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The Power of Talk: How Quality Conversations Drive Business Success

The art of conversation is as old as human civilization. Yet, as business dynamics evolve, effective communication becomes even more paramount. This article will delve into the fascinating realm of “conversational intelligence” and why having meaningful conversations can be a game-changer for businesses.

Understanding Conversational Intelligence

Conversational Intelligence, in its essence, is the ability to effectively engage in conversations in a manner that creates a shared understanding, builds trust, and fosters meaningful connections. It’s not merely about talking but instead creating a mutual narrative.

While standard communication is about conveying messages, conversational Intelligence digs deeper. It’s about understanding the other party’s perspective, connecting on a deeper level, and co-creating solutions.

Key components of conversational Intelligence

  • Active listening: This is about being genuinely interested in what the other person is saying rather than just waiting for your turn to talk.
  • Empathy: Understanding and sharing another person’s feelings, trying to see the world from their perspective.
  • Clarity: It ensures your message is easily understood without jargon or ambiguity.
  • Authenticity: Genuine interactions where parties are natural, open, and honest with each other.

The Link Between Conversational Intelligence and Revenue

Conversational Intelligence doesn’t just foster good vibes; it directly impacts a business’s bottom line. At the heart of this is the weight of first impressions. Within mere seconds of interaction, decisions about trustworthiness, competence, and likability are being formed. These snap judgments can significantly sway business decisions, making the initial phase of any conversation crucial. But it doesn’t stop there.

Building trust through effective communication is an ongoing endeavor. When businesses communicate transparently and consistently, clients and partners feel more secure, leading to smoother transactions and long-term loyalty. Diving deeper into the psychology behind purchases, emotions play an outsized role. A conversation that resonates on an emotional level can significantly influence purchasing decisions. Thus, harnessing conversational Intelligence isn’t just about pleasant dialogues; it’s a strategic tool for revenue growth.

However, as we engage with sales teams globally, we consistently find many salespeople need help to have conversations that lead to revenue. Here, we discuss the opening discussions and skills that establish trust and competence early. The skills to identify who might be their ideal customers and engage them in conversations. This also includes engaging current customers in discussions to identify new opportunities to serve them.

We are finding that more salespeople today lack skills like building rapport, building trust, creating business relationships, discovery, and qualifying skills. When these skills are lacking, your salespeople are not having conversations. They have one-way presentations or “pitch slapping” your customers and prospects.

Strategies for Cultivating Conversational Intelligence

To truly grasp the depth and potential of conversational Intelligence, one must delve into the strategies that accentuate its power.

Building Rapport

The foundation lies in building rapport. Imagine entering a room with a familiar face; the conversation often flows effortlessly. That’s the power of connection. We can establish this camaraderie in a business by initiating dialogues with personal anecdotes, humor, or genuine interest in someone’s weekend plans. It forms a friendly preamble to weightier discussions. As I shared in my book Driving Explosive Growth, rapport sets the stage for trust and future talks. We are H2H selling. ( Human to Human) The conversation typically escalates if the other person feels you genuinely have an interest in them, their business, and a desire to help them. If the other person does not feel worthy intent to serve them, the conversation will often end abruptly.

Questioning Techniques

Equally significant is the art of questioning. The questions we pose can determine the depth of understanding we attain. As I share in my sales training and coaching, the very nature of your questions helps to establish trust and build competence. Open-ended questions, like “What challenges did you face during this project?” entice detailed responses, painting a fuller picture. Meanwhile, probing questions act as deep dives into specific areas. Asking, “How did that particular challenge affect your delivery timelines?” can unveil intricate details. As we develop sales discovery and qualifying skills, we focus on asking “How” and “What” questions. For years, sales teams have been trained in what is referred to as the “five whys.” The five whys aimed to help your salespeople gain a deeper, more intimate understanding of the challenges your customers face and gather insights that will be used in a value-based business case to engage with the salesperson based on the value they will deliver. “Why “questions create an internal negative emotional response in customers. Why did that happen? Why did your team allow that to occur? If the customer feels attacked or anxious, the creative part of their brain turns off, and they move into a primal flight or flight mode. Unfortunately, salespeople often experience buyer flight, and the conversation ends and never develops into ways they can serve the customer.

Lastly, reflective questions serve as mirrors. When we reiterate, “So, if I understand correctly, the challenge delayed your project by a week? it confirms our understanding and assures the other party that we’re truly listening. From helping sales teams for just under 40 years, one common challenge I see is salespeople listen to reply and not listen to learn. In our active listening courses and courses on discovery and qualifying, we help salespeople listen to understand. We also teach salespeople to listen for changes in the other person’s conversation pace, tone, and word choices as indicators to serve the customer better. In our buyer personality courses, we help salespeople identify the buyer’s personality type and how to converse about that style’s values.

Nonverbal communication

Remember that sometimes, silence speaks louder than words in the realm of non-verbal cues. A client’s subtle shift in posture, a fleeting uneasy glance, or a reserved tone can provide profound insights. These cues, often overlooked, can be the difference between aligning with a client’s actual needs and missing the mark. Post-pandemic, many meetings are occurring virtually with web-based video technology. Salespeople must understand virtual body language and adjust the conversations.

Feedback Loops

Lastly, feedback loops act as checkpoints. Concluding conversations with summaries ensures everyone leaves with aligned perspectives and clear action items. Who is doing what, and by when? Please tell me the following steps and when they will happen. What would you need to do to engage further? Do you have any questions we need to answer before we get together? Is there anyone else we need to bring into this conversation, and when? What does the customer need next? What does the salesperson need next? What will this journey of working together look like? Answering all these questions and more continues to build trust and competence in the salesperson.

