Sales and Sales Management Blog

June 29, 2009

Boost Your Sales series: “Are you being a Caretaker?” by Dr. Gregory Stebbins

Filed under: Client Relationships,sales,sales psychology,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:57 am
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Are you being a Caretaker?
By Dr. Gregory Stebbins

Traditionally a caretaker is the individual responsible for responsibility of looking after buildings and the smooth running of an estate making sure the heating is working; cleaning; moving furniture; doing repairs, ordering materials, etc. Often these jobs are held for life and the caretaker has a very personal relationship with the owner of the property.

So it is with sales professionals that take on the role of caretaker with their customers. To accomplish this, the professional needs to move past seeing the customer as an adversary. Listen to the language of many sales people and you’ll hear combat metaphors that might be more appropriate in a military boot camp environment.

Today, it’s very easy to accidentally slip away from being a caretaker. Technology — internet, cell phones, faxes and voice mail — have allowed us to respond instantly to our client requests, without really getting to know them as a human being. In many ways we miss the little things that tell us who the person is, their concerns, their fears, what makes them happy and more.

What are some simple ways that we can start being a customer caretaker and build deeper relationships with our clients?

1. Communicate personally. Take some time to meet personally with the customer. Leave the sales agenda in the office and just treat them as a very important person. Listen to their story. People often ask, “What’s their story.” Generally people want to share their story, sometimes just to get it off their chest. As a sales professional it’s too easy to look at everything as a sales situation. Sometimes the best way to sell is to “not sell,” at least in the classical way everyone expects.

2. Help them without asking. Listen for things that you can do to assist them, without asking them, “How can I help you?” Just the fact that you took time to be with them and did not try to sell them will change how they see you. Delivering something special that wasn’t asked for, but nevertheless was desired will cause them to feel taken care of.

3. Show them the love. This tip might be hard for some sales people to swallow. Think first of someone you love unconditionally. What would you do to help that person? What do you do to make their life better? Are they that different from most of your customers? I’ll admit that there are some people in my life that I choose to love unconditionally — from a distance. If your customer knows that you care very deeply for their welfare as a human being, the errors that show up in any business relationship are easily forgiven.

A responsible caretaker knows his or her responsibilities so well that things that might break never do. The reason is they fix it before it breaks. Relationships with customers are the same. If you’re constantly looking for the next customer and never take care of your current customers the churn might eventually bankrupt you.

Dr. Stebbins is President of PeopleSavvy and an internationally recognized authority on Sales Psychology. He is a master at improving the greatest asset of any business—its people. With more than 30 years of business experience, he applies a wealth of knowledge, street smarts, and high impact ideas to the challenges his clients have. As a trainer, Greg has designed and delivered  numerous corporate sales, management and human resource development programs. Over 20,000 sales professionals have benefited from Greg’s expertise and training. He has consulted on strategic planning, leadership development and organizational culture for dozens of organizations, large and small, profit and not-for-profit. 

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June 13, 2008

Guest Article: “How to Use Sales Psychology to Create More Lifetime Clients Now,” by Gregory Stebbins

Filed under: sales,sales psychology,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 7:02 am
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How to Use Sales Psychology to Create More Lifetime Clients Now
by Gregory Stebbins

My Customer is Ticking Me Off!

That was the recent comment I heard from a seasoned sales professional. He then described the customer’s controlling nature including how he would often interrupt, and want answers in Cliffs Notes version.

The sales person had a style mismatch. He was choosing to be upset by the customer’s actions.

After letting him unload, I asked him how he’s adapting to the customer.

“Adapt?” he asked, puzzled.

I said, “You could just live in your hurt feelings, like you’ve been doing. Or you could choose to pay closer attention to your customer and work with him the way he wants to be worked with. Specifically, allow this customer to have control over the sales call, give him the information he needs in the timing he needs it, and allow him to cut you off.”

Ultimately when you allow your customer to win, you’ll end up winning too. Your customers don’t necessarily want to be your friends. They want to be your customers because they need your products and services, don’t they?”

How to Make Sales, Not War

War metaphors such as “It was a hard fought battle” or “We had to punch the proposal through their defenses” are often used to describe the sales process. However, a more elegant and effective sales close approach is to give the customer what he or she wants in the way they want it with a nice ribbon around the package.

When the customer perceives you as the expert who really understands what he or she needs and when you give it to them in the way they recognize as serving their needs, you automatically turn an adversary into an ally. This will turn your customers into lifetime customers.

The Ultimate Secret to Turning Customers Into Lifetime Customers

Many companies struggle when differentiating their products or services. When you know how to adapt your personal selling style to align with that of the customer, you become the point of differentiation.

This requires you to be very aware of your approach to selling and the customer’s approach to buying.

