What Are You Learning?

It has been said that learners are growers.  Those that are constantly evolving in their learning are those that are successful.  Those that have excelled in areas typically don’t stumble into those successes.

I have been reading and learning trying to add new tools constantly by reading at least 12 books a year.  One a month.  I do this by reading ten pages a day.  Small steps over time to accomplish a larger task.  I also invest in myself for trainings as well.  I then take time to apply what I am learning.

Just because we are learning new items, does not mean that we have it automatically engrained.  We actually lose about 50% of what we learn in the next 24 hours.  If we don’t apply the newly gained knowledge then we will forget it and that is actually just a waste of time.  

We need to apply what we learned so that our mind and body start to really save this information for future use.  Whether it is a book, training, trick, etc we need to apply what we are learning if we want to record it for future application. 

It’s like learning to waterski.  It took me about three years to learn how to waterski and gallons of water up my nose.  I thought I was going through an interrogation at some points.  I kept trying to learn how to get up on two pieces of wood and a rope that was tied to a boat.  

After I learned how to waterski on two ski’s I learned how to ski on one.  Balance was not something I had a lot of when I was younger so this took some time.  There were a great deal of highlight reel wipeouts.  I’m sure if digital cameras and social media were around back then, I would have been one of those celebrities of fails.

I finally got good enough now that I can start from deep water on one slalom ski and cut across the wake at speeds of 50 mph without wiping out.  I also don’t have to attempt every day to do this.  I actually only do this once or twice a year now, but because I learned and applied, I am able to show up now and do it without too many attempts.  I can enjoy all of the work that went into learning and go out and have fun.  

By applying what we learn we are able to achieve higher levels.  We need to keep learning and keep growing if we want to get to a better place.  We have to keep up with this process to accomplish more.  It’s okay to want more and to work towards it.

To do this, we need to apply a date to when we want to accomplish by.  Having that target out there will keep us focused on moving forward because it is real.

What is something that you have been putting off learning, or applying that you have been nervous to?  It’s okay to try and and have set backs.  If we don’t try that is actually failure.  As long as we try we are not failing.

Post in the comments something that you have been wanting to learn / apply that you are going to do now.    

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Celebrate Good Times!

This is. The time of year in the US that people are out enjoying the warm weather celebrating independence.  BBQ’s are fired up cooking all sorts of meats, beverages are flowing, and people are getting tank top tanlines from not applying sunscreen.  It’s a great time of year!

We all enjoy the celebrations that we get to attend.  In sales it’s when we win that $100 million contract for our organization, the new platform launch that has finally rolled off the manufacturing line, or any other large event that we get to celebrate all of the hard work.

Everyone likes the celebration, but often complains about the work to get there.  Work is often thought of as an obstacle to get to the celebration.  We want the easy life, we hope for a restful relaxing retirement, but don’t want to spend the years of working to get there.

I sometimes get caught in this rut of complaining that I have yet another task to complete before the business award.  I understand it.  I’d love to just have everything handed to me sometimes when my pride is high.  I’d like the easy road in those moments.

What I have learned though is that we actually find a great deal more satisfaction in the achievement when we work towards it.  If we have hours of blood, sweat, and tears in the gym we are a great deal more grateful for the process when we look in the mirror of our accomplishments.  

When we are just handed things, we typically do not hold them as close as when we have some skin in the game.  

I started to realize this when I viewed how my son takes care of the things that he purchases than what is given to him as gifts for Christmas or birthdays.  When he has to work to earn the money and save, he takes a huge pride in his possession.  I mean making sure they are in tip top shape.

He works hard and enjoys the things he worked for a great deal more.  

The same is true for when I work on these large multi-million dollar deals.  They take a great amount of time and effort to capture, and when the day to celebrate arrives, I am able to really sit back and enjoy the accomplishments.  I find more satisfaction when I work for things than when they are just given to me.  It gives me a real sense of accomplishment.

I know that is different than what we may think, but really take stock and look at the things that you find more valuable to you.  Are they the simple gifts you have received, or the things that came from the accomplishment of hard work that you poured in?  

We are wired to work and we should celebrate those wins when they come.  We need to not just hope for easy life, but to enjoy those accomplishments.  The United States when through a great deal of struggle to become free so we could enjoy our freedom.    

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Be The Bridge

Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to build influence with others so quickly?  That they just seem to gain engagement without much effort?  

Today let’s talk about one of the concepts that I teach in my Unmatched Influence training, and is also part of my online Trustworthy training below.  It’s called being the bridge. 

This concept was something I stumbled onto when I was new to a particular sales territory that I moved into for one of the organizations that I worked for in my career.  I was not the only part of the organization that was new to this territory.  The entire organization was new.  

We had no previous relationships in this territory so we were starting from scratch.  We were hustling to get the business growing and fast.  This part of the United States was also considered a good ole boy network.  If you were an outsider, good luck…

I started building relationships with customers and prospects as fast as I could.  I was working extra hours and getting to know the territory and who were the top prospects.  While doing so I was building my CRM (Customer Relationship Management) database as I went.  I was asking all sorts of questions.

There was a lot of caffeine and memorization as well.  Back when my memory was great…

One day I was calling on a customer that was asking me about a software they were looking at using for their business.  I knew nothing of the software and was curious as to why I was being asked.  It was because I was an electrical engineer by training.  Like just being an electrical engineer made me understand all types of software.  

Granted I could probably debug some software issues and fix windows issues, but know all software was not something that I could sign up for.  What I did know is that another customer about three hours north of this customer actually used this software.  

I reached out to this other customer and asked if they wouldn’t mind answering some questions for another customer not in their territory.  The answer was yes and they had a call which resulted in the customer asking the question to avoid some pitfalls that the other customer had.  They switch over to the new software was a success.

What I didn’t expect is that the customer that I helped get in touch with this other customer was grateful and started confiding in me more and more.  Asking me questions about more business solutions and ideas and telling others that I was the go to person for help.

