From Hazel who is a Sales Representative for a Dental Supply Company:

One last call!! One hot sunny day on the road in one of the most beautiful locations in New Zealand, I was struggling with getting through my day, the car is like a sauna and all I wanted was to go back to my lovely air conditioned Hotel and put my feet up.

I have always had this motto “one more call” which means for me to do 1 more call a day that I will not normally do.

This particular day I was almost ready to drive straight past this dental practice and leave it until next month. But…. I pushed myself to do “one more call”.

I walked out with a $1500 dollar sales in approximately 5 minutes.

I suppose the motto of my story or the relevance behind it, is that if you push yourself that extra mile (which isn’t hard ) the benefits are wonderful and the fulfilment you feel as a sales representative is sensational.

My comment:

I love the motto “one more call” as it can be applied to so many aspects of our sales career and life in general.  Just to go that little bit extra, give a little more value, spend a little while longer, ask that bigger question, try that new idea, dare to be different.

From Debra who is a Recruitment Consultant:

A client called complaining of the lack of experienced staff available in Bendigo (regional city in country Victoria).

He wanted an experienced property manager with specific computer skills and expertise to fill a 4 week gap before a new person who had been hired full time started.

He had tried local papers and agencies without success. After explaining that we don’t have temps in that area – 2 hours from Melbourne – I’d put on my thinking cap for him. I later called and asked whether he would consider providing accommodation as I thought we had a temp who would travel to Bendigo if he had somewhere to stay.

Yes the client liked the idea and our temp started the following day spending 3 nights per week in Bendigo for the next month.

This experience reinforced that sometimes to get the sale it’s thinking outside the square to solve the clients need.

My comment:

When we ask the question… “What else might I do to create value for this client?” it takes us to the edge of mediocrity and allows us to see what others may not see.  Maybe we find a neat new solution to a problem for the client like Debra did.  Maybe we discover something that we had not thought of at first.  Maybe we help the client discover a bigger reason to want to do business with us, rather than someone else who is still thinking inside their square.

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The article suggested that “Selling yourself in today’s market is about ensuring the hiring manager reviewing your CV can identify relevant experience to the role straight away.”

Surely there is more to ‘selling yourself’ to get a job than just matching experience to the role!

This got me thinking about what it really does mean to ‘sell yourself’ regardless of whether you’re selling yourself to win a new job role, or maybe it’s selling yourself and you’re in sales and selling a product or service, or whether you’re selling your ideas to a Board or to your peers or even a spouse.

Does my definition of ‘selling’ apply to all of these situations?

Let’s test it out…at least for when someone is selling themself to win a new job role…..

Selling is a process, of building trust relationships, with the aim to create reciprocal value, on a continual basis.

The first part of the definition is that Selling is a process. It is not a project. The process of ‘selling’ continues so long as value is being delivered and received. In ‘selling myself’ for a job role this certainly applies. The selling doesn’t stop once I’ve secured or won the job role as the successful candidate. The selling of myself continues into the first day on the role and then on a continual basis after that…..if I don’t deliver value in my role, and my manager and peers and internal or external customers don’t believe value is being received, then in not continuing to sell myself, I may lose my job role.

So far the definition of selling holds.

Selling is a process of building trust relationships. When applying for a new job role and in ‘selling myself’ for that job role, surely it is about building trust relationships with all whom I come into contact. That can mean the recruitment consultant where applicable, the company manager or personnel who interview me, and then when the job role is won, it’s about continuing to build trust relationships with my peers, colleagues, internal and external customers.

Again the definition of selling holds.

Selling is a process of building trust relationships, with the aim to create reciprocal value. The universal principle of reciprocity suggests that what we give out we get back. That is the reciprocal nature of value. When I give value out, value will be returned. If I stop giving value, value stops being returned. When I am applying for a new job role, the trust building strategy of delivering value early certainly can apply. When applying for any new role, part of ‘selling myself’ is to be able to ask, answer and act on the question ‘what can I deliver of value to the recruitment consultant, to the company manager or personnel who interview me, that sends loud and clear intention about who I am, what I stand for and the value I can deliver in this new role?’

Again the definition of selling holds.

The final piece of the definition also holds. Selling is a process of building trust relationships, with the aim to create reciprocal value on a continual basis. The idea of just ‘selling yourself’ once and stopping is ludicrous. Selling ourselves is a continual task of stepping up and into our value.

So our definition of selling seems to hold well for when we are ‘selling ourselves’ to win a new job role, and I am confident that the definition of selling holds true, regardless of what we are selling, and especially when we are selling ourselves.

What also holds true is the process of selling. In my BASICS of selling process, if we apply it to someone ‘selling themselves’ for a new job role, surely the process of Building rapport, Asking questions, Showing value, Identifying obstacles, and Confirming the sale are still valid. And once the new job role is won, then the final step in the process becomes equally important….Stay in touch with all of the relationships you have developed along the way to secure the role.

It’s interesting when we hear common language like “you’ve got to sell yourself”, and I wonder how many people really know what it means, why you need to, and how to really go about doing it?

This wonderful program invites high school students in years 11 and 12 as well as first year university students to form small teams and create a company, finance the development of a product, market the product, sell the product, with the aim to make as much profit as possible, then at the end of a 3 month period, to close the company down.