For example, high-steadiness behavior types hate change. When a sales person shows up, he or she represents change, and that alone is enough to cause the customer to freeze. High-conscientious types often want detailed facts and figures, delivered with precision.

We’re most successful when our approach is identical to the customers. So you may find it beneficial to adapt your approach to theirs, even if it’s not your natural style.

Salespeople who have learned the secret to adapting profoundly increase their sales because they possess the ability to sell to different kinds of people.

How to Identify Your Style and the Style of Your Customers

I gave the person I was coaching the following explanation so he could identify his style and the styles of his customers:

• “D” Behavior – Demanding, directing and domineering. Individuals with this behavior style are usually ambitious, bold and impatient. They can also be argumentative and stubborn.
• “I” Behavior – Interacting, inspiring, and influencing. Individuals with this behavior style are often expressive, charming, optimistic, cheerful and enthusiastic.
• “S” Behavior – Supporting, stabilizing and steadying. These individuals are usually loyal, calm, patient, cooperative and humble.
• “C” Behavior – Conscientious, cautious and correcting. These individuals are often diplomatic, meticulous, private, incisive and exact.

How to Put This Knowledge Into Action During Two Key Stages of the Sales Process

Opening the call:

• Customer behavior type D: Be clear, specific, brief, and to the point.
• Customer behavior type I: Be friendly. Listen for both facts and feelings. Make time for relating and socializing.
• Customer behavior type S: Be genuinely sincere. Create a non-threatening environment for them.
• Customer behavior type C: Ask lots of questions and be patient while they answer in minute detail.

Obtaining commitment:

• Customer behavior type D – Briefly highlight their key options and ask for the order assertively.
• Customer behavior type I – Inspire them to action. Keep the close relaxed and friendly.
• Customer behavior type S – Detail how they can take practical action and confirm without pushing or rushing them.
• Customer behavior type C – Create a scheduled approach to implementing action with step-by-step timetables. Point out guarantees.

You can double or even triple your sales by getting a grasp on your customer’s behavioral style. It will make a difference in your sales figures and will turn one-time customers into lifetime customers.

Greg Stebbins is a master at improving the greatest asset of any business—its people. With more than 30 years of business experience, he applies a wealth of knowledge, know how, and high impact ideas to the challenges his clients bring to him. Greg has developed his dynamic approach through real-life experience and dedicated research. A published author, he brings with him an MBA in finance, a Masters in psychology and a Doctorate from Pepperdine’s School of Education and Psychology. Visit his website at www.peoplesavvy.com.

May 8, 2008

Book Review: PeopleSavvy for Sales Professionals by Gregory Stebbins, Ed.D.

Filed under: Book Reviews,Client Relationships,marketing,Personal Marketing,sales,sales psychology,selling — Paul McCord @ 7:00 am
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Seldom do I read a book that I consider to be dangerous. Certainly, there are books that once read, you think, “Wow! I hope a new salesperson doesn’t get hold of this and think this is what sales is all about.” We’ve all read the books, the ones that advocate heavy doses of manipulation, browbeating the customers, twisting their arm, hog tying them until they give in.

Nevertheless, PeopleSavvy For Sales Professionals (Savvy Books, 2007) by Gregory Stebbins, Ed.D. is a dangerous book of a different kind, a danger that Stebbins immediately acknowledges in his introduction. PeopleSavvy deals with the psychological strategies and techniques of selling and developing trust—strategies and techniques that can be used to help create a bond–or to manipulate and deceive.

In the right hands, the book can open new ways to build relationships quickly. In the wrong hands, it can reveal ways to out fox, out maneuver, and out and out manipulate. The responsibility for the information’s use lies with the reader, Dr. Stebbins has simply shown how understanding your prospect’s behavior and thinking can help you connect—and an unfortunate byproduct is to show others how they can manipulate.

Stebbins’ thesis is that if your prospects don’t trust you, you cannot sell effectively. That thesis springboards Stebbins in a discussion of how you can read your prospect’s movements, her words, how he dresses, what she has on the walls of her office—even the position of the items in his office, and use that information to build a deeper connection more quickly with the prospect, gaining their confidence and trust at the same time.

Although the book is quite detailed on the ‘how’ to read your prospects behavior and the other telltale signs to help build trust, Stebbins breaks trust into two parts and feeds them to us in bite sized morsels.

Trust is comprised of ‘Rapport’, which itself is made up of compassion, connection and credibility, and ‘Deep Trust,’ which is comprised of competence, commitment and consistency. Stebbins takes the reader through each of these individual components of Rapport and Deep Trust and how each must play a role in developing a relationship of trust with your prospect.

He then journeys through how motivation, communication and behavior can reveal the avenues to developing the rapport and trust you must have to develop a lasting relationship with your prospect.

