Inside BS Show

Although there are a variety of sales methods in existence, they often feel unnatural.

Think about cold calling. Cold calling is difficult for both parties involved. It’s inconvenient for both you and the customer.

Relationship selling allows you to have a client focus. When you create positive relationships, both you and your customers win.

Here are five ways to become a relationship builder:

First, lead with value. Deliver value by solving a problem or making an introduction for your potential client. This shows them right away that you have something to offer.

Get permission to communicate with them frequently. After you’ve demonstrated value in some way, ask your potential client if they’d like to receive updates. This is a low-pressure way for them to stay in touch with you.

Be interesting. This is a simple yet effective way to be a relationship builder. Just as you enjoy being around interesting friends, your customer will want to spend time with you if you can be magnetic.

Share client success stories. Sharing stories helps clients understand the value that you provide. When you talk about previous clients you’ve helped, it gets people thinking about the value you can provide.

Lastly, continue to offer value. Check in with your clients every couple of months and ask them if they’re having any problems. If you can help them, you can strengthen your relationship.

Having a client focus allows you to develop a relationship built on solving problems, rather than on selling. This will take away a lot of the pain that comes from traditional sales methods, and will ensure that you develop a lasting partnership.

What sets one sales guru apart from the next? How do you find someone to look up to? In this video, I talk about how to choose a mentor whose wisdom and experience can help you succeed.

Selling is an integral part of any business, so it’s smart to learn sales techniques and become the best salesperson you can be. A quick online search yields dozens of sales coaches with many different approaches.

I’ve been asked, “What makes you different from any other sales guru?” I became a sales expert by working in the trenches. I learned to sell in each of my roles as an employee, business leader, and business owner.

Here’s how to choose a mentor and get better at selling:

1. Find someone who has accomplished what you aim to do. If you want to be an entrepreneur, seek out a successful startup owner who’s willing to share what they’ve learned.

2. Find someone with a style that’s similar to yours. What’s your preferred sales method? Does your mentor’s tactics align with what you’re comfortable doing?

3. When you find a salesperson you want to emulate, immerse yourself in their content and take in all the advice and information you can use.

How can you tell if a sales guru is the real deal? Knowing how to choose a mentor takes learning how to be perceptive and selective. Don’t be fooled by first impressions or appearances.

If a salesperson impresses you, dig deeper. How did they earn their money? Did they grow their business little by little through hard work and determination, or did success fall into their lap?

Chances are, you’ll learn more from someone who had to scratch and claw their way to the top.

In this show, I explain why being able to forge relationships with clients is an essential skill in the B2B selling process. Think you can’t do it? Well, it’s possible IF you build great relationships.

To show how this can be achieved, I describe a moment in my own career when I was expected to shorten the sales cycle to just 60 days. I had just started working for a company that developed selection tools for high-ticket clients. My boss was in a bind because his brother-in-law had just left the company and had taken one of their biggest accounts with him. My boss came to me because he wanted his client back. 

I was new to the B2B selling process, but I knew that if I wanted a chance at getting the client back, I would have to talk to the right people. I compiled a list of possible decision-makers within the target business and I contacted them one by one. Then I set up a training seminar and invited several of them to attend. Eventually, I was able to develop a rapport with one of those people, who, with my help, was put in a position where she could hire our company.

Now, this process was not easy. It takes a LOT of time and energy to forge relationships with prospective clients. In my case, I talked to numerous people within the target company and I even helped develop presentations for the woman who eventually hired us. 

However, the extra mile that I went paid off. By shortening a normally months-long B2B selling process to only 60 days, I was able to save my company a lot of money. If you can forge relationships based on trust and mutual understanding, you too can quickly close a high-ticket sale.

What do you do when a customer clearly thinks your price is way too high? As you’ll see in the video, the key to soothing a client’s worries about price comes down to creating customer perceived value – that is, showing them that you are essential to solving whatever problem they are experiencing.

Every customer has a problem. That’s why they come to you -- to look for a solution. The more you can get the customer to think about their problem and the more you can amplify its significance in their minds, the more customer perceived value you will create.

This is the key to overcoming customer fears. You do it not by twisting their arm, and certainly never by lowering your price. You allay their fears by getting them to understand the role that you and your product or service can play in solving their problem. It’s never the case that your price is way too high. If you can solve the problem at hand, the price will become irrelevant because it will save them money in the long run.

So, how do you get the customer to focus on the problem? How do you create customer perceived value? You can start by asking them how long they’ve been having their problem and by showing them how much money they can save by solving it. If you can do this, customers won’t be able to say, “Your price is way to high,” because they will know that the solution is worth every penny.

Here’s the quickest way to get referrals and sell to new clients: Leverage relationships you’ve built with the people in your personal network – the family, friends, and acquaintances who know, like, and trust you. Relationship based sales are efficient and effective for winning long-term clients who’ll be a boon to your business.

We each have a natural network of about 250 people. Think of all the people on your email contacts list. Your extended family, former coworkers, buddies from college, and everyone else on that list are your ticket to meeting new potential clients.

In this video, I talk about how to leverage relationships you’ve already established in order to create new sales relationships. When the people in your personal network introduce you to the folks in their own networks, BOOM – you’ve got new sales leads. 

Devote some time and attention to your current relationships. Use any relationship management system to keep track of contact names, email addresses, and correspondence. Send out personalized emails and follow up with phone calls. Keep in touch WEEKLY.

