Selling Made Simple, Salesman Podcast, This Week In Sales, And More...

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Selling Made Simple, Salesman Podcast, This Week In Sales, And More... episodes

March 27, 2020 How To Use Influence To Sell / Part 2

In this episode we are looking at the three remaining principles of influence following on from what we covered in yesterday’s video. If you haven’t checked that out yet, click the link in the description to watch that video first.

So if you’re ready to learn how to use influence principles to sell your local supermarket on letting you buy more than two tins of beans during this pandemic crisis, then hit that thumbs up button and lets get into it…

#3 Likeability

The first principle of influence that we’re covering in this video is
the principle of likeability. You know the cliche, people buy from those they
know, LIKE and trust? The trust principle of likeability is why this is
effective.

There is a tonne of scientific evidence that proves that we buy from
those we feel similar to. And we we’re more likely to find people similar to us
more likeable.

Going back to the tribal days, we’re programmed to trust the people in
our tribe and fear those who are not so this makes total sense.

If your brain had to work out who it could trust with every interaction, you’d never get anything done. Instead, it uses these shortcuts.

Likeability = more trust = less uncertainty = More likely to buy.

So how do we become more likeable? This comes down to building rapport before
trying to shove your sales pitch down someone’s throat.

Avoid becoming the stereotype of the arrogant, brash and aggressive sales
professional. That style of selling might have worked in the past but it
doesn’t work anymore.

Instead, to increase your levels of likeability, find out what your
prospects like to do, what forms of entertainment they enjoy and what their
interests are so that you can try and find some overlap between their world and
your own.

#4 Authority

The influence principle of authority is
perhaps the easiest principle to understand yet most salespeople don’t feel
comfortable implementing it.

You have the ability right this second to call yourself an authority in your industry. You know more about your product or service than anyone else out there right?

An expert is defined as:

“A person who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area”

So you’re an “expert” by definition.

However, most salespeople don’t feel worthy of this title. I’m here to tell you that you should feel confident in calling yourself an expert from this moment onward.

Authority is another shortcut our brain
uses to do less processing but still survive. If someone has perceived
authority over us, our brain takes action when they suggest it without thinking
whether this is the correct thing to do. This is hardwired into our brains to
reduce the amount of processing they need to do day-to-day.

As a salesperson you can use the principle
of influence to your advantage in two ways –

* The first and most powerful way to leverage the law of authority is to become an influencer in your industry. This starts today when you start referring to yourself as an expert on your product. * Alternatively, you can leverage the principle of authority from another angle by to selling the boss above your usual decision-maker. If the decision makers boss has bought in, then they’ll have to agree too due to the principle of authority.
19 min
March 25, 2020 How To Use Influence To Sell / Part 1

In this two part episode we’re running through the principles of influence and how they can increase your chances of getting a deal done.

So if you’re ready to learn the skills of
influence so you can go get your neighbour to give you a couple of rolls of
toilet roll, from the 47 packets they’ve hoarded in this crisis, then hit that
thumbs up button and lets get into it…

#1 Reciprocation

The first principal of influence is the
principle of reciprocation. This law describes the phenomenon that when
somebody helps us, your brain is wired to want to help them back.

This comes from the days we lived in tribes
and really relied on the tribe to survive. Our brains became programmed to put
the tribe first before our own selfish needs by giving back to an equal amount
that we took from it.

And this principle of reciprocation seems
like something that salespeople like you and I can use to get deals done, right?
You just give the prospect a lot of value up front and they will have to give
you the business later on? Well, it’s not as simple as that.

Because humans are so sensitive to the law
of reciprocation, often times we will avoid allowing somebody to give us value,
so that we cannot become indebted to them.

So in your sales role, you should focus on
giving a small amount of value, and then closing the next step rather than
giving masses of value upfront and then hoping that the prospect will give you
what you want in return later.

So using the systematic selling process as
an example, we create a customized message for the prospect, this teaches them
something new and opens their worldview that their business could be different
by working with us. Then before we go any further, we closed them on a formal
meeting to discuss things in more detail.

We make one step, then get the prospect to
confirm the value and that they want us to proceed before too much recprication
debt gets built up. This process also starts to build up the principle of
consistency which we’re going to cover in a minute.

