Sales and Sales Management Blog

April 26, 2011

Book Review: Strength Based Selling

Filed under: Book Reviews — Paul McCord @ 8:38 am
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Are all sellers the same?  Of course not.  There is no such thing as the prototype seller.  Great, successful sellers come from all types of backgrounds; no two have exactly the same strengths or weaknesses; some are extraverts, others introverts; some are technically oriented, others have no technical aptitude what-so-ever.

So if there’s so much room for people with different strengths and characteristics to succeed in sales, what is the “secret” to success?

Tony Rutigliano and Brain Brim answer that question in Strengths Based Selling (Gallup Press: 2011).  Based on the StrengthsFinder tool developed by Dr. Donald O. Clifton, the book describes the 34 ‘talent themes’ that are identified through the assessment tool.  When a seller takes the assessment, it identifies the seller’s top five themes which are the strengths the seller should focus on—these are the strengths they should base their selling efforts on.

First, let’s define some terms as used in the book:

Talent: “a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving, such as the tendency to be outgoing in social situations.”

Strength: “the ability to consistently produce a positive outcome through near-perfect performance in a specific task.”

Skill: “the basic ability to move through the fundamental steps of a task.”

Knowledge: “information—what you know.”

Practice: repetition

The book’s argument is that by knowing your strengths which encompass your talents and then adding skills, knowledge, and practice, you can maximize your sales success because selling then becomes a natural extension of who you are—sales comes naturally.

So far, so good.

The authors then address the strengths based concept to the reality of selling—in prospecting, assessing opportunities, negotiating, customer service, and the various other areas of the sale.

The concept is great.  The short coming of the book is it actually gives very little that can be used by a seller or manager to change one’s selling behavior—even after taking the StrengthsFinder assessment.

Readers of the book can take the assessment for free as each book has a code that can be used to access the StrengthsFinder.  Upon completion of the assessment, the seller will be provided with their top 5 themes with some suggestions on how to implement them.  The guidance is very broad and generalized.

If you don’t find the information to be specific enough to be of real help, you can pay for upgrades which will give you your additional themes and access to some individualized coaching.

Pick up a copy of the book—you will glean enough from the book to more than justify the price of the book.  But don’t expect to see significant change in your sales business without investing more dollars since the book is really a marketing tool for the add-ons to the StrengthsFinder.

March 31, 2011

Book Review: The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts by Mike Brooks

Filed under: Book Reviews,cold calling,prospecting,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 9:33 am
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Almost everything in selling can be controversial.  Does cold calling work or not?  What’s the best sales process to use?  Should you even use a sales process?  Are referrals and word of mouth marketing related or are they totally unrelated marketing concepts?  Is the way buyers buy changing?  Are salespeople becoming irrelevant?

I could name dozens of other areas where there’s currently debate occurring.

I’m dealing with one of those areas today: using scripts.. 

Do you think scripts are useful and necessary?  

Do you think scripts create a “canned” presentation that is hokey and makes the salesperson come across as amateurish and unprofessional?

Although there are many who subscribe to the latter—that scripts are unprofessional and do more harm than good–the fact is that we all use scripts, even the most ardent anti-script arguers use scripts. 

What is a script?  A script is nothing more than a standardized presentation or answer.  A script can be written and memorized but that certainly isn’t necessary.  If I start every cold call I make with, “Hi, Ms. Prospect, I’m Paul McCord with McCord Training,” I’m using a standardized script, whether I’ve committed those words to writing or not. 

If I always answer a price objection early in the sale with, “I understand that cost is important.  The investment can range anywhere from a low of X to XX or more, depending upon your needs which at this point we haven’t discussed.  What would you say is your sales teams most pressing issue?”  Again, I’m using a standardized script whether I’ve put that answer to the objection in writing or not. 

A script is simply the standard wording we’ve developed to make our presentations and to answer the questions we are asked on a regular basis. 

So the question isn’t whether or not we use scripts, the question is does it make sense to think through our standard presentations and the typical questions and objections we get and develop well thought-out words to address them? 

If we don’t have a well thought-out script, we’re using an off the cuff script.  Either way we’re using a script.

