You are ending a sales call and the buyer says: "well I need to think it over and compare with the other proposals I have, I will let you know."
What do you do?
Try some or all of these things:
Pulse Check: "Where do we stand at this point?" Be open to any answer and dig on those answers to understand your current position then deal with that with counterpoints.
No Commit: Set up a follow-up interaction and ask them not to commit to anyone until you two have spoken again. This is especially important if they still have some competitor meeting left. They are not committing to you because they want to see other options, thus you are asking them to not commit to the other options until you have gotten a chance to check back in.
Status Check Commitment: "As you look over your options, can I get your commitment to call me with any questions or concerns, including issues you believe are being won by our competition? I want to help you make the best decision possible and thus if I know where you stand I can see if I can provide a better solution. So can I have that commitment?" Don't just tell them to call you with questions and concerns, ask them to commit to contact. It won't guarantee that contact, but it will improve the chances.
There are three possible approaches (all can be used at once) to deal with "decision time" stalls. And lastly don't forget to sell the value and advantages of your solution and ask for the sale again. I would do that again before I start with these.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Saturday, December 1, 2007
End of the Semester - New Start for BLOG
The Fall 2007 semester is almost complete. I have final role-plays ahead of me but otherwise not much left. I expect to see some great and some not so great final performances. As always I appreciate the general level of enthusiasm and dilligence with which the SBM'ers brought to the class. At times the whole experience burns us all out, but it is certainly a worthwhile ride.
In terms of the blog, my new plan is to have new posts each Thursday starting soon. I had a hard time fitting this into my week-to-week schedule, but I think I have a workable plan and should be MUCH more consistent with the posts. I hope you will join me regularly.
In terms of the blog, my new plan is to have new posts each Thursday starting soon. I had a hard time fitting this into my week-to-week schedule, but I think I have a workable plan and should be MUCH more consistent with the posts. I hope you will join me regularly.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
SBM Alumni Homecoming Party
Attention SBM Alumni, you all invited back to Kzoo on Sat Oct 20 for my annual SBM Alumni Homecoming Party. The party starts at 10:30am and goes until about 3:30pm or so (a few times we have still been socializing at 6pm!). It is at our house at 1623 Grand Avenue, which is "up the Hill" from Waldos (I figure you all know where that is!). I will have food and beverages, so there is no need to bring anything.
Drop me an RSVP if you intend to stop by (RSVP to jim.eckert@wmich.edu), but if you are in town and want to stop over on a last minute decision, don't hesitate to drop in.
So Once again....
SBM Alumni Homecoming
Saturday, October 20
10:30am - 3:30pm (WMU game is at 2pm)
1623 Grand Avenue
RSVP: jim.eckert@wmich.edu
I hope to see you all there!
Drop me an RSVP if you intend to stop by (RSVP to jim.eckert@wmich.edu), but if you are in town and want to stop over on a last minute decision, don't hesitate to drop in.
So Once again....
SBM Alumni Homecoming
Saturday, October 20
10:30am - 3:30pm (WMU game is at 2pm)
1623 Grand Avenue
RSVP: jim.eckert@wmich.edu
I hope to see you all there!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Tigers Event Canceled
Unfortunately we had to cancel the Tigers event on Sept 21.
Look for a new alumni event coming soon.
And look for new posts as soon as the school year starts up.
Jim
Look for a new alumni event coming soon.
And look for new posts as soon as the school year starts up.
Jim
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
ALUMNI EVENT - TIGERS GAME!!!!!!
Mark your calendars now.....
The second annual SBM Networking Event - Tigers Game is now scheduled.
Friday, September 21
7:05 game - food is served 1 hour before in the stadium
Tigers vs. Kansas City*
Comerica Park - Detroit
Tickets for all (students, alumni, and employers) are $35 each, and that includes food, non-alcoholic beverage, and game tickets. Please go to the SBMA website and purchase the tickets via Pay Pal. We only have 90 tickets available so (a) act fast, and (b) limit your purchase to you and a guest at most. ( in case the direct link above doesn't work, use http://www.wmusbma.org/payment.html)
I am in process of sending out an email blast, but in the meantime please start spreading the word yourselves and lets have a great event. Remember to invite your employer if that person/s are interested.
I will have real posts again when I return from my Germany, Austria, and Italy adventure. We are in Munich now and get back to the good-ole US of A on Friday.
