Problem: Recently I was speaking with Fred, a salesperson who told a story that I could well relate to.  He was lamenting that on his last trip to New York to meet with some prospects for the first time, the airline lost his luggage.  Now we all know what a pain that can be, but Fred was mostly concerned that his big black bag containing all his collateral sales material had been lost.  Quite frankly, he was uncomfortable on a sales call without it.  After all, he was accustomed to doing the “bag dive” when the prospect baited him with this innocent, yet misleading question, “tell me about your company.”  Of course, the “bag dive” was the move he made toward his briefcase to haul out the company and product brochu ...

Problem: Most salespeople certainly don’t get enough referrals and often the referrals they do receive go nowhere.  How many times have you called a referral, failed to get through the gatekeeper, and left a message that never gets returned?  Perhaps you’ve even gotten through to the referral, only to be met with a cool response?  We all know that referrals are the best source of new business, by far, so why does this happen?

Diagnosis

Problem:  Recently a relationship manager with a large regional commercial bank called  for some coaching.  He had been having a dialogue with his prospect for several months and had offered several proposals for the business, all of which had been rejected as “just not compelling enough” for them to change banks.  He was very proud of the fact that the prospect had said to him on many occasions that they “liked him the best.”  When I heard that I knew he was in trouble.  

When I asked him what the prospect’s pain was he replied, “They felt their ban ...

Problem:  Objections are probably the most misunderstood area of selling and typically salespeople are not very good at dealing with them.

Diagnosis:  Experience tells us that objections are really not “buying signals” like the sales gurus of old have told us.  In fact, objections could be deal breakers if we don’t handle them properly so most salespeople would rather not deal with them at all.  Traditional methods of handling ...

Problem:  We often hear from our clients that when they finally get past the secretary, the prospect requests literature prior to committing to see them and after the literature has been sent, they can’t get the prospect back on the phone.

Everyone who is selling anything has been there over and over.  Salespeople have tons of literature from the marketing department to mail to prospects that request information.  The problem is that 99% of the literature that is sent out just becomes “litter.”  A bigger problem is that the salesperson is under the illusion that the prospect is ...

Problem: How many times have you run into a salesperson who pushes too hard, who epitomizes the pushy, aggressive stereotype that we’ve come to loathe?  These folks can’t accept a “no” from a prospect and think their solution is the right thing for everybody.  They generally appear desperate to make a sale and usually are.  This aggressive approach works okay in a very simple transactional type of sale since we’ll sometimes buy just to avoid an argument or to get rid of the pest (oops, I mean salesperson).  But in a more complex sale, this approach is fatal.

Diagn ...

Problem:  Companies invest thousands of dollars attending trade shows annually, but the results are often disappointing.  When asked why they continue to attend, we hear things like, “if we don’t attend our customers will think we’re in trouble” and “our competitors are there, so we need to be.”  Hardly an offensive strategy, wouldn’t you agree?  If you’re wondering why the results aren’t so hot, at least part of the answer lies in this story.

Diagnosis

The other day I met a delightful lady, Wendy.  Wendy is a doctor who consults other doctors on infections.  When they can’t figure it out or when they don’t know what they are dealing with, they call on Wendy.  It is her job to determine what is killing the patient and to stop it.  As she explained to me what she does and how she does it, I realized she applies one of the most effective sales techniques in her job that enables her to be very good at what she does.

What is it?  She listens to the patient’s story.

She gets their story out of them by asking what they were doing ...

Problem:  Sales is a mystery to many people.  Why has that “superstar” you hired a few months ago failed to produce?  What happens in that foggy area of the sales cycle between the initial meeting and when the order is received (hopefully by you, but often when your competitor gets it)?  What’s really going on there anyway?  Why do customers give their business to someone else, when clearly you have the best value proposition?  Why are sales forecasts nearly always totally out of whack with reality?  Why do most companies only “hope” that they’ll make their numbers, instead of actually controlling the result?

Problem:  Have you ever gone to a networking function and spent 60-90 minutes or more and left without one good, qualified lead?  If you’re like many salespeople who sell, you can undoubtedly relate to this type of lost opportunity.  Networking functions are a great way to meet people you can do business with, but typically we are disappointed with the results.

Diagnosis:  Think about how you spend your time at networking funct ...