This began a snowball effect which resulted in me getting more phone calls from potential customers than me having to chase them down.  I was building influence faster and faster.  Now the initial help that I offered by connecting the two customers did not result in sales that day, but it did build a relationship and influence in the entire territory fast.  

I call this “Being the Bridge.”  By connecting others that are able to help each other I am also granted influence and credibility as well.  By being the bridge, I was able to gain much faster influence in my territory that I actually was being asked to stop in to help.  It also netted me a great deal of business.  I was growing my territory at a fast pace, I won the award for top sales person for the United States, and grossed more income all by serving the customers by bridging them together.

To build influence, we need to serve those around us whether they be customers, or team members.  We need to use the open hand and not the closed fist when interacting with them.  If we do so, we will be successful in building unmatched influence that will allow us to go further faster with others.

I hope this helps you on your journey to building influence.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

What Are The Ramifications?

Ramifications are all around us.  From the decisions we make, to decisions that others make that affect us.  These ramifications come about from all sorts of different directions.  It’s like pushing a domino and watching them race forward knocking down the next and the next.  We have ramifications for our decisions that we make and we need to help others navigate their ramifications for their situation and issues as well.

Today I want to focus on the ramifications of our customers and team members decisions on how they respond to their situation and issues.  The past weeks we talked about issues and how to help understand the customer and team member’s current issues they are facing from the situation they are in.  

We need to also understand what the ramifications are if the issues and situation are not resolved to the outcome they want.  This may mean that they end up buying a competitor’s product / service, or joining another organization to where we have to find a new person that fits our culture, has the tools we need to perform the task we need them to perform, etc.

It benefits us to make sure we are reaching out to help our customers and team members that are facing a situation and issues to avoid the ramifications that hurt our bottom line.  Not so that we are just focused on our bottom line, but that of serving.  By doing this we can actually build trust and engagement with customers and team members.

A great deal of sales professionals and leadership people think that it’s just a numbers game and to a small point that is true, but for the majority by showing up and showing we care we can maintain long lasting relationships and avoid the waste of money on onboarding new customers and new employees.  We need to put a value on others in order to build lasting relationships and trust.  Otherwise we risk spending more money to onboard.

Every customer and new employee has a cost involved with getting them set up and up to speed with our systems and processes.  We lose time and money when we have to consistently perform this loop.  Now we can’t eliminate every instance of this, but we can minimize this by focusing on serving our customers and employees.

Asking questions to understand the situation, the issues, and the ramifications will help us to understand our customers and employees.  When we truly understand these three areas, we can then help find solutions for them that likely will minimize cost impacts to our organization.  

When we are successful in helping them, trust goes up which means speed goes up and costs go down.  

This means more PROFITS!!!  

Who doesn’t like more profits?  We also gain more engagement from this process of understanding others as well which means that we will be able to make it through the hard times together.  

We need to take the focus off ourselves and serve those around us if we are going to gain traction.

For more information on building trust and understanding people check on the links below for my online trainings that you can do at your own pace.

Have a great week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

What's The Issue?

Have you ever tried to jump a hurdle in track?  Ever done a tough mudder, or savage race that has mud and obstacles scattered all throughout the course?  These are the issues that we are facing in those two situations that are keeping us from the finish line.

A couple weeks back we talked about the situation that people are in.  That is their current state that the customer, or employee is in.  If not rectified can cause them to find a solution that may not be the best solution for them.  

Today we are going to talk about the issues.  Each person has a situation, issues, and ramifications.  The issue are the items that are affecting the situation that the customer, or employee is currently in.  What is stopping them from moving forward to the place they want to get to.  The issues are the obstacles, or the hurdles they currently see before themselves.

We as sales professionals and leaders need to understand the situation and issues of those we come in contact with.  Otherwise, we will not be able to help them get to that finish line.  If we don’t help them, they will search out the solution they think is best and likely won’t stick with us.

It is our duty to understand what the issues are for those that we come in contact with so that we can help them.  It affects our bottom line.  If we think we can just replace a customer, or team member we can, but there will be a loss of time and money involved with this decision.  This is an area that most businesses have had to focus on as they are hemorrhaging money affecting their profits.

Engagement is low when we treat customers and team members as just another cog in our machine.  We need to place value on them and focus on understanding their issues to keep them engaged.  By engaging them and showing these individuals that we care, they will open up to us.

How do we do this?  We ask questions.  Lots of good questions to understand what is going on and what are their perceived issues.  Kind of like a therapist ask questions to understand the surface level issues and then quantifying questions to go deeper to find the real issues.  If you have never been to a therapist, I recommend doing an initial session, but know that something will come up that you did not see coming 

What kind of questions should we be asking?  Sales people have been taught for years to ask only open-ended questions which are questions that cannot be answered with a yes / no answer.  I use open and closed ended questions because conversations flow with both better.  If we ask too many open-ended questions people get defensive.  Maybe that is why people cringe when they think about sitting with a therapist.

We need to uncover the issues that people are facing if we will ever be able to think about helping them.  If we just assume we know the answer then we risk making an ass our of u and me.  Yes, that was a little profanity and I apologize, but it is literally how assume is spelled 

Focus on understanding our customer and team members and we will begin to help them in the future.  

Next week we will discuss the third part of how we can help and it will help you to focus better on figuring out the correct solution.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

We Need A Break!

This weekend is a reminder of my father who recently passed away in April.   This would be his birthday week as well.  As I reflect on this I am reminded about a few things about him.

He was a father, fire fighter, electrician, beer truck driver, and the list goes on and on.  It was hard to keep up with him most days even when he was retired.  He was a worker which resonates with our last name.  See back in old country as I am told our name comes from where you were on the mountain.  Being we were not Topbottom means we were workers.  We were not royalty, we did the hard work and thrived in it.

