Is sales more "mental" or "physical"?
Let me define my interpretations of 'mental' and 'physical' in this context first of all.
'physical' activities are those that are predominantly 'client-facing', a term normally used in management consulting, such as greeting the customers, making the presentations, articulating the sales process in front of the customer, how you answer the questions, how you dress, how you behave and how you act..
'mental' activities are 'behind the front line' activities, strategies, tactics, and the thinking part. It is not visible to the customers.
I reckon both are important in any sales situations. One can't really tell which one is important during the sales cycle or even afterward. As a result, it's best to put equal weights on both all the time (in the mindset) but making adjustments as you go down the process and discover more about your customer.
Showing posts with label business development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business development. Show all posts
Monday, March 9, 2009
My LinkedIn Answers #5
How do you personally contribute to creating a winning culture within your organization?
Involvement! Involvement! Involvement!
You can either talk about all the winning elements - such as dedication, commitment, leadership, empowerment - and then sit back and expect something miraculously will happen that all of these great values are somehow espoused by your employees.
Of course, it won't work.
The one and only one option is for you to be actually seen as a part of this winning culture. Your contribution will be your 'personal involvement' in it. It's similar to leading by exemplary behavior but, here, the focus is about leading by example and endorsing the 'right and correct' behaviors of a winning culture in your firm.
Involvement! Involvement! Involvement!
You can either talk about all the winning elements - such as dedication, commitment, leadership, empowerment - and then sit back and expect something miraculously will happen that all of these great values are somehow espoused by your employees.
Of course, it won't work.
The one and only one option is for you to be actually seen as a part of this winning culture. Your contribution will be your 'personal involvement' in it. It's similar to leading by exemplary behavior but, here, the focus is about leading by example and endorsing the 'right and correct' behaviors of a winning culture in your firm.
My LinkedIn Answers #4
What is the most effective way to answer the phone?
Your phone rings. The call is unexpected. It is an inbound sales call. How do you answer the call to take control of the call and funnel the caller through your sales process rather than have to go through the callers process?
Clarification added 1 month ago:
By inbound sales call I mean the folks are prospects calling you to find out more about your products and services. Typically, they call in, express interest, collect information, and then you have to spend time chasing them down to find out if they want to do business with you. I am curious what techniques you use to get them out of that process and into your process - qualifying etc.
Interesting to find that people hang up on callers rather than grade their efforts though.
This is a common problem in a telesales organization.
How can we tell whether the caller has a genuine interest to do business with us? How can we not waste our time on these calls? Worst of all, how can we be sure it's not a 'mystery shopping' call where its sole purpose is to gather market intelligence from us?
An experienced tele-sales professional should have a proactive buy/sell process and exercise self-restraint not chasing down a blind alley when it becomes clear that the prospect is not qualified.
In fact, you've hinted in your question a way to deal with these calls. The problem that the sales person needs to face is qualifying the prospect as effective and timely as possible. He/she should:
- discover the real needs and motivation of the prospect;
- decide whether there's a mutual fit (not trying to convincing the prospecting to buy something from you);
- discuss with the prospect why it should make a decision to change (buyers are not really buying something, they're changing something to satisfy their needs).
In the end, you'll be able to qualify the prospect.
The goal of qualification is to find out whether there's better than 50 percent chance of closing the sale.
Your phone rings. The call is unexpected. It is an inbound sales call. How do you answer the call to take control of the call and funnel the caller through your sales process rather than have to go through the callers process?
Clarification added 1 month ago:
By inbound sales call I mean the folks are prospects calling you to find out more about your products and services. Typically, they call in, express interest, collect information, and then you have to spend time chasing them down to find out if they want to do business with you. I am curious what techniques you use to get them out of that process and into your process - qualifying etc.
Interesting to find that people hang up on callers rather than grade their efforts though.
This is a common problem in a telesales organization.
