Why We Do What We Do

As part of our bi-weekly Sandler training, we reviewed and discussed a video from Simon Sinek, leadership expert and author of several best-selling books, including Start with Why.

One of the key takeaways in our class was that when most businesses describe their mission, they describe ‘what’ they do and ‘how’ they do it, but they rarely touch on ‘why’ they do what they do. When we address our ‘why’ and our ‘how,’ we access the feeling part of our brain. As Simon Sinek described it, this is the limbic brain, the most ancient part of the brain – the part of the brain that controls our feelings, our behavior, and our decision-making. Speaking about ‘what’ we do does not address the most important part of the brain.

What does this mean for salespeople?

We know that prospects are motivated to purchase based on “pain.” The feeling part of the brain is moving them to take action (behavior) and ultimately, they will make a decision. When we share a mission that starts with our ‘why’ we’re already addressing the pain that our customers experience.  We are, according to Sinek, “talking to the part of the brain that controls behavior.” Our ‘why’ becomes the hook that attracts a customer’s attention and brings them toward us.

Simon Sinek’s research led him to conclude that organizations that lead with their ‘why’ are best positioned for success in the marketplace because they speak to the portion of the brain that controls decision-making.

After our training, we looked closely at our mission statement and realized we also focused heavily on the ‘what,’ but not the ‘why.’ Our ‘what’ includes lead generation and sales training our ‘how’ is described as unique lead generation techniques with highly trained, highly motivated sales professionals. We decided to tweak our statement to incorporate a ‘why,’ and we believe this makes our mission statement stronger.  Our revised mission statement is:

Our goal at One of a Kind Sales is to help businesses stop leaving money on the table. We do this by PROUDLY delivering unique lead generation by setting qualified appointments and providing top-of-the-line sales training for our clients and their employees.

If you’d like to explore opportunities to leverage our capabilities on behalf of your organization, we’d love to talk to you.  Give us a call at 908-879-2911.

The Power of Investing in Yourself: Sandler Sales Summit 2023

I’m feeling revitalized! I just returned from the annual Sandler Sales Leadership Summit in Orlando. I’ve been a proponent and student of the Sandler Selling System for the past 10 years. Each year I have attended this particular summit. Why? Because I always come away inspired and motivated having learned something new and having interacted with many other highly motivated sales professionals.

What Impressed Me?

The “BAT” Triangle.  This is a foundational Sandler concept that describes three elements required for success in any activity. BAT stands for “Behavior,” “Attitude,” and “Technique.”  David Sandler believed that the most important of these is Behavior.   Engaging in the right behaviors can favorably impact your Attitude, and as you use these behaviors, your Technique will improve. David Sandler said, “You cannot manage results, only behavior.”

This makes sense to me. If we focus on results and have no supportive behaviors directed at achieving those results, we end up frustrated about our performance. This brings to my mind a scenario in which a sales rep is worried about achieving her sales plan, but not making any sales calls.

At One of a Kind Sales, we see daily proof that intentional, consistent deployment of key behaviors or practices drives our results. And those results support our positive attitude (team morale). As a leader, I reinforce those behaviors with training focused on honing our technique.

And Next Year?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, ‘I’ve been doing this for my entire career, so I don’t need to go to a conference where I will hear something I’ve possibly heard before.’  But I know I will gain a different way of seeing things, reinforcement of best practices, and a strong commitment to continuing this proven approach.  As a result, I will continue to attend these Sandler Leadership Summits. (I’ve already reserved my spot for next year!)

My team and I engage in weekly Sandler training sessions. The Sandler Selling System has contributed directly to our success and I believe it sets us apart from the rest. You need to invest in yourself so that you can utilize your best skills on behalf of your clients. As my team and I work with our clients, we know that we are using best-in-class approaches and we can consistently get results, even in an increasingly competitive environment.

At One of a Kind Sales, we love selling. We are experts at cold calling, in particular. If you want to discuss how we can help you and your team, please contact us at 908-879-2911.

Should You Answer a Question with a Question?

“Answer a question with a question” is a Sandler Selling System rule that is sometimes controversial. Sales teams I’ve worked with often express the concern that using this approach could lead to them appearing evasive or “too salesy”.  But as with all “rules” you have to apply them with skill and understand the objective.