Applying Conversational Techniques to Drive Revenue and Increase Gross Margins

Conversational techniques are more than just soft skills; they’re powerful tools to boost revenue.

Sales conversations: not just about the product

In the sales world, the conversation should rarely be about the product. Unfortunately, untrained salespeople lead with features and benefits and rarely, if ever, identify problems their customers and prospects must solve. Sales dialogues are intricate dances where understanding clients’ needs and pain points takes center stage. Instead of rattling off product features, astute salespeople weave stories that position their offerings as solutions, creating a vivid picture of how their product or service can enhance the client’s world.

Handling objections through empathetic conversation

When clients voice concerns or objections, it’s essential to lean into empathetic conversation. Instead of viewing objections as barriers, view them as opportunities to clarify, align, and deepen the client relationship. In our training on handling and not overcoming objections, I ask a simple question: “Do you want to win the argument or feed your family?” By addressing concerns with genuine understanding, salespeople can often turn apprehensions into points of agreement. Salespeople who have a low, close rate rarely identify and handle objections as they occur. As a result, they make presentations and quotes that rarely have the opportunity of closing and turning into profitable revenue.

Upselling and cross-selling using conversational cues

Then, there’s the arena of upselling and cross-selling. With sharp conversational Intelligence, one can pick up cues suggesting a client might benefit from additional products or services. This isn’t about pushing more to sell but about genuinely enhancing value. Often, clients self-diagnose, research, and have conversations with salespeople about price and delivery. Studies now indicate that 33% of buyers would prefer to do their research and not engage with a salesperson. Research also shows over 80% of the sales process is over by the time a buyer engages with a salesperson.

Unlike the 1990s, when buyers had to meet with salespeople as part of their research, today, buyers can often find answers to their challenges in one or two clicks. But are they the correct answers? Top performing salespeople today always seek to understand. Poor-performing people in sales roles are transactional.

Let me share an example from training one of my distributors….

The CEO and leadership team of an industrial supplies distributor were concerned. Their gross margins were lower than usual, failing to hit some of their rebate dollar thresholds. They asked for our help. We assessed their entire sales team and found over 70% of their salespeople were transactional. In other words, if a customer called and said I need to buy 10 QR33479 T’s, they entered the order into the system and gave the customer a future ship date. A few asked if there was anything else. However, their top-performing salespeople asked questions like…We are happy to help you. Can I ask what the application for this part is? How do you plan to use it? What is the environment? What is the cycle time? Will you need us to install it, or have your team been trained?

Buyers doing research do the best they can. However, they often misdiagnose the problem and make buying decisions based on price and availability only to have the problem reoccur or, in some cases, cause more significant issues.

We trained the sales team to conduct conversations that lead to revenue. We taught the team to ask great questions that build trust, demonstrate competence, and ensure the customer has the best possible experience.

Working with the product teams, we also helped salespeople understand other products and services often purchased with what buyers are asking for. Adding these other products increased revenue, the blended gross margins were greater, and their customer satisfaction scores increased by 12%.

Fostering customer loyalty through meaningful interactions

Lastly, fostering customer loyalty goes beyond the initial sale. By continually engaging in meaningful interactions, businesses can cultivate a bond with customers, ensuring they repeatedly return, transforming one-time buyers into brand ambassadors.

Here, we help “sales reps” become “trusted advisors” to customers and prospects. As we share in the courses …you know you are delivering value when the buyer says…you are the only salesperson who asked me that question, and I need to consider that.

Becoming a trusted advisor, a business consultant masquerading as a salesperson happens with each conversation.

Salespeople must develop the conversational intelligence their buyers and prospects value.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Effective communication is as much about avoiding mistakes as it is about executing strategies.

Dominating the conversation

One of the most prevalent pitfalls in business conversations is dominating the conversation. There’s a tendency, especially when passionate or well-informed about a topic or product, to overpower the dialogue. However, communication should be a two-way street. If you’re always talking, you’re likely missing out on essential insights the other person could provide. The solution? Practice active listening, give others the floor, and ask open-ended questions to encourage participation. When we coach salespeople, we want to see a customer conversation ratio of the customer talking over 70% of the time. This can only occur if salespeople are equipped with excellent questions and practice active listening.

Making assumptions

Another trap professionals often fall into is making assumptions. ( And we know what happens when we assume right) Beliefs act like blind spots. For instance, taking a client who understands an industry jargon or acronym can lead to confusion or misinformed decisions. It’s vital to approach each conversation with an open mind, seeking to understand before being understood. Clarifying points and reiterating shared information can curb the risks associated with assumptions.

Information Overload

In today’s data-driven world, there’s also a tendency to overload information. While presenting facts and figures might seem impressive, it can overwhelm or bore the listener if not directly relevant to them. The key is prioritizing and showing only what’s necessary, maintaining engagement. Focus on your solution’s impact and not the features, benefits, and data sheets. Ask the other person …what else can I provide you?… and deliver it.

Missing non-verbal cues

Lastly, missing non-verbal cues can be a silent conversation killer. Communication isn’t solely about words. The unspoken elements — a hesitant tone, averted eyes, or a restless foot tap — often reveal more than spoken words. Observing and paying attention to these cues ensures a comprehensive understanding of the conversation and its sentiments.

Conclusion and Next Steps

Mastering conversational Intelligence is an ongoing journey requiring continuous learning and practice. However, its importance in driving business success is undeniable. By honing this skill, businesses can foster stronger relationships, build trust, and ultimately, see a positive impact on their bottom line. Quality conversation, indeed, holds immense power in the business world.