Unfortunately, creating a high impact, effective script isn’t easy.  Rather than spending a great amount of time and frustration with a hit or miss script that you have to constantly refine until, if you’re lucky, you get it right, why not get professional help upfront?

Mike Brooks has just released The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts (Sales Gravy Press: 2011), the book that will help you construct the scripts you’ll need to handle your phone and non-phone presentations and overcoming objections.

Brooks will help you create well thought-out wording that will help you:

  • Overcome initial objections like, “We’re not interested” and “I’m too busy,” and “We  already have a company/supplier for that,” and many, many more;
  • Learn how to build crucial rapport in the first 5 seconds;
  • Connect with gatekeepers and getting through to the decision maker;
  • Know what to do and what NOT to do when prospecting and qualifying;
  • Deal with smokescreen objections like “The price is too high”;
  • Get your prospects to return your emails and voice mails;
  • Overcome common objections like, “We just need to think about it,” and “I can get it for less money,” and many more. 

Let’s face it – you get the same objections 90% of the time, so why not be prepared in advance with the absolute best scripts and techniques that really work.  Brooks’ scripts are focused on helping you connect with and engage your prospects instead of talking and pitching at them. 

As a bonus, Brooks has a special section to help overcome common objections for mortgage brokers, insurance agents, Realtors, and credit card processing salespeople.  Even if your product or service isn’t included in the “Top 10 Objections” section, reviewing how the specific industry objections are addressed will help you develop answers to the objections you constantly run across.

If you sell, The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts has something for you.—no matter your experience level.  Buy it and then spend some time crafting your scripts—you’ll find that making the phone calls and overcoming objections becomes a lot easier and lot more enjoyable.

March 25, 2011

Book Review: Business Fitness by Dawn G. Lennon

Filed under: Book Reviews — Paul McCord @ 2:00 pm
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Seldom do I review a book that was released several years ago.  But when I receive a copy of a book from one of my readers who thinks enough of it to send it to me to possibly review—and its a book that wasn’t written by them, well, that certainly indicates the book merits some investigation.

That was the case with Business Fitness: The Power to Succeed—Your Way (Glenbridge Publishing Ltd:  2007) by Dawn G. Lennon.  Pam Burzynski, a Realtor and reader from Pennsylvania liked the book well enough—and thought it relevant to others in the sales world—that she sent me her own autographed copy.  Talk about a sales job—I had no choice but to read the book after that.

And it was well worth the time spent reading.

There are a number of reasons I really like this book.  First, Lennon writes in much the way I try to write in that the book is “simple.”  By simple I don’t mean elementary.  Simple in this instance means highly practical and down to earth.  No high flying, impractical discussions of fun–but ultimately useless–business theory; just real world guidance that will have a major impact if implemented.  Second, Lennon uses lots of dashes.  I have an unlimited supply of dashes and spew them out unhesitatingly in my writing.  Even though she uses them far more sparingly than I–I’ve found another dashaholic.  Third, her observations, guidance, and advice are spot on.  Fourth, this is an ACTION book.  This isn’t about Lennon giving you information; it is about actively implementing what you learn.  Business is action.  Information is worthless if it doesn’t result in some sort of action—and action, not just information, is the real meaning of Business Fitness.

Business Fitness isn’t a sales book per se.  As the title suggests, it is a book about becoming fit as a business person.  The fitness needs of salespeople are the same as any other business person—at least the general business fitness areas that are dealt with in Business Fitness.

Lennon breaks our fitness needs into two broad categories—what she calls Private Moves and Public Moves.  “Moves” are the actions you take.  Some of your business moves you do in private—only you know you are taking them.  Others are, of course, the moves you make in public.  This combination of public and private moves determines where you go in your business career.

