Archive for the ‘Motivate My Sales Team’ Category

I’m amazed at how some sales managers could go on with their jobs without knowing what motivates their sales reps.

Your sales reps are the lifeblood of the sales team, and the sales team is what keeps your career afloat. If you don’t know what motivates them, how do you expect to put them in the right direction? How can you be a good sales manager to them?

I once asked a colleague friend who was having problems with one of her sales reps.

“What motivates him?” I asked her. She paused for a minute. Then she said, “Uhmm, money, I think.“

The words “I think” cinched it with me. You don’t guess what motivates your sales reps. It’s either you know it or you don’t. It came as no surprise that my colleague friend was having problems.

To find out what’s happening in your sales reps’ lives, to know what motivates them, you need get out of your own little world that is your cubicle, walk up to their desk, and simply ask him or her. The trick is to establish a personal connection.

Then find out what motivates them.

It should be noted that a sales manager without this kind of immensely valuable information about his or her sales reps is an inefficient one – a seagull type of sales manager, something we had discussed previous posts. Simply put, finding out exactly what motivates them provide precious insights about your sales reps’ motivations, their likes and dislikes. Refer to it whenever you need to motivate them, even if it’s just praise for a job well done.

When your sales reps do a good job, it means YOU are doing a great job. That’s how motivating your sales reps and putting them in the right path means helping yourself achieve your own goals.

What else do you ask your sales reps to find out what motivates them? Share them by leaving a comment below.

Sales is about putting a product in the customer’s hands. But before anything else, it is about establishing a relationship. There are two things that can happen when a sale rep fails to establish this kind of relationship with the client: first, the customer doesn’t buy the product, or two, they’d buy one time and never hear from them again.

In this lesson, we’ll discuss the importance of adding value to your business and how to do it like a seasoned pro.

A valuable perspective

As a sales person, I’m sure you’re aware that unless you create value for your customers, you won’t get anywhere in this business. There’s a lot of competition on the market. Add to it that customers aren’t really interested in new products; customers want solutions to their problems. This is where the concept of adding value comes in. 

A good sales rep presents his or her product in a way that it is the solution the customer is looking for. That’s what I mean by adding value. There are a lot of similar products out there with a bunch of exclusive features. But if you add value to your product, you’re separating it from the rest of the competition. The customer begins to see your product under a different light.

The good news is that adding value isn’t some rare talent that comes around once every other generation. It’s simply a set of skills—three sets of skills, in fact—that anyone can learn by the time we’re done with this lesson.

They are…

1. Asking questions

Asking a question helps maintain the flow of conversation. Asking a good question shows you’ve been listening intently to the other person. It helps build trust, and is one of the most important tools of a sales rep. The ability to ask a good question is to a sales rep as vocabulary is to a writer.

How to get better at this? Here are some tips:

Plan ahead. You must be extremely talented if you could very good questions without preparing them beforehand. I suggest you narrow down the focus of the sales call to two or three areas, and then prepare some questions and write them down in your notepad before the actual event.

Explore the client’s issues. I mentioned earlier that customers are only looking for solutions to their problems. As a sales rep, if you understand the customer to the point that you could identify their problems before they even begin to talk about it, then you are in the unique position to be able to ask effective questions, the kind that tells them you’re aware of their needs and knows the solution to their problems.

The general rule is, know your customer so you can prepare questions that would create an impact and push your business relationship forward.

2. Listening

Listening goes hand-in-hand with asking questions. You can’t formulate good questions if you don’t listen to your client’s problems and needs. Once again the ability to listen isn’t a talent. It’s a skill, and you can learn it. It’s called good listening skill for a reason.

How to get better at this? Here are some tips:

Listen, really listen. If you want to learn to play the guitar, practice the guitar. If you want to be able to listen well, practice listening. It’s that simple. Sherlock Holmes once said, “There’s a big difference between seeing and noticing.” Same goes for listening. Hearing something the other person said doesn’t mean anything. It’s when you listen to him or her and take in the message to heart, that’s when you start to become a true salesman.

Focus on the message. Some people tend to zone in and out of conversation when the other person is speaking. Sales reps are people, too. Some of them have this tendency. But if you want to become successful in this line of work, you need to get rid of this habit and replace it with something else—the habit of taking down notes while the customer is talking about his or her problems.

By doing this, you make room for yourself to analyze the problem and present a solution later on, which is no more and no less the act of adding value to your product. This is exactly the kind of sales approach I’m trying to advocate.

3. Establishing trust

The last part is establishing trust and credibility in the relationship. It takes time to put these things to work, and you need to master the two skills I mentioned earlier—listening and asking good questions—before you even get a shot at this one. But once achieved, great success should follow. Soon.

How to get better at this? Here are some tips:

Back up what you say. When you say you’re going to do something, do it. If you can’t do it, or won’t do it, then don’t promise it. Period. There’s no way you’re going to be able to gain a customer’s trust if you can’t back up your sweet words.

Be on time. Imagine your client as a first date. When you tell her that you’re going to pick her up at seven o’ clock, make sure you show up on her doorstep at seven o’ clock. Same goes for setting to meet up with a client. Set the time and date when you plan a call, and stick to it. Nothing turns off a client more than a sales rep who doesn’t show respect for another person’s time.