When your sales team develops a solid conversational intelligence competency, you will experience the following:

  • Increased Revenue
  • Increased Gross Profit Margins
  • Increased Share of Buyer Wallet
  • Increased Market Share
  • Increased Customer Satisfaction Scores
  • Increased Net Promotor Scores
  • Invitations to New Opportunities Long Before Your Competitors

Let’s schedule a call if you want to understand your team’s current conversational intelligence skills and identify and close conversation sales skills gaps.

Seven Innovative Ways to Drive Strategic Growth

The lifeblood of any company is its ability to grow and expand. Without growth, a company will eventually stagnate and die. This can be difficult for business owners, as it requires creativity and innovation. This blog post will discuss seven innovative ideas for company growth. Some of these may be familiar to you, while others may be new concepts entirely.

Diversification

Renew and update your business model

Voice of Customer Research

Focus on Customer retention

Invest in technology

Expand your Marketing Efforts

Sales Training and Coaching

1) Diversification.

One way to ensure growth for your company is to diversify your products and services. This can be done by expanding into new markets or developing new products that appeal to a broader customer base. By doing this, you are not putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, and therefore reducing the risk of stagnation.

Diversification can be difficult as it requires detailed market research and a thorough understanding of your target audience. However, if done correctly, it can lead to significant growth for your company.

Some ideas for diversification include:

  • Expanding into new markets
  • Developing new products or services
  • Offering customized solutions
  • Focusing on niche markets
  • Expanding your business through Franchise Direct to reach and increase your customer base

2) Review and Update Your Business Model.

Another way to spur growth for your company is to review your business model. This means taking a close look at the way you do business and seeing if there are any areas that could be improved. This could involve anything from streamlining your processes to changing the way you market your products or services.

Reviewing your business model can identify areas where you may be losing money or customers. Once these areas have been identified, you can then take steps to rectify them, leading to increased growth for your company.

What should you keep doing?

What should you start doing?

What should you stop doing?

3) Capture the Voice of Your Customers:

Think about all the changes businesses have gone through during and post pandemic. How much has your business changed? Market leading organizations are conducting voice of customer research to better understand how buyers buy, what criteria they are using today to make buying decisions and understand your customers overall satisfaction. We recommend having a third party conduct this research to remove the concerns with bias. However, we recognize some clients cannot afford to engage our firm, so we wrote an eBook to help you Leverage the Voice of your Customers to increase revenue.

4) Focus on Customer Retention.

Acquiring new customers is important for any business, but it’s also important to focus on retaining the customers you already have. This can be done by providing excellent customer service and developing long-term relationships with your clients.

In one study 89% of CEOs shared having strong relationships with their clients is key to their success but sadly only 24% of those CEOs provided sales skills training on how to build business relationships.

Focusing on customer retention can ensure that your current customers remain loyal to your brand. This loyalty will lead to word-of-mouth marketing, which is one of the most effective forms of marketing. In turn, this can lead to increased growth for your company.

Some ideas for focusing on Customer Retention:

  • Developing long-term relationships with clients
  • Offering excellent customer service
  • Focusing on customer satisfaction
  • Building a solid brand identity
  • Leverage data and build win-win
  • Build multiple relationships with key account decision makers

5) Invest in Technology.

Technology is always changing, and it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. Investing in new technology can improve your products and services, making them more efficient and effective. This can lead to increased growth as your customers will be more satisfied with your offerings.

It’s important to note that you don’t need to invest in the latest and greatest technology; sometimes, simply investing in updating your current technology can be enough to spur growth.

Some ideas for investing in technology:

  • Audit your current sales tech stack
  • Updating your current technology
  • Investing in new software or hardware
  • Automating processes
  • Improving website design

6) Expand Your Marketing Efforts.

Another way to encourage growth for your company is to expand your marketing efforts. This could involve anything from increasing your budget to launching a new marketing campaign. By developing your marketing, you will reach a wider audience and generate more leads, which can lead to increased sales and growth for your company.

Some ideas for expanding your marketing efforts:

  • Increasing your advertising budget
  • Update your value message by business persona
  • Launching a new marketing campaign
  • Investing in digital marketing
  • Developing a social media strategy
  • Speak in the language of your customers
  • Market solutions not products

7) Sales Training and Coaching

Buyers have spoken and 33% chose not to work with salespeople today and the numbers are growing. In one study 85% of buyers shared they expect a salesperson to connect the dots between what they sell and how it can impact the buyers bottom-line. Sadly, less than 15% of salespeople do this today. In a one-hour meeting with the average sales rep how many minutes were valuable to the buyer and or decisionmaker? SIX! Only six minutes because salespeople show up, throw up and they pitch slap their customers when they should be having conversations that lead to revenue.

Some ideas to train your salespeople

  • Complete a sales effectiveness assessment
  • Identify sales skills gaps
  • Train salespeople to close gaps
  • Equip sales managers to coach the new sales skills

In conclusion, there are many ways to encourage growth for your company. By implementing some of the ideas listed above, you can take your business to the next level. So, what are you waiting for? Get started today and see the results for yourself!

As always if your tea needs help let’s schedule a tie to chat.

 

 

Increase Sales: Sweet Sales and Profits from Value Based Sales

 

 

In my last post: The Oscar for Best B2B Sales Methodology goes to Value Based Sales I shared why a Value Based Sales method is by far the best B2B sales method. Over the last 34 years of solving sales problems I have observed sales teams using a variety of sales methods. In this post I will share how one team I served leveraged value based sales into sweet sales and profits and created a lifetime customer.

