Practical Wisdom from Kahle Way Sales Systems

My wife is a crises counselor. You would think that, by the very nature of the word crises, she would see a continually changing group of clients who were dealing with the occasional crises. Not so. She frequently engages with the same group of folks who lurch from one crises to another. They never learn from their mistakes, continue the same behavior that brought on the original crises, and find themselves in another one. The pattern repeats.

That pattern of behavior – not learning from the past and continuing the same pattern of behavior that brought on the crises – is far more prevalent than one might expect

Dealing with prospects is one of the most daunting and frustrating parts of the salesperson's job. In this podcast, I respond to two questions from salespeople about key aspects of this difficult task. You'll gain some ideas you can use today.

There are, in the world of sales and sales systems, certain practices that have such an enormous impact on the company and the market that they are in a special class of activities that call for executive involvement at the highest levels.

One of that handful of activities is the creation of a value-added position (VAP). Next to the company's vision, mission and values statements, a VAP contains the most important words an organization can create. It often forms the first impression the market forms of your company, and frequently bounces around in their head like a tune from their teenage years.

I recently came across some research that confirmed what many of us in the profession of educating sales people have known for years: That purchasers would be "much more likely" to buy from a sales person if that sales person would just "listen" to the customer. (1) The survey found that some of the worst offenders were experienced sales people.

Listening is one of the four fundamental competencies of a professional sales person, and yet, the profession is, in general, so poor at it that most customers remark on our inability to do it well.

In this podcast, I share three techniques to help you to listen better.

Goal-setting is one of those hallowed practices that belong in every leader's arsenal. We've all heard that people who set goals are far more successful than those who don't. And every well-run business has a policy and a practice of setting annual goals for its various operational departments.

And yet, there are times and situations where it may be appropriate to do something else.

"Every profession expects the serious practitioner of that profession to continually seek out the best practices of that profession, and then to roll them into his/her routine with discipline."

That statement comes out of my mouth in almost every seminar or keynote that I present. Sometimes I follow it up with the ironic observation that there is, apparently, one exception to that rule – and that is the profession of sales, where we don't expect anyone to improve.

That is, of course, nonsense. The truth is that better salespeople produce better results and the best salespeople produce the best results. And better sales people continually imbed best practices into their habits. That's how they become better. They practice.

Becoming a learning organization – gaining the ability for an organization and its people to change in response to the changing world around them -- may be the ultimate success skill for the Information Age. For adults on the job, learning is synonymous to changed behavior.

In the most trying circumstances, having a greater purpose can be a powerful mechanism to see you through. Here's my personal story.

We are in the middle of some difficult times. Rather than belabor that point, I'd like to come to the heart of the problem: What do we do?

In an earlier podcast, I shared some suggestions to help individuals navigate these turbulent waters. In this podcast, I'm focusing on sales forces. So, this is specifically aimed at owners, CEOs, Chief Sales Officers and other sales leaders. Here's one person's recommendations for what to do to weather this storm and come out the other side better and stronger.