How can we tell whether the caller has a genuine interest to do business with us? How can we not waste our time on these calls? Worst of all, how can we be sure it's not a 'mystery shopping' call where its sole purpose is to gather market intelligence from us?
An experienced tele-sales professional should have a proactive buy/sell process and exercise self-restraint not chasing down a blind alley when it becomes clear that the prospect is not qualified.
In fact, you've hinted in your question a way to deal with these calls. The problem that the sales person needs to face is qualifying the prospect as effective and timely as possible. He/she should:
- discover the real needs and motivation of the prospect;
- decide whether there's a mutual fit (not trying to convincing the prospecting to buy something from you);
- discuss with the prospect why it should make a decision to change (buyers are not really buying something, they're changing something to satisfy their needs).
In the end, you'll be able to qualify the prospect.
The goal of qualification is to find out whether there's better than 50 percent chance of closing the sale.
My LinkedIn Answers #3
What do you do when a prospect wants to "see more", and more, and more?
Once in a while we run into prospects that get into the "see more" mode. What do you do when a prospect wants to see more, and more, and more? How do you get them over the hump and into the "buying" mode?
We need to put on an Inspector Rex hat and find out why...
... this could be a rejection sign and they could have selected a preferred vendor. We should step back and find out why we are rated behind this vendor, and take it from there.
... they have no idea how to solve their problems and they don't know what they should be asking for. Instead they keep on asking for more information to satisfy their ignorance. A few possibilities here. Our sales is incompetent to find out what the problem is. Our sales see the problem but cannot convince the prospect. Either case, we need to show the prospect what their real problem is and how we can solve that problem.
... they understand their problem but they have no confidence in our products so they want to see more. We should propose a trial of our product to cast out the doubts of the customer.
Above all, we shouldn't let it drift into the blind (in this case the customer) leading the blind (us) situation. We need to be creative and inquisitive to find out the reason behind it.
Once in a while we run into prospects that get into the "see more" mode. What do you do when a prospect wants to see more, and more, and more? How do you get them over the hump and into the "buying" mode?
We need to put on an Inspector Rex hat and find out why...
... this could be a rejection sign and they could have selected a preferred vendor. We should step back and find out why we are rated behind this vendor, and take it from there.
... they have no idea how to solve their problems and they don't know what they should be asking for. Instead they keep on asking for more information to satisfy their ignorance. A few possibilities here. Our sales is incompetent to find out what the problem is. Our sales see the problem but cannot convince the prospect. Either case, we need to show the prospect what their real problem is and how we can solve that problem.
... they understand their problem but they have no confidence in our products so they want to see more. We should propose a trial of our product to cast out the doubts of the customer.
Above all, we shouldn't let it drift into the blind (in this case the customer) leading the blind (us) situation. We need to be creative and inquisitive to find out the reason behind it.
My LinkedIn Answers #2
Team Trust Drivers: What do you feel are the most important behaviours that contribute to building trust within teams?
Do these factors change if the teams are
(a) cross-cultural and cross-functional
(b) co-located or geographically dispersed
(c) drawn from different companies in a collaborative / joint venture situation
There could be more than a dozen behaviours that affect the 'trust' factor in a team. One's psychology, which is a more encompassing term than behaviours, often change when one interacts with other person(s).
I'd rather look at the other end of the funnel - what the team is set out to achieve and then working backwards to find out the appropriate behaviours that will help us getting there.
In a business setting and from the 'trust' perspective, I'd suggest the following behaviours are important.
Respect, honesty, perceptive, experience, high spirits, helpful, subject matter knowledge, understanding, commitment... the list can go on and I'm not kidding they're all important psychology factors because each one's definition of 'trust' is personal and unique.
Can we just name a few and call them critical? I suppose one knows the answer.
The different environments, as you listed them out, are of course important considerations. As one's psychology is affected by one's perception of one's external environments, it's really hard to prescribe 'trust factors' without any background information of the team.