He worked three jobs at once when I was a child and was both my father and mother for quite a bit of my life.  He made it to all but one of my highschool competitions, in which he consistently beat himself up about missing. I reminded him that it was okay, but he kept to the tasks.  He was always working to finish the next task.

He was a remarkable man, but one thing he didn’t do much was take a break to go have fun that often.  He was all about finishing the tasks and moving on to the next task.  This is a trait that I have adopted for most of my life, but with the help of my caring wife, we have grown my ability to take time and slow down. She was very influential on buying a boat and taking trips which is good for me to slow down.  Who doesn’t want a wife that would encourage us to buy a boat?

We need to work hard and get things done, but it is good to take time to relax and go to a lake for a weekend, take a trip to the ice cream shop, and spend quality time with the kids.  We need this to refuel our tanks.  We can’t keep running on empty all the time or we will get burned out.

We need to have these breaks especially with the stress levels we have been under from the pandemic.  We are meant to get out and have community.  We also need to have fun and enjoy our lives.  

Too many people keep putting off fun until later.  Telling themselves that when they retire, they will finally relax and take time to enjoy life.  The issue is a good deal of these retirees end up sick, or die soon after they retire.  Maybe it’s because they are bored to death, or something else, but I believe we should be working even after we retire from our day jobs.  

We are meant to work and to have community.  So why not focus on taking time to rest and enjoy quality time with friends and family going on small adventures periodically instead of waiting until retirement?  All work and no play drains us mentally and physically.  

Stop putting off tomorrow for tomorrow may never come.  This does not mean that we need to just have fun and live under YOLO (You Only Live Once).  We need to enjoy ourselves and fill those tanks that will get emptied during those not so fun times.  Especially when those times that drain us seem to last for longer periods than the great times.  Take the small wins and savor them so they can fuel you during the next grind.

What is something you have been putting off for tomorrow to refuel yourself? 

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Do You Know The Situation?

Ever wonder why some people just don’t follow our direction?  Ever hate having to interact with some people because you just know they are going to sabotage your plans?

In sales and in leadership, we have to deal with a lot of people.  Some might cringe at that and want to just order people to do something, but unfortunately when people are involved it is messy.  We can’t just simply demand things.

People have many things they are juggling on their day to day plates and we need to understand why they may be acting a certain way if we are going to be able to work with them.  I’m not talking about gossip stuff, but finding out what is going on.  Peel the onion to get to the less superficial level.  In cooking we learn that the deeper layers of an onion are the sweeter and most flavorful layers.  The same thing happens for learning more about people.  

If we simply put a label on someone because they are acting a certain way without know the facts behind the situation, how can we be justified in that?  We need to do better!

I have had a manager that has checked in with me periodically when they found out about a situation I was going through.  This meant the world to me as I was in the struggle of emotions, mental fatigue, and stress.  It affected my work, my attitude, and my success.  It actually kept me working for the organization instead of leaving because someone showed they cared.  This is how our employees and customers feel as well.

I have had many customers that were struggling through situations that I have been able to lend an ear to, a helping hand to, and simply showing that someone cared.  This helped them see that they were not alone in the situation and that others would lend a hand.  Even if it is just an ear to let someone vent.  People are meant to be around others.  We need others to know that they matter.

Ramsey Solutions in Tennessee mandates that managers know what is going on with their subordinates so that they can help, rally the team around the individual, and to mitigate pitfalls.  They know if a family member is going through a severe illness, if a baby is on the way, or some other major event.  This way they show that the team member is valued and cared for.  Showing people we care is vital for trust and influence.  It’s called empathy which unfortunately is in short supply lately.

Understanding the situation is crucial to helping solidify any issues that are popping up and so that we can move forward together.  If we don’t, we lose time on an already limited clock that is ticking down.  Gain more engagement and influence by understanding the situation that others are in and learn more about them so that they know they matter.  

Wouldn’t you rather associate with an organization that you feel values you?  Why not be that person that reaches out to customers and team members to let them know they matter as well.

Have a good week!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

The Power Of Your Clothing and Scents On Others

Have you heard the saying, “ You only get one chance to make a first impression?”   It is actually very difficult to change this impression as well.  

Did you know that the color clothing you wear can affect this impression?  Did you know that scents can actually trigger anxieties in people?  There are several factors in building trust, but these two are the most subtle that people miss all the time.

I have been in sales for what is closing in on two decades at this point and it is interesting how much I have learned throughout this career. I didn’t intend on this becoming my career either, but was one of exploration as my career aspirations was to manage people.  Yes, I wanted to be a manager and an advisor informed me that I needed to learn sales if I was going to lead others.

That is what kicked off my career in sales and I am glad I did venture into this sector of business.  Many believe we need to be a certain kind of personality, good looking, have a strong sense of humor, etc, yet time and time again I have proved that to be incorrect.  Yes, we need to have interpersonal skills and yes, we need to be able to laugh with others, but we need to do so much more and it does not mean we have to fit into one mold.

Since beginning in sales I have learned that there are some factors that impact likability and trust.  The two I’d like to talk about today are clothing colors and scents.  These don’t seem like they are impactful, but check out this data.  

The Harvard Gazette posted an article in 2020 about how scents are associated with memories.  Click here for the article.  Basically, smell is the only sense in our body that does not have a filter to the brain.  When we smell cut grass, we typically think of warm summer days.  Unfortunately, some people like me are highly allergic to cut grass and the chemical released by the grass clippings.  I go into sneezing fits and want to gouge my eyes out when I am around cut grass.

Others have scents that take them back to bad memories that when smelled make their body’s fight or flight mechanism jump into action.  That means anxiety goes up.  Now if we are the ones wearing that scent, then the people start associating the anxiety with us.  They will associate us with danger and that first impression goes right out the window. Keep that in mind when you are spraying on your favorite cologne or perfume in the morning.  We still need to smell clean though!

