BI Results

We have many conversations with the sales professionals who come to our training sessions and through those we’ve discovered five critical errors that most salespeople make. Of course, we help them correct those mistakes, but it’s somewhat surprising as to how common they are.

Here are the mistakes, see if you make them in your own sales career:

1. Failure to maintain a constant presence in the minds of prospects or customers. Quite simply, this is a failure to prospect consistently both outside and inside of existing accounts.

2. A tendency to focus on process over results. The consequence of this is a poorly executed system of prioritisation that virtually cripples the salesperson from delivering effective, bottom line results. In short, they are focused on activities rather than results. As a consequence they believe they’re busy (and they are). They are just busy doing all of the wrong things.

3. Me too thinking. Salespeople fail to be creative and innovative. As a consequence, they don’t differentiate themselves, their products or their organisation from everyone else in the pack.

4. Failure to listen. This is, perhaps, the most classic and common error. The salesperson who hears but doesn’t listen. The salesperson who interrupts prospects, delivers solutions that are off-target, or simply overwhelms prospects and customers with verbiage that clearly communicates a failure to have really listened to anything the other person has said.

5. Failure to anticipate. A failure to foresee problems in an enquiry solution. Missing trends, potential problems, needs or necessary solutions that could forestall problems or head off the loss of clients.

Identifying the problems is one thing. Solving them is, often, quite another. The good news is that awareness is a lot more than 50% of the battle. Are you suffering from some of these issues? Let’s take a look at a simple quiz that could yield some valuable information for you.

• Do you feel that your prospects or customers are always driving hard on price?
• Do your customers ever buy products from other dealers that you could have provided them?
• Do you find you have to often revise or redo quotes for prospects?
• Have you had prospects reschedule important meetings with you?
• Do your prospects submit requests for quotes that you hear about at the last minute?
• Do you ever miss out on additional requests for customers?
• Have you missed your sales targets for at least 3 of the last 6 months?
• Do you feel that your customers or prospects are looking for deeper, better service than what you have been providing them?
• Do you feel your prospects or customers get frustrated by errors?
• Do you find previous customers failing to involve you in their future buying plans?
• Do you often think after you have lost a deal, “If only I had done… differently”?

Any ‘yes’ answer means you may have a problem. You need to go about the business of resolving them to the very best of your ability. Recognition and awareness are essential components of sales success.

To step yourself or your team into a successful sales training and mindset program, find out more about our Mastermind Sessions, visit our Training and Coaching page.

Check out or book – Sales Manager Reset

To stay informed and sign up to our free blog – CLICK HERE

You believe you’re on the right track. You have defined a career mission, set up goals in line with your mission, and you’ve even set up a daily priority plan. Now effective time management should kick in and simply take care of itself, right? Not so fast!

As you become more productive, you may find that you’ll be forced to make choices. Some of these choices, if made properly, will lead you to even greater heights, or if made poorly will lead you to a career disappointment.

Let’s use Ted as an example. Ted is a composite character made up of thousands of salespeople from around the world. Let’s look at Ted’s career:

Ted has recently made some big changes in his career.  These changes have expanded his prospecting skills and his presentation skills – so now several things are happening to him that have never happened before. First he’s got too many customers, so he feels pulled into many directions at once. Second, he can feel himself slipping on service with his customers. He’s not returning phone calls promptly, not following up, and basically dropping the ball. Third, he’s beginning to spend more time away from home, his children are beginning to become distant, and his wife is becoming resentful of the business!

Sound familiar? Are these challenges you’ve faced?

Unfortunately, when faced with these dilemmas, many salespeople resort to something we have all done at some point in our careers. They take steps to sabotage their own success.

Consider this quote from Dr. Joyce Brothers – “We cannot consistently perform at a level inconsistent with our own self-image.” Is this true of you? Many salespeople view their new found success with suspicion. Why? Because they have rarely experienced it and may have a difficult time adjusting to a new self-image. So instead of embracing success many salespeople will reverse course and begin to swim back to their old lives. How do they do this?

