SealQuick.com

If you want to become successful in your own sales presentations, you must first "believe" in your products, and then learn how to "present" them to your prospective customers! The quote is true "Whatever you've got they'll catch!" so make sure they catch the right thing!

We often hear the following ‘line’ from our clients…….. "We're really interested in increasing our sales productivity to increase our business, but where do we start?"

There are four key elements involved in Improving the productivity of your sales efforts:

1) Effective work Approach

2) Motivation

3) Sales strategy

4) Selling skills.

1) Sales productivity is directly connected to focus. In the simplest of terms this means that if you or whoever you designate to SELL is distracted or doing something other than selling…..then your sales results will be less than what they could be. Even if you are a ‘one man show’ the key is to develop an effective work approach that allows you to get excellent sales results. This means managing your time and thinking through the best and most effective way to develop and drive leads that turn into sales conversions.

Sales databases can significantly increase the number of calls a sales person can eventually make for your business. Additionally, if you are making telephone cold calls, consider headsets as they too may improve the effectiveness of the work environment. In addition, study and look for other similar obstacles to selling time, such as paperwork and other duties that keep sales people or even yourself from selling activities. Once you have identified these areas, look for better ways to handle those tasks so you can become more effective when prospecting prospective customers.

2) Develop a compensation and excellence recognition program that Motivates people to strive for "more". Providing adequate training and working with people on their career paths also shows that you care about them. If people have good opportunities for the future and realistic chances to improve them-selves, they will most definitely strive to work harder and be content.

3) Develop a sales strategy that includes direct door to door, fliers and newspaper inserts and local ads and outbound calling on rain and off season days. Develop a customer follow up and advance contact system that allows you to pre-book work for early and late in the season.

4) Developing Sales Skills is a topic that varies from person to person and from company to company. As a rule always look for the person who selling seems to come naturally to….as this is always the fastest and easiest road to getting excellent sales results. But it is also wise to develop a regular sales program, working directly with the sales people on their selling skills and approach.

Action Items to Start Increasing Productivity:

Examine how your sales people spend their day. Look for duties that might be better handled by another person. Find ways to give sales people the maximum selling time to generate maximum dollars!

Get together with your people and develop an effective work approach. Find out what your sales people like and what can be done to improve the selling results. Review and inspect your current compensation program to see if you can find better ways to make it more exciting and motivating for the performing sales person.

Discuss the company's sales strategy with your team on a regular basis. Always look for better approaches and more opportunities in new areas where success may be waiting for the taking. Distributing fliers on parked cars in shopping malls or testing a small ad in a local paper and developing your own website pages in conjunction with www.asphaltkingdom.com are all excellent examples.

Train your people! To coin a phrase, training time is always paid back in spades! Your sales team and Sales Skills are the cornerstone element required to get the revenue flowing in your business. Just as the knife is the tool of a chef, keep your selling edge sharp in your company! SealQuick offers many sales tools, online videos and examples that can be of valuable assistance in educating any sales team.

Some Examples of What the Top Performing Companies Do:

• Develop and organize key questions tailored to a specific customers need (Consider doing customer surveys!)
• Go after the strategic sales Vary strategies for different situations (flexibility)
• Don't waste time getting to business (customer response time)
• Ask tough questions in an attempt to illuminate your customer needs. (Point out problems customers have by asking strategic questions and immediately provide them a working solution!)
• Avoid discussing any products before identifying customer needs first (solution based selling)
• Focus on the advantages of your products or services that are most important to your customer
• Close the call with a solid agreement moving toward the next step. Always follow-up with your prospects.

Developing a Formal Sales Plan for Your Sales Team.

A sales plan and role playing can greatly assist any sales force in becoming more effective. By providing the sales force with example strategies, words and phrases, they learn more quickly, are effective when selling and develop superior presentational skills. Roll playing…… (not a script) serves as a guide for sales people. It also ensures each sales call completes each step but allows for individual style which is important.