Why ask so many questions?

‘Question asking’ is how we salespeople gain a true understanding of our prospect’s needs. The objective is not to avoid answering questions but to avoid shutting down the valuable conversation that leads to a deeper understanding of the prospect and their specific situation.  Without this understanding, we may not really know whether our solution is a good fit for their problem and we may misunderstand the value that our solution holds for this prospect.

I think that we should think of ourselves as diagnosticians when we have a sales meeting.  Consider this: If you go to a doctor with a headache, she will ask questions to identify the cause. Sometimes the cause is not obvious. If the doctor just treats the symptom, it is possible that the symptom might not go away, or it could disappear in the short term, but return because the underlying cause wasn’t addressed.  Likewise, we have found that what is first expressed by some prospects as the reason they might need your solution, may only be the visible expression of a deeper issue. Solving this deeper issue is where our value lies.

So the message in this rule is that ‘question asking’ is integral to the sales process and we ought to focus on asking questions and having a conversation rather than showing that we have all the answers.  It’s good for the prospect to know that we have the expertise, but it shouldn’t be at the expense of learning as much as we can about our prospects.

Apply this rule with skill

Always use your good judgment to assess whether you have learned enough about your prospect. Take your cues from the information that you’re receiving and from how your prospect is responding to you. Open-ended questions are key to uncovering hidden problems and key motivators that may be important to your ability to successfully close the sale. For example:

  • Why is this important to you?
  • Can you tell me more about this?
  • What else happens when this problem crops up?
  • Why do you think this is happening?

If we focus on the conversation first and foremost, we will learn enough to know when it is the right time to ask our favorite question, “What would you like to have happen next?”

At One of a Kind Sales, we love selling and we are experts at cold calling, in particular. If you would like to discuss how we can help you and your team please contact us at 908-879-2911.

What to Do When They are “Thinking About It”

I was recently at a meeting about sales efficiency where a debate broke out about what salespeople should do when a prospect says, “I’ll think about it.” Participants were divided. Some felt that this meant that the selling process was not complete and they should continue to engage the prospect. Others strongly believed that once a prospect tells you “I’ll think about it,” they should move to the next prospect. I firmly believe you should move on.

As a professional salesperson, I’ve had hundreds of conversations with prospects over the years. Because I’m focused on my sales objective and the need to be efficient with my time, it’s critical to know when to move on. We all know that we should not rush to close a prospect. We all know that we should be looking for signs to disqualify a prospect throughout the discussion. When these signs appear early, perhaps it’s easier to recognize that the prospect is not a fit for our solution and end the discussion. But when the signs show up later, they can be more difficult to recognize, perhaps because we are more emotionally invested. But that verbal message, “I’ll think about it” is a clear red flag to me. To confirm whether it’s really time to move on, I might ask, “Is there anything else I can tell you?”, and if the prospect says “yes,” I will address the question. But if the answer is “no,” then it’s clearly time for me to move on.

Why move on? Continuing to sell to a person who is telling you that they need to think about it after you’ve had robust discussions delays you from moving to a prospect that you might be able to more readily convert. Frankly, “I’ll think about it” is really the kiss of death.  Experience tells me that this prospect is not likely to make a positive decision and I would be wasting time continuing the conversation.

You may be thinking, ‘well I’ve spent all of this time getting to know this prospect and I hate to let it drop.’   But that is not what you should do.  You should move the prospect into a nurturing program with a plan to revisit them at some point to see if conditions have changed.

It might be very attractive to continue discussions with someone with whom you’ve already developed a relationship in the hope that they will convert. But you really are fooling yourself. We need to be clear-eyed about what’s going on in a sales engagement. Ideally, we never ask for the sale until the time is right.  At that point, if they say they still need to “think about it,” it’s time to gracefully move on.

At One of a Kind Sales, we love selling and we are experts at sales and cold calling, in particular. If you would like to discuss how we can help you and your team please contact us at 908-879-2911.

What Drives Sales Leadership Success?