From mirroring behavior to matching speech patterns and words to understanding personality types to how the prospect thinks and operates, PeopleSavvy covers the gamut from not only understanding your prospect’s behavior, to how they think and why they think the way they do.

Filled with stories and examples, PeopeSavvy is an easy to read—harder to apply—book whose insights, strategies and techniques are grounded in the works of those, including Stebinns, who have spent years studying sales, marketing, and industrial psychology.

If you want to understand how to get inside the head of your prospects and clients, PeopleSavvy will help open the door to their minds. Whether what you learn is dangerous or not depends on your intent and use.

March 20, 2008

Guest Article: “Sales Management: How to Manage Independent, Tech-Savvy New Millennial & Help Them Sell Effectively, by Gregory Stebbins

Filed under: management training,sales,Sales Management,selling — Paul McCord @ 6:08 am
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Sales Management: How to Manage Independent, Tech-Savvy New Millennial & Help Them
Sell Effectively
by Gregory Stebbins

Independent, tech-savvy, social, and optimistic ? why are these “kids” so hard to
manage?

Seasoned sales managers are facing challenges managing new Millennial’s, also known
as people born after 1980. These new sales professionals have a different approach
to life. This greatly impacts their ability to sell effectively.

Understanding them and some key events that took place during their youth will help
you manage your Millennial sales team with shorter ramp times.

What is different about the new Millennial sales team?

Their work styles, motivations and view of the worlds, especially the corporate world.

For example Millennials:

- Demonstrate loyalty to their social network and specific managers and members of
the team, but not to the company.

- Grew up during a technology explosion. Their every day reality included video,
cell phones, laptops, and iPods.

- Are addicted to reality television, Google and websites like Myspace and Facebook.
In this world information is available for the asking. That’s why they believe in
putting everything out there for all to see.

- Faced school violence and global terrorism (specifically 9-11). This made them
wary about the world. It also helped them develop a global perspective

- Have the ability to find information about anything at a rate that far exceeds
expectations of management. What they lack is discernment about the accuracy of the
information. If it’s on the Net they tend to believe it must be accurate. They can
instantly communicate this information to their social network via Blogs, Instant
Messaging (IM), personal Web pages and cell phones. Some companies have found out
the hard way that their management mistakes are common knowledge within days, if not
hours.

- Do not know their own strengths and weaknesses because there have not been many
opportunities for self-evaluation or honest, constructive criticism. With hundreds
of possible activities, from soccer to music lessons, Millennials have been
over-committed and over-scheduled.

- Were smothered in praise with constant reinforcement about how great they are.
That’s why they expect recognition for everything, even the most mundane activities.

This creates your greatest management challenges:

- How do you help them understand that there are winners and losers in the sales
world?

- How do you provide constructive criticism without devastating their psyche?

This is new ground for both the sales manager and the new Millennial sales
professional.

Here’s My Simple 4-Step Process to Managing Your New Millennial Sales Team

1. The first time they approach you, work with them to think through at least three
options. Then make the decision for them. Having them consider options is the first
step of developing your new sales team’s ability to reason.

2. When they want your input, make sure they have created three options to discuss.
Help them understand the consequences of each option. Add in other options if they
haven’t considered all of the consequences.

3. Guide them toward the course to action you want. Essentially they will be making
the recommendation, which you are approving.

4. Cut them loose and have them handle a situation on their own. However, also have
them provide a written report. The report needs to tell you what the situation was,
the options they considered and the decision they made. This step won’t last that
long as their need for independence will kick in and they’ll just stop coming to you
with every little situation.

Keep in mind that these new sales professionals are going to need much more coaching
than their predecessors. Unlike other generations, they grew up protected. And, they
interacted with others largely through technology. This created a generation whose
people savvy is very limited. So, guide them and help them understand the nuances of
body language, the uniqueness of each person’s office and what the contents of that
office reveals about the customer.

And remember, when coaching Millennials your focus and approach may need to be
different from others you have worked with. Here’s how…

- Provide structure and give information in bite-size pieces.
- Praise them for their efforts
- Present mistakes as development opportunities
- Use technology freely before and after the session.
- Provide the rationale behind your coaching.
- Sell your Millennial sales team on the idea of discretion

Smart sales managers focus on developing their Millennial’s people savvy. They
understand flexible work roles and create effective virtual teams. They leverage
technology that will help Millennials become a valuable asset sooner rather than
later.  And, most importantly they meet the challenges of working with, not against,
the new Millennial sales team generation.

Copyright 2008, Gregory Stebbins.  Published with permission.