 

If value based sales produces more profitable sales faster why do so few salespeople use this sales method?

 

From what I have observed in the field on four legged sales calls coaching my sales teams the average B2B salesperson is much more comfortable discussing their products features and benefits than the customers’ market and business issues.

 

However when you ask buyers what they value and how salespeople can become more important they want B2B sales representatives discussing and sharing solutions that are relevant to their business.

 

 

According to SBI, on average 87% of the revenues in complex B2B sales environments are being generated by just 13% of the sales population.

 

Value based pricing adds value in B2B sales.

 

As Value Based sales thought leader Bob Apollo shares:

 

This terrible mismatch has profound consequences. There’s abundant evidence to suggest that one of the most significant differences lies in their ability to systematically create unique value to their customers through the disciplined application of value-based selling techniques across their entire sales and marketing organization. And the results can be seen in top line revenue growth that far exceeds market averages.”

 

In 2000 I was asked to help a company Innis Maggiore. Back then they were called an advertising and marketing company. They had been my vendor partner for years. Today they have evolved into one of the top strategic positioning firms in North America. They wanted my help landing large accounts with the focus on creating lifetime customers.

 

The trouble is all large accounts have marketing departments who own strategy and already have relationships with advertising firms. What most business development salespeople do is try to wear down the buyers with features and benefits of their services, all the awards they have received and so on.

 

Our team created a list of large accounts that matched our ideal customer profile and one of those accounts was Harry London’s Chocolates just 4 miles from our corporate offices. Harry London’s Chocolates are a premium chocolate supplier and we wanted to serve their team because everything they did demonstrated a value for quality and providing their customers a strong buying experience.

 

We tried sending brochures and examples of our work. We called their marketing department with a regular cadence  and dropped of creative demential mailers…nothing. We heard “ we are happy with what we have, and if we ever need your help we will call you.” (They even say no thanks in a quality way…we have to work with this company.)

 

What if we took a Value Based Sales approach?

 

We did market research into possible new markets for Harry London’s. Our firm had experience serving the floral industry for many years and about 30% of a florist’s revenue are non-flower product like vases, candles and even …chocolates. (Interesting)

 

We did more research and used our relationships in the floral industry and found:

 

Number of florists: about 33,000 retailers

Revenue of industry: $7 Billion

Approximately 30% of revenue not flowers: $2 Billion

Estimate of possible Chocolate sales: $750 Million

If we won just 10% of market share: $75 million in incremental sales

Estimated Gross Profit impact to Harry London: $25 Million

 

We interviewed three local florists on tape and asked them about their business, their challenges and how they increase sales and profits. Each business owner mentioned adding non-floral  products to their services. We asked about chocolates and they all admitted they use chocolates as an added value offering to bouquets. (Back then the interviews where on VHS tapes and the cameras were so big we looked like a news crew). We asked what brand of chocolates they were using? None could share the brand. (sounds like an opportunity for a leader in quality chocolates to position themselves) We asked if they ever heard of Harry London’s chocolates and what that brand meant. They all shared yeas, and their perception was it was one of the top quality chocolate manufacturers, We asked if they thought using a premium brand chocolate supplier like Harry London’s would give them the opportunity to increase their selling price and increase their gross profits because their consumers would value this brand and each agreed it would.

 

I reached out to the CEO of Harry London’s chocolates.

 

First he received an amazing custom floral bouquet with his chocolates in the arrangements with a short note: “we found a sweet new profit opportunity for your company, I will be calling you this afternoon to discuss it. Mark Allen Roberts , Innis Maggiore”

 

That afternoon I called the CEO and my call went through to him. I asked for 20 minutes latter that week to share a new market opportunity, and I asked if we could have a TV and VHS player in the room and he agreed, …but just 20 minutes.

 

We started the meeting exactly on time and shared the size of the market opportunity and our estimates and some of his senior leaders baulked at our hypothesis. I remember sharing : “tell you what, lets say we are wrong, lets say we are off by as much as 20%…that would still be a huge amount of incremental revenue wouldn’t it?”

 

“Nothing speaks louder than the voice of customers”

  • Mark Allen Roberts

 

About 10 minutes had passed and we could tell they were interested but skeptical.

 

You know that look like …if this was a good idea we would already be doing it …look?

 

We put in the VHS tape the player and you could have heard a pin drop.

 

The senior leaders were listening and watching florists share how they would value buying their high quality premium chocolates.

 

I looked at my watch, about 18 minutes had passed so I took out the tape when it was over, closed my portfolio and said: “we promised to only take 20 minutes, thank you for your time, and we would appreciate the opportunity to help your team add $20-$25 million in incremental profits in the floral market, a market our firm has served for over 20 years…” and I started to get up from the conference table.

 

Their CEO said: “where are you going?…please sit down lets discuss this more and tell me more about your company.”

 

After following up and some negotiating we won their business back in 2000 and even after they were acquired years later , Innis Maggiore still has their business in 2018. Why? Because when all the other ad firms (and there are many of them) came in talking about their company and all their awards and cutting their hourly rates, we came in and gave Harry London’s Chocolates a new business opportunity that would increase sales and ultimately add net income to their bottom line.

 

That was a Value Based Sales Approach.

 

Lets break it down to its key components:

 

  • Determine your companies value drivers, how you create value for your customers’ businesses
  • What possible new customers match your ideal customer profile
  • Research the company
  • Research their leaders
  • Take time to understand their value proposition, brand and positioning
  • Take time to understand the business of your customers’ business
  • Know your customers’ markets
  • Create a challenge, a hypothesis, a way to create value for them
  • Present the hypothesis in the language of business
  • Build trust in every aspect of communication
  • Follow up
  • Negotiate after you establish value
  • Close with clear next steps
  • Follow up and verify the value created
  • Ask for another opportunity to create value

 

 

How do your salespeople sell today?