People who are new to sales often do not have the experience necessary to respond correctly or effectively answer any specific customer questions. How often have you observed this phenomenon as a purchasing consumer? This leads to starts and stops in the sales presentation that diminishes its power. Product or service training combined with a sales outline will help them come up to speed more quickly. The simple existence of training and a sales outline and effective sales strategy helps to avoid this pitfall.

SealQuick’s marketing materials are specifically designed to address prospective clients whether in a cold calling or face to face direct contact situation

Those who understand that selling is in effect the art of persuasion…….are likely to be most successful.

Here is a Checklist that you can use to determine if you are addressing the key elements involved in the Persuasion Process (Selling Process) that need to be addressed to

1. Locate the prospect.
2. Qualify the prospect.
3. Develop a relationship. Relate and share experiences or similarities of your own when possible.
4. Discover the prospects needs.
5. Verify the value of the solutions to your prospect. Present the actual solution. (Many people forget to do this!)
6. Present the product or service as a benefit solution for your prospect.
7. Close the sale. (Handle objections/ future arrangements etc.)
8. Always ask how you might be of further assistance to them.

Depending on the nature of your call and the sophistication of your product or service, you may have to add additional steps. Carefully analyze your objectives and tasks before you even make any presentation necessary to sell your product or service to any prospect. Then modify or add to more specific objectives as it relates to your specific business to the list indicated above. One thing is clear; any business without exception should always have such a specific list outlining these objectives in every case.

Product training and especially training on technical services a company offers to consumers, often misses its mark. When this occurs, it significantly affects the ramp-up time required for any new people becoming involved in the spray application business. It may also cut into the effectiveness with which new products or additional services that gets introduced to prospects.

The reason product and services training is so important is that it sets the tone for what we commonly call solution or customer-based selling. Methods like "SPIN Selling", "Solution Selling", and "Question Based Selling" are all predicated on the concept of developing customer needs. And, the development of customer needs is critically dependent on the understanding of the benefits a product or service provides to a prospect.

It is very easy when teaching the art of sales to focus on the detail of how things work on the "technical" side. I remember going through product training at SealQuick and learning how the various spray equipment manufacturing processes affect the final product. For example, I was learning how tank agitation is produced inside the tank and how the clamps are supposed to be installed on the transfer hoses. All of this is may seem incredibly boring to people who handle a telephone all day however it's very interesting and important for manufacturing spray application equipment. This slant in thinking how other department's functions are not particularly important to the sales function is very commonplace in any product or service training I have observed in the past.

The focus of sales training for your business needs to focus on the benefits of the product or service! While this may seem rather obvious, it's not commonplace with most businesses. A knowledgeable sales person starts with understanding every aspect of your business if the overall intention is to become a knowledgeable sales person in your business.

However, it is noteworthy to mention that even without any technical knowledge some sales people should be able to make significant progress with a customer by explaining how they will profit from the product or service you offer. That is not to say high levels of technical expertise aren't required when prospecting customers because really they should be able to answer virtually any question posed, however in this instance you will not only create people who are capable of selling your services but they become technical consultants for your business. They will be offering this technical assistance as an "added benefit" to the "service" aspect you are selling to the prospect or customer.

However, even in the most technical sales, for example, the customer or prospect doesn't really care how the software in their computer is written, just that it increases the productivity of the environment for which it was purchased. It might take a significant background to sell software because of all the application interface, customization, and programming involved - but the customer isn't buying anything until they're convinced of the potential profit and increased productivity it will bring.

So what's the answer? Simple… Products should be taught (first) from the benefit side before your spray application services. Let's use our software example to see how this works. If the software uses a special formula to calculate "just in time" customer service - we'll call this feature "GOOD". The salesperson needs to know how "GOOD" brings about added benefits in your spray application business environment. Not necessarily how "GOOD" works in itself. For example, maybe "GOOD" is also able to calculate more accurately the amount of product that should be stocked by your company for the number of application jobs you are scheduled to perform that week, which in turn reduces inventories by six percent in your business spray application environment. Ok, so what does the sales person in your company need to know?

