Even if you’re not a baseball fan, stick with me here. I’m talking about how to implement your sales game plan to gear up for a long, successful season.

Actually, I’m more of a football and basketball fan myself, but this baseball analogy made too much sense to pass up.

But first, let’s talk about how your philosophy can impact your overall game.

I work with my clients to transform their sales philosophy so “sales” is equated with “service,” no matter where the prospect is in the sales cycle.

“Sales = Service”

The goal of your sales call is to find a way to offer help and work with that prospect (not “pitch to” them) towards realizing some value gained from your interaction. That value you provide should be appropriate and proportionate to your own business goals and needs.

So when you contact a prospect, the main question on your agenda should be:

“How can I help this person make their job and life better?”

This approach solves A LOT of confusion, anxiety and uncertainty, and it also creates a very effective, ethical and enjoyable sales process for both parties.

If the result of your contact ends up simply being the chance for you to give some advice, resources or other form of value, great. They’ll appreciate and remember you for it.

If the outcome is to set up a face-to-face, phone or web meeting to offer more time for an in-depth conversation, solution or advisory session, even better.

If your call ends up being a sale that’s going to solve all their problems, that’s obviously awesome.

But even if it turns out that they don’t need your help, that’s good, too. Either it isn’t and won’t be a good fit for you to work together, or it just isn’t the right time for them *right now*. You can assess that, so you know how and when to move forward with them, and that is time well spent.

Remember, it takes time to develop a relationship, and this is how successfully closed sales are built - over the course of productive and mutually beneficial interactions and conversations.

In terms of progress during the sale cycle, let’s get back to our baseball analogy, because this is where it gets really important and most sales professionals strike out:

You don’t need to hit a homerun every time.  

Actually, don’t even try to hit a homerun every time.

The risk/reward ratio is in your favor to just get on base – make small victories that build – rather than striking out most often with the hope you’ll hit one out of the park once in a while. Those probably won’t happen fast enough, and you’ll be out of the game in no time at all.

So by thinking and acting in terms of providing service when you’re up to bat, you’ll hear the crowd go wild, you’ll advance your runner, and you’ll safely cross home plate more often.

And the best part – Everyone wins.

Play ball!

“I don’t know about the rest of you but I have decided to stop boring my prospects and wasting their time. Before my next sales call I will have at least 12 reserve question topics to use when the prospect gets silent. What I am doing currently is wait until things get silent the start showing brochures and product dumping…”

This is an interesting question, and I know a lot of entrepreneurs feel this way when they are making lead generation calls, having coffee while networking or giving sales presentations.

Here was my reply and advice on this question:

Hi,

Kudos on the idea for preparing 12 questions for your next sales call.

What I would recommend instead of waiting to use them for when the prospect gets silent, is to start with them.

This is what I work on with my own clients to greatly increase their sales effectiveness and close rates. Also, from a personal stand-point, I hate it when someone is trying to sell me something and assumes that I have no background or clue about what they’re talking about. They take 10 – 15 minutes of my time to “educate me” on stuff I already know or don’t take the time to find out my previous experiences or perceptions. This is a big turn-off, and even if I really have some interest, they probably have already blown the sale with me.

As a sales pro, you want to ask lots of questions, get them talking. Have them talk about their pains, their desires, their wants, their needs. Ask them about problems they’ve had and experiences they want to top.

Ideally, they should be talking 80% of the time. After they have given you all the info they can think of and relate to, and qualifying and pre-selling themselves in the process, then it’s your turn talk and be the answer to all their prayers.

Just make sure you are being truthful and can deliver on all you promise.

Good luck on the next call! And please let me know if I can answer any questions or ever be of assistance in any way.

All the best, and no more Zzzzzzzzzzzzz…..’s :)

Jason
http://www.AchieveYourIdealBusiness.com

• Sat. March 8th, 2008 @ 9:00am – 1:00pm
• Address: 222 S. Riverside Plaza (Canal & Adams)
• Must register in advance

Entrepreneurs & Small Business Owners
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Presented by Distinctive Coaching
and hosted by Brian Gray of A.G. Edwards

Questions? Contact: Jason Rosado, Jason@DistinctiveCoaching.com

I am targeting my sales team and am looking for must haves in order for these people to gain the confidence to sell these products.

Interesting question.I’m breaking this down to “Must-have’s in order to gain confidence to sell product”:

Thanks Jason, I appreciate you sharing some insights here and really think your #5 is excellent. This will definitely help in the design of this sales kit.

I am targeting my sales team and am looking for must haves in order for these people to gain the confidence to sell these products.

Interesting question.I’m breaking this down to “Must-have’s in order to gain confidence to sell product”:

Thanks Jason, I appreciate you sharing some insights here and really think your #5 is excellent. This will definitely help in the design of this sales kit.

Crafting a successful pitch focuses on giving brief and specific information that creates interest and curiosity about how you can help someone, then turning the conversation over so you can learn much more about them.  People generally don’t want to hear about others as much as they want to talk about, or possibly hear insight about, themselves. This example has worked well for me:

“Hi, I’m Jason Rosado from Distinctive Coaching.  We help entrepreneurs and small business owners achieve and surpass the success that they want in a fraction of the time.  We work to help people discover and solve the problems that keep them from moving their business forward.”  Then I use a transition phrase to get them talking, “It’s very interesting and rewarding work, because I get to see people succeed on their terms.  And what does your company specialize in?” Or “…What brought you here to this event tonight?”, etc.

Some people will go into networking events and just want to make contacts—get a name, a very short introduction, and see if there is room for a future conversation.  Everyone has an opinion about quality vs. quantity of networking contacts at an event.  There is no right one.  It depends on how you are set up for future follow up, how well the audience composition matches your targeted clients, and your comfort and style of networking conversation.

I hope this helps.

Best,
Jason

1. Don’t just “sell a product or service” but become a trusted advisor that provides solutions and can be relied on to help when needed.

2. Listen 80% of the time to the prospect or customer to determine their stated needs and the underlying needs, and talk 20% of the time to ask questions and clarify the answers.

3. Once someone has made a decision to buy, stop selling!  I see this too often: when a customer decides to make the purchase, but for a different reason than the one the sales person is trying to convey, they can be talked out of buying.  As a sales person, if someone decides to buy, no matter what the reason, stop selling and close the deal.  The customer is making the best decision for themselves and knows more about their situation and needs than you do.

Hope these help!
Jason