Most salespeople don’t wake up one morning and say “Well, today I’m going to start failing!” Instead most salespeople just begin making bad decisions. These poor decisions can lead to a bad case of self-sabotage and a career crash.

So you may ask yourself – “How can I succeed in my business but also not feel overwhelmed? How can I continue giving great service to my customers?” And most important – “How can I stop working 80 hour weeks and still be productive?”

Let’s look at these ways to stay on your Mission:

1. Relegate/Delegate/Terminate –

When studying your daily to do list (you have one right) you may find that you just have way too many items on the list to possibly accomplish. So what can you do? Apply the simple but effective ‘RDT ‘ method.

Relegate – First decide which of the items on the list must be done to accomplish your long term goals. These of course, are your priorities. You must relegate yourself to the fact that these items must be done and most importantly done first.

Delegate – Next when reviewing your to do list ask yourself is there anyone that could be doing these items instead of me? Can you out source it, hire it done, or could some else be doing this work? Wise salespeople attempt to delegate as much as possible.

Terminate – What is on your to do list that does not have to be done? Are there items that are nothing more than busy work? If you can’t terminate them, at least, put them on the very bottom of the list.

2. Cut the Dead Wood

As your career begins to pick up steam you may find that you cannot simply work with every customer. You may need to begin choosing your customers. How? Qualify them harder. This may seem harsh at first, after all you want to work with everyone, but in the end you will unable to work with everyone. This is one of the toughest aspects of time management: Knowing which priority takes priority.

3. Deal with Paper Once

How many times do you move one piece of paper around on your desk? Come on, it’s more than just once! We all know we should do something about the piece of paper, but we decide that for now, it will look good in a new corner until next week (or the week after). So we keep shuffling, and shuffling, and shuffling. Sometimes one piece of paper becomes two pieces of paper or more.

So what can we do about it? Use the one touch rule. Only touch paper once before you do something with it. There are three uses for every piece of paper you have on your desk – Here they are:

File It – Put it where it needs to go – Which is off your desk!

Toss it – 90% of what comes across your desk is garbage!

Deal With it – If it requires your attention do something with it!

Now when it comes to item number three let me give you a tip: Deal with paper once a day! Set aside just one time during the day to deal with paper, deal with it and move on!

4. Automate Yourself

How long does it take to make ten phone calls? Believe me it takes some time. You have to look up the phone number, dial it, wait for it to ring, and then you have to talk to someone on the other end. What’s makes it time consuming is that you if you beat around the bush awhile until you get to the topic you really called about.

So what is the solution? Force yourself to focus on the reason for your call, and in a polite, tactful way, cut to the chase.  Your contact at the other end will appreciate you not wasting their time as well.

Email is another simple solution. How long does it take to email those same ten people? Not long, especially if your message is the same to each one.

Superstars learn to condition their customers to the fact that they will be communicating with them primarily by email, with a few sporadic calls mixed in. The truth is most of them will be relieved. Why? Because they don’t have the time to talk to you either!

5. Time Log

Can you remember what you did five days ago? Hey, I can’t remember what I did five hours ago! But when you are trying to improve your time management skills you must have the ability to measure your actions against your results. Within the investment world we call this the ROI or return on investment.

What is your return on investment for your time? The only way to measure this key aspect of your business, is to take periodic stock of your business. Do this with a time log. A time log is a simple notebook, in which you record all of your business activities for a week and then compare your success with your actions. If you find that your actions did not equal success then it may be time to re-evaluate your time investments.

To step yourself or your team into a successful sales training and mindset program, find out more about our Mastermind Sessions, visit our Training and Coaching page.