Then we go through the next step of the
systematic selling process and uncover the rules of the game and the prospects
reality gap, before again closing the prospect and getting them to agree with
everything that has been discussed so far.

This breaks up the sales process into
smaller chunks and it stops the buyer being overwhelmed with a feeling of
reciprocation to us that might otherwise stop them moving forward with the
deal.

Next let’s take a look at the principle of
consistency.

#2 Consistency

The principle of consistency exists because
of our egos. When we buy into a thought pattern and start going down one
pathway, our brains don’t like to either admit that we might be wrong or change
our opinions once they have been set.

We see this with politics and religion.

Most people are brought up with certain
religious and political beliefs and then because of the principle of
consistency they spend the rest of their life avoiding other alternative
opinions in case they conflict with what they think they know.

This leads adults to believe that they’ve
made their own decisions on these things when in reality they’ve never really
questioned them.

18 min
March 25, 2020 How To Use Influence To Sell / Part 1

In this two part episode we’re running through the principles of influence and how they can increase your chances of getting a deal done.

So if you’re ready to learn the skills of
influence so you can go get your neighbour to give you a couple of rolls of
toilet roll, from the 47 packets they’ve hoarded in this crisis, then hit that
thumbs up button and lets get into it…

#1 Reciprocation

The first principal of influence is the
principle of reciprocation. This law describes the phenomenon that when
somebody helps us, your brain is wired to want to help them back.

This comes from the days we lived in tribes
and really relied on the tribe to survive. Our brains became programmed to put
the tribe first before our own selfish needs by giving back to an equal amount
that we took from it.

And this principle of reciprocation seems
like something that salespeople like you and I can use to get deals done, right?
You just give the prospect a lot of value up front and they will have to give
you the business later on? Well, it’s not as simple as that.

Because humans are so sensitive to the law
of reciprocation, often times we will avoid allowing somebody to give us value,
so that we cannot become indebted to them.

So in your sales role, you should focus on
giving a small amount of value, and then closing the next step rather than
giving masses of value upfront and then hoping that the prospect will give you
what you want in return later.

So using the systematic selling process as
an example, we create a customized message for the prospect, this teaches them
something new and opens their worldview that their business could be different
by working with us. Then before we go any further, we closed them on a formal
meeting to discuss things in more detail.

We make one step, then get the prospect to
confirm the value and that they want us to proceed before too much recprication
debt gets built up. This process also starts to build up the principle of
consistency which we’re going to cover in a minute.

Then we go through the next step of the
systematic selling process and uncover the rules of the game and the prospects
reality gap, before again closing the prospect and getting them to agree with
everything that has been discussed so far.

This breaks up the sales process into
smaller chunks and it stops the buyer being overwhelmed with a feeling of
reciprocation to us that might otherwise stop them moving forward with the
deal.

Next let’s take a look at the principle of
consistency.

#2 Consistency

The principle of consistency exists because
of our egos. When we buy into a thought pattern and start going down one
pathway, our brains don’t like to either admit that we might be wrong or change
our opinions once they have been set.

We see this with politics and religion.

Most people are brought up with certain
religious and political beliefs and then because of the principle of
consistency they spend the rest of their life avoiding other alternative
opinions in case they conflict with what they think they know.

This leads adults to believe that they’ve
made their own decisions on these things when in reality they’ve never really
questioned them.

18 min
March 23, 2020 How To Get Better At Selling FAST!

I used to suck at sales. In fact, I got
sacked from my very first sales job. It was embarrassing and it was at that
moment I decided that I needed to learn how to become great at sales fast.

And getting great at sales fast is exactly
what we are going to talk about in this video.

Because when you can sell at a high level,
your skill set is in high demand. You will always have a job, no matter what
crisis were going through at that moment in time, because businesses always
value people who can reliably generate revenue.

On the other hand, if you’re not a
high-performing salesperson right now, your job is on the line and so listen
up! You might not have that much time to improve your skills and show your
worth to the organization that you work for.

Right now is a scary time to be a
salesperson who isn’t hitting quota.

We’re living in some uncharted times for
salespeople and only the strongest will survive but there is hope, you can
improve fast! So hit that thumbs up button and let’s get into it.

