Sales Today

Contrary to popular belief, commercial negotiation is not about acquiring a toolbox of clever tactics to secure victories.

Rather, it revolves around creating success for oneself without compromising the other party's interests.

Keld Jensen describes the art that involves comprehending the mathematics of negotiation and uncovering asymmetric value —an approach he refers to as NegoEconomics.

In essence, commercial negotiation revolves around optimizing monetary outcomes, increasing profitability, and mitigating risk, costs, and liabilities.

It's a quest for genuine and tangible results, leaving no room for smoke and mirrors.

By fostering an environment where open communication thrives, true understanding and mutually beneficial agreements can emerge.

This refreshing approach builds trust and paves the way for lasting SMARTnerships.

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What is holding you back?

There are some common mistakes Shane Ray Martin sees on sales and negotiation.

When we move too fast, we not only miss things but remove the opportunity to 'out care' the competition.

Also, by failing to take time to help customers understand where they are today and want to be in the future we might not create the tension required for a decision to be made.

We discuss the power of persistence and in having a plan to see us through to a successful outcome.

The top salespeople take care and invest in themselves and are willing to go 'all in' to achieve their (well defined) goals.

Do you care about yourself enough to succeed?

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Are you scared for your job?

Today salespeople are needed for various types of selling.

Anton Dobrzhanskiy and Miro Putkonen explain how while some types of selling, like transactional, could become obsolete due to AI-driven automation, other types like consultative, solution, and provocative selling might still require human salespeople to understand customer needs, solve unique problems, and challenge customer assumptions.

However, advancements in AI and AGI could potentially allow for the automation of these complex sales processes as well.

There are some uniquely human aspects of sales, such as building relationships, empathy, and understanding customers on a deeper level.

Trust and rapport are likely to remain important in sales and AI might struggle to replicate this.

Ultimately AI can be used to augment and empower human salespeople, rather than replace them.

For now anyway…

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Connect with Miro on LinkedIn

Is your cold call structure fit for purpose?

If you are trying to call senior executives it might not be.

Martin Stevens shares both why and how he goes for the top.

Based on a playbook that determines whether offering/adding/creating value the structure he uses focuses on outcomes and problems.

Specifically framed in that order after a pattern interrupt and upfront contract this allows identification of 'pain' that can be explored in the rest of the call.

A dialogue based on questions and short success stories allows the level of curiousity and emotional intensity to build.

The stories must allow the customer to identify as the hero and make them sufficienty excited to want to know how they can acheive a similar state.

Are you talking to customers about them or you?

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How does a professionally trained actor apply their craft in the world of sales?

Scott Purves shares how he uses skills developed in one profession help those develop in another.

Some of the techniques might be predictable but others are surprising.

He explains how actors study human behaviour and in doing so also develop increased self-awareness.

We talk about whether a seller learning some of these skills might become less authentic and more likely to appear to be something they are not.

Also up for discussion is how to manage mental state, especially when under pressure and why scripts and practice are some of the areas that many salespeople could spend more time on.

Are you giving your audience your best?

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Why does money have such an emotional effect?

Jason Graystone explains how it is fundamentally linked to survival and how mismanagement can cause our brain to act in a way that is not conducive to good selling.

Being needy unattractive to customers and hampers the ability to foster real connection.

The physiological effect also means we will be unable to think clearly which is a painful irony when it is our job as sales professionals to help customers do that.

We talk about ways to keep our emotions is check and neutralise the negative feelings that can hold us back as well as the paradox of 'working to live' and becomng a slave to money.

Do you deserve to be rich?

Find out more: JasonGraystone.com

Link to Jason's podcast

Customers are weird.

They don't do what they say they will do and don't act how we think they 'should'.

Melina Palmer is a sales conversion expert with a personal mission to make business more effective and brain friendly.

In this episode she translates a few key concepts of behavioural economics (the study and science of why people buy - or not) and provides simple, actionable tips that can be used immediately.

We talk about framing messages in the right way and why certain biases are predictable and can be addressed with a little thought and understanding.

Also, up for discussion is why change can be so overwhelming if we think too big and how stories plus the way we present can make people feel different.

So do you know what your customer wants?

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Connect with Melina on LinkedIn

Link to Melina's book: https://thebrainybusiness.com/salestoday

The good news is corporate buyers are human!

They want to avoid potential pain which may include loss of control, loss of approval, loss of status or even losing their job.

Getting it wrong could result in these consequences but if they get it right they move towards potential status, money and success.

But the brain is not as linear or logical as we think and a large proportion of decisions are made by the subconscious involving emotion.

Karen explains that the art of Buyer-ology is the science of knowing your buyer so you can tailor your selling approach to move them from current pain to future pleasure.

She shares the BUYER model to help structure activity to achieve this.

Do you understand your customers enough to do this?

What a time to be an AI enthusiast!

Denise has been this for over 15 years and is watching with interest the explosion of attention that artificial intellience has received since ChatGPT hit the world.

We talk about some of the tasks that AI can make more effective including forecasting and lead nurturing and our attention then turns to where we need to proceed with caution.

Will an overuse of this technology lead to robotic outputs?

Might we be unwittingly promoting misinformation from the 'hallucinations' AI is prone to?

We discuss ways to mitigate these risks which revolve around making sure we are deliberate about including the human element in customer interactions to make sure it is clear where the value is coming from.

We wonder if AI has already created some bad human habits that has made individuals reliant on it 'because its easier'.

Thinking from a customer perspective - would you want to hang out with someone like this?

Use it or lose out!

There is massive excitement about the effect of AI in sales though not so many people are talking about how to actually use it.

Plenty of hype but no real applications unless you buy something with an integration.

I'm interested in how anyone can use the most common free tool available - ChatGPT - to make immediate impact.

Here I share how to 'get inside the customers head' to ensure more valuable conversations.

Prompts to set your preparation apart can be sequenced

• Role
• Aim
• Pressure
• Impact
• Desire

Early adopters using this thinking have a chance to stand out.

What's stopping you?