Check out or book – Sales Manager Reset

To stay informed and sign up to our free blog – CLICK HERE

Just because someone asks you for a better price, does not always mean they expect to get it. Some people ask for a discount because they have been told to. They are often uncomfortable doing this and will seldom press the issue. However, professional buyers and key decision-makers know that many sellers will drop their price at the first sign of resistance so they ask everyone for a discount and they can be aggressive in their approach. Plus, experienced negotiators lose respect for people who drop their price too quickly. Standing your ground and refusing to cave in right away is also a show of strength and executives respect this type of behaviour.

When you drop your price too quickly, you teach your customer to repeat that behaviour in future transactions. So, what is the best way to respond to a request for a discount or better price?

Remember, everything you do now affects your customer’s behaviour toward you in the future.

Professional negotiators will tell you to flinch. A flinch is a visible reaction to a request or demand and goes something like this, “You want a discount!?! Even though we have been working together for four years and you know our services will help you get better results you still want a discount?” When coupled with the right facial expressions and body language, this technique is extremely effective. However, most people are extremely uncomfortable using this approach and even I found it difficult to apply on a consistent basis.

An effective way to respond to a request for a better price is to ask, “What did you have in mind?” or “What were you looking for?” When you ask one of these questions, you get the other person to tell you how much of a discount they want. In many cases, their expectation will be less than you are prepared to give which means you will increase the size of the sale and save money at the same time – a double win. One word of caution here: an experienced negotiator will say, “Well, I want a better price than this”, which means you need to be prepared to ask the question a couple of times.

This also applies to e-correspondence. Many people will ask their sales person for a discount via email which makes it next to impossible to use some of the standard negotiating techniques. Before you respond by offering a better price, take the time to properly craft your email. Here is what you can say, “We might be able to do something for you. What did you have in mind?” The key is to give the indication that you have flexibility without committing to something you might regret later.

This sounds like an easy technique to use but it’s not. You have to train yourself to listen for your customer’s question and be prepared to respond with your own. I hate to admit it but I have fallen for this question because I wasn’t expecting it. In one situation, an existing client asked me for a package price on some bundled services. Instead of responding by asking what price he was looking for, I automatically offered a small discount. I kicked myself afterwards because I felt that I should know better.

It is essential to listen carefully to what your prospect says and to think before you speak. It is also critical to practice asking your question until it becomes second-nature so you can respond quickly when a prospect asks for a discount or better price.

To step yourself or your team into a successful sales training and mindset program, find out more about our Mastermind Sessions, visit our Training and Coaching page.

To stay informed and sign up to our free blog – CLICK HERE

How often do people try to sell us something before we have expressed an interest, have a desire, or are in the market for what they have? It seems the standard for many salespeople is to try to sell to anyone and everyone regardless of the interest level.

When someone attempts to sell us something before we have expressed an interest, the initial thought may be, “Why would I buy from you? You haven’t earned the right to sell to me!”

The fact of the matter is that selling, both online and off, is about determining if there is a need before ever attempting to match a buyer with a product or service. It is about providing enough information for the buyer to make the best decision based on their needs.

It is about gaining trust. The most successful sales professionals are those who are a resource before they are a vendor.

Anyone who has been in business for an extended period of time (or plans to be) would be hard pressed to believe otherwise. Whatever you are selling, the buyer’s experience from the initial visit and/or purchase will likely determine whether or not they will ever purchase from you again.

When a customer has a great experience from the beginning the chances of them turning into a repeat buyer is more likely. It is a proven fact: it is more cost effective to have repeat buyers than it is to constantly seek out new customers. That is not to say you shouldn’t be adding new clients as part of your business model. Building trust with existing clients will add to your conversion rate more consistently.

What is often missed in the equation of sales and marketing is the lifetime value of a customer. Once the initial sale is made they are forgotten. With proper care, a one-time or occasional buyer can turn into a loyal buyer. And loyalty is more often than not based on trust.

We live in a ‘try before you buy’ society. Because of this many buyers use what is referred to as the buying ladder. The buying ladder is very applicable to brick-and-mortar sales as well as internet sales.