Fascinating!

Each student is allocated a company position including, general manager, finance, human resources, marketing, sales, production/distribution etc. I get to present to the sales people. And what an energetic bunch they always are…..keen to learn….lots of questions they want answers to….and mostly, looking for ways to ‘close’ as many sales as possible.

While many of them have been put in the sales role because they are good talkers and confident, some have ‘landed’ the role because all of the others were taken.

What has been most inspiring for me, is that in each of the three years now that I’ve been invited to present my sales workshop for the program, there have been a number of students who believe that even when they close the business down as part of the program, that they have a future in sales…..and that their business idea that they have been part of creating, just might be the business that they continue with when they complete their education.

The tough part for many of the students as ‘salespeople’ is that they really are focused on just getting the sale and making a profit…..and for many, because the start up and close down reality of the business is so short, there’s a danger that almost anything goes. Each year, I’ve been impressed that the winning company that makes the most profit, has been a company that has really identified a problem that they can fix for people, and have focused on fixing the problem with the best service they can provide in the short time that the program is in operation.

In Our World

In the current economic environment, I sense that for many salespeople, there is pressure for them to have a short term focus and that this can cause some internal conflict with their values – especially when most if not all of us understand that selling is about building long term trust.

The reality is that in sales, having a short term focus IS important.

That doesn’t mean do things that will jeopardise the long term relationship. However, it is incumbent on us all in sales to keep up the sales and marketing activity levels to ensure that we are creating sufficient revenue and cash flow for our businesses to remain healthy.

I was recently reminded of a great question that all of us in sales needs to be constantly asking.

The question is…. “What am I doing to make some cash today?”

It’s a really good question.

It’s even a better question when you ask

“What can I do to create value for my existing or potential clients today that will result in me increasing my sales?”

Who haven’t you been in contact with for a while?

Whose situation might have changed recently that could put you and your product or service offerings in a different light?

Who have you been meaning to contact, but just haven’t got around to it?

 What value can you discover for your potential and existing clients, other than your products and services, that they would be interested in?

Where’s Your Low Hanging Fruit Of Opportunity?

Sometimes the low hanging fruits of opportunity are so close to us that we don’t see them. So just a gentle reminder for all of us in sales, that there’s nothing wrong with a short term focus as long as it’s building on long term trust relationships.

The research suggests that Salespeople are amongst the most agile, however also suggests that more than a quarter of CEOs believe that their company is at a competitive disadvantage because of an overall lack of agility to meet shifts in the markets within which they operate.

This is a timely reminder for sales managers and salespeople, as well as the marketing, product, distribution and customer service teams to ensure they are aware of any shifts in their potential and existing client needs, wants, and buying preferences.

I realise it is an absolute hobby horse of mine to be constantly talking about the power of our questions in sales and customer service (and in all aspects of life), and here, once again is validation of the importance of asking well intentioned, well constructed, well positioned and appropriately timed questions of our potential and existing clients.

When was the last time you asked your potential and existing clients about any changes in their buying preferences?

As you reflect on this for a moment, also ask and challenge yourself whether you are in reality an expert at asking appropriate value-discovery questions. Here are just three reasons to be skilled at crafting and asking value-discovery questions…

Value-discovery questions are questions that have the capacity to help clients better understand the value they can receive from you and your products and services.

Value-discovery questions help you to articulate your value without having to defend it.

Value-discovery questions have the capacity to comfortably disturb your clients and prospects in taking appropriate action to experience the potential value you can create for them when they buy what you sell.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly during these potentially challenging times for some salespeople, business owners and corporations, value-discovery questions are the platform upon which each of us can ensure that we are armed with the information we need to be agile enough to appropriately manage any shifts in market trends and buying preferences of our potential and existing clients…before our competitors do.

An article on UPI.com’s Health News reports that researchers at the University of Alabama and the University of Louisville have been studying the affect of consumer attitude when in buying situations.
Basically the research suggests that it is becoming clearer that a shopper’s level of happiness or positive feelings could be more important to selling than sales prices, sales people and the pitches they make.

A Shift In The Psychology of Consumerism

I’ve been talking about this major shift in the psychology of consumerism for some time now, and it is becoming more and more apparent to me that unless salespeople and customer service assistants are consciously aware of what they need to be doing to create positive buying experiences for their prospective, current and repeat customers, they will be unintentionally creating buyer apathy.

Buyer apathy is created because of the sameness syndrome – that is, in the global and competitive markets that most businesses operate in today, consumers have more choice about where they go to buy their products or services. If the salespeople, customer service assistants, the prices and even the ‘pitches’ all sound the same, it creates buyer apathy.

Where buyer apathy is created, the usual dominant deciding value of the consumer, whether business to business or business to consumer will become an economic buying decision. In other words, buyer apathy focuses the consumer on the cheapest price they can find.

Stepping Up and Into Value

To step up and into their value, salespeople and customer service assistants need to work hard at creating buying experiences before, during and after any customer purchase that sends loud and clear messages to their clients that they are valued.

This is the reciprocal nature of successful businesses. The more clients feel valued, the more valuable they become to the business from which they choose to buy, and in return the more valuable those businesses become to the clients.

Click Here To read the full UPI.com article discussing the research