 

Why do you win sales?

 

Why do you loose sales?

 

Does your team use a value-based model?

 

Why wouldn’t a value-based sales model work for your salespeople?

 

That CEO is now the CEO of a custom candle company. Maybe my old team at Innis Maggiore needs to send another custom floral bouquet with a candle made from bees wax?

 

Like I shared in posts about the value of doing voice of the customer work in a number of posts sharing examples, I will share other value based sales examples in the next few posts so stay tuned.

 

 

The Oscar For Best B2B Sales Methodology Goes To: Value Based Sales

 

 

 

What is the best sales methodology for B2B sales today? What are the most popular sales methods and why do so few B2B salespeople use Value Based Sales? In this post we will review a number of sales methodologies used to improve sales performance and why the Oscar for best B2B sales methodology goes to :Value Based Sales.

 

Sales has changed over the years. Salespeople and the companies they serve are constantly searching for the best sales method.

 

As I watched the Oscars the other night I thought how we need Oscars for sales and marketing strategies.

 

To understand why a Value Based Sales methodology outperforms other sales methods we need to briefly unpack how sales people sell and how sales has evolved over the years.

 

What are the sales methods salespeople have used and are using today?

 

Selling on Price

 

This is not a method most CEO’s and business owners want to hear. In this method you must have the lowest cost to manufacture and your team leverages this low cost-manufacturing competency to win and keep business.

Salespeople sell on price when they do not know or believe your value proposition or no one has trained them how to connect the dots between what you sell and the value proposition for customers.

Why this method is so common is it is what buyers want.

Buyers want to commoditize all products and services so the only differentiation is price. Just as we train our salespeople, companies like Karrass teach buyers to dismiss sales pitches and gobbledygook sales and marketing teams spew and quickly make the key buying decision all about price. If you have the lowest price you win today. When the vendor you displaced finds they lost the business what do they do? They drop the price and you loose. This starts a gross margin death spiral and the only one who wins is the buyer.

If you have never hear the term “gobbledygook” it means all those things we say and share on our web sites that no longer mean anything since everyone we compete against claims them too like:

Innovative

Best in class

Best Quality

Top performance

Flexible

Groundbreaking

Scalable

Robust

Cutting Edge

If you would like to learn more I encourage you to download the Gobbledygook Manifesto

What I have found disturbing over the years when I ask salespeople why we lost a particular sale or account for that matter they say “price.”

When I conduct Win-Loss interviews with buyers, “price” is rarely one of the top reasons why a buyer buyers or chooses not to buy.

In this model your salespeople do not understand or believe your value proposition and they do believe the only thing that matters to buyers is the lowest price.

Sales finds all kinds of ways to sell , selling on price internally like : volume discounts, sales incentive rebates, volume purchase discounts, blanket order discounts and so on.

All of these and more are sales based on price.

 

 

Relationship Sale

It is true people buy from people they like. Buyers will have an impression of you within 7 seconds. In this model the salesperson strives to be liked by the buyer. They work hard to build a friendship through social lunches, dinners, and ball games. As one relational seller told me years ago: “I was the only rep invited to this buyer’s daughter’s wedding. “

In meetings you often wonder whose side the relationship seller is on? The buyer’s or yours? This seller believes their relationship with the buyer is their value proposition not your product or service.

A relational sales methodology is all about building a relationship and reinforcing that relationship through acts of service.

When I work with relationship sales people they often bring donuts and bagels and “check in ” with buyers and purchasing decision makers. When the relational salesperson is in the customer’s building everyone loves them. Rarely do they close the sale, or ask for the sale for that matter. They never have a pre-call sales plan and believe they will win whatever business the buyer has based on their relationship.

After a sales call with target accounts you will hear a relational salesperson share “it was a good meeting” although the sale did not advance and they did not win an order.

We find relational salespeople in sales farmer roles because they are terrible sales hunters.

Do you have relationship salespeople?Look where your salespeople spend their time. Are they selling and creating sales presentations? Or, are they checking on orders, when orders will ship, how we can ship them earlier, following up  with customer service to determine when something will ship? If so, you have a salesperson using the relational sales method.

This is the least effective sales methodology, but unfortunately the one most underperforming salespeople rely on.

 

Product Sales

In this methodology the salesperson’s product knowledge is leveraged to win sales. The thought here is your salespeople are trained in features and benefits of your product or service. As Mike Shultz President of The Rain Group shares “If your people cannot speak fluently about your product and service offerings and ask the right questions to uncover specific needs that your solutions fulfill, then they are leaving money on the table and losing you deals.

Here you will find companies that are often very inward looking and not customer centric. They design and manufacture products but their salespeople are not trained on what specific types to customers to call on and what problems their products solve.

As I have shared in the past, I have observed salespeople trained in the product methodology “show up and throw up”. It’s like they are playing feature and benefit Bingo with buyers just hoping one buyer will jump to their feet and yell: “BINGO! I know a problem you can solve for me!” When you are working with a product salesperson they speak 80% of the time in the sales call and do not ask many qualifying questions. After all what they are selling is so amazing a buyer would have to be an idiot not to buy right?

Every seller must understand their products and services. However today , with as much as 70% of the buying process being over before the buyer speaks with sales this method is not as successful as it once was. Back in the day, before the internet of things, buyers had to meet with sales to learn about products and services. Today this buying criteria is just one mouse click away.