Lennon lays out four private and three public moves:

Private Moves:

  • Stay Well.  Basic?  Certainly.  So basic she need not address it?  Hardly.  Take a look around you.  How many of your co-workers or competitors are physically fit?  How many have the physical and mental stamina to out work you?  We are a nation of sloths.  Lennon’s first private ‘move’ is basi– yet one of the most important and most neglected.
  • Stay Focused.  Goals.  Making where we want to go real by creating written, specific goals, each with a completion date, is mandatory in order to stay on track.  If we don’t have specific goals we are simply hoping that something good happens and that we’ll like where it takes us.
    Think you’ve heard too much about goals?  Lennon gives you practical guidance on how to set them, monitor them, and reach them.
  • Stay Current.  One of the most critical of the private moves—and one so many salespeople blow off if their company doesn’t provide for it.  Every businessperson is responsible for their own growth.  Expecting the company to provide for your training and skill development is one of the surest ways to fail in sales.  Lennon gives a great checklist of where to get the stuff you need to “stay current”
  • Stay Connected.  Your network is one of your major keys to success.  Lennon gives an excellent overview of how to build your network—and what to do with it.

Public Moves:

  •  Attract a Following.  No matter what you do—whether you are an inside or outside salesperson, a sales manager, a business owner, or professional building a practice, your success depends upon your following.  Building that following takes time—and a great deal of effort.  But what is the right effort for building a following?  How do we create a brand with our clients or within our company?  What if we already have a personal brand—and it is negative?  Lennon goes through the process of how to create and manage a following that will help you reach the success you seek.
  • Take the Lead.  Leadership is a hot subject right now. And one that can really put you in the spotlight—for good or ill.  Lennon’s advice and guidance on how to take—or not take—and handle a lead role is really to the point and a chapter you should take to heart.
  • Implement New Ideas.  Solving problems and implementing new solutions is the culmination of all the business fitness you’ve gone through.  As Lennon says, “When you’re business fit, you see the big picture more clearly.  Ideas for breaking new ground and solving problems are in your line of sight.”  Businesses crave men and women who can help them solve their problems and make the moves that will advance the company.  Learning how to recognize solutions is important—equally important is learning how to get those solutions implemented.  Traversing the political and cultural grounds that lie between your idea and its successful implementation is the real crux of implementing new ideas.  Lennon takes you through the process to a successful implementation.

I encourage you to pick up a copy of Business Fitness.  More importantly, I encourage you to read it and implement the lessons you’ll find.  Lennon not only gives you sound advice, at the end of each chapter she gives you a questionnaire or form to help you think through where you are on that particular move.

If you want to succeed, get business fit.

March 8, 2011

Book Review: Make What You Say Pay, by Anne Miller

Filed under: Book Reviews,Communication — Paul McCord @ 1:45 pm
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Although most of us use metaphors in our everyday conversations, we tend to use them as ineptly than a toddler trying to hit a ball with a bat—we hit one on occasion but most of the time we aren’t even close to hitting the mark.  Ah, but those few times we manage to construct a gem of a metaphor it feels great, and better yet, it really turns our words into precisely aimed darts that can really impact our audience deeply.

Uh, oh.  Like so much of the time when we try to use metaphors, I’ve wandered–from toddlers playing baseball to precious stones to messing with darts; can’t have toddlers throwing darts—too dangerous don’t you know.

This is where Anne Miller steps in with her newest book, Make What You Say Pay (CreateSpace: 2010).  Make What You Say Pay is a natural follow-up to Metaphorically Selling, Miller’s book that teaches us how to use metaphors. 

In Make What You Say Pay, Miller presents more than 50 case studies of how companies and individuals have successfully used metaphors to effectively and succinctly communicate their message.  This isn’t so much a “how to” book as a “this is what you can do, too” book.  Taken together, Metaphorically Selling is the “how to” and Make What You Say Pay is the case studies book.  And I think they really should be read in that order.

Miller’s examples range from making numerical information bearable to making complex concepts understandable to handling stressful situations.  Miller demonstrates through example after example how a simple metaphor can change lives and the fortunes of companies by making the obscure clear, by creating an deep emotional impact, or by turning a long explanation into a short, simple sentence.

If part of your job is communicating with others (and whose job isn’t, at least to some extent?), both Metaphorically Selling and Make What You Say Pay should be on your reading list.  Both are relatively short and to the point, but packed with real help for those who seek to have more impact on those with whom they communicate. 