Colors are also associated with trust and likeability as well.  Robert Caldini wrote a great book called Influence that depicts what each color does, why certain organizations used colors for their logos, etc.  For help today know that light blues and whites promote trust and dark red power ties promote authority.  Black typically means we are hiding something.  Keep that in mind when trying to gain trust and likability.  If we need to build trust and influence, we should be wearing light blues and whites when engaging others.

We do not need to be wearing power ties to show we are assertive and have authority.  That does not lower anxieties.  Power ties drives anxieties up.  When leading people and trying to sell to customers we need the anxiety levels lowered. The lower the anxiety levels, the higher the likability and trust levels.  

If we can not get past those two questions:  Do I like You? and Do I Trust You? We will never obtain buy in for our cause, customers for our products, or an engaged staff for our cause.  We need to take the focus off our wants and needs and focus on how we can connect with others.  

I hope that helps!  Have a great week and good luck shopping!

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

How To Answer Your Customer’s Three Questions

Last week we talked about the three questions that our customers ask at every interaction.  If you have not done so, feel free to go back and read that post.  It should only take about 3 minutes.  A quick read.

Today we are going to answer how we the professional sales person will answer these questions.  We do this by uncovering needs.  Yep, we are going to ask them questions.  There has been a great deal of study on what questions to ask and old sales techniques always told us to ask open ended questions that are not answered with simple answers like “yes”, or “no”.  What I have found is that there is no correlation to success with asking all open-ended questions as opposed to closed ended questions.  Obviously if we ask all closed ended questions, we will lose interest from the customer and they will move along.  

I choose to use a mixture of open-ended questions and close ended questions.  I let the conversation flow well and make the customer feel relaxed.  Keep in mind when we are asking questions, the customer is likely to have their guard up.  Making the customer feel more relaxed is key at the beginning of the sales process.  Making sure where we meet, colors we wear, and scents we spray on is also important.  For today, we will focus on the questions.

In the Uncover Needs of the sales process we are looking to draw out information from the customer so that we can sell them the best solution.  We need to find out their needs.  Needs are grouped into three areas and I use the acronym SIR:

1.     Situational 

2.     Issues

3.     Ramifications

Situational needs are questions we use to draw out where the customer is.  This is where they are at in the buying process, where they want to get to in the future, who is the decision maker, what is their process for making a decision, what is driving their need for looking at options, etc.  These are very probing questions and customers are usually not wanting to discuss for hours on end.  The more questions we ask that are situational the more risk we have of the customer becoming anxious.  We will want to limit the amount of situational questions that we ask so make sure we are asking the best ones.  

The larger the transaction there are likely more than one decision maker.  I have had to address large teams of decision makers for deals in the multi-million range.  When I was selling outdoor power equipment to landscapers it was usually one or two people.  Keep that in perspective when you are in the situational questions to understand if you are speaking to the correct decision makers.

Issues are the needs we really need to focus on.  They are the limiting factors for organizations that want to move forward, or the reasons why organizations may fail.  These are highly motivating needs that we need to address with our product or service.  Pain is a large driver in making changes so find out what pain they are experiencing and why.  We also need to understand why these issues are causing them limits or pain.  Asking what success would look like to the customer here would help them think in depth and confide in us a little more.  They may also bring in the people that are actually experiencing the pain to help describe to us the issue not just the symptom of the issue. The key is to find the issues that we can resolve with our product or service.  

Ramifications are also highly motivating needs that we need to know.  If the customer is unsuccessful in finding an option to mitigate the issue they have, what does that look like?  Does the organization have to close its doors, does it lose a large contract, or is it smaller to where the customer can not find a special gift for someone special?  Husbands do not buy your significant other a treadmill.  That is not a special gift.  

When the stakes are high people are very motivated to find a solution and are more open to options.  Make sure when asking ramification questions that we are building up the problem in the customer’s mind to drive a sense of urgency so they open up, bring in others that can help provide information, and help us find more information to drive the best solution.  The more we elevate the issue the better influence we can have on helping our customers.  Understanding the ramifications well will strengthen our sales presentation later and can move the customer to action.  

Be careful not to jump into your presentation just yet.  If we do not uncover all of the needs prior to presenting they we will miss the target and then we risk devaluing our solution.  When I do half and full day trainings on the sales process I walk teams through the entire process including developing the questions that will derive larger impact with their customers.  We really need to  invest time to develop great questions for the sales teams to make greater impact which results in  becoming the brand of choice.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

What Are They Expecting?”

If you have followed my blog posts for any length of time when we talk about what the Customer wants.  You should know that the customer wants to have these three questions answered. 

Do I like you?  

Do I trust you?    

How can you help me?

These three questions may seem simple and redundant, but if the customer does not know, like, and trust us, then we will not be doing business with them.  Customers want to know that they will be served and helped to a better future.  This is not just some thoughtless process they go.  It is crucial for survival.

These three questions have been with us as part of our fight or flight mechanism to keep us alive.  It has served us well and is a continued mechanism that has helped us as we evolve into better cultures.  Having this mechanism work for us helps us stave off making poor decisions on products and services that may not meet our needs.  It also keeps us away from those not so helpful individuals that just care about making money no matter the cost.  

Customers are not just people who buy products and services either.  They are the people we lead, work with, and interact with in social settings.  If we use this filter in our view of others, we see that everyone is a customer and we are sales people.  Even leaders are sales people.

We need to treat those that we interact with as customers of our own personal brand if we are going to be successful.  Whether it is a sports team, political, non-profit, or a for profit organization we all need to serve each other and let others know that we can be liked, trusted, and help others.

If we focus on those three questions, we will be able to grow influence which is key in leadership and sales.  Without influence we go nowhere together. 

Our customers need us to help them solve their issues and move forward.  They key is identifying that issue and how to implement the correct solution to help our customers.  If we don’t then we risk being thought of as a commodity and low trust levels.  That is why so many people do not trust governments anymore as politicians have forgotten who the customer is.

We need to serve our customers well and provide them answers to those three questions if we are going to move forward no matter what profession, position, or status we hold.  Everyone needs to serve each other and then we can grow more trust with easier transactions.  