Product knowledge is a part of a top performing salesperson, but can not be their sales method today if they want to achieve quota.

 

The Lone Wolf / Sales Mercenaries

In this sales method the salesperson relies on their personal sales skills, abilities and experience to close the sale. They have been through the school of hard knocks, feel they have been there, done that and nothing will surprise them. They are very self-confidant and often deliver results even if they can’t share how they do it.

The Lone Wolf / Sales Mercenaries are often the product of a poorly designed compensation structure and a culture that does not value salespeople. They are hired sales guns that sell their sales services to the highest bidder. Salespeople who use this method are masters at following their own instincts, and writing the rules as they play the game. They win various games but often leave sales, money, on the table because they are only focused on what benefits them the fastest personally.

I had a friend share once:

Salespeople are like water, they find the path of least resistance.”

Lone Wolf Mercenaries are often found at inward facing companies who believe their product or service is so smart “even a monkey in kakis” could sell it. Their company not only does not value and appreciate the salespeople; they treat them like a necessary evil. Salespeople are treated like they are only as good as their last…sale. Their compensation plan creates commission junkies looking for their next fix not strategic partnerships with clients.

Lone Wolf’s have a high utilitarian trait. Other words if I do this I expect to get that.

The shame is these folks could create much more value if they were valued and appreciated.

They will get-r-done many times but how they do it will leave a mess to clean up and they are very hard to manage.

 

Consultative Sales

In this sales methodology salespeople are trained in product features and benefits and how to  find buyer pain and solve the pain. Salespeople are trained in markets, and common problems their products solve in these markets.

In these buyer calls the salespeople speak about 50% of the time and ask open-ended questions searching for a problems they know they can solve. They are problem solvers.

When you observe salespeople using this method it feels like the child’s game we played in the pool “ Marko Polo”. “Marko… do you have this problem?” “Polo…yes we do” and sales races to tag the buyer and close the sale.

This model produces results if the buyer can connect the dots from the product or service to how it will impact their business drivers.

 

The Challenger Sale

This methodology became popular in the book The Challenger Sale, authors Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson present a sales model to give buyers new ideas to solve problems they may or may not be aware they have. In this book the author shares 40% of high sales performers use this model. More than 50% of sales superstars use this method.

In the for what it’s worth column this was my sales method for a number of years.

This model teaches the selling to take control of the sales process.

You will find some sales calls feeling more like a debate than trying to solve the buyer’s problems. In this model you uncover issues the buyers may have they are unaware of that need solved.

I continue to recommend this book to business owners and salespeople wanting to improve their skills.

I have some advice if you choose to use this model:

First, it requires you to have some experience and knowledge about your customer, their industry and the business of their business. When I have seen young salespeople try to use this model is when they lacked the emotional intelligence and situational awareness to pull it off. They failed to earn the trust early in the relationship so their challenge felt like a canned marketing pitch not a real solution.

Second, I don’t want salespeople feeling they are in charge of the buying process. You are not. You can influence the buyer’s process but if you think and act like you are in charge you will fail. Top performing salespeople clearly and intimately understand the buyers buying process and criteria and they help move the sale by giving buyers what they need at each step of their buying process.

Don’t believe me?

Ok, how many of you reading this like to buy stuff? Almost all of you right?

How many of you like to be sold? Oh, big difference yes?

Enough said.

 

Agile Sales

A recent article in Selling Power shared how Agile Sales is the best method. You can read this article here and it shares the methods top sales performers use. The article is basically saying don’t get all hung up on one sales method or another. Top performing salespeople have situational awareness and they adapt their sales method based on the situation and buyer.

This thought leading article poses the question: what if we taught our sales teams 4-5 top sales methodologies and trained them to know what to use when? The author’s share having agility, flexibility does not imply we want sales teams “winging it”. We want them to have the EQ and situational awareness to be agile within defined parameters established in sales training.

I guess what gives me pause, is so many sales teams I have been asked to help lacked a formal repeatable sales process. Their leaders and owners thought they had one. How would we implement 4-5 when sales is not even executing on the one you thought they were using? Secondly, companies often provide very strong product training and little if any situational and sales scenario training. Companies will need to do voice of the customer work prior and identify the most common sales scenarios before training their sales teams.

I have adapted my sales method based on the industry, buyer, buying process and buyer personas over the years.

The difficulty is in tracking what worked when and where and in what scenario so it is difficult to scale throughout the sales team.

I believe Agile Sales Methodology is a smart strategy but is has so many moving pieces it will be difficult for most companies to implement and scale.

 

Value Based Sales Methodology

 

This is by far the best sales methodology I have experienced over the past 34 years of leading sales and marketing teams.

In this model you know your product or service. You know your market and ideal customer profiles. You have built rapport with the customer so you can have a meaningful business discussion. You know the problems your product or services solves and you have content and case studies to prove it. Your salespeople understand business acumen and speak in the language of business. They help buyers connect the dots between their proposed solution and how it impacts one or many of their key business drivers like…

Increase Sales

Reduce Costs

Increase Net Income

Improve Efficiency

Increase Market Share

Reduce the Cost of Sale

Increase Sales Close Rate

Increase Gross Margins

 

Salespeople who use a value based sales method are about creating value for their customers and in so doing win the sale today and create lifetime customers.

Don’t get me wrong, these salespeople are likable, but they are also not afraid to challenge customers. They help buyers connect the dots to how their product or service speaks to one or many of their business drivers.

