Problem: One of the most frequent complaints we hear from business owners, sales managers and salespeople alike is the following: "Price is the primary focus of the sale these days -- all of our prospects want the lowest price.” It starts out innocently enough. Buyers lead with questions and comments like these: "How much is it? Can you give me a quote?” As the sales discussion proceeds it gets more intense: "That seems like a lot.” or "Why is it so expensive?" or "I saw it for less." Salespeople often respond by cutting price thus giving away margins and commissions.

Di ...

Problem:  Have you ever run into a prospect that just doesn’t “get it?”  You’ve done your job well.  They’ve convinced you they have a problem that they really want to fix, you’ve determined that you’re in front of the person who can make the decision, and found out that they have the financial resources to fix the problem.  You’ve presented a solution that works perfectly and satisfies all the issues that they expressed.  But in spite of all that, they have decided to go with a competitor who has a less effective solution; perhaps one that really is a bad choice for them.  Every bone in your body wants to tell them that they are screwing up, but you just don’t know how to say it; so you walk away confuse ...

Problem:  Most salespeople hate cold calls and aren’t very good at making them.  As a result, cold calling activity is limited and they never seem to improve.  We all get cold calls on a regular basis and most result in failure. 

Diagnosis:  The first 10 to 15 seconds are critical in a prospecting call and will set the stage for success.  Most prospecting calls shriek “SALESPERSON CALLING” and trigger the prospect to ...

Problem:  Mitch’s company sold data storage solutions.  A five-year veteran of selling, he called the other day for some coaching.  He said that he had just completed a one-hour meeting with one of his top prospects, a large retailer who was a key prospect for his company.  He explained that he had experienced difficulty getting the prospect into a discussion of pain and, when he finally did, he felt time pressure to hurry through the qualifying process.  As a result, Mitch thought that he had done a poor job in the pain step.  He said that this seemed typical of his meetings and that due to poor qualifying on his part, he was not closing some of the accounts that he thought he should.

Problem:  “What am I doing here?” Robert said to himself.  He was twenty minutes into the initial meeting with this prospect, and he was clearly fighting an uphill battle.  All his attempts to develop rapport were met with apathetic, almost frigid responses.  His questions, simple and innocuous though they were, received little more than one or two word responses.  “What’s going on here?” he wondered.  This guy won’t even crack a smile and yet he gave me the appointment.  Is he just having a bad day, or do I have a hygiene problem?  He just couldn’t figure it out, yet he kept at it, trying to pump some life into this dying appointment.  He wanted to quit, but his ego wouldn’t let him; he felt he should be able to breathe some life into this situation.

& ...

Problem:  One of the most common requests we get is for time management training.  It seems there just aren’t enough hours in the day for most salespeople.  Companies spend big bucks for cell phones and PDA’s so salespeople can stay in touch, and also on customer relations management programs to make them more efficient.  Training programs are conducted to help them evaluate areas where they are wasting time and provide solutions.  Yet they still have time management issues.

Diagnosis

Problem:  The other day we were working with a new group of people who had just started our training program and we were astounded at how difficult these folks were making the process of selling.  We reflected on how everyone says that consultative selling (asking questions versus pitching features and benefits) is the way to go, but few can do it successfully.

Diagnosis:  Clearly the old beliefs and habits had become so completely ingrained th ...

Problem: Qualifying is an area where salespeople often do a poor job.  As a result, when the time comes for the presentation, salespeople have normally failed to discover the real issues or get any kind of serious commitment from the prospect about what will happen if he can fix the problems.

Diagnosis: Salespeople have had feature & benefit presentations drummed into their heads for years.  To make matters worse, most of the training received b ...

Problem: Kim, a ten-year sales veteran, never felt like she was in control of her sales calls.  She felt like her prospects and customers were always one step ahead of her.  She attended many training sessions and they all basically taught her the same thing: always ask for the order, use the same 2-3 foolproof ways to overcome the price objection, lead with, “If I could show you a way to fix that problem, would you buy my product?”  She felt these tactics must be effective since all the trainers taught the same approaches.  Why weren’t they working for her?

Diagnosis: Salespeople tend to be rather predictable and, as a result, buyers generally are in charge.  They recognize the salesperson’s approaches and have developed ...

Problem:  Salespeople spend far too much time preparing proposals and close far too few.  Of course, closing rates vary, but closing only 15-20% of the proposals one makes is not uncommon.  This is obviously very inefficient, causing time management problems, feelings of rejection, futility and despondence, not to mention reduced sales and lower commissions.

Diagnosis:  Salespeople have been brainwashed over the years to believe that s ...