The Pedestal Group

I meet with a lot of sales people wanting to sell products and services to my clients.  I am constantly amazed at how bad sales people can be! Here’s the latest tips I’ve picked up from those meetings.

If I get to the meeting location first it isn’t personal.  Twice I’ve arrived 5 minutes early for a meeting this week and had the sales rep annoyed. And showed it! Before we’d even been introduced!  Seriously?  If you wanted to buy the coffee, buy yours and grab a gift card.  Don’t get annoyed!

READ our website.  Seriously. Please.  Develop a list of questions before the meeting and see if any of the answers are on the website.  I had one person tell me proudly that he had read the site.  But then he didn’t understand  the service my client provides.  Foolishly, I started worrying we hadn’t written that page clearly.  After several minutes, he finally confessed that he “looked” at it but didn’t get into the detail.  Come on people!

You know how sales trainers tell you to repeat back what the person says to show you were listening?  Unless you are a Freudian therapist, turning the exact words I said into a question is annoying, not demonstrating you were listening.  One sales rep asked about our target audience.  I answered and he said, “so I hear you saying [insert my exact words], right?” Without some interpretation or at least changing the order of the words, he was just a parrot.  Not someone understanding what I needed.

So, the morale here is listen to sales trainers but be smart, think about the intent of the training and be sure to be respectful.  A sales call isn’t about YOU – it is about THEM.  Or if you want to work with my clients, its about ME.  And I get there early. Deal with it.

I know we’ve talked about this before, but I was again reminded of it in a series of interviews I’m doing right now. This is an old sales axiom I learned years ago through Micro Electronics’ sales training program and it has served me well in many situations. The idea is simple: you put out your pitch and then shut up. Whoever speaks next has “bought” the idea. So if you put something out there and then keep talking, the only one buying is you. See what I mean?

Many years ago I had to make a tough pitch to a vice president known for being a ruthless negotiator. The team elected me to be the voice but I was definitely nervous. I chanted “he who speaks first buys” all the way up the steps to the meeting. Once there, I laid out our very well thought out plan and then shut up. He reviewed the material, checked his watch, and then simply stared at me. At the time I would have told you it was an hour and half (and my team completely agreed) but I’m sure it was less than a minute. At the end of that time, he agreed. Signed the document and walked out. At the door he told us we’d done a good job. WAHOO!!!!

Later, he stopped me in the hallway and asked why I didn’t say anymore. I told him I had made my case and there was nothing more to say. He laughed and waited. So this time I bought and told him “he who speaks first buys”. He got a big laugh and said he hoped the sales people he had trained had learned the lesson so well.

It came up again this week because I’m conducting interviews for a client. A candidate had a difficult situation in his background and I had to ask him about it. He explained and I sympathized and then explained I needed to pause for a sec to make sure my notes were correct. While I was doing that, he continued talking. And talking. And talking. Seriously. I get that he wanted to make sure I had the right impression and understood what happened wasn’t his fault, but after he talked SO MUCH, I started to wonder why. He was buying, but I wasn’t.

So this week – try it. Put an idea out there whether that’s to a coworker, a client, a prospect, your significant other, your child, whoever and be quiet. It is amazing how powerful it is!

I like to help companies develop their unique positioning by asking what they want their clients to say about them. For example, your best client is at a party talking to their counterpart at another company. The counterpart says they can’t get anywhere on X project (with X project being what you do). Your client says, “say no more! I know who you need to call. Call (you) because…….”. What’s the because? What does your client really value? The beauty of this is if you really don’t know, you can call your best client, pose that scenario and have them TELL YOU! Instantly you have your differentiator. And the best part about asking this way is it helps your client think about getting you referrals. Double bonus.

Now take that a step further. Now you know what they say. Happy with that? Happy telling people at a meeting, “we do XYZ and our clients tell us we are the only company they’ve brought in that actually understands what they needed.” You certainly sound more credible and people like knowing others agree. But what do you really want them to say? That’s your next strategic direction. Set up the self-fulfilling prophecy. If you decide you want your client to go to an event, talk to someone and say X, you will provide X.

So how are YOU different?