Just remember the last time you had an amazing experience at a restaurant.  What did you do?  You likely told others why they needed to go visit the location.  Just think what would happen if we served each other so well that they told others they needed to work with us.

“Businesses wonder why it is still hard to be thought of as the brand of choice with customers.  How can our business make more profitable transactions and stay out of the commodity battle with low profits?  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Why Your Team Needs Investment

Have you ever wondered why your team just seems to be stagnant?  As the years go on the growth of the organization seems to hit a ceiling?  No matter how you as the leader push, the sales and growth just seem to flat line?

When I first started in sales, I was thrust into learning by so many different programs to get me up to speed with the rest of the sales team.  We had annual trainings that we took part in as a group every year.  Most of the sales team would groan about the annual sales meeting that took them out of their market from seeing their customers.

It was odd because the owner of the organization would basically have the sales trainer from outside the organization come in and train us with basically the same message the owner constantly presented us with.

It was odd that someone would do this, but as I learned when sales people hear the same thing over time it becomes real.  I’ve since learned that with all areas of our life that the more we hear the same message, the more it becomes truth.  Having an individual come in from outside the organization annually that aligns with the organization’s goals will help solidify with this. 

We would spend a couple days in sales training and at the end of the training from the individual outside of the organization, we would then be held back for a debrief.  Now the organizational leader was ex-military, but it is the same thing as watching the game film from professional sports teams.  The team discussing what they learned and what they can add to their tool box for becoming better is very useful.  

When we discuss with others on our team that we trust and they give perspectives and items they learned that we may not have caught from the training it is very helpful.  We are typically drinking from a fire hose with information that we cannot capture everything, so discussing with others will help us catch some things we missed.  

By discussing this information, the team will form bonds and will become stronger together.  This is crucial as the team will start calling each other instead of the leadership when the trust levels are high between each other to bounce ideas off of each other before bringing to leadership.  This is crucial because as the team unites in trust, it becomes more efficient and drive faster sales growth.

The last thing we did was do competitive analysis and each person from the group chose one specific area to teach on.  The easiest way for us to learn is to actually teach.  It took time to prepare for this, but was very beneficial for all of us to learn.  

Yes, this took us out of the market for a few days, but it was sharpening out axe to chop down the tree.  If we sharpen ourselves, we will be able to cut mor efficient.  Sales organizations need this investment to become better especially since they are so limited in actually selling these days.  Typically, only 36% of sales time is actually spent in the sales process with customers with all of the other activities that are required.  Sales teams need to be invested in if we expect them to grow sales!  

Do you team this favor and invest.   By doing so, you will benefit greatly!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

The Supply Struggle Is Real

In the past couple of years with a pandemic and supply chain issues, it has become crucial to make sure we still deliver at high levels with low costs.  Organizations have had to pay higher costs to ship goods from overseas, weather has affected larger parts of the country, and there are constant requests from suppliers to increase pricing in the name of higher costs.

As sales people we don’t always want to go to customers with price increase after price increase.  It sometimes feels like death by a thousand cuts as one VP states.  Sales people want to sell and then collect a pay check in most cases and hate the constant requests to get price increases.  It is a difficult balance between customer relationship and keeping our organization afloat.

If you are in leadership, or in sales these issues have been hitting all of us quite regularly.  It seems everything is increasing and there is no end in sight.  There are plenty of factors to blame, but pointing the finger never resolves the issue. 

I’ve worked in organizations that do not want to hedge market stability so they set up raw material adjustments.  Now it seems like there is a request for logistics adjustments that will be needed.  A great deal of purchasing and sales teams are wishing things would go back to what they were, but unfortunately the reality is that it will take a market crash to really level set.  Especially with the consumption of raw materials increasing to where even lumber mills can’t keep up with demand.

There will need to be quite a few things that need to change in order for us to make things get to a calm state and fluctuations to calm down.  Better forecasting will be crucial with greater levels of communication from customers and suppliers.  There will need to be a seize to just in time delivery imposed by some industries.  There will also need to be some holding more materials to support the demand right now.

We all need to work together, customer and suppliers creating a better communication system with lower finger pointing if we are to get back to a better quality of life.  Every industry is impacted with these issues so simply jumping to a new organization is not necessarily the resolution.  We need to really work together to find a better way. 

Yes some ideas that we try, will not work.  But that is the great thing about the lightbulb.  It took over a thousand attempts for Thomas Edison to create the lightbulb.  We now have the technology to improve efficiency, but we need to look at how we can work together, team up, and give each other the benefit of the doubt.  No one software package, communication tactic, or demand will cure this.  We have to have empathy for each other and work together to solve the issues.  

Greater levels of communication and transparency will be required to move forward.  Those are crucial in building trust.  Let’s stop the finger pointing and find solutions and we will all get to a better life soon enough.

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I equip your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate explosive revenues with greater profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Don’t Forget About Customer Service

I have walked into a local package delivery service and the customer service representative was obviously not having a great day.  I was talked to as if I had just spilled my sippy cup all over their carpet.  I was questioned as if I had put something inside that might explode with a raised eyebrow.  Finally, after the interrogation I was politely asked if I wanted to complete a customer service survey.  

I have been placed on hold and bounced between multiple departments of call centers and treated as if I was a burden on the representative from the other side of the phone.   I’ve been rudely supported and told to have a great day in a sarcastic tone as well.  

I have also experienced great service at organizations from IT people and have bought their product by the referral from that IT person.  They walked with me through the entire purchase and guided me away from extras that were not needed.  They did not leave my side until I was fully satisfied with the product and thanked me.  That is right they actually thanked me for spending time with them.

The interesting thing is though is that does not matter what the position in the organization is whether it be CEO, a sales person, an engineer, or a janitor.  We are a representative of the organization to the outside world.  We have the opportunity to build up or tear down the reputation of our organization by how we treat others.  We are ambassadors for the organizations we represent.  We need to keep that in mind when we are sporting our organization’s name, at events, and even what we post on social media.  We are all in customer service.