When you gain trust people want to do business with you. And they want to tell others about the experience. Have you heard the expression that if someone has a bad experience they will tell more people about that experience than they do a good one? I can’t say that I necessarily agree with this statement. There are occasions when I have heard people rave about a great experience over and over again.

Buying decisions are made for a number of reasons, but they ultimately depend upon whether or not the buyer trusts the process. And if they trust you. It is through the process of building trust that we have earned the right to sell.

To step yourself or your team into a successful sales training and mindset program, find out more about our Mastermind Sessions, visit our Training and Coaching page.

To stay informed and sign up to our free blog – CLICK HERE

Can you imagine two heavy weights like Sales Training and Sales Mindset squaring off in the ring? It might be one exciting sparring match. Both are critical to ensuring sales professionals get to, and remain at the top of their game.  But which is most important?

Sales training provides knowledge around specific topic areas a salesperson needs to be proficient at their job. There is no point going out to sell, not knowing your product, the process to book the sale, how to deal with client concerns, or where you should be going to find a prospect.  Most companies invest heavily in sales training, especially with new sales staff. They can’t afford to unleash the company’s representatives poorly equipped. It is in their best interest to train them well.

Sales mindset is perhaps lesser known, less discussed, and a less visible contender. In fact, many sales teams don’t pay much attention to the psychology of selling.  Some in sales leadership survived their selling careers being told, “Activity is everything”, and when the activity wasn’t there, the sales manager reached for a bigger stick. Times have changed. Today we have a much better understanding of the sales psyche. Focus, confidence and motivation are referred to as ‘below the line’ subjects, collectively referred to as mindset.  Sales mindset development is a specialised area critical for success.

“Sales mindset has evolved from cognitive behavioural psychology. It suggests that what we are thinking about today will determine our reality tomorrow.”

Research has found that successful sales people are more likely to engage in constructive thinking while unsuccessful sales people are prone to think in counter-productive ways. The best sales people are effective thinkers. They think in a way that helps them perform at an optimal level.

Once the sales training is covered, the individual has had an opportunity to practice and become proficient. At this point, it is appropriate to turn development efforts to understanding and leveraging sales mindset. Learning how to become an effective thinker and align ones thinking with the thinking of top performing sales professionals can lead to new levels of sales success.

Professional athletes and sports teams have long understood and valued the concept of leveraging mindset. In any competitive environment, it can be a challenge to stay optimistic, focused, motivated and productive day in and day out. Once they have mastered the skills of their sport, they continue to practice and practice. They complement their physical activity with their mental activity to reach new heights. The same holds true for sales professionals.

In summary, there really isn’t a winner or a loser here. It is more a question of sequencing. It is safe to suggest the new sales representative begin with sales training, and once the basic activities and competencies are mastered, they move onto developing their sales mindset. Ongoing training in sales then strengthens both of these aspects. Sales training and sales mindset can combine to be powerful allies in sales success.

To step yourself or your team into a successful sales training and mindset program, find out more about our Mastermind Sessions, visit our Training and Coaching page.

To stay informed and sign up to our free blog – CLICK HERE

When a customer walks into your office, you want to make sure they feel welcome. You want to treat your customer as though they are a piece of gold, not a statistic. Have you ever been standing in a line, and when it comes to your turn to be waited on, the salesperson yells out, “Next!?”

Just thinking about that scenario makes me cringe. It is hardly a way to build a relationship with your customer.

“Without customers, our jobs cease to exist.”

Here are a few tips to ensure that your customer is appreciated by your salespeople and the company, and not viewed as just another number in line:

1. When addressing your customer, make sure you call them by name. This will put your relationship with your customer on a personal level, and customers like to know that they are remembered. It gives them a feeling of importance with you, and with your company.
2. The last thing the customer wants is to be hurried out the door. Remember, you are running a business, where people are your greatest asset. When you are finished with your customer’s transaction, ask if there is anything else you can do for them, or if they have any questions for you. The last thing you want to do is get them in and then get them out.
3. Discuss non-business topics. People love to talk about themselves, and this is also a great way to get to know your customer and build a strong relationship with them. A strong business relationship is a great opportunity to obtain all of your customer’s business as well as the business of some or all of their friends and relatives, through referrals.