Available from Amazon, Books-a-Million, Barnes and Noble and all fine booksellers.

December 29, 2010

Book Review: Make Every Second Count

Filed under: Book Reviews,time management — Paul McCord @ 10:58 am
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Time.  Almost every seller and sales leader has time issues.  There’s just not enough time to get everything done—especially at the end of the month with the pressure of getting sales in, getting paperwork caught up, and getting the pipeline beefed up for the coming month.

Many of us find ourselves spending a good deal of time trying to figure out how to squeeze out a few more minutes here, an extra hour there, or another day every week.  Our lives seem to be nothing but a continual struggle against the clock.

Robert W. Bly’s, Make Every Second Count; Time Management Tips and Techniques for More Success with Less Stress (Career Press: 2010) gives some relevant advice and guidance, yet so much of the book is simply filler that it makes it difficult to decide whether or not to recommend the book—at least half of your money is wasted due to the non-productive junk stuffed into the book.

That being said, there is valuable material here.  In the first chapter Bly gives 10 tips to help you work better and save time.  Although some of the tips are common sense, some such as not being a perfectionist and not trying to be an innovator with every project are not only valuable but deal with some of the biggest time management issues many of us face.  Perfectionism and innovation is overrated most of the time. 

Do we need to be competent?  Yes.  Do we need to be thorough?  Yes.  Do we need to be perfect with every task?  No.  Nevertheless, many of us believe that perfection is the desired goal in everything we do.  That goal of perfection limits both the amount of work we can accomplish and ultimately our ability to succeed.

Likewise, many believe that being an innovator in everything they do is critical to their success.  That insistence on innovation costs more time and effort than it is worth.  We lose by trying to win.

If like many sellers you travel a lot, Bly’s chapter on saving time—and money—while traveling is also helpful.  Again, although a good many of the tips are simply common sense and any experienced traveler will have figured them out, there are still a number of ideas that can help save you time, money and energy.  If you’re a relatively new salesperson or have just begun traveling heavily, Bly’s travel tips will be particularly helpful.

The chapters on delegation and outsourcing and the use of technology to increase productivity also have some useful ideas.  Again, as with the tips on travel, these chapters will be most useful for newer sellers and sales managers.

If you’re having time management issues and need some quick ideas to help you get organized and to get your clock in order, Make Every Second Count is worth the $10 or so you’ll pay.  If you really need serious time management help, you’ll need to look elsewhere as you’ll find this work to be too basic.

November 24, 2010

Book Review: The New Experts: Win Today’s Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments

Filed under: Book Reviews,branding,marketing,sales,selling — Paul McCord @ 2:14 pm
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For the last several years I’ve argued, along with many others, that selling and marketing are changing rapidly because buyers are changing.  No longer is the salesperson needed to educate the prospect; marketing is having an increasingly difficult time breaking through the noise to capture the prospect’s attention.  With the immense amount of information every prospect has at their fingertips, many times the prospect knows far more about their issues and potential solutions than the salesperson they’re dealing with.

In this new marketplace the question becomes how do you gain the prospect’s attention and then put your product or service in first position.

Robert H. Bloom in The New Experts: Win Today’s Newly Empowered Customers at Their 4 Decisive Moments (Greenleaf Book Group Press: 2010) offers an answer to this problem.  Bloom is the retired US Chairman and CEO of Publicis Worldwide, a global marketing services company and advises companies on their business growth strategies.

Bloom argues that technology has empowered buyers and “ultimately {their} loyalty died” because of the immense number of choices they now have along with an enormous amount of detailed comparison information, along with the ability to purchase anytime, day or night, and from a growing number of vendors, all vying for their business. 

Consumer loyalty, according to Bloom, is a thing of the past.  In today’s marketplace companies can no longer count on loyalty from their customers, but they can still become the preferred product or service by creating Customer Preference.  Customer Preference does not guarantee a sale as there are other factors at work, but preference opens doors, allowing you to charge a bit higher price and still get the business, to not have the exact desired color and still get the sale, to not have the best product and still get the sale, and to not be the best known brand and still get the sale.