* This year I will root for the Tigers! Unless of course they are battling the Red Sox for home field advantage.
The second annual SBM Networking Event - Tigers Game is now scheduled.
Friday, September 21
7:05 game - food is served 1 hour before in the stadium
Tigers vs. Kansas City*
Comerica Park - Detroit
Tickets for all (students, alumni, and employers) are $35 each, and that includes food, non-alcoholic beverage, and game tickets. Please go to the SBMA website and purchase the tickets via Pay Pal. We only have 90 tickets available so (a) act fast, and (b) limit your purchase to you and a guest at most. ( in case the direct link above doesn't work, use http://www.wmusbma.org/payment.html)
I am in process of sending out an email blast, but in the meantime please start spreading the word yourselves and lets have a great event. Remember to invite your employer if that person/s are interested.
I will have real posts again when I return from my Germany, Austria, and Italy adventure. We are in Munich now and get back to the good-ole US of A on Friday.
* This year I will root for the Tigers! Unless of course they are battling the Red Sox for home field advantage.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Preparation and Adaptability
The most fundamental belief I hold about being a successful salesperson is you have to be adaptable. That is, your sales approach and sales behaviors should be customized to fit the specific elements of the selling situation you find your self in.
And my biggest pet peeve about salespeople is that they "wing-it" all the time. Recently, someone said to me, "isn't encouraging an adaptive approach just encouraging people to wing-it?" It was a great question, but I have a very firm answer to it: not at all!
It is my opinion that to be adaptive you need to be prepared. And this is even more critical in selling where the adaptable actions you must take are often while you are face-to-face with a client. It will be your preparation that allows you to quickly and effectively switch gears. It will be the preparation that gives you any alternative gears to switch to. With preperation you are making purposeful and strategic adaptations based on your evaluation of the situation in comparison to the knowledge available to you in your brain. Without that knowledge, you are left with only adaptive intentions, not adaptive abailities. In other words, even if you know you should adapt, without a broad range of knowledge you options are limited to what you know, and that may or may not be what is required of the selling situation.
A simple example. My students in Germany have an assignment due Friday. they needed to research Lyman & Sheets Insurance in Lansing and their sales manager, Dave Drayton. We set up the scenario that they represent Crystal Mountain Resort and they are going to approach Dave about having his next training or business meeting at the resort. Their job is to produce a 1 page research review that is basically 60% the company and 40% the person. I am guessing it will take these students about 2 hours to do well, and that is with them having English as their second language.
So one may claim that no salesperson would bother with this in the "real world". And my reponse would be; that is the problem. Most salespeople would simply head to the sales call or make the phone call blindly and wing the interaction. This going in blind approach means they lack knowledge that could make them adaptable, thus they are going to have to HOPE what they do know is enough and what they don't know doesn't hurt them.
The salesperson who takes an hour and creates their cheat sheet for this customer is already winning. They can start to choose the best approach strategies (Dave, congrats on being named to the Red Cross board!), ask insightful and connected questions, (I saw Lyman & Sheets does alot of work with associations, how has that worked for you?), understand organizational structure (Does Andy Sheets need to get involved in this decision?), and basically create a starting point for themselves that is already adaptive in nature.
Also, such knowledge can make you a better collector of information. Lets say you are selling a CRM software and because you did your research you learned that the staff covers most of Michigan even though they are Lansing based. During the questioning phase you take extra time to collect information related to that travel so you can best recommend the appropriate version of your product (e.g. the most mobile version). Without that pre-knowledge you might have skipped such questions thinking they were just a Lansing business.
So, my guess is you can seek, organize and assimilate information faster then my German sales students, heck you get to do it in your native language. But even if it took you 2 hours, wouldn't it be worth having a more appropriately targeted and adapted sales interaction? Given the difficulty in getting time with people, and the potential long-term value of initiating a relationship with them, I would conclude it would still be worth it.
And my biggest pet peeve about salespeople is that they "wing-it" all the time. Recently, someone said to me, "isn't encouraging an adaptive approach just encouraging people to wing-it?" It was a great question, but I have a very firm answer to it: not at all!