It also does not matter if we are not a paid employee of the organization either.  When people see us representing an organization, they are making the association no matter our affiliation.  People will make their perceptions based on the people they interact with.   

I have had people in organizations tell me they don’t care if a customer likes it or not because they don’t have to interact with the customer regularly.  It’s frankly, not their job.  Unfortunately, what these individuals don’t understand is that the customer is buying products / services that are in turn funding the individual’s paycheck.  Make enough customers stop buying from you and then you are looking for other employment. 

When the customer has a bad experience now, they are able to send all over the world in a matter of seconds.  The customer can influence their friend network faster than ever sharing their story.  Organizations do not have the ability to respond to every negative comment on all of the social media platforms.  There is just too much area to cover, but we can make sure we do our part and give the customer a great experience each and every time we interact with them.  

No one is above customer service.  We are all serving customers.  Whether we like it or not, our organizations are judged by how we interact with others.  Make the interaction a positive one.  Be courteous, helpful, gracious, and humble. 

Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with higher profits!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lWIVasmkFsoYL4h0AqIZgH6LC3qaw_gI/view?usp=sharing – client profile sheet

https://www.amazon.com/Sales-Process-Uncovered-Success-Influence/dp/0578421518 - Book

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/5AF12 - Sales Process Uncovered Online Training

https://kevinsidebottom.kartra.com/page/68N10 - Trustworthy Online Training

Influencer or Influence, What Do You Want?

Have you ever thought about how to build influence in your marketing efforts?  Have you ever thought about using an influencer to endorse your product / service to gain more customers?  

Marketing has made a shift in the past few years relying on those social marketing influencers to endorse their products / services.   Marketers believe that followers of these influencers will buy whatever that influencer has mentioned.  Unfortunately, there is a limit to this theory?

By using an influencer, we are essentially using social proof with customers.  That is the basis of gaining trust from someone else’s endorsement that others trust their recommendations.  It’s literally a exchange of trust.  This will work for commodities, but if you are offering a service, you may find it difficult to capitalize with this type of marketing.  

When it comes to influencers, they hold up products, but to show how a service works it may be difficult and take time for them to really show how it works.  When getting our marketing plans secured, we really need to understand what we are offering before we just throw money at the effort.  If we believe we have a commodity then we have already lost because a commodity is only differentiated by price.  That is why we need to make sure we have figured out how we are different from others in our same product / service demographic.

Successful organizations that have focused their efforts on customer service have secured reoccurring customers.  That’s right the customer experience is more impactful than having a super star wear our products.  We need to focus on building customer service and trust with our current customers and yes this takes time.  We live in an era with two-day shipping, moves on demand, and grocery shopping online world, but the one true way to gain reoccurring customers is to serve them consistently over time.  

Ever try to get a chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A at lunch or dinner?  It’s a chicken sandwich, not a new cure for cancer, but because they have focused on customer service over time, they have passed up the other fast food competition with fewer locations.  That’s right the golden arches which have been a staple were passed by Chick-Fil-A.  Their customer service has accomplished this cult following.

We need to focus on the long-term vision of building trust with our customers.  Without trust we will not gain influence with our customers.  We need to have high levels of trust with our customers before they will tell their closets friends and family members to use us.  That is also still the best form of referral.  I am also not talking about bribing the customers with a coupon if they share with others.  

I am talking about natural raving customers that can’t help but tell others to do business with you.We need to serve our customers well consistently if we are going to having reoccurring customers and eventually partners that will only buy from us and all that we sell.  Wouldn’t it be nice to not have to market because our customers are buying everything we sell and partner with us?  

That is why I consistently post blogs every week for over three years and consistently post videos online to help customers gain more knowledge and understanding about sales and influence.  I am here as a guide to help you become successful in your endeavors. 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Why all successful leaders know sales and how it can help you gain momentum

Have you ever wondered why certain friends, managers, executives just seem to have a certain way about them that people engage and follow them so easily?  Ever wonder if you could have people working with you to that capacity?

Did you know that all the successful leaders know sales?  Now before you stop readying because you got a cold shiver about sales people, let me ask you this.  Have you ever been on a job interview, or a first date?  In each case you were selling yourself as the best option.  See that phrase, “selling yourself”.  That is right you are selling during those two examples and many more scenarios.  We are actually all selling anytime we are interacting with others.  Whether it is our ideas, a product/service, or that your son to not stick his tongue to a frozen metal fence won’t end well.

I know the persona that is out there about sales people.  Unfortunately, a few bad seeds and various movies have bruised the sales persona.  Not all sales people are bad, just look in the mirror after an interview J  We are not inherently bad are we?  Most of the not so successful sales people is just plainly, they just don’t know how to sell well.

I am not what some people would think of as a sales person.  Most people think of sales people as the life of the party, extroverts, and people that like attention.  I am an introvert and hold an engineering degree.  Not what you would think about when you think of sales person right?  I can tell you that I have secured multi-year multimillion contracts in my career and all the way down to thousand dollar deals.  Anyone can sell and everyone sells all the time, including leaders.

Here is how I got into sales which was something that I never thought I would do.  I was sitting on a boat on one of the great lakes when a well-known business owner that wanted to have “the talk with me”.  See I was dating his daughter so he was wanting to know what my intentions were.  The question started with “where do you see yourself in five years.”  I know, not the kind of question you’d think a father would have, but as a business owner and successful person he thought about business al great deal. 

Being fresh out of college and in a job… I thought about it and said, “I want to be a manager.”  I know high aspirations right…  What he said next was definitely not what at the time I wanted to hear.  He told me that I needed to know sales if I wanted to cast my vision and get people to follow my lead.  I didn’t like that idea because I had that same mindset when it came to sales people.