Creating Customer Preference involves giving the prospect a real or imagined benefit that is different from and more valuable to them than those given by your competitors.

Further, Bloom argues, there are 4 decisive moments when you can make your business 1st choice for the prospect:

The Now-or-Never Moment—the first brief contact with the prospect

The Make-or-Break Moment—during the transaction process

The Keep-or-Lose Moment—the period when the customer is using the product or service

The Multiplier Moment—the chance to convert a one-time user customer into a repeat customer and gain a customer advocate and referral

Becoming the preferred product or service need not be expensive and can be accomplished by any size company since consumers, both business and individual, no longer care about who they purchase from—big or small; local, national, or online; old-line established or new start-up—as long as they provide the sought after benefit.

The New Experts is a very interesting read and provides a thought provoking argument about not only how buyers are changing but how companies must respond to the change.  As Bloom states at the beginning of the book, the root for change is beginning to think like a customer, not a seller.  Once we begin to think like a customer we can begin to understand the change in the marketplace and how to deal with it—at each of the 4 decisive customer moments.

The New Experts is avaiable at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, and all fine booksellers.

November 8, 2010

Book Review: The Laws of Charisma, by Kurt W Mortensen

Filed under: Book Reviews,career development — Paul McCord @ 5:20 pm
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Every once in a while I run across a book that I like and recommend, but isn’t complete, lacking some essential element.  One of those books is The Laws of Charisma: How to Captivate, Inspire, and Influence for Maximum Success by Kurt W. Mortensen (AMACOM: 2010).

The problem with The Laws of Charisma isn’t its thesis—that charisma is a combination of qualities that together, according to Mortensen’s definition, create “the ability to easily build rapport, effectively influence others to your way of thinking, inspire them to achieve more, and in the process make an ally for life.”

If we accept Mortensen’s definition of charisma, then the qualities that he lays out in the book make great sense as components of charisma, and further they are all qualities that can be learned to one extent or another.  Mortensen argues that by learning to effectively and genuinely use these qualities; even the least charismatic person can become charismatic to some extent. 

I don’t have a problem with his thesis although I believe that the true and very rare quality we usually call charisma is not a quality that can be learned or created.  Consequently, I’m not sure I’d define charisma as Mortensen has.  Nevertheless, I certainly believe that the qualities he discusses, if combined, will lead to a highly influential and commanding individual—just something short of those we think of as the truly charismatic such as JFK, Ronald Reagan, Caesar, Hitler (charisma can, of course, be used by the good and the evil).

Mortensen’s book delves into 34 qualities that he argues are necessary in combination to create what his version of charisma.  These qualities vary in complexity; a few are:

Passion:  The Transfer of Pure Energy
Humor and Happiness:  It Comes from Within
Self-discipline:  Willpower Equals Commitment
Focus:  Activity Does Not Equal Accomplishment
Rapport:  The Instant Connection
Motivation: Light Their Fire
Goodwill:  Charity and Compassion
Empathy:  Compassion Creates Friendship
Verbal Presentation:  It’s How You Say It
Nonverbal Communication: Gestures Trump Words

The issue I have with the book is that it lays out the 34 essential qualities in an equal number of short 4 to 6 page chapters. 

Each chapter deals with an essential quality using a set formula:

  • ·         The chapter briefly lays out Mortensen’s argument as to why that quality is important
  • ·         discusses in a paragraph or two why we often have a blind spot about our own lack of the quality
  • ·         a very short application section that is filled with three to five bullet points about how to apply the quality
  • ·         an example of some charismatic individual whose life demonstrates the quality
  • ·         a self-assessment section where one can rate oneself on the quality on a scale of 1 to 10

Although the chapters are brief and quick and easy to read, they really aren’t “how to” chapters.  Mortensen lays the groundwork to establish the need for the quality, but really doesn’t give the guidance on how to acquire and build the quality.  In essence, The Laws of Charisma is an excellent overall guide but needs to be supplemented with 34 other books that will give meat to the question of “how to.”

Certainly no one wouldl need to supplement with a book for each quality, but a great many of these qualities are complex in and of themselves.  Few who are lacking in any of these qualities will intuitively know how to acquire and institute them without outside help—and very often much more help than three or four bullet points can give.