If you don’t want to end up becoming a commodity, stop selling products like they’re single-serving commodities. Use it one time, then dispose. Add value to your products to make them unique and distinct from the rest of the competition. That’s the way to go about your job as a sales representative, that’s the only way to go about this business.

When you add value to your product, you add value to your business.

Post a comment and tell me what values do you instill in your sales business.

Some years ago, in 1999, I was reading a novel called Fight Club when I came across this interesting line. I remember it went like this: “When people think you’re dying, they really, really listen to you, instead of just waiting for their turn to speak.”

It struck me as an interesting concept, especially when applied to sales. Is this the reason why some salespeople are having such a hard time? Because all they do is talk and talk and talk and, without knowing it, refuse to listen to what their clients have to say? Should sales reps be asking intelligent questions rather than knowing all the answers?

In this lesson, we’ll discuss the secret art of asking questions as a way to build customer trust. But the real good news is no one needs to be dying for you to be able to do it.

1. The Internet is a friend

As a modern day sales person, here’s one thing you should know: the Internet has changed the landscape with which sales representatives do business.

Back then sales reps spent a considerable amount of time asking questions about basic client information during a sales call. It makes sense. You can’t expect to establish a solid relationship without understanding the customer’s business context and a few basic details about them, and this is where the Internet comes in. Nowadays salespeople could use the Internet to find or gather basic information about their customers. At the same time customers expect salespeople to add more value to their services, too, and you simply can’t do that if you’re off gathering “basic background information” all the time.

Sales calls are always under a time limit. Don’t squander your “time budget” with the customer when the Internet is there to help you with data gathering.

2. Put weight into your questions

According to the books, there are different types of questions available at the sales rep disposal, each type being designed to elicit a different response and have a different effect on the customer. It all sounds too scientific, and it is.

Knowing the various theories and reasoning behind different types of questions is useful. But take note this is only one part of the story. When it comes down to the actual job, no amount of textbook knowledge could replace the value of asking good questions, questions with substance. This is what separates top performers from average salespeople. Top salesmen and women “know what they are talking about”.

The trick is to emphasize what they call “business substance” in your questions. If a question doesn’t contribute to your goals as a salesperson, don’t speak it. Ask questions that push your business relations forward. Otherwise you’re simply doing a good job of asking questions about the wrong things.

3. The one-size-fits-all misconception

Here’s another thing that defines a seasoned sales rep from an amateur one – the senior sales rep doesn’t see people as generic customers.

There’s no such thing as a “generic customer.” Everyone is different. People are born unique. Simply put, you won’t get anywhere if you’re planning to ask the same questions over and over again without paying attention first to your clients’ needs.

The probing model and the different types of questions is nothing more than a guide for college students. In the real world, they serve very little purpose except to remind you how vastly different the playing field becomes once you’re wearing the tie and shoes of a professional salesperson.

The secret is to identify the needs of your client, and then ask questions that target those needs and push your business relations to new grounds. I know this is a lesson about asking questions, but a good salesperson listens first and asks questions later. 

It’s a tough time for companies trying to find something to hold on to in today’s market, and the same is true for sale representatives. The challenge is to stay strong and adamant during these hard times, and mastering the art of asking significant questions goes a long way into helping the company and its group of salespeople overcome that challenge.

Some folks are born to do it. Some people have to work before they become proficient at asking good questions. It doesn’t matter. What matters is you have the heart to learn how to do it, and do it like a pro to cope with today’s sales environment.

Post a comment and tell me your insights about how important to learn the art of asking good questions.

So you really want to learn how to motivate your sales reps?
Here’s the “secret sauce” that 99% of average sales managers NEVER use and if they do, they screw it up
So here the right way to so it – use the “Masterful Praising”. Here’s how you do it. Right after they do something “praise-worthy” take this three step approach: 

1. Look them in the eye or if on the phone stop and emphasize your words clearly and distinctly, telling them exactly what they did correctly in specific terms.
2. Pause for effect. Praise intermittently, not always on every little thing. Keep it a bit of a mystery as to when you will praise.In doing this the salesperson will never know exactly when the praise will come, so they always will be wondering when the next praise will come. This is then the motivator. Salespeople will work twice as hard once they get a few praisings under their belt.
3. Be specific. Be specific in your praise – don’t just say “nice job” or “good work”. In fact if you do it that way, then don’t even bother!Instead, say “Hey Tim that was great work being so persistent to finally secure the appointment for us to propose to the Simpson account. I know it took a lot of effort on your part. I appreciate it”.People will continuously repeat activities that they reinforced by.Reinforce the ones you want repeated, they will be clamoring for you to deliver them praise.It’s the human nature. Use the laws of human nature to get your salespeople to be doing more of the things you want them to do.

There is an important corollary to this which is especially effective for use in getting new or struggling salespeople to do the right things, even if they don’t get them exactly right.

If a salesperson shows progress on a task but cannot fully complete it due to lack of knowledge or skill, the average sales manager withholds praise and approval until they get it exactly correct.

The truly great sales manager praises every correct step along the way and praises even more when it is done to completion. If you truly want to get your salespeople to perform without you, then here is the key!

The most important idea here is that especially when someone is just starting; catch them in the act of doing something correct. At first approximately correct, and gradually move them to exactly correct.