The typical training on such a service might focus on how "GOOD" works, the variables, spray application formulas, functions necessary to make application calculations etc. Then, what the salespeople actually need to know is: what is the value of having "fewer inventories" and what impact does having "fewer inventories" have on the organization. Such as:

1. Less inventory means less space allocated to stock,

2. Less investment dollars tied up by your company in product waiting for customers to purchase,

3. Less loss when spray application product becomes old and unusable,

4. Easier ramp up and down for new and old products and services for sales people.

These are the things the salesperson needs to understand to be successful at selling your services, as they make up their ability to develop the customer's needs. Don't readily assume they already know how to sell your product or service. This is one of the biggest mistakes I have seen sales manager make.

You literally don't even have to talk about the "GOOD" feature to sell your product, if you can show the customer how those four items will give them a healthy ROI with the purchase of your solution. This is exactly what it means to sell a solution!

By teaching salespeople how to ask questions about the "benefits" of the product (the four items above), you give them the power to develop customer needs. The focus of good product training is teaching salespeople those points and questions. Let's look more closely at our example with "hidden" consumer benefits.

• Fewer inventories means less floor space allocated to stock.
• How much floor space do you allocate for inventory?
• Is your company expanding (growing)?
• (Any question relative to floor space shortages.)
• What are the costs of allocating space?
• How these costs are normally passed on to the purchasing consumer by your competition?

Each of the above questions digs into critical issues our "GOOD" feature can assist in solving. By asking these questions we have the opportunity to make "space" and issue (problem) and "inventory size" a part of the solution.

The scope of our example here is very limited. Obviously such a product and service would have many other critical features and potential benefits we have not touched on. You will typically find that these features group together in certain ways to provide a specific benefit for consumers and that group's of benefits are also the result of a specific feature of your specific business. For example "GOOD"s benefits may spill over to providing adequate supply to the market and reacting to increases and decreases in demand more effectively than your competitors.

You will be surprised upon testing your salespeople for their understanding of these types of questions and such benefits offered by your particular business how weak they really are in this area. Your product training will be far more effective if taught from this standpoint. The goal of your training should be to help salespeople identify the key benefits and understand the many ways they may positively or adversely affect the organization. Additionally, the training should go through the process of helping salespeople develop the key questions needed to discover the value these benefits might have for the prospective customer.

Effectively gauge your sales approach using your telephone

Have each salesperson in your business create a database called "Sales Tips" to share with one another during meetings and discussions that have worked effectively for them in the past.

You will quickly improve your company's sales skills if these experiences are documented and shared. Make sure your top players are in the game, as what others hear in their successful experiences they will surely copy!

Avoid any negative discussion or bad sales experience or drama discussion during these meetings. Focus only on identifying any sales techniques that worked!

In developing a "sales tips" database use the following guidelines:

1. Learn and make sure you understand your written sales tip. One method to do this is to rewrite the tip in your own words - try to add some more detail to it as you do.
2. Review recent selling experiences for examples of where the tip could have been applied. You should probably write these down.
3. Based on the review, list the behavior changes you want to implement and foster based on past experiences and discuss how you believe the tip might help anyone sell to prospective customers in the future.
4. You might find it useful to pass your ideas by someone else to see if they think your ideas for improving are sound. You may even get some good additional suggestions in the process.
5. Working with just the one new sales tip, pick up the telephone to see how effective they work. Make some "test calls" focusing on using the new behaviors you have selected. Similarly if you calling in person to a prospective customer you can use these same principles.
6. Audio taping your practice calls can be extremely helpful during this "research" process.
7. After each telephone call or visit, sit and review the call (play your tape if you made one) writing down and documenting where you used and failed when applying the new selling behaviors. In those places you failed to use the behavior, write out what you think you should have done instead.