Sales Psychology Expert Gregory Stebbins has helped over 20,000 sales professionals
better understand their customers so they can outsell their competition. Now, with
his new book “People Savvy for Sales Professional” sales managers can help their NEW
sales team understand a simple, yet groundbreaking plan to winning your customers’
trust and business forever. Get your free sneak preview at

http://www.peoplesavvy.com/book.htm

Paul McCord of the Sales and Sales Management Blog may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com

March 6, 2008

Guest Article: “Interpersonal Skills: How to Use Sales Psychology to Create Longer, Lasting Sales-Winning Relationships,” by Gregory Stebbins

Filed under: Client Relationships,Communication,sales,selling,trust — Paul McCord @ 6:30 am
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Interpersonal Skills: How to Use Sales Psychology to Create Longer, Lasting Sales-Winning Relationships  
by Gregory Stebbins

A participant in one of my recent seminars asked me, “Can I rearrange my client’s office during a sales presentation?”
The sales person had gone to an initial meeting where the chairs in the office were about eight feet from the customer’s desk. He wanted to know if it was OK to just pick up one of the chairs and move it next to the desk and start his presentation.

How would you have answered this question? Believe it or not, your answer could have huge implications on this meeting’s success.

Everything in a customer’s office tells you a story about him or her-from the way the space is arranged to the items that have been collected and displayed.

Archeologists can dig up ancient cities and create a pretty accurate description of the inhabitants’ lifestyle just from the arrangement of the ruins and pottery fragments. As sales professionals we must do the same thing with the artifacts surrounding our customers, so we can communicate better and develop longer lasting relationships with them.

Here’s how you can promote a desirable impression and create sales-winning relationships by understanding space and the hidden message in things.

How to Promote a Desirable Impression By Understanding Space

In 1966, when anthropologist Edward T. Hall described set measurable distances between people as they interact he defined four distances:

Intimate distance – 6″ to 18″, for embracing, touching or whispering
Personal distance – 1.5 feet to 4 feet, for interactions among good friends
Social Distance – 5 feet to 12 feet, for interactions among acquaintances
Public Distance – more than 12 feet, for public speaking
How does this relate to your sales process?

Think about one of your customers. Divide her office into concentric circles, starting from where she sits. The distance between the circles is about the width of her desk. Anything close to the person-usually within arm’s reach-is the most important part of her office. This space generally contains her most precious, most valuable items. It is filled with clues that reveal to the trained sales professional a wealth of information about the customer and her needs and motivations.

As for the office the salesperson asked about rearranging, the chairs were set at the “social distance,” which the customer was communicating as appropriate for interactions among acquaintances (or in this case, sales people). For the sales person to pick up his chair and move into the next circle-personal distance-would have meant that he was declaring that the two of them were friends.

From the customer’s point of view this may or may not have been true. The customer could have reacted positively and allowed it. Or she could have reacted negatively and asked the sales person to leave. In any case, changing to another distance is likely to cause tension and would not promote a desirable impression.

A better strategy would be to ask permission to move the chair closer to the desk. Or, he could say that he had difficulty hearing the prospective customer clearly and then asked permission to move the chair.

How to Create Sales-Wining Relationships by Understanding the Hidden Message in “Things”

Analyzing your clients or prospects’ rooms will tell you their motivations and behavioral styles. By paying close attention and analyzing the hidden message in things, you will know how to best serve your customer.

If his desk is meticulous, it indicates a high degree of close tolerance, sometimes called analytical. Or his desk could be very messy indicating an engaging personal or social trait, sometimes called influencing. These are all clues to guide you in making a presentation that will have the greatest appeal and impact on your customer.

The books on the bookcase will tell you what is currently or has been important to him. Trophies, plaques and diplomas all tell you that he is motivated by recognition. While pictures of tropical isles indicate an idealistic approach to life and business. All of this information will guide you in presenting your case so the customer really “grasps” it.

Knowing how to analyze and use keys to the customer’s psyche is what separates the ordinary sales representatives from the sales professionals.

Here’s the point: By understanding sales psychology and enhancing your interpersonal skills you will make more sales. I guarantee it-and this is not just an idle claim. With more than 30 years of in-the-trenches sales experience and a Doctorate in Psychology, I’ve applied a wealth of knowledge, know how, and high impact techniques (like those described here) to help over 20,000 sales professionals improve their sales careers.

So, please take my advice. Take a moment to scope out your prospective customer’s office. It’s vital to developing longer lasting client relationships. The information about the person’s motivations and behavior is always available to you. Are you available to the information?

Sales Psychology Expert Gregory Stebbins has helped over 20,000 sales professionals become the point of differentiation while their competitors struggle with how to differentiate their service. In his book People Savvy for Sales Professionals, he unveils for the first time his simple but groundbreaking plan to win your customers. Get your free sneak preview at www.peoplesavvy.com/book.htm

Paul McCord of the Sales and Sales Management Blog may be reached at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com

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