By John Holland, co-author CustomerCentric Selling

A buyer wants to buy a television, but has no idea of what is available or what his needs are regarding size, brand, DLP, High Definition, plasma, etc. Upon entering a retail store, a salesman asks: May I help you? Strangely enough, the buyer responds: No thanks. Im just looking.

The response to the offer to help would be significantly different if the buyer had first reviewed an independent consumers guide. When entering the store if he knew that he wanted a 52 Samsung DLP High Definition television, the buyer would have accepted the clerks offer to help. Why are the responses so different?

Based upon past experience and a general negative stereotype, when meeting salespeople for the first time, buyers assume that they will be insincere, aggressive, persistent, and more interested in themselves (their commission) than meeting the needs of their customers. For that reason, many people are hesitant to allow salespeople to influence their buying decisions. If you were to ask someone for their definition of selling, you will hear words like convincing, persuading, overcoming objectives and pressuring buyers.

Most people prefer to buy versus be sold. The difference between buying and selling is a matter of who is in control. While being sold, you may feel that you are being manipulated and pressured into buying something that you may not need. When you know what you want, the salespersons role changes to one of being a buying facilitator. That is why the informed TV buyer responds differently to the sellers offer to help.

Enterprise sales are more complicated than retail sales, but the same principles of human behavior apply. Buyers want to feel that they exert some control or influence during conversations with sellers. Most superior salespeople intuitively align with this need.

Take a moment and consider the last call you made on a buyer you were meeting for the first time. If you could review a transcript of that call, what percentage of your verbal communication would consist of opinions and statements versus questions? The best sales calls are give and take conversations.

By asking relevant, directed questions focused on determining needs, a seller can establish credibility with a buyer and overcome the negative stereotype. Questions also allow buyers to exert some degree of control of the conversation vs. being forced to listen to spray and pray product pitches. If you agree people would rather buy than be sold, then:
 

	Telling equates to selling
	Asking facilitates buying

Consider making a conscious effort to ask more questions to improve the customer buying experience. It will likely be good for your customers and prospects and ultimately for you as well. Asking questions can allow you to break the stereotype, empower buyers and differentiate yourself by the way you sell.
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By Gabor Burt, Blue Ocean Strategy and Value Innovation Expert

You can make your competition irrelevant by really understanding what target customers ultimately want. If your offering is nothing more than an imitation or incremental improvement of your competition, then you are stuck treading water in a red ocean. But if you can clearly distinguish yourself and deliver superior value, then your competition becomes irrelevant and you will be in an uncontested blue ocean.

Consider an example from the world of sports. In the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea qualified for competition not by meeting the minimum time standard, but by winning a wild card entry. Such cards are randomly allocated to athletes from small, third world countries who otherwise would have no chance to meet the competitive standards. The intent is to make the Olympics a truly world-encompassing event.

This particular athlete gained instant celebrity status by flailing and splashing his way to an unforgettable last place showing. Being exposed to a full size swimming pool for the first time, and uninitiated in the ways of a diving start, he somehow managed to finish the 100-meter heat to the spectators uproarious reception. Such a display of courageous dilettantism made him one of the most talked about athletes of the games, winning him worldwide fame, celebrity invitations and attractive promotional opportunities. Why such raving success for the worst swimmer in Olympic history? Because he unintentionally sidestepped head-on competition with his much more qualified rivals, and instead gave spectators what they really wanted: inspirational entertainment.
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By Keith Ferrazzi, author Never Eat Alone and CEO Ferrazzi Greenlight

I hear salespeople say that speaking to a particular prospect was like "hitting a brick wall." The prospect's guard was up in full force. The prospect seemed to get bored or, worse yet, to actually become defensive or offensive, as the case may be, every time the salesperson mentioned a product benefit or feature. And many times, the salespersons response is to attack harder, perhaps even in an equally abrasive or condescending way.

Attacking head-on is clearly not the answer. I promise it is painful. Instead, look for the loose brick. No matter how hard the brick wall, theres always one loose brick, the one thing that the client is most concerned with at the time. And its rarely related to the products or services you are selling.

Sometimes people have fears or frustrations about their job or boss and they would just really appreciate you offering an understanding ear. I, for one, spend a lot of time helping my CMO clients improve their working relationships with their CEOs and CFOs. They're concerned with positioning themselves appropriately to gain respect from those executives. Of course, my take on marketing and sales doesn't hurt. It's music to the ear of CEOs to hear their CMOs begin talking about creating marketing strategies that shift spending from broadcast advertising to client relationship-building and sales.