Don’t treat your customer like a statistic, but treat them as you would one of your friends. Exactly the same goes for your relationships with your staff members. They are not simply “salesperson number one to ten,” operating like battery hens to produce an outcome just for you. Your sales team is exactly that – your team! You can develop the mindset of an elite sports team, where the coach and all the players are bonded and all in sync with each other, and that’s why they succeed. Together, you will all be successful if you don’t treat your staff like statistics.

As my good friend Brad Moules says, “None of us is as good as all of us.”

To escape the cycle of sales training and find out more about our Mastermind Sessions, visit our Training Sessions page.

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Extract from the book – ‘Sales Manager Reset’. Copyright © MMXVII Allan Lorraine ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without the expressed written, dated and signed permission from the author.

One of the mysteries of the automotive dealership world is why General Managers and Sales Managers assume that low productivity and the resulting high turnover are inevitable with their sales teams. Research has shown it is appropriate to apply the ‘Pareto Principle’ to salespeople whereby 20 percent of all salespeople now make 80 percent of all sales. That means 80 percent of the sales force fights over the remaining 20 percent of the business not produced by the top sales pros.

With so many salespeople competing for shares of such a small pie, the turnover rate in sales is obviously very high. But many automotive dealer executives are willing to accept, as a cost of doing business, the unending expenses of recruiting, selecting, and training the continuing flow of newcomers into the sales rank. They should, instead, recognize that the poor sales productivity and high turnover rampant in the industry are the result of faulty hiring practices.

Research has shown that 80 percent of the essential competencies required for success in the workplace are emotional intelligence, which is far greater than IQ or personality traits. Emotional intelligence (EI) has been a ‘buzzword’ in the business world for the last several years. By definition, EI is an individual’s ability to recognize and regulate emotions in themselves and others. In practical application it is one’s ability to understand how our emotions and the emotions of others impact action and performance.

EI has no greater application than in a sales position. In an objective study of more than 2,000 automotive salespeople designed to measure the EI competencies among those salespeople that were successful vs. those that were unsuccessful, the following five competencies were the most critical to predicting sales success and retention in the industry.

Intuition & Empathy: This is the salesperson’s awareness of the prospect’s feelings, needs, and concerns. This competency is important in a sales role for the following reasons

Attitude toward others: One’s ability to look positively and objectively upon others

Understanding others: An intuitive sense of a prospect’s and/or customer’s feelings and perspectives and showing an active interest in their needs

Customer service orientation: The ability to anticipate, recognize, and meet customers’ needs

Results Orientation & Decisiveness: This is the salesperson’s adeptness at inducing desirable responses from the customer or prospect. This competency is important in a sales role for the following reasons

Communication: Sending clear and convincing messages that are understood by the customer or prospect

Influencing: Using effective tactics and techniques for persuasion and desired results

Gaining commitment: One’s ability to develop a motivation act

Self-View: This is the salesperson’s level of courage and self-esteem that provides thick enough skin to persevere through various obstacles they encounter throughout the sales cycle. This competency is important in a sales role for the following reasons.

Handling rejection: One’s ability to handle a no or a non-sale and to not take it personally and be able to recover and restart quickly to try again

Self-esteem: The higher the self-esteem the more passion and courage the salesperson will have in the social arena

Self-Awareness: This is knowing one’s internal states, preferences, resources, strengths, and limitations. This competency is important in a sales role for the following reasons

Self-confidence: One’s ability to believe in their own abilities and strengths to personally take charge in achieving and exceeding their goals

Persuasiveness: One’s ability to stand their ground in negotiations and in handling sales objections to exude to the customer or prospect that their product or service meets their needs

Competitiveness: One’s desire to win and be perceived as competent in the eyes of others, as well as desire to be personally recognized for their accomplishments

Self-Expectation: This is the salesperson’s emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals and their sense of personal commitment to responsibilities. This competency is important in a sales role for the following reasons.