Recently, I had a discussion with a sales leader who told me that she believes her success – and that of her team – is primarily determined by the sales compensation plan.  While this may play a strong role, in my experience, sales leaders need to engage in three critical activities beyond compensation and incentives to be effective. These include: having good goals and metrics; hiring and retaining the right sales team members; and providing ongoing coaching, training, and mentoring to the team.

Goals and Metrics

Understanding how your team is performing relative to expectations is critical to identifying where the focus needs to be placed. We’re all familiar with the acronym “SMART” when it comes to defining your goals. Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound.  As an example of a SMART goal, at One of a Kind Sales, we require each sales team member to make 20 calls per hour.

In addition, a good CRM is critical to tracking performance goals versus metrics. While a CRM may be an investment for your organization, being able to easily track performance gives you the opportunity to assess and make adjustments as needed.

The Right Team

Working with team members who have a passion for their work is important.  As a sales leader, you need to be able to assess whether an individual demonstrates that passion and is a good fit for your team.  For example, at One of a Kind Sales, we value sales training and coaching.  Our team members need to love learning and have a desire to continuously improve their sales skills. We also value sharing key learnings based on experiences with prospects as well as sharing success stories.  We look for that willingness to share in our candidates.

Sales Training

Once you have the right team, keeping the team ‘on point’ with strong sales skills is critical. By investing in ongoing sales training, you strengthen the capabilities of your sales team and improve their ability to reach and potentially exceed sales goals. If individuals are identified as underperformers, sales training and coaching may help them correct their course. If not, it’s important to determine whether or not they should be in that role. In addition, when your team sees that you are investing in their skills, it demonstrates that you are interested in their personal development and increases their commitment to the job.

At One of a Kind Sales, we love selling and we are experts at cold calling, in particular. If you would like to discuss how we can help you and your team please contact us at 908-879-2911.

Three Tips to Handle Objections

For many inexperienced salespeople, the first thing they think about when it comes to selling a product or service is the fact that they will hear objections.  They dread the word “no” and try to avoid objections even when they can clearly see that they exist. They view objections as a minefield which must be avoided.  They plow ahead with their pitch hoping they’ll say some magic words that will make them evaporate. Unfortunately, they most often experience the unaddressed concerns rising up at some point and ‘tanking’ the sale.

Our One of a Kind sales team has completed thousands of cold calls.  And there is no doubt that salespeople will hear the word “no” many times.  But in our experience, we find it best to acknowledge a prospect’s objections and quickly determine whether they can be overcome. When you can overcome them, you can proceed with a greater likelihood of success. If you can’t, you then move on to another prospect quickly.

Disrupt the Pattern

Cold calls have a typical flow.  The way this happens may vary but at the end of a preliminary introduction, our team members may say something like, “how does that sound to you?” It is at this point when the prospect might say, “I’m fine – I don’t need anything.” That is a “no.”  The prospect’s expectation is that the salesperson will say “thanks for your time” and end the call.  This is the normal “pattern” of a sales call.  But our professional selling team is prepared with rebuttals that disrupt the typical pattern.

Prepare “Rebuttals”

A disruptive response to a “no” might be, “Wow, how did you manage to avoid this problem?”  What this approach does is keep the conversation going. Follow up questions could be: “Can you tell me how you did that?” or “How long did that take?” Followed by “I guess you must be hitting your revenue target then.” Moving further with “Would you like to improve that performance?”

You’ve read before that we believe in using scripts because they help us internalize our messaging.  Because we prepare in advance, we have an arsenal of rebuttals at the ready.  So, when the “no” happens, while it may be disconcerting, we don’t have to “figure out” what to say next.

Three Times is Enough

We adopt approach of using three rebuttals to a “no.” The rebuttals are statements we’ve prepared in advance (incorporated into our script) based on the objections we anticipate. Once we’ve had three unsuccessful attempts at this, we know it’s time to move on. We conclude the interaction, and we actually ask for a referral. For example, we’ll say, “it’s clear we can’t help you today, but perhaps we can in the future. Is there anyone else in your sphere of influence who might be able to benefit from our services?” You’d be surprised – we do get referrals in this way!

At One of a Kind Sales, we are sales experts, and we love cold calling!  If you need help taking your sales team to the next level, give us a call at 908-879-2911 to learn how we can help.