Solution (step by step process):

Getting good at sales fast requires these 4 things

* Getting your sales code sorted. And I’m going to share exactly what this means in a second.* Learning how to use a systematic selling process* Having the ability to practice your sales knowledge* and finally, having access to mentoring which holds everything else together.

So let’s start off with what we call, over
at Salesman.org, your sales code.

Your SalesCode

So from over five years of research and
access to over 100,000 salespeople, we now understand the 12 specific traits
that natural born salespeople have.

Interestingly, the traits that natural born
salespeople have right now, are not the same as the traits of a natural born
salesperson 10 years ago. That is because sales has changed considerably
already and so the individual who had success then, is not going to have
success now.

The 12, proven, research backed traits of natural born salespeople that make up their sales code are –

These are the
underlying traits that make it easy to have sales success. If you are missing
any of these traits, it’s likely you spend your time in your sales job moving
two steps forward and then moving one step back. Always feeling like there is
something pulling at your heels and stopping you from living
up to your potential.

Additionally if you want to take things
further, we have built an industry leading sales assessment that will assess
whether you have each of these traits and then give you a personalized training
plan to implement them over at salesman.org so check that out if you’re
interested.

Systematic Selling process

The next layer on the sales success
triangle is what we call systematic selling.

Gone are the days where you could blag your
way to your sales quota without leveraging a sales process. That worked in the
past as salespeople were the gatekeepers to the prospect solving their
problems. If they wanted pricing, they had to come to you. If they wanted to
understand your product, they had to come to you. Nowadays though that
information is all online and so they don’t need you to get access to it.

What they do need from you is guidance on
30 min
March 23, 2020 How To Get Better At Selling FAST!

I used to suck at sales. In fact, I got
sacked from my very first sales job. It was embarrassing and it was at that
moment I decided that I needed to learn how to become great at sales fast.

And getting great at sales fast is exactly
what we are going to talk about in this video.

Because when you can sell at a high level,
your skill set is in high demand. You will always have a job, no matter what
crisis were going through at that moment in time, because businesses always
value people who can reliably generate revenue.

On the other hand, if you’re not a
high-performing salesperson right now, your job is on the line and so listen
up! You might not have that much time to improve your skills and show your
worth to the organization that you work for.

Right now is a scary time to be a
salesperson who isn’t hitting quota.

We’re living in some uncharted times for
salespeople and only the strongest will survive but there is hope, you can
improve fast! So hit that thumbs up button and let’s get into it.

Solution (step by step process):

Getting good at sales fast requires these 4 things

* Getting your sales code sorted. And I’m going to share exactly what this means in a second.* Learning how to use a systematic selling process* Having the ability to practice your sales knowledge* and finally, having access to mentoring which holds everything else together.

So let’s start off with what we call, over
at Salesman.org, your sales code.

Your SalesCode

So from over five years of research and
access to over 100,000 salespeople, we now understand the 12 specific traits
that natural born salespeople have.

Interestingly, the traits that natural born
salespeople have right now, are not the same as the traits of a natural born
salesperson 10 years ago. That is because sales has changed considerably
already and so the individual who had success then, is not going to have
success now.

The 12, proven, research backed traits of natural born salespeople that make up their sales code are –

These are the
underlying traits that make it easy to have sales success. If you are missing
any of these traits, it’s likely you spend your time in your sales job moving
two steps forward and then moving one step back. Always feeling like there is
something pulling at your heels and stopping you from living
up to your potential.

Additionally if you want to take things
further, we have built an industry leading sales assessment that will assess
whether you have each of these traits and then give you a personalized training
plan to implement them over at salesman.org so check that out if you’re
interested.

Systematic Selling process

The next layer on the sales success
triangle is what we call systematic selling.

Gone are the days where you could blag your
way to your sales quota without leveraging a sales process. That worked in the
past as salespeople were the gatekeepers to the prospect solving their
problems. If they wanted pricing, they had to come to you. If they wanted to
understand your product, they had to come to you. Nowadays though that
information is all online and so they don’t need you to get access to it.

What they do need from you is guidance on
30 min
March 21, 2020 How To Sell From Home (Without Getting Distracted)

Right now you might be forced to sell from home with the current emergency measures that governments around the world are enacting.

There’s no need to panic. I’ve been selling from home the past 6 years and it’s been a game changer for me in the most positive of ways.