The approach I'd take would be to invest time with the team, getting to know the members, understanding the psychology, find out if there are any special concerns, and then establishing the 'trust' factors for this team.
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Hi Hamish,
Thanks for your note. Your question is very interesting which thrilled me when I answered your questions.
I like you pointing out 'common ground' as one of the key element. Having worked in consulting for some years, I felt that there's little time for us to flush out these critical elements (as we're on billable time) and we're often pressed to drill down to the tangible metrics such as goals, objectives, plans, schedule...
In Asia and esp Greater China, we've two devils called time and speed. We're succumbed to them.
It'd be a success if we could discover 'common ground', and if you wouldn't mind me rephrasing it to 'common interests', at the early stage of an assignment.
I remember this in a training course. We're debating whether we should focus on earning 'trust' or earning 'respect'. The argument is that it's hard to build trust in limited time but it should be easier to garner respect... .. if one respects another, one would take the other person seriously and be prepared to work with that person... the question then becomes how to build 'respect'?
Best Regards
Michael
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On 11/24/08 5:46 PM, Hamish Taylor wrote:
--------------------
Hi Michael
Firstly many thanks for sharing your thoughts and indeed the thought provokers.
I think we are very much on the same page in terms of approach and also making sure that teams get focused on the end goal and then work out how to get there; trust as you rightly say is context based and the factors that are critical for one person, may be trivial for another and vice versa.
The key to success is finding the common ground, establishing the solid shared values and then encouraging the "right behaviours" to prevail whilst creating the environment in which the occasional "wrong behaviour" can be dealt with and overcome.
Thanks again for sharing your views, they're much appreciated.
Kind regards
Hamish.
-------------------------------------------------------------
On 11/24/08 3:05 PM, Michael Ling wrote:
--------------------
There could be more than a dozen behaviours that affect the 'trust' factor in a team. One's psychology, which is a more encompassing term than behaviours, often change when one interacts with other person(s).
I'd rather look at the other end of the funnel - what the team is set out to achieve and then working backwards to find out the appropriate behaviours that will help us getting there.
In a business setting and from the 'trust' perspective, I'd suggest the following behaviours are important.
Respect, honesty, perceptive, experience, high spirits, helpful, subject matter knowledge, understanding, commitment... the list can go on and I'm not kidding they're all important psychology factors because each one's definition of 'trust' is personal and unique.
Can we just name a few and call them critical? I suppose one knows the answer.
The different environments, as you listed them out, are of course important considerations. As one's psychology is affected by one's perception of one's external environments, it's really hard to prescribe 'trust factors' without any background information of the team.
The approach I'd take would be to invest time with the team, getting to know the members, understanding the psychology, find out if there are any special concerns, and then establishing the 'trust' factors for this team.
Do these factors change if the teams are
(a) cross-cultural and cross-functional
(b) co-located or geographically dispersed
(c) drawn from different companies in a collaborative / joint venture situation
There could be more than a dozen behaviours that affect the 'trust' factor in a team. One's psychology, which is a more encompassing term than behaviours, often change when one interacts with other person(s).
I'd rather look at the other end of the funnel - what the team is set out to achieve and then working backwards to find out the appropriate behaviours that will help us getting there.
In a business setting and from the 'trust' perspective, I'd suggest the following behaviours are important.
Respect, honesty, perceptive, experience, high spirits, helpful, subject matter knowledge, understanding, commitment... the list can go on and I'm not kidding they're all important psychology factors because each one's definition of 'trust' is personal and unique.
Can we just name a few and call them critical? I suppose one knows the answer.
The different environments, as you listed them out, are of course important considerations. As one's psychology is affected by one's perception of one's external environments, it's really hard to prescribe 'trust factors' without any background information of the team.
The approach I'd take would be to invest time with the team, getting to know the members, understanding the psychology, find out if there are any special concerns, and then establishing the 'trust' factors for this team.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Hamish,
Thanks for your note. Your question is very interesting which thrilled me when I answered your questions.