Now, make another "test call" focusing on what you just learned. Repeat this process a couple of times each day for a day or two and you will quickly find you have changed your behavior. This is also a useful method for training new sales people as a method of monitoring and improving their performance. By running constant training (as little as 2 hours a week) you will keep your sales-people razor sharp. One of the best things you can do with your group is document and analyze potential customer contacts together. Audio taped telephone calls are the best. Visits in person usually require another person to act as an observer to document the process. If you have used a tape recorder during the customer exchange process you can later hear the actual interchange between the seller and buyer. Play and replay key points and discuss them together as a group. Remember, when you clear obstacles for everyone involved in the selling team, you're making multiple people more efficient at the same time - that's leverage!

The following are examples you can use in your new "Sales Tips" database:

Sales Tip # 1- Qualify early!

You will find you are much more successful if you qualify your decision-maker early in the call, before you start to answer questions or discuss your products or services. The decision making process is not always simple. Often there are a number of individuals involved in deciding on the product or service as well as the vendor. If you don't qualify your prospect early in the game, you may not take the best approach in presenting your service later. Depending on the decision-process and the role of the person to whom you are speaking you may want to discuss the technical details of your service or the benefit-results to users. Not knowing the person's relationship to the process can cause you to focus on the wrong area of the selling process and loose impact with your prospect.

Sales Tip #2- Teach and encourage people in your business to coach each other.

If you want your team's selling skills to really grow, get them coaching each other on their individual selling skills. When people in a company start trying to help their peers with their skills, they really start leaning! Not only the selling skills they are working on, but it also encourages leadership and training skills they can use later in their careers. You will also find that they often listen to peers more than they listen to you as the business owner. Remember your goal and intention is to increase sales regardless of how that specific objective might be achieved.

One of the biggest complaints regarding my advice from business owners I get is: "My people have been to all this training and I can't get them to use any of it!"

Have you provided any methods for documenting and evaluating your sales team recently?

Most training "appears" to go down the drain because there is no method to evaluate or validate information you have provided to sales people in your business. In short, if you have no way to gauge feedback, then you simply do not know if they acquired any of the information or training you provided them.

Now, of course, you must provide the structured framework for this activity to occur and provide ongoing guidance as to what they have learned from any sales training you have provided. A good way to find out if your "people are using" your training efforts, or if the information is being absorbed into the minds of your sales people is to actually let sales reps evaluate themselves! That's right... It's called the peer to peer review process. The results and enthusiasm at these types of "information sharing" meetings are often quite remarkable.

Sales Incentive Programs - Making Them Work for You.

During a sales presentation I conducted, a participant briefly discussed incentive and compensation programs for sales people. I would like to further reflect on this discussion. As the participant described, a major part of keeping sales people motivated is the right incentive programs. This clearly identified the idea that your compensation program also has a tremendous effect on how hard your sales people work. It is critical that you examine your incentive program regularly to make sure that it meets the needs of your company and its sales team.

Having a good incentive program does not mean giving away the store. Remember, being "cheap" won't save you any money either. Any compensation or incentive program that lacks opportunity is bound to discourage your sales team, and thus affecting your sales revenue.

Your first task in creating a good incentive program is to understand the value of the revenue being generated for your business. If you don't understand that concept then your margins and profits will suffer. It is not that hard to create an aggressive incentive plan that doesn't bankrupt the company. My simple formula starts by defining the meaning of good performance. This is what you would expect from anyone in a sales position, according to your comfort level.

Once a comfort level is established, you must focus on what incentives will be added, and for what accomplishments should you decide to any of your sales people. If you have just opened up a new channel or business, "new accounts" might be of extreme value. If this is the case, then you should build an incentive that pays anyone for developing new accounts in the retail chain aspect of your business. On the other hand however, an established sales territory such as the residential driveway aspect of the business might need better penetration in the existing accounts. In this event, you might give an incentive on the growth of existing accounts.

These incentives can be in many forms, comp-time, higher commission percentages, or just flat dollar amounts paid on achievement. The key is the more a sales person exceeds their base comfort level, the higher his or her rate of earnings should go.

Remember, never cap sales earnings!