When you reconnect with people, ask how you might help them with their endeavors, and share how things are going for you. You want everyone – even Grandma – to understand what you do and what separates you from your competition. 

It’s important to make your relationships symbiotic. As you leverage relationships to benefit your sales, also look for ways to deliver value to your network. Introduce the people in your personal network to one another, if it helps with their goals or problems. 

If you’re overlooking your natural network, you’re leaving money on the table. Reach out to the people you know – it’s the fastest, easiest way to get golden referrals and make lucrative sales!

This show is all about how to select a sales coach.

There are lots of people out there who look ultra successful (private jets, $200,000 cars) but the only success they've had comes from taking money from you.

If you are interested in sales coaching or if you're looking for a sales coach or sales mentor, I share some tip on selecting him/her.

First: Look for someone who has done what you want to do?

Second: Look for the free sales training from this person and than try some of it. If the it works, then consider investing.

Third: Ask for references. Call the people who have worked with the sales mentor and see what they think.

Fourth: Invest in a small program or event before spending big money.

Five: Make sure your personality and the sales trainer's personality are a fit.

Sales mentoring and coaching is valuable and you can really benefit but you have to find the right person.

Don't go for the boss in the bently. You don't need a guru. Try a little from everyone and follow my tips to get the right fit in a sales coach.

Looking for a high net worth client to boost your sales? In this show, I talk about how to connect with that ideal potential client. Affluent customers are out there and ready to buy. The trick is to find them and build rapport with them, so you can ultimately add them to your client list.

Selling is all about getting in front of your potential clients, building relationships, and closing deals from there. To create affinity with wealthy sales prospects, you need to take an interest in things that matter to them.

Think it’s improbable that you’ll connect with a high net worth client? What do you have in common with rich people, anyway? Here’s my suggestion: join their circles. Go where rich people go and do what they do.

Whatever your current habits, hobbies, and interests, expand them to include what wealthy people typically do. Play golf, go horseback riding, or learn about fine wine. You don’t necessarily have to participate – just read up or take classes on hobbies your affluent customers enjoy.

Get involved with community organizations that wealthy people support, like Rotary and Kiwanis clubs. Put your kids in clubs and on sports teams with their kids. Buy season subscriptions to ballet, opera, or symphony performances. Believe in the mission of a local charity? Join their efforts!

Strategically refining your downtime pursuits puts you in front of your next high net worth client. You make a connection and build a shared affinity by demonstrating an interest in what your ideal client loves.

But as you network, be careful not to overtly sell. First, give value and expect nothing in return. Doing business with affluent customers will come in time and will naturally become the norm.

Ready to hit it out of the park when you make your next sales pitch to prospective C level clients? In this show, I talk about solution selling, how to connect with CEOs, and how to pitch B2B deals to both public and private companies.

Nobody appreciates solutions more than C-suite executives. CEOs will either respond to you directly, or they’ll refer you to the right person within their company. With their endorsement, you’ll pitch from a stronger position.

Everyone assumes it’s difficult to break through to C level clients in big, publicly traded companies. But that’s not the case. Why? Because all the issues of public companies are made public! 

Read your prospective company’s quarterly 10-K, and you’ll find financial information, snags they’ve encountered, and plans for the future. Also, stock analysts regularly report on publicly traded companies so that investors know whether to buy or sell. Dig into those reports and identify issues to address. 

Once you know what problems your prospective client faces, do some solution selling. Bombard the CEO with letters, emails, and calls outlining how you can help or people you can introduce her/him to. Don’t talk about selling, talk about helping. Send testimonials and examples of problems you’ve solved. 

To pitch solutions to a private company, look for press reports indicating what’s happening in the company. Use LinkedIn to connect with the CEO. Finally, network with bankers who can introduce you to the C level leaders of local private businesses. 

Here's the bottom line: Start at the top. Connect with C level clients and pitch to their problems. Solution selling is all about doing your research, delivering value, and building lasting relationships with business decision makers.

These discovery questions for sales are designed to help you build healthy relationships with your clients.

Who is your ideal client? 

Before you start selling to a prospect, you need to develop trust and value. With this first question, your goal is to figure out how you can help the prospect by helping them find their own clients.

Who can I introduce you to who would change everything for you? 

Similar to the first question, this is another way of creating value for your prospect before you even start talking about selling. If you can introduce them to someone who can help them, they’ll be more likely to spend money with you.

If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?

If a prospect’s answer to this question is to connect with a certain person, do what you can to introduce them. If they need something else, figure out if you can help them.

Why is this important to you personally? 

This question is really a follow-up to the previous two. Why is this person important? Or, why do you want to change that one thing? Part of a consultative sales approach is attaching emotional value to a problem, which adds trust to your relationship.

Would you like some help with that? 

This is where you close the deal. Hopefully, at this point you’ve used a consultative sales approach to build rapport. Now, you can focus on solving his or her problem. However, it’s important to ask the four preceding questions first. Discovery questions for sales are meant to bring you and the prospect closer so that selling feels as natural as possible.

In this show we discuss how to set your strategy for 2020. 

This includes running your business like a CEO. That means working "on" your business instead of "in" your business.

There are five areas of focus for a business owner. They are:

• Administration
• Accounting
• Operations
• Sales & Marketing
• Business Strategy

You should be spending most of your time focused on just two of those areas. we discuss why and how you make that happen. 

I also share with you my five favorite sales & marketing strategies for 2020.