What I learned through the process of learning sales has actually helped me to understand why people can build high levels of momentum in movements.  It’s because they had influence.  A great deal of influence.  In fact, the more they have the more people wanted to follow these individuals. 

What does sales have to do with influence? 

Sales is actually the art of building influence.  Not in a sleezy way, or creating leverage over people either.  Selling is about helping people with their current situation and understanding their issues as well as helping to avoid the ramifications with not making the best decision for them.  That’s right, sales is about helping people get to where they want to go.  Helping them make a difference in their lives and others.  I know at this point you may be thinking that this guy is on something, but hear me out.

People ask three questions at every interaction.

Do I like you?  Do I trust you?  How can you help me?

It has been programmed into our brains since the beginning of time.  Not for selfish reasons, but for survival.  We ask these questions and form answers in the first seven seconds of every interaction.   

If we want to be successful and have momentum with others we should at least learn about sales.  We should understand why certain colors, the environment, and how we interact with others affects trust.  In the sales process uncovered training that I teach it is how we take the focus off ourselves and focus on helping others.  Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” 

That is what sales is meant to do.  Help people find solutions to their issues and avoid the ramification of making the incorrect decision.  That is what a true sales professional is supposed to do.  Help others and not focus on just selling something.

Selling well will start building influence with those that we help.  It has worked for me with over 15 years of sales experience in multiple industries, in different demographics, and different regions. 

If we focus on helping people through the sales process, we will gain influence and momentum with people.  I’m not sure where you are and where you want to go, but if you want to go anywhere with others, you need to learn sales.  There are tons of books, podcasts, and blogs out there.  You don’t need to know everything, but having a basic knowledge will help you grow your influence levels and lead well.

Have a great day and if you need anything feel free to reach out with any questions!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

What is Your Why For Your Marketing Strategy?

Welcome back.  Today I’d like to talk about what a good marketing strategy is in order to increase sales.  I will also write about what doesn’t work and why so that you can figure out how you want to move forward with your strategy.

Since the creation of mail advertising, tv, and the internet there has been a great focus on marketing.  Now that we as a society have evolved and become smarter, the old way of marketing features and benefits has had to evolve. Just buying the biggest ad in the yellow pages will not work these days.

When people meet us as sales professionals, organizations, institutions they are asking three questions.  Today let’s focus on the third question with the assumption that we have answered the first two correctly.  This third question is “How Can You Help Me?”  If we are going to market to people about us being the best option, we better be focused on answering that question correctly.

If we don’t answer that question, well they will move on down the road to the next person in line.  They will also start thinking about what we offer as a commodity if we are not answering that question.  If we become a commodity then the only differentiating factor is price.  There is no winning strategy for commodities.  We need to differentiate ourselves from the competition.

People do not buy features and benefits as the answer to the question above.  We must focus on answering the needs of the customer.  That is right customers want a solution to their needs.  To figure out what needs our offering answers, then we need to ask questions, but to who? 

The answer to that question is ask our current customers why they buy from us.  What is it that made them desire our offering?  Why do they stick with us when there are other offerings out there?  Why do people still flock to Apple for their products when there are other products out there that compete on the same performance as Apple?  We need to understand why our customers love our offerings and stick with us as repeat customers.

To do that there are tons of tools out there, but I recommend two.  Surveys and testimonials are what I recommend.  Surveys upon purchase helps in the later steps of the sales process as I teach, but also help get fresh feedback at the time of purchase as to why the customer decided to do business with us.  This is fresh insight without outside influence and time that will allow our customers to forget.  The other is testimonials.  These testimonials work so great because of the law of “Social Proof” that others will follow because of that influence. 

That is right, we need to be asking our current customers why they are doing business with us because this is the key to understand how and what we should be marketing.  We will see a trend as well with all of the surveys and testimonials that will show us the path to our marketing strategy. 

I know this seems backwards in the process, but our customers are the ones that can tell us the why so that we can structure out strategy.  Many organizations fail to understand why the customers do business with them and march in a totally different direction leading to mediocre results.  We need to understand so we can chart out course correctly to attract more of our tribe.

Answer that third question by asking questions to current customers will allow us to win at this marketing game.  Especially when there is so much noise out there to confuse and turn off customers. 

Start today to understand your  current customers and then you will overcome the competition and stay out of the commodity arena!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Why You Need Customer Trust

Have you ever bought something from a salesperson you just didn’t like or trust?  If you did, how did it make you feel afterwards?  When is the last time you made a large purchase from someone you didn’t trust?  Likely never.

Today we are talking about why building trust with the customer is important.

There are three questions that everyone asks themselves about us when they meet with us.  Every time!  These questions are:

Do I like you?

Do I trust you?

How can you help me?

See that second question?  Trust is a highly important question that has to be answered by us for the customer.  If we don’t answer that question with our actions and words lining up, then the customer will move on down the road to our competitors that offer similar products / services. 

Trust is extremely important with most of our major decisions.  I define major decisions as decisions that cost over $500, or life changing decisions.  Some use gut feelings, some use research, and some use advisors.  The fact remains that trust is a part of every major decision.  If we do not have trust, we do not act.  This is why most consumers ask friends and family who they should talk to about a product / service.  They are searching for a trusted advisor.

Today it is so easy to find options for a product / service that we need.  Just hop online and do a quick search.  When the customer is coming in to talk to us, they are trusting that we will help them.  We need to make sure that we have that in mind when we serve the customer.  We as sales professionals need to be showing up to serve the customer and being open and honest of where we can and can not help them.  Focusing on how we can better grow the relationship and trust with that individual / organization. 

Customers are not just looking for a transactional experience.  They want to be known and heard.  They want people that will advocate for them to find solutions that will benefit them the best.  Customers want a relationship.  We as humans are born to crave a sense of community and value.  Customers want that as well.  Why do you think there are so many Facebook groups out there today?  People want community.