That being said, The Laws of Charisma is well worth the money as a guide to assessing your own charisma or lack thereof, and then helping you figure out what’s missing.  From there, you’ll probably have to do some additional looking for resources, but at least you’ll know what you’re looking for and why.

October 21, 2010

Book Review: Turbulent Times Leadership For Sales Managers

Filed under: Book Reviews,management,Sales Management — Paul McCord @ 2:23 pm
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Author Tom Connellan contends that firstborns tend to be high performers—much more so than their later born siblings.  That success stems directly from their birth order as firstborns (and, of course, those who are the only child in a family) are treated differently by their parents. 

According to Connellan parents of firstborns have Positive Expectations of the firstborn.  “They are the ones who {expected} to become the all-star quarterback, the president of the senior class, the captain of the cheerleading squad,” he says.

In addition, parents give firstborns more Responsibility and Accountability.  Firstborns are not only given more responsibility, they’re given it at an earlier age than their peers.  In addition, their parents hold them more accountable for their actions and behaviors than their later born brothers and sisters.

Finally, argues Connellan, firstborns get more Feedback from their parents.  Their parents, friends and family give them more positive attention, more encouragement, and praise.

These three elements of raising the firstborn that are lacking in rearing of later born children are the major factors Connellan identifies as the catalysts of the success firstborns enjoy in far greater numbers than later children.

In Turbulent Times Leadership For Sales Managers: How The Very Best Boost Sales (Peak Performance Press:  2010), Connellan argues that adopting these three basic elements of success building and applying them to the members of the sales team by sales managers is the key to creating and maintaining top sales teams.

Turbulent Times Leadership For Sales Managers is a simple, short but highly practical book whose lessons can be applied immediately and with positive effect.  Although it can easily be read in a single sitting, application demands care and forethought. 

Connellan spends almost half of the book discussing the various types of feedback—he identifies three types: Motivational, Informational, and Developmental–and how to use them with a very strong emphasis on using positive feedback in its various forms rather than negative feedback (at least a 3 to 1 ratio, even more is better, he says).

The other two factors, expectations and responsibility/accountability are dealt with relatively quickly.

Although Connellan spends a great amount of time emphasizing the positive, the book isn’t an advocate of mushy, gloss over the negative management.  Part of the last chapter on how to put all three principles together is devoted to discussing the need to be tough, including setting tough goals.

Turbulent Times Leadership For Sales Managers focuses on the central issue of getting the best out of salespeople—changing their behavior.  Over and over again Connellan stresses that behavior change is what the three elements he focuses on are all about. 

If you have salespeople whose performance is lacking, pick up a copy of Turbulent Times Leadership For Sales Managers.  Better yet, pick up a copy for each of your sales managers—and then help them change their behavior so they can help their sales team members change their’s.

July 29, 2010

Book Review: The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You’re Worth in Sales

Filed under: Book Reviews,business,career development,marketing,prospecting,sales,Sales Failure,selling,small business,success — Paul McCord @ 11:11 am
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Seldom do I review a book that has been on the market for years, much less decades.  But I ran across my old beat up copy of  The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You’re Worth in Sales
and decided since the book was in such poor condition I’d order the newest edition.  After reading it again, I thought I’d do my small part to encourage as many sellers and sales leaders as possible to pick up a copy and set aside some time for some serious—and potentially highly productive—reading.

Authors George W. Dudley and Shannon L. Goodson are psychologists who have spent decades researching one of the key barriers to sales success—call reluctance.  The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You’re Worth in Sales (Behavioral Sciences Research Press, Inc: 5th Edition 2007) is designed to help sellers and sales leaders recognize the issues that are keeping them from prospecting effectively and to overcome them. 

Dudley and Goodson argue that sales call reluctance isn’t as simple as the fear of rejection it is so often claimed to be, but instead can be any one or any combination of twelve different issues that prevent sellers from fully engaging in prospecting. 

After first dealing with the difference between true call reluctance and call reluctance impostors (things that may look like call reluctance but aren’t, such as low motivation or low goals), the authors get down to business by laying out in detail the twelve root causes of call reluctance. 