It is my opinion that to be adaptive you need to be prepared. And this is even more critical in selling where the adaptable actions you must take are often while you are face-to-face with a client. It will be your preparation that allows you to quickly and effectively switch gears. It will be the preparation that gives you any alternative gears to switch to. With preperation you are making purposeful and strategic adaptations based on your evaluation of the situation in comparison to the knowledge available to you in your brain. Without that knowledge, you are left with only adaptive intentions, not adaptive abailities. In other words, even if you know you should adapt, without a broad range of knowledge you options are limited to what you know, and that may or may not be what is required of the selling situation.
A simple example. My students in Germany have an assignment due Friday. they needed to research Lyman & Sheets Insurance in Lansing and their sales manager, Dave Drayton. We set up the scenario that they represent Crystal Mountain Resort and they are going to approach Dave about having his next training or business meeting at the resort. Their job is to produce a 1 page research review that is basically 60% the company and 40% the person. I am guessing it will take these students about 2 hours to do well, and that is with them having English as their second language.
So one may claim that no salesperson would bother with this in the "real world". And my reponse would be; that is the problem. Most salespeople would simply head to the sales call or make the phone call blindly and wing the interaction. This going in blind approach means they lack knowledge that could make them adaptable, thus they are going to have to HOPE what they do know is enough and what they don't know doesn't hurt them.
The salesperson who takes an hour and creates their cheat sheet for this customer is already winning. They can start to choose the best approach strategies (Dave, congrats on being named to the Red Cross board!), ask insightful and connected questions, (I saw Lyman & Sheets does alot of work with associations, how has that worked for you?), understand organizational structure (Does Andy Sheets need to get involved in this decision?), and basically create a starting point for themselves that is already adaptive in nature.
Also, such knowledge can make you a better collector of information. Lets say you are selling a CRM software and because you did your research you learned that the staff covers most of Michigan even though they are Lansing based. During the questioning phase you take extra time to collect information related to that travel so you can best recommend the appropriate version of your product (e.g. the most mobile version). Without that pre-knowledge you might have skipped such questions thinking they were just a Lansing business.
So, my guess is you can seek, organize and assimilate information faster then my German sales students, heck you get to do it in your native language. But even if it took you 2 hours, wouldn't it be worth having a more appropriately targeted and adapted sales interaction? Given the difficulty in getting time with people, and the potential long-term value of initiating a relationship with them, I would conclude it would still be worth it.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Be Smart with Your Money.
Your sales manager wants you to go out today and buy a house, a boat, a 65 inch 1020HD flat screen and 3 Movado watches. Why? Because you will then be very hungry to make money (because you NEED that money to pay off all those debts). But that seems like a very stupid way to launch your financial life.
As I have discussed in class - pay yourself first and learn to live within your means. In the long run the freedom that financial security provides will bring much greater happiness then that flat screen. And constantly chasing an inflated standard of living should not be confused with financial security. knowing you can buy things or experiences that are very important to you and knowing that your financial future is relatively bright is a better model of financial security. As a personal example, after years of building equity in our house and living within our means, Paula & I tapped some of our wealth to buy our place Up North. And even with the place Up North (a dream come true for us) we live within our means because we weren't putting a high priced mortgage on top of our already over-debted life (did I just make-up a word?). Instead we were cashing in our past discipline and benefitting from in it in a way that no better TV set or fancier car could have ever given us.
To that end, check out the recent NY Times article on this topic. it is great reading and great advice. Check out his links to past columns at the bottom - also good reading for your financial well being.
I hope you are hungry to sell because you enjoy the challenge and you enjoy the rewards, not because you are handcuffed by unneccessary debt and spending.
As I have discussed in class - pay yourself first and learn to live within your means. In the long run the freedom that financial security provides will bring much greater happiness then that flat screen. And constantly chasing an inflated standard of living should not be confused with financial security. knowing you can buy things or experiences that are very important to you and knowing that your financial future is relatively bright is a better model of financial security. As a personal example, after years of building equity in our house and living within our means, Paula & I tapped some of our wealth to buy our place Up North. And even with the place Up North (a dream come true for us) we live within our means because we weren't putting a high priced mortgage on top of our already over-debted life (did I just make-up a word?). Instead we were cashing in our past discipline and benefitting from in it in a way that no better TV set or fancier car could have ever given us.
To that end, check out the recent NY Times article on this topic. it is great reading and great advice. Check out his links to past columns at the bottom - also good reading for your financial well being.
I hope you are hungry to sell because you enjoy the challenge and you enjoy the rewards, not because you are handcuffed by unneccessary debt and spending.
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