In this solo podcast episode I’m going to share my top tips for selling from home and how you can make the most of the situation you might find yourself in.
22 min
March 21, 2020 How To Sell From Home (Without Getting Distracted)

Right now you might be forced to sell from home with the current emergency measures that governments around the world are enacting.

There’s no need to panic. I’ve been selling from home the past 6 years and it’s been a game changer for me in the most positive of ways.

In this solo podcast episode I’m going to share my top tips for selling from home and how you can make the most of the situation you might find yourself in.
22 min
March 20, 2020 3 Templates For A Perfect Sales Voicemail

In this episode we are talking about voicemail and how you can get attention even when your potential customer has not picked up the phone.

Because there’s
nothing more frustrating than knowing that you can really help a prospect and
solve one of their business problems and not being able to communicate that
with that with them.

And leaving an
effective voicemail is far less likely to get you in trouble with the law than
sneaking into your prospects house and leaving your message on their bedroom
walls in lipstick… that gets attention but doesn’t usually get the deal done.

So if you’re ready to start leaving
voicemails that have prospects pounding on their iPhones, calling you back,
then hit that thumbs up button and let’s get into it…

Voicemail template #1

So in this video I’m going to give you
three effective voicemail templates. But don’t worry, you don’t have to write
all this down as we go through the video, there is a link in the description
below that has goes to a page where all these templates are available for free.
You don’t even have to give your email address to get access to them.

So the basic template that the other
voicemail templates are built on top of goes like this –

Hello this is [your name] from, [company name].I’m calling because, [reason for calling]. This benefits you for, [benefits].I will follow up with an email right now and I look forward to speaking with you shortly.Have a great day. Goodbye.

Real world example

So as a real world example, selling our
Salesman.org training product to VPs of sales I’d say –

Hello this is Will Barron, calling from Salesman.org. I’m calling because we’ve just improved your competitors revenue by 24% with 4 weeks of training and we can do the same for you. I will follow up with an email right now and I look forward to speaking with you shortly.

So let’s break down this template and that
will help us understand what were really trying to do when we leave a voicemail
message.

First off, you can see that I’m not doing anything
weird or manipulative. The old school way of selling would be to share that
“I’m calling as I have something
incredibly exciting to share and I need you to call back right now before you
lose access to it…” or I’ve even heard old-school sales trainers tell
salespeople to start sharing the benefit that they can give and then
purposefully hang up halfway through the sentence so it sounds like you’ve been
cut off.

Both of these tactics are gross, obvious
and imagine doing damage to a surgeon, which is who I used to sell to when I
worked in medical device sales. They’d think you were an idiot at worse and at
best it would severely devalue you as an industry expert in their eyes

Why it’s effective

So as you can see from our template of –

Hello this is [your name] from, [company name].I’m calling because, [reason for calling]. This benefits you for, [benefits].I will follow up with an email right now and I look forward to speaking with you shortly.Have a great day. Goodbye.

The main thing that we are trying to
communicate is that we are an expert, calling upon someone that we can help,
getting them used to our voice, and preempting the fact that we are going to
continuously follow up with them until they give us a response.

27 min
March 19, 2020 5 Traits of Sales Masters

In this episode, you’re going to learn the 5 traits of the worlds top, performing sales professionals. I’m also going to share how you can test if you have some of these sales traits, completely free at the end.

If you’re a fan of
the Salesman.org Youtube channel, you’ll know we create sales success training
content based around specific traits of sales success. But today in this video I’m going to give you
a high level overview of 5 of the traits that all high level sales
professionals possess so that you can start to implement them into your sales
game too.

#1 No people pleasing

The first trait of
high performing sales professionals is to avoid being a “people pleaser”. I
define a people pleaser as –

“Someone who will please others at the expense of their own needs”.

Whilst the act of
“people pleasing” might on the surface seem like a positive trait to have for a
sales professional, it isn’t. B2B selling is all about –

Giving AND taking value.

People pleasers
tend to give in abundance and expect the prospect to respond in kind. When they
don’t, the people pleaser become passive aggressive towards them rather than
being assertive in making their asks.