These prospecting killers are:

  1. Doomsayers those who over prepare for the worst case scenario
  2. Over-Preparer  spends time preparing to prospect, little time prospecting
  3. Hyper-Pro   in Texas we’d call them all hat, no cattle—spends all their time on the show of success, no time on becoming successful
  4. Stage Fright  avoid group presentations
  5. Role Rejection  buried guilt or shame about being a salesperson or self-promoter
  6. Yielder  hesitant to be seen as intrusive or forward
  7. Social Self-Consciousness  afraid to market to upscale prospects
  8. Separationist  resistant to selling and marketing to friends
  9. Emotionally Unemancipated  resistant to selling and marketing to family

10.  Referral Aversion  uncomfortable asking for referrals

11.  Telephobia fear of using the phone to connect with prospects

12.  Oppositional Reflex  a need for a great deal of approval but having very low self-esteem

Like a great many other sellers, I can spot myself in this list—my self-diagnosis is Over-Preparer and Role-Rejection (one of the role rejection issues the authors discuss is a seller’s discomfort with self-promotion as many sellers have been brought up to believe that self-promotion is unseemly and socially unacceptable).

Along with the description of the call reluctance issue, Dudley and Goodson include some self-diagnosis questions and typical work behaviors associated with the issue that will help you determine if you—or one of your sellers-is a victim of the particular prospecting killer.

The authors don’t leave you hanging.

Of course the book would be useless if it only diagnosed the illness without giving an appropriate and effective prescription to cure it. 

Dudley and Goodson lay out in detail six procedures (and a couple of minor ones) to counteract and correct the dozen call reluctance issues.   

Each discussion of a call reluctance issue is accompanied by a list of the countermeasures effective for treating it so you know what your illness is as well as the correct prescription to deal with it. 

A countermeasure is designed to change your thoughts, your feelings or your actions. Every call reluctance issue has multiple countermeasures–at least one countermeasure to deal with your thoughts and at least one to deal with your feelings, and almost all have a countermeasure to help change your actions.

Countermeasures are too complex to go into any detail here, but an idea of where the authors go with countermeasures can be gathered through some of the countermeasure’s names: Thought Realignment, Threat Desensitization, Thought Zapping, and Fear Inversion.

The Pros:

The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance:

  • Presents a research based assessment of the causes of sales call reluctance
  • Provides detailed tested and proven prescriptions for dealing with the identified call reluctance issues
  • Helps distinguish between true call reluctance and those actions that appear to be call reluctance but aren’t

Unlike most sales trainers and consultants who claim to know the cause of call reluctance, Dudley and Goodson have moved well beyond the “fear of rejection” assumption and have provided sellers with a well researched discussion of its causes and cures.  That alone is worth every penny of the book’s cost.

More importantly, the proposed cures really seem to work, which is far more than can be said for the old “just do it” formula so often prescribed by motivational speakers.  A real, workable, effective solution makes the book priceless.

The Cons:

Unfortunately there are cons—both in style and execution.

Let’s take the less important style cons first:

1) The authors skewer sales trainers, psychologists, and motivational speakers for claiming they have ‘the answer.”  Dudley and Goodson are just as guilty if not more so since they make such an issue of beating their straw man sales trainers, psychologists and motivation speakers about the head and shoulders unmercifully. 

2) The authors try too hard to turn a semi-academic work into something more akin to literature.  They get far too carried away trying to make their similes and metaphors cute and unique that they are almost laughable.  Yes, a minor point, but one that after awhile becomes weary. 

Now to the far more important execution issue: the diagnosis and prescriptions are going to be very difficult for a great many sellers to handle on their own (not to mention that an even greater number of sellers will never make it through the tedious detail of the book).  Many, if not most, sellers will have to have someone to both guide them through the book and to hold them accountable for executing the prescriptions.  I think far more sellers will be successful using Dudley and Goodson’s research if they work in conjunction with their manger, a coach, or mentor. 

