saying. Now you may say this invisible law stuff as a load of cods wallop, and you simply don’t believe it. That’s ok and I want you to know I am quite comfortable for you to feel that way. But let’s look at an obvious invisible law. Someone could say to me that they do not believe in the law of gravity. Ok, let’s go up to the roof top of a 20 story building. They could jump off and declare all the way down that they do not believe in the law of gravity. All the way until they hit the ground. Just because they chose not to believe in it, does not mean it doesn’t exist. (please don’t try this, we all know the law works, don’t we?) Now it’s time to get that list you wrote down. If you didn’t, here is your last chance to write one. 65 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up Ok, let’s start at the top and write an affirmation for each one. Remember it must be present tense, it must be positive, it must be personal and it must be spoken in to being. Here is an example. Say your first on the list is; I want to be more positive. Your affirmation might look something like this. I am a positive person. I always look for the best in every situation and I contribute something good and productive whenever I can. Lets try another. I would like to be better at what I do Your affirmation might be; I am highly organized and professional in my approach to business. I do what needs to be done, when it needs to done whether I feel like it or not. I always look for the best and most effective options in everything I do. And I do not settle for anything but my best effort. Are you starting to get the hang of it. Continue through your list until you have an affirmation for all. 66 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 Daily discipline will see your affirmations come to reality. One of the influences that many people allow to destroy the fulfillment of this process is “what other people think” Some allow negative comments from others prevent them from success. I have only this to say. Are these people going to put food on your table. Are they going to invest in your future. Will they pay your mortgage. Of course not. So why on earth would you let any one else on the planet stop you from your destiny. Who cares what someone else might think. They can make all the excuses under the sun why they have not reached their goals, while you actually do something about making yours reality. While we are on the topic of things that prevent us from achieving, lets tackle the most destructive of all. The fear of failure. This can be completely debilitating and stop you from even getting out of bed. Why am I bringing this up? It is part of your mind set, your self belief. A bit of revision is required here. Remember we spoke about that self-fulfilling prophesy, that wheel that we need to stop and get off. That is part of this problem, the fear of failure. It is set up by that previous programming and reinforced by continual failures. But 67 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up we have stopped that wheel and we have jumped off. We have broken the pattern and we can now move forward. To make sure we tie up any loose ends lets tackle the what if’s. First we need to understand that every form, level and application of sales and service world wide is a numbers game. You are going to win some and you are going to loose some. I want to repeat that in bold print. YOU ARE GOING TO LOOSE SOME. Accept it, it is how the universe works, so don’t take it to heart. It does not mean you are a failure. It is part of the deal. I would like to share with you the most important thing I was fortunate to have learnt in the early stages in my sales career. It really is a game of numbers. 68 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 69 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up Can you go and get a deck of normal playing cards? Remove the jokers. Give them a good shuffle. Ok, the cards 2 through to 9 represent people that you speak to that for what ever reason do not do business with you. 10, J, Q, K, are people that are genuinely interested in what you have to offer but the timing is not right. The aces are customers, the ones who buy from you. Every card represents an appointment, or a person you speak to about your product or service. Turn over the first card. Lets say it is a 4. That means no sale. Do you stop selling, have you failed? Of course not, you still have a full deck of cards In your hand. Turn over the next card. It’s a 9. So what do you do, turn over the next card. A King. Ok were a bit closer. Next card. It’s a 2. Next card. It’s a 7. Next card. It’s a Jack. Still no sales. Are you a Failure? NO it’s how the numbers play out. Keep going. Next card, a 6. Next card, a 3 Next card an ACE. Yipee a sale. I’m not a failure! To make sure we have a real good understanding of this, lets analyze what has just happened. Firstly you did not stop. Secondly It took 9 cracks at it till your first success. What if you threw in the towel after 8. You loose, that’s what. There are 52 cards in every deck, and there a 4 aces in every deck. That means if you turn over all the cards you have to make 4 sales. What would you do if you had turned over 48 cards without 70 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 success? Most people would have quit by now. But we know what the next 4 cards are. The lesson here; Keep turning over the cards, never quit. If you activate and develop the skills and principles in this book, you will put yourself in a position where you are playing with a stacked deck, lots more aces. I remember a time in my sales career when a colleague was continually walking in the door after meeting with clients, with a long face. Each time I saw him he was more dejected. His shoulders were slumped and the look of worry and concern grew more obvious every time he returned back through the door, back to his desk. On one particular return I said to him, mate what’s the problem? You look like the world is about to end. He proceeded to tell me that he has had 17 appointments in a row without success. He had never been in that position before and just could not work out what was going wrong. I opened my draw and pulled out a deck of cards and started to turn them over. After I had finished the exercise a smile returned to his face and self belief seemed to return as well. The next day he returned grinning from ear to ear. Got one! I said. He just nodded with contentment. He also 71 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up got the next one, and the next one. He sold the next 5 in a row. So that’s 22 appointments for 5 sales. That’s quite acceptable isn’t it? He could have stopped at 17 and packed his bags and driven off into the wild blue yonder to do, whatever it is you do when you quit. See what happens when you don’t have things in perspective! What is interesting