Think of it this
way, when a extremely high level deal maker like Warren Buffet walks into the
room, do you think he exhibits people pleasing behaviour of –

* Constantly agreeing with people* Feeling personally responsible for how other people feel* Having an inability to say “no”* Feeling uncomfortable is someone is angry* Changing your behaviour to make others comfortable

Of course he
doesn’t. He walks into the room, is himself and gets the deal done. So if you
exhibit any of the people pleasing behaviours I just outlined, you need to
knock this negative trait out of yourself.

#2 Aggressively qualifying

Next, high
performing sales professionals aggressively qualify and disqualify their
prospects.

Successful people
lack time. They’re busy and so they won’t allow themselves to waste time on
unqualified prospects.

When talking to
your potential customers, ask questions that judge whether they’re a good fit
for you.

A simple
qualification process follows the acronym BANT –

* Budget: Is the prospect capable of buying?* Authority: Does your contact have adequate authority to sign off on a purchase?* Need: Does the prospect have a business pain you can solve?* Timeline: When is the prospect planning to buy?

When you uncover if
a prospect is qualified by asking the following questions, you immediately
reduce the risk of wasting time with prospects who like talking but will never
spend cash with you –

* Budget: Is this an important enough priority to allocate funds toward?* Authority: Who else will be involved in the purchasing decision?* Need: What do you think could solve this problem? Why?* Timeline: How quickly do you need to solve your problem?

Qualify quick and
aggressivity at the top of the sales process as that’s what the worlds top
sales professionals do.

#3 Plan ahead

Thirdly, the sales
elite plan ahead

Rarely can a
salesperson just stroll into a sales pitch, make it up as they go along and
have success.
14 min
March 16, 2020 Clients Say, “How much is it?” And You Say, “…”

The pricing question often makes sales
professional uneasy and weird. We’ll cover why talking about money makes sales
people uncomfortable in tip number 1.

Control your emotions

So when a prospect asks for the price,
the most important thing to do is stay in control of your emotions.

* Most people are taught at a young age that * “money is the root of all evil”* “Rich people are bad”* “Discussing money is rude”

In fact, the ability to discuss money
without all this emotional baggage being a part of the conversation is one of
the key sales success traits we measure with our SalesCode assessment.

You can take a free version of the assessment
at SalesCodeAssessment.com. There’s a link in the description of this video.

So the first step to answering your
prospects pricing question is to make sure that you have your emotions in
check.

To do this –

* Stop* Take a breath* Calmly share the
price

Don’t say “well the price is $X/month…
BUT I can ask my sales manager for a discount…”.

Think of it like this, if you owned a
sweet shop and a child asked you how much a mars bar was. You wouldn’t get emotional;
you wouldn’t start talking faster or immediately offering concessions to lower
the price, would you?

Nope. You’d say, that’s $1 please
sonny boy. Then you’d hold out your hand and wait for them to pay you. You’d
ask then shut up.

This is the emotional state that you
need to be in when discussing pricing with potential customers and this leads
me to point number two…

Shut the hell up

I alluded to this point in the first
tip. If step one is calmly sharing your pricing, the second step is to shut the
hell up and wait for the prospect to respond.

Sure, there is likely a little internal
turmoil going on in your brain at this point. You’re going to be reminded of
being 12 and asking the hot girl out. That moment of both hope and fear before
she tells you to get lost and then runs off to play pogs or Pokémon cards with
the other popular kids…

But until the prospect responds to the
pricing you’ve shared, you’ve no idea if they’re going to say “wow, that’s
incredible, you’re my hero” or “Will, we need to do something on the numbers
here”.

So as hard as this can be in the real
world, just shut up wait for the prospects response.

Have a BATNA

Next, are you going into your sales
conversations with a *silly voice* BATNA?

Now, yes, I’m spending a lot of time
in the studio putting together this content for you #SalesNation… but I haven’t
gone completely mad. A *silly voice *BATNA is a real thing…

It stands for –

* Best alternative to a negotiated agreement.

The idea was first put forward by
William Ury who I interviewed on the Salesman Podcast a few years ago.

In a nutshell, William shared that you
should always go into a negotiation with a back up plan, or as he calls it a –
best alternative to a negotiated agreement.

For sales professionals this only
enters a conversation after the last two points have been concluded. So you’ve
–

* Shared the
11 min

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