Remember, if you get resistance, stop thinking about selling. Listen carefully for what the person (not the "client" or "customer" at that point) really needs. In the same way they say it is one step that begins the journey of a thousand miles, it's by finding that one loose brick that will lead to a prospect letting down his entire wall of defense.
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Forecasting - Salespeople shouldn't do it

By Michael Green, Chairman, SalesGene Corporation

Sales Managers as well as Sales Representatives are very busy people. As much as the Sales Manager would just love to know every intimate detail of every account in his or her territory, the reality is, he or she cares about and is responsible for properly managing his or her territory and personnel, but most important-closing business! What does a Sales Manager really care about? Simply said, answers to the following: How Much is the deal worth? When will it close? What do we have to do next to get it closed?

Sales software solutions today are great at answering the first question. However, they are particularly ineffective at answering the when and what next questions.

Lets examine one of the most important things that salespeople, sales managers and corporate executives have to report: Forecasting upcoming business. Talk about things that people hate to do! In most companies, forecasting is an art, not a science. On a regular basis, salespeople are required to basically look into a crystal ball and predict the future. Most of the time, this is nothing more than a guess as to how large the deal is, and when an order or contract will be complete or close. Best case, it is simply the salespersons opinion! The next step is for the salespersons manager to weigh in with his or her opinion based mostly on the experience he or she has with that individual salesperson. In the sales world we call this handicapping. Some salespeople are what we call sandbaggers and will forecast very conservatively and thus prefer to become heroes rather than goats when they run in at the last minute with the quarter-saving order. On the other hand, there are salespeople who forecast everything with high value and a high probability (in order to keep their manager off their back) but rarely come through with what they promised.

There is something fundamentally wrong with this process, because the entire company is relying on this information, probably THE most important information, and it is the basis for everything. And sadly, it is solely based on the opinion (nothing more) of the sales organization. Human Resources and Support Services needs to determine how many people will be needed to manage, build and support the companys product or service. The Manufacturing organization naturally needs to know how many components to buy or services to acquire. And yes, these critical decisions once again are determined by the sales forecast.

Since Landslide was designed by salespeople for salespeople, we understand and completely respect the need for forecasting. But we believe it should be much more determined by what was really accomplished by the salesperson, based on a proven path that historically has worked successfully in the company. Landslide keeps track of activities and tasks as they are accomplished by the salesperson and requires little or no additional data entry. The software generates the forecasts based upon where a salesperson is in the sales cycle rather than their opinions. We do understand that from time-to-time, there is a bit of art that creeps into the desired scientific sales process, which is why we provide intelligent ways to tweak/modify/override the forecast based on knowledge acquired outside the pre-determined methodology. If you are a career salesperson like me, you will appreciate this new approach to forecasting.

Ill discuss the need for solutions that also show a salesperson what to do next to move a deal along in the next issue of ProvenPath.
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RobinSoft Corporation is a small start-up headquartered in Union City, Georgia, that provides school administration software for small to medium post-secondary schools. Using software from Pittsburgh-based SalesGene, the company has recently established a sales process that keeps all customer-facing employees on the same page. SalesGenes Landslide application enables RobinSoft to guide sales people through the best sequence of steps to turn a prospect into a customer, so each member of the sales team can leverage the same strategic message, tactics and marketing collateral to close a deal.

According to RobinSofts Director of Sales & Marketing Catherine Garland, the software helps streamline communications and keep the sales and marketing teams in sync, even when they operate in disparate locations. Landslide is helping us work smarter by following the most effective process to move prospects through the sales cycle, says Garland.

RobinSoft also uses the Landslide io channel, a secure portal for exchanging information with customers. The io channel offers a unique way to engage with customers, maintain ongoing communication and enhance the overall customer relationship. By collaborating with product marketing, we can populate each customer's site with the latest pricing sheets and brochures, and feel confident that we are sharing the most updated collateral.

The io Channel also allows RobinSoft to launch WebEx meetings and product demonstrations directly from the site, which, according to Garland, is a surefire way to close a deal. Garland adds, As our sales team grows, Landslide is helping to train new members to sell our GradPro software. By combining Landslide with their own sales skills, we feel they have everything they need to be successful.
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