This sales method has seen tremendous success and when used properly you will see it impact your business by:

 

Faster selling cycles

Higher Gross Profits per sale

Higher lifetime value of customer revenue

Higher sales to close %

Higher customer satisfaction

 

… but admittedly it is not easy!

 

From my own experience less than 10% of salespeople use a value based selling method. The reason why so few salespeople use this model is they too often struggle with connecting the dots between what they are selling and the value impact their customers receive.

As I have shared before salespeople who are not adequately trained in your value proposition assume the position of your product or service. The value based sales method requires mastery in commercial sales skills, business acumen, product knowledge and understanding of your value proposition, knowledge of the customers’ industry and common pain points, competitive analysis and the ability to propose innovative ideas professionally.

In this sales method you qualify and identify ways your product and or service can impact one or more of your customers’ business drivers.

Is that why so few of salespeople use it? They lack an understanding of how to impact a businesses’ bottom line?

Salespeople have told me this model is hard and takes way too long.

My argument is how can you enter into any negotiation with a customer until you understand and establish value? Or is that why so many salespeople resort to relationship and selling on price? Salespeople trained in value based sales know how to impact the customer’s bottom line so they can establish and reinforce value.

 

What Sales Methodology do you want your salespeople using?

 

What Sales Methodology are they using?

 

How do you know?

 

When was the last four legged sales call you went on to inspect what you expect?

 

Is there any scenario value based sales would not be the best sales method for B2B sales?

 

Congratulations… the Oscar for the Best B2B sales methodology goes to Value Based Sales.

 

Best supporting Oscar without any drama goes to Sales Enablement.

 

17 Benefits Of Voice Of Customer

 

 

 

 

Understanding the voice of your customer is critical to achieving your sales and profit objectives today. Taking the time to clearly understand your buyers, how they buy, what they need to buy and why they don’t buy today is critical in developing a strategic business development growth process.

 

Below are 17 reasons why companies who capture and leverage the voice of their customers consistently win year over year.

  

1.Fix Sales: Knowing Buyer’s Journey is like Creating a GPS for Your Sales Process

 

2.Fix Sales Problems With The Power in the  “Voice of the Customer”

 

3.Leverage Customer Voice into “Explosive Sales Growth”

 

4.Who Owns the Voice of Your Market and Voice of Your Customer? . Hint (not sales!)

 

5.Voice of Market Identifies “Roundabouts” in your Sales Process

 

6.Voice of the Market Identifies Key Buying Triggers

 

7.Increase Sales: Key Buying Seasons Surface in “Voice of Market” Work

 

8.“Voice of the Customer” Increases Profits…Lesson from a Christmas Ham

 

9.Voice of Customer Finds “Sales Secret Weapons”

 

10.Voice of Customer: Understanding the Entire Iceberg of Purchase Decisions Today

 

11.Improve Sales Productivity With Voice of the Customer Research

 

12.What is The Biggest Threat to Customer Voice Research? (It may surprise you!)

 

13.Give Salespeople More Time to Sell With Voice of The Customer Research

 

14.Customer Voice Research Identifies Content Buyers Need Today

 

15.Identify Purchase Influencers with VOC

 

16.The End Of The Greatest Show On Earth and What We Can Learn About Training

 

17 Voice of your customer identifies new markets and channels

 

How does your team capture the voice of your customers today?

 

How often do you conduct this research?

 

Is there any reason you feel you should not understand the voice of your customer today? (please share)

 

Have you experienced other benefits from capturing the voice of your customers?

 

We serve dynamic markets today. How buyers buy today is much different than how they bought 5 to 10 years ago. How buyers buy tomorrow will likely change as well.

 

Market leading organizations understand the importance of capturing your customer voice today and leveraging what they learn to increase sales and profits.

Voice of Customer Identifies New Markets and New Product Applications

 

 

 

 

Capturing and leveraging the voice of your customers is a powerful tool to grow your sales. In addition to helping your sales team realize explosive growth in sales and profits, it also can identify new markets.

My daughter and son in law just bought their first home. Like a lot of starter homes it has a number of fixer upper projects. Each room needed painting, the kitchen cabinets needed updated and the wallpaper in the bathroom had to go. What I learned is, as dad’s we typically get the jobs no one wants like removing layers of wallpaper.

It is a small bathroom but the first day I spent four hours removing wallpaper. I shared my frustrations with a friend and without missing a beat she said…Did you treat the walls with downy fabric softener first? What? I was using a tool to score the wall and a steamer, what will fabric softeners do? I figured it could not hurt so I tried it.

It turns out this is something home remodelers use often to make removing wallpaper much easier and quicker. I searched the Internet and there are article about using fabric softener you typically would buy for your clothing for stripping wallpaper. There is even a You tube video that shares how using fabric softener helps making wallpaper removal easier. A do it yourself website talks about using this process.

It worked so well, if Downy did voice of customer research they might offer small 4-6 ounce bottles at Home Depot and Lowes in the wallpaper isles. I would recommend they charge between $3.50 and $4.95 for these small convenient bottles to be mixed perfectly with one gallon of water when stripping wallpaper.

 

How do your customers use your products and services?

 

What problems do your products solve?

 

Could you have a new market you are serving today that you can expand?

 

Take the time to capture the voice of your customers and learn how they buy, what they need to buy, and how they use your products.

 

You may find new markets and new distribution channels for current products that can grow into profitable new business.

Identify Purchase Influencers with VOC

 

 

One of the leading reasons why sales do not grow as planned is something changed and your team did not adapt. Your salespeople are selling like they have been trained and coached to sell but it is no longer effective. Companies who identify change(s) and more importantly adapt to changes hit their numbers. Understanding the voice of your customer today empowers your team with current buyer information. In this post I will share how the voice of your customer helps your team identify buying influencers.