If you’re a seller, I encourage you to get a copy of the book, work through it, and then find someone—a manager or coach probably—to work with you to diagnose your call reluctance issues (if you have any) and then work through the countermeasures.

If you’re a sales leader, even more this book should not only be on your bookshelf, but should be in your hands—you just might find it solves many a vexing problem your sellers have had.

The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance: Earning What You’re Worth in Sales

May 5, 2010

Book Review: Crush Price Objections by Tom Reilly

Filed under: Book Reviews,Objections,Uncategorized — Paul McCord @ 3:53 pm
Tags: , , , , ,

Price.  We salespeople are always thinking price because we think our prospects and clients are always thinking price. But we’re not really thinking about price, we’re fearing price.  We’re always looking for ways to take price out of the equation, which for most of us means trying to figure a way to come in with the lowest price.

Tom Reilly argues in Crush Price Objections: Sales Tactics for Holding Your Ground and Protecting Your Profit
 (McGraw Hill: 2010) that not only do we need not fear price, but that for the most part price is an issue only because WE make it an issue.

Reilly opens the book with his “ten realities that shape the landscape of selling a price-sensitive environment.”  Here is a taste of Reilly’s realties:

#1  You Will Hear Price Objections

#2  You Will Lose Business Because of Price

#5  Some Price Objections are Fake

#8  Salespeople Create Their Own Misery

#10  Attitude Drives Behavior

Although I’ve only given half of the 10 realities, you should have an idea of where Reilly is going based on these 5 alone.  Despite the fact that you’ll lose business due to price, you alone are the key to overcoming and successfully selling your products and services without blowing your profit margin. 

Chapter after chapter hits on why we sellers are more often than not the creators of the price objections we hear, or as Reilly puts it, “price objections are self-inflicted wounds.”  To bolster his argument, Reilly gives the results of business-to-business buyer priority studies which have consistently indicated that cost is not only not the top buyer priority, it has never been one of the top 5 issues for buyers in any study his company has done.

OK, so price may not be the killer we sometimes think it is—if we know how to deal with it.  So, how do we deal with it?

Fully 70% of the book is dedicated to giving you the tools, techniques, and strategies necessary to defeat price objections.

Reilly really does take a comprehensive approach to dealing with price objections from helping you to mentally prepare to handle them, to understanding your buyer’s motivation, to questioning techniques to probe for potential price issues, to helping your buyer look beyond the immediate price to the long-term value of your solution.

Reilly argues that to successfully deal with price objections, one must have an operating philosophy from which to work and to create a price philosophy, you have to work from a set of principles that will guide you in dealing with pricing issues. He then lays out a set of 15 price principles.  A smattering:

#1  Someone Else’s Opinion Does Not Make Your Price High

#3  No One But You Cuts Your Price

#7  Preparation Is the Key to Your Success

#9  Never Assume Your Price Is Too High: Maybe the Competition Is Desperate

#12  First, Buyers Test Your Price, Then They Test Your Resolve

#14  Salespeople Cut Price Because They Can

These principles, along with the other 9, are the framework within which you determine how to address price.

Although having an overarching philosophy founded on a set of principles for handling price objections sounds great, there is still the very practical issue of HOW to deal with an objection. 

Reilly doesn’t leave you hanging. He sets out a four step method of dealing with objections as they arise:

1) clarify the objection
2) classify the objection
3) decide how you will respond
4) respond to the money objection.

According to Reilly, price objections can be classified as price-based money objections, cost-based money objections, value-based money objections, game-based money objections, and procedural-based money objections.  Understanding what type of objection you’re dealing with is key to understanding how to deal with it.  A third of the book is devoted to laying out strategies to deal with each of the above five money objections.

If you’re dealing in the business-to-business realm and finding price to be a thorn in your side, get Crush Price Objections—it really will help you hold the line more often, even if you deal in a product or service that is becoming commoditized. 

If you sell to consumers don’t think this isn’t going to help you also because it will.  Many of the same strategies used in business-to-business sales are just as applicable to consumer sales.

Don’t continue to let price objections destroy your pipeline and/or your profitability. 

Crush Price Objections: Sales Tactics for Holding Your Ground and Protecting Your Profit

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