Achievement drive: Striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence we impose on ourselves

Initiative: Readiness to act on opportunities without having to be told

Optimism: Persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks

These are all essential competencies in selling in the auto dealership industry. The salesperson who knows the product or service inside out will not succeed in the long term without possessing these essential competencies

Automotive dealers who are forward thinking and realise they are competing for top talent with other companies in their market are now implementing emotional intelligence into their selection process. Additionally, they are also providing emotional intelligence management development programs to assist their managers in leadership development, which has a major impact on improving the manager/employee relationship and is a critical piece to improving employee retention

BI Results has played a key role at several dealerships and manufacturers nationwide, including some of the largest dealer groups. Backed up by our comprehensive, business-wide Sales Retention Mastermind Sessions. To find out more, visit our  Customer Repurchase Programs & Sales Retention Mastermind pages

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If you leave salespeople to log their own leads, they will always fudge the figures and you will not get an accurate conversion ratio. Your customers have not made an enquiry to waste either your time or theirs. They are often genuinely interested in your product for one reason or another.

The other thing that no one will tell you about is that you will not sell to everyone who makes an enquiry. This is normal.

Now for the hard part. In order to measure enquiries correctly, you need to have someone independent to track them. Figure out where most of your enquiries come from and get someone impartial (who does not lose or gain) to record the number of enquiries correctly. A receptionist is a good person for this task because she will take direction from you and stick to it. The salespeople only make the receptionist’s life hard anyway. In most businesses, the receptionist is the only person who doesn’t have “skin in the game” on the sales floor!

Here is the catch. If you log more enquiries and follow up on more of them, you will get more sales. This means, less time messing around, having lunch, talking to the boys about what happened on the weekend. It also stops your staff from doing this. When you see them messing around, casually ask if they have completed all their follow ups. If they say yes, then it’s a good time to have a review.

We run a system to improve enquiry capture rate. To find out more, go to https://biresults.com.au/consulting/

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Extract from the book – ‘Sales Manager Reset’. Copyright © MMXVII Allan Lorraine ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without the expressed written, dated and signed permission from the author.

A customer says, “I have $30k to spend,” but they end up spending $40k. Another says they “have a bad credit rating,” but this really means, “I need to talk to my wife.” These things happen because they are scared to tell the salesperson the truth and because some customers are expecting to be cheated somehow. They think that if they don’t give you all the information, they are still controlling the sale. It is only when you establish rapport and the customer trusts you enough that they will lower their guard and tell you the truth.

Consider this: In 2011, customers went to an average of five retail outlets before they bought. By 2016, customers went to fewer than two outlets before they bought, but 80 per cent of buyers checked the price at an average of ten outlets online before buying. This means that people do not like haggling. In fact, in a recent survey, one in five people would give up sex for one month rather than haggle! We need to change our perception of the customer in order to sell more product, and we need to address their pain points.

No matter what anyone says – no customer is a ‘time waster’

 In almost all cases, they are there to buy a car and they will buy a car from someone. It just depends whether it is from your business or from the next one that they visit! The winner will be the one that annoys them the least.

Your sales team needs to maintain the mindset that everyone wants to buy your product until proven otherwise – regardless of what the customer might say initially. It’s your team’s job as salespeople to ask the right questions, listen, then give the answers and advice to suit, and follow up until the customer has either bought or is genuinely “lost.” Prior to establishing a reasonable level of rapport with any prospective buyer, remember that, to protect their own interests, buyers are liars!

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Extract from the book – ‘Sales Manager Reset’. Copyright © MMXVII Allan Lorraine ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without the expressed written, dated and signed permission from the author.