here is that with each failed mission his self-belief suffered. Almost to the point of no return. Our outcome is directly related to our attitude, and our self-belief. It is having the presence of mind to have, Abundance Of mind. The Third Skill Set Abundance of Mind Inter-personal Skills Sales Skills 72 The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM – Pt 3 So what is “The 3 Tiered Sales Suite”TM about? It is about having your Sales Road MapTM well structured and clear enough in your mind that you can describe it in less than 60 seconds. It is understanding that you are going on a journey with your client and it’s ok to let them do some of the driving. It’s about how you relate to your customer and understanding how you need to present your information to them. Understanding their inherent fears and buying style and what makes them tick. It is about your own mind set, your self belief. It’s about taking control of your own destiny by taking control of how you think. It’s understanding I can. It’s believing I can. It’s knowing it is as good as done, I can. Enough said? The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM is the 3 skill sets working together to make the complete sales person. It is the approach where customers are treated as people, not just numbers. It is a joint venture where; 73 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up “IF A CUSTOMER IS RESPECTED AS A PERSON, GIVEN ALL THE INFORMATION ACCORDING TO THEIR PERSONALITY, AND THEIR NEEDS; HAS ALL THE GOOD FEELINGS YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE WILL PROVIDE…. THEN GETTING “AGREEMENT” IS OFTEN NOT REQUIRED” IT WILL HAPPEN AUTOMATICALLY” Bruce Bowen It is a sales culture which is all grown up. 74 Chapter 7 A few tips for Small Business 75 A few tips for Small Business We all know small businesses in his country are doing it tough. With the ever increasing takeovers by world wide corporate giants, and the expansion of services provided at a one stop shop with everything from a tin of foreign owned and produced pineapple, (which is distributed smack bang in the middle of a pineapple growing region) to getting your nails done, a 15min face lift, ordering some concrete and having your eyes seen to by an optometrist, that’s right, all in the same shop. Add to this the runaway train of internet shopping. How is a small business supposed to compete for an ever decreasing disposable dollar. Generation Y, now also called the C generation, “C” being for connected, (that’s connected to everything electronic, and every internet related gadget all at the same time and having 13 conversations simultaneously) is also having an effect with completely different shopping habits. Their definition of communication is not the one that I learnt at school. 76 A few tips for Small Business I was just getting the hang of communicating with teenagers, and now I have to learn to do it with and iphone in one hand, and ipad in the other, something stuck in their ears, music still going on in the background and they are having different conversations with everyone in the room all at the same time. 10 minutes with my teenager and I’m ready for a Bex and a good lie down. Once again it is inevitable for generation and cultural change and we have to learn to adapt to it. There is good news however. We have learn’t from history that everything that is important and valuable and good, generally does come full circle. We are already starting to see an increased awareness for the importance of face to face communication. We thought the art had all but disappeared and the void was enormous. But this void has in fact been a good thing. It has highlighted the importance for human interaction and the need for inter-relational skills. We are by no means out of the woods yet and probably still heading towards the eye of the storm, but we have acknowledged the need. How long will it take to come the full circle? That is indeed the 64 thousand dollar question. The point of all this is to realise that not all of what we know, and the way we have done things in the past, is lost. Also it highlights the importance and value of the soft skills. 77 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up 78 A few tips for Small Business This is the area where small business can have an immediate impact and improvement on their bottom line without having to increase their advertising spend. Let me explain. Take a closer look at the numbers game I explained with the deck of cards. This time I will use a different picture. Every business already has a number of people through their doors or enquire about their products and services. These numbers are broken down into groups. To help with the illustration we will pick a total number of people that you come in contact with in any given week, say, 50. Of that 50 people, 20 are just window shopping and wasting some time. They are not going to spend money with you. The next group, say 15 of them, who are just getting ideas for their next door neighbors, sisters, 2nd cousins, boyfriends, gold fish. Nor are these going to spend their money. The last group, 15 of them, are genuine spenders and interested in what you have to offer. Of these, you sell to 1. Now the numbers of course will differ for every business, but the groups 79 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up will be similar and this pattern Is a fair representation of most small businesses. The group we will focus on is the last 15. The ones that are willing to part with their money. In particular we will look at the 14 that you did not sell to. Unfortunately we have not sat with these people to ask why they did not buy. If we did, the reasons would look something like this. • I didn’t really relate to the staff that well • The staff did not seem all that interested in helping me • They didn’t show me any other options. • I was after a better deal • I needed it gift wrapped • I waited 4-5 minutes for service and walked out in frustration • The music was far too loud and annoying. • The assistant was too busy playing on her phone • I was treated like a number • It wasn’t a very warm and friendly place to shop==== • etc 80 A few tips for Small Business Do these sound familiar? It is interesting that when I talk to small business owners about customer service, they generally know what annoys them about the way they are treated and have an expectation of what they want when they go shopping. When careful scrutiny takes place about their own level of service, they often find they are making the same mistakes and do the things they don’t like. Why do we do this? Once again it comes back to what has been programmed. We have become accustomed to such poor levels of customer service for so long, that this image has been embedded in our subconscious and that is what comes out. We need to re-program and start a new culture. Have you ever had the fortune to travel to South East Asia? Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia etc. If you have, what was the level of customer service there? For many of these people, you represent their next meal. They smile at you, they stand when you enter, they ask you questions and show you everything in the shop. They will always give you a better deal and although part of the barter process is a game, they will do any thing to get your business. Now I know some of them can be in your face a bit and quite overwhelming. It’s just how much your business means to them. Wouldn’t you rather that than being 81 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up completely ignored and get no service at all, when the place you are in has exactly what you want? How would you treat a customer if it meant you having dinner tonight or not? What would happen if we mentally put ourselves in that situation the next time we serve someone? So now we have 2 things that will help improve your bottom line, good service and good soft skills. The soft skills we have talked about in previous chapters can and will increase your sales. Learning these skills will enable you meet the customers behavior needs not just the product needs. You will recognise the buying signals the customers are giving you. Being able to answer customers in the right manner you will have them buying from you. You will be able to become like your customer and have them like you, and buy from you. Only half of the process is having the right product. The other half is having the right relationship. Why is it that most businesses when they start out get the legal side of things sorted, they attend to the accountant, make sure the bank manager is on side, the telephone system is in and a nice new Computer? All the stationary has the company logo and all the little details are taken care of. Some even organise smart 82 A few tips for Small Business uniforms for their staff. The sign writing is done and the premises look a million dollars. But most businesses do not get adequate sales training or up skilling for their staff or even themselves for that matter. These are the people that are going to be looking after the most important part of your business, your customers. . Does it not then make sense to skill them every way possible so they can do the job you expect them to do, and do it with efficiency, and an excellence both you and they are proud of. We have all heard it said; “people are a companies biggest asset” So why then do we leave it to chance, hold our breath and just hope they perform and do the right thing with our customers? We would not want to have to go to the doctor and have just anyone off the street attend to us. So why then do we allow just anyone to attend to our customers? 83 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up Soft Skills will have you selling to more people, more often and build better relationships— which promotes repeat business 84 Chapter 8 Dare to Change 85 Dare to Change It has been 30 years or so since there has been any real significant change in the sales culture in Australia. We are creatures of habit and keep doing the same old, same old, for no real reason. Sometimes even when we know it is not working we find it more comfortable to do what we know. It’s a bit like the man on a street corner under a street light at night time looking for a lost wrist watch. Along comes a friend and helps him look. A few minutes later another joins the search party. After an hour and a dozen people now searching, one of the party asks, are you sure you lost it here? The owner of the watch replied, no I actually lost it over there a bit, but the light is much better over here. If we want different results we need to be doing something different. With all of the changes of society, generations and culture that we have gone through, our sales culture has to change and keep up. The benefits for both the consumer and the business, are far too big to be ignored. The consumer will shop 86 Dare to Change with more confidence, more trust and will more likely to be a repeat customer. For the business it means more business and a healthier bottom line. For the sales person it means more money in their pocket and more spare time to the things that are really important to them, as they will be more efficient. It means working smarter, with better long term relationships. The customer is happier, the business owner is happier and the sales staff are happier. Who looses here? Let’s embrace all the good things that cultural and generational change has to offer, but at the same time keep hold of all the valuable things from the previous generations and cultures. If we meld these together and fill the voids on both sides, imagine the power and fruitfulness of what we would now have. Revisiting the principles of the founding father of personal development, Napolean Hill, with the integrity, ethics, and honesty, and courtesy of business from the builders and baby boomers, with the exuberance, freshness and boldness, without fear, and the technical savvy of the current generations, I have no doubt the result would be: 87 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up “A Sales Culture that is all grown up” 88 Help Is Available!! The Soft Skills Training Institue has dedicated sales training programs to suit your exact needs. The 3 Tiered Sales SuiteTM is not just a suite of skill sets carefully mixed together for your success. It is a suite, of sales suites. There are three variations of this program specifically to service; • The Sales Professional • Retail Sales Staff • Small Business Operators One of the keys to our training programs is that we can customise them for any industry, and to suit your exact needs. To know more about the Soft Skills Training Institute please go to www.softskillsti.com.au I am passionate about training people for success, and this book has only scratched the surface, to give you a taste of what can be done for you and your business. If you would like to speak to me to see how together we can transform your sales staff and improve your 89 It’s Time For Our Sales Culture To Grow Up bottom line, how to stack your deck of cards and play with lots more aces, Please email [email protected] To kick start your new sales success, I would like to help you out, so here is a gift for you. To use and activate this voucher, email us and quote the following code. XJS-0700 90 I trust this book has inspired you to say I can, and take the next step in improving your bottom line, and your sales culture. Kind Regards Bruce Bowen 91 Notes ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ 92 Notes ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ 93 Notes ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ ___________________________ 94
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