In my last post I shared how understanding the voice of your customers helps your team create content your buyers need when they buy. Companies who clearly understand what buyers must have to make a purchase today create new content that is used on their web sites and in sales tools to help move buyers through the sales funnel to a closed sale.

Understanding the voice of your customer also helps teams identify people who influence a purchase decision today.

What is an Influencer?

The influencer-marketing manifesto by Brian Solis shares:

Influence is the ability to cause effect or change behavior. Influence is not the act of trying to influence. Nor is an influencer someone who simply has a lot of followers. It should be very clear. Someone who influences does so because they have the capacity to have effect on something…”

What do companies who focus on influencer marketing have to say?

81% of marketers who have executed Influencer Marketing campaigns agree that influencer engagement is effective

65% of brands have plans to spend more on Influencer Marketing this year vs. last

  • Influencer marketing guide

Ad weeks shared an article that Influencer marketing is the next big thing in marketing. The article went on to share …

“There are few things that drive a sale more effectively than a warm word-of-mouth recommendation. A study by McKinsey found that “marketing-induced consumer-to-consumer word of mouth generates more than twice the sales of paid advertising.” And of those that were acquired through word-of-mouth had a 37 percent higher retention rate.

Influencer marketing presents a glaring opportunity for brands to leverage the power of word-of-mouth at scale through personalities that consumers already follow and admire.”

I was asked to help a company that manufactured wheelchair accessible vehicles grow their sales. We spent a considerable amount of time out in the market speaking with consumers in wheelchairs to understand..

Why they buy?

Why they don’t buy?

What is their buying process?

What are the key criteria they must have to buy?

Who are the leading influencers in your purchase?

We discovered for consumers who recently started using a wheelchair because of a medical condition and or an accident their influencers included certified driving instructors, association groups like the MDA, MS Society, Veterans Association , personal injury attorneys and many more. However one key influencer they all shared was their rehabilitation therapist. As one consumer shared with me…

“When I need something or face a new challenge I turn to my rehabilitation therapist who taught me how to get dressed or take a bath again…”

We developed and initiated an influencer-training program where our regional mangers would conduct in service trainings at rehabilitation clinics and educate one of our top buying influencers about our vehicles. We shared how they worked, the right vehicle based on the five most common buyer personas and provided education and information. We connected training and education with these influencers with our local mobility dealers. Our local mobility dealers did a great job of building a relationship with therapists and were on call to answer any questions they may have.

 

The key to influencer marketing is education or as I share in my next book: “Serve don’t sell”. The quickest way to shut down an influencer is if you start selling.

 

Your mission is to provide much needed information and education the influencer can share. If you have created new content as I recommended in my last post you can leave that content with your influencers and or show them where they can find it so they can share it.

 

What our dealers experienced over time was consumers coming into their dealerships already sold so to speak. Their leading influencers shared our dealer who they had a relationship of trust with. The therapists shared content specific to what consumers needed to make a buying decision.

 

Understanding the voice of your customers identifies leading buying influencers in the purchase process.

 

Who are the leading influencers for your buyers?

 

Does your team strategically educate and share content with influencers?

 

Does your team understand the voice of your customers today?

 

Influencers play I critical role in the purchase decision today. As markets shift and change, influencers also change.

 

Make it a key initiative for your team to understand the voice of your customers today and whom they turn to as purchase influencers.

Customer Voice Research Identifies Content Buyers Need Today

 

 

 

Companies who understand the current voice of their customers and markets outperform teams who keep selling the way we have always sold. Customer voice research helps your team identify shifts in how buyers buy today and the criteria they must have to make a buying decision.

 

In my last post I shared how understanding the current customer voice helps sales teams spend more time selling and less time searching for and creating content.

 

Capturing the current voice of your customers has many benefits as I shared in a guest post recently.

 

  • Increased sales
  • Increased Profits
  • Increase in market share
  • Improved sales close rate %’s
  • Identify new product needs
  • Improved operational efficiencies
  • Increase in current customer sales
  • Increase in new customer sales
  • Strong overall buying experience for your customers

 

What about benefits to your buyers?

 

How can understanding the voice of your customers and voice of your markets help your buyers?

 

In a recent article by Sales Benchmark Index they shared how buyers only have so much time to search for information. The article shares how one company uses content to help buyers solve problems.

 

For content marketing to generate revenue you must know exactly what your customers need, where they need it, how often they need it, and in what form they need to consume it. Miss any of these items and your content marketing efforts will fail to contribute to revenue growth in any meaningful way.”

  • Steve Keifer/Leaseaccelerator

 

If your team clearly understands why your buyers buy, why they don’t buy and the criteria they need to buy it puts you far ahead of your competitors to capture buyer mind share.

 

With as much as 57%-70% of the buying process occurring before a buyer speaks with a salesperson, market leading teams take the time to understand what their buyers need to buy today. Teams create content based on the feedback received from customer voice research. They update their sales tools and web site to include the content your buyers are searching for.

 

What content is your buyer actively searching for today to make a buying decision?

 

What criteria does your buyers need today?

 

Does your website provide content your buyers are searching for?

 

Who will buyers perceive as a market leader…someone with the perfect content they must have today, or a company that is not even found in their online research?

 

Capturing the voice of your customers today helps you understand how your buyer buys. In that buying journey it often includes research for meaningful content they must have to make a buying decision. When buyers find that content on your web site it starts to build trust with them.

 

Spend time understanding the voice of your customers and develop content that helps them buy.

 

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