When people trust us, they share more information with us.  Not their deepest darkest secrets, but they will share more and more as trust is built.  I have had customers tell me about future RFQ’s that I could look forward to and worked with my teams to be more prepared so I was able to achieve success.  That would not have happened had I not built great levels of trust with these customers. 

To build trust I use a simple equation that I call the Trust Equation.  It uses variable such as credibility, reliability, vulnerability, and selfishness and puts them into a simple equation to help us build trust effectively and quickly with customers.  This equation also focuses on a long-term approach to building a great amount of influence with the customers. 

Now, there is a great deal to discuss on trust such as how to build it, the different levels of trust needed depending on proximity to others, and how to keep growing trust.  That is why I created the “Trustworthy” training to help people like yourself understand and build trust quickly. 

If you’d like to check out it click here to be taken to the training.  It’s worth the investment. 

Today, lets make sure we are focused on building trust with our customers. 

Build trust with your customer and you will reap greater rewards! 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

What is the Best Sales Strategy

Welcome back,

Today we are going to go through what a good sales strategy is because this comes up quite often with sales teams.  What is your strategy to win the sale?  Most of the time the sales person is thinking on the fly and often falters when pressed for details.  This is also when the sales person is confronted that thinking on the fly is not going to work.

With the sales landscape ever evolving, sales people need to have a good sales strategy. 

Here is what I have use as my sales strategy: 

Have a plan to serve the customer with a process that walks with them through their five buying decisions

That’s my sales strategy.  I want to serve the customer and walk with them through their five buying decisions in a way that allows them to buy the best product that meets their needs.  In order to do this. I must do a few things.

I must build rapport and trust with the customer.  If I know who I am meeting with, I can do research on them to learn about them and their families.  If I don’t have that option, or want to learn more, I can ask questions.   A great deal of questions to understand them and their needs.

The easiest way to build trust and rapport is to learn about customers.  We need to make sure we are learning about the customer because if we are not doing so, the three major questions that the customer has will go unanswered.  Do I like you? Do I trust you? How can you help me?  These three questions if unanswered spell defeat for a sales person because the first buying decision for a customer is in fact the sales person.  If we do not know, like, and trust the sales person, we are not going to buy from them.  Especially when there are so many options out in the marketplace.

The sales person is essential in growing the product line.  People buy from people. 

To help sales people I have created “The Sales Process Uncovered,” to help the sales person use the roadmap on how to sell effectively to customers.  It starts by asking a great deal of questions and the different types of questions needed to uncover the customer’s needs.  This process has worked in different industries, in different markets, and B2B as well as B2C sales.

That is right I use a process to solidify my strategy.  All the successful people use a process whether it for championships, expeditions to uncharted territories, or business.  Even those amazing Navy Seals that are the elite of the elite use a process for preparing for a mission.  Those individuals use a process to plan, action, review, and do it over again. 

If you want to have a great sales strategy, you need to implement a sales processes that will help us walk with our customer.  By doing so influence actually increases with the customer and if we do a great job selling, the customer will start telling others why they need to do business with us.

Who wouldn’t want that? 

If we want to gain sales success, and achieve great goals, we need to have a plan and the easiest way to do that is have a process in place that is simple and repeatable for success. 

If you want to gain some more insight about the sales process uncovered and how it can help you, click here.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com

Sales People..., don’t fear it, embrace it

How many of you like to hear the word no?  No is not typically something people want to hear when they are trying to sell a product or service.  While working through the sales process with the customer we are envisioning the finish line, checkered flags waiving, confetti, and then we hear…”No”

Most sales people have had the experience early on in their careers to keep sitting in the selling phase of the sales process and not asking for the order.  They do not want to hear the word “no” from the customer.  During this buying decision far too many sales people will start spouting off more benefits and features, price dropping, etc. before the customer even provides feedback.

When we start justifying our price as soon as we send it, we immediately devalue our proposal.  Now the customer has no other course, but to challenge the price.  The old saying less is more applies here.  When the sales person sends over the price, they need to stop speaking.  Just like in a negotiation, the first person that speaks loses. 

Now I temper that with a statement that submitting pricing is not an us vs. them situation.  We are trying to help the customer here, but we need to also be paid for our services.  What I am saying is that when we submit the pricing, we need to not devalue our proposition to the customer.  Now the discussion should be on the customer to decide if they see the value of the investment, or if they have more questions.

Maybe the customer needs a little more information because we did not answer one of their needs that is high value.  That’s okay because we can address that need quickly to help them make sure this is the best product / service they are about to purchase.  Maybe the customer is in the research phase of decision making.  This should have been discovered early on in the first buying decision, but maybe they are trying to budget.  Then it is up to us to make sure we identify the next step for them to take and how we can help the customer.

There is nothing wrong with hearing a no right after we have provided the price.  This is how we adjust and understand what may be limiting the customer from making the purchase.  Just like shooting a rifle from 1000 yards away from a target.  Sometimes a small adjustment needs to be made to hit the target in the center.  This is our opportunity to correct and address the customer’s needs and help them see the value.

It is our job as sales professionals to help the customer’s needs get answered and help them win in this investment.  If we simply walk away when we hear “no,” we are missing a large opportunity to correct and help the customer.  Maybe a large need changed due to the organization’s direction.  Maybe the purchasing team has been reshuffled and there is a new buyer.  That happens quite often doesn’t it.   

If we don’t sell the product / service right after the first time we submit a price, that is okay.  Sometimes there is a better option for the customer, but if we have done a great job, the customer will tell us why we may have lost this sale, but they will tell others how we helped them if we walk with them through the five buying decisions correctly. 

As a side note most sales people never go back and find out why they lost a sale.  This is valuable information if that happens to adjust the sales approach going forward!

We just need to make sure we do no devalue ourselves, or our offerings while working through the sales process with them.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

“Businesses wonder why the majority of their sales teams struggle at winning profitable business.  I teach your sales team to walk with the customer through the five buying decisions, and in the correct order to generate more sales with high margins!”

www.kevinsidebottom.com