I like you pointing out 'common ground' as one of the key element. Having worked in consulting for some years, I felt that there's little time for us to flush out these critical elements (as we're on billable time) and we're often pressed to drill down to the tangible metrics such as goals, objectives, plans, schedule...
In Asia and esp Greater China, we've two devils called time and speed. We're succumbed to them.
It'd be a success if we could discover 'common ground', and if you wouldn't mind me rephrasing it to 'common interests', at the early stage of an assignment.
I remember this in a training course. We're debating whether we should focus on earning 'trust' or earning 'respect'. The argument is that it's hard to build trust in limited time but it should be easier to garner respect... .. if one respects another, one would take the other person seriously and be prepared to work with that person... the question then becomes how to build 'respect'?
Best Regards
Michael
-----------------------------------------------------------------
On 11/24/08 5:46 PM, Hamish Taylor wrote:
--------------------
Hi Michael
Firstly many thanks for sharing your thoughts and indeed the thought provokers.
I think we are very much on the same page in terms of approach and also making sure that teams get focused on the end goal and then work out how to get there; trust as you rightly say is context based and the factors that are critical for one person, may be trivial for another and vice versa.
The key to success is finding the common ground, establishing the solid shared values and then encouraging the "right behaviours" to prevail whilst creating the environment in which the occasional "wrong behaviour" can be dealt with and overcome.
Thanks again for sharing your views, they're much appreciated.
Kind regards
Hamish.
-------------------------------------------------------------
On 11/24/08 3:05 PM, Michael Ling wrote:
--------------------
There could be more than a dozen behaviours that affect the 'trust' factor in a team. One's psychology, which is a more encompassing term than behaviours, often change when one interacts with other person(s).
I'd rather look at the other end of the funnel - what the team is set out to achieve and then working backwards to find out the appropriate behaviours that will help us getting there.
In a business setting and from the 'trust' perspective, I'd suggest the following behaviours are important.
Respect, honesty, perceptive, experience, high spirits, helpful, subject matter knowledge, understanding, commitment... the list can go on and I'm not kidding they're all important psychology factors because each one's definition of 'trust' is personal and unique.
Can we just name a few and call them critical? I suppose one knows the answer.
The different environments, as you listed them out, are of course important considerations. As one's psychology is affected by one's perception of one's external environments, it's really hard to prescribe 'trust factors' without any background information of the team.
The approach I'd take would be to invest time with the team, getting to know the members, understanding the psychology, find out if there are any special concerns, and then establishing the 'trust' factors for this team.
My LinkedIn Answers #1
What are the top 2 actions you/your company are taking during the next 90 days to win new/keep existing clients?
As leaders, our actions set the course for our future path. Given the current economic headwinds, what are the most important actions that you and your leadership team are responding with to address these challenges, specifically as it relates to winning new clients and retaining current ones?
The overall strategy would be to ensure your sales and customer-facing teams are evangelizing the core values of your organization to your clients.
Economic downturns are macroeconomic and uncontrollable. Building good relationships with clients and demonstrating one's value to them is controllable and achievable.
If we could continue to demonstrate to our clients (1) our values and (2) our commitment to them and earning their trust, I reckon this can help us ride the storm of the current, or any, economic headwinds.
As leaders, our actions set the course for our future path. Given the current economic headwinds, what are the most important actions that you and your leadership team are responding with to address these challenges, specifically as it relates to winning new clients and retaining current ones?
The overall strategy would be to ensure your sales and customer-facing teams are evangelizing the core values of your organization to your clients.
Economic downturns are macroeconomic and uncontrollable. Building good relationships with clients and demonstrating one's value to them is controllable and achievable.
If we could continue to demonstrate to our clients (1) our values and (2) our commitment to them and earning their trust, I reckon this can help us ride the storm of the current, or any, economic headwinds.
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