Selling Your Product

Happy Day before the Eve Day Everyone!

Hope you are getting something out of these blogs.  It helps me think though the process more in detail, so I am also gaining out of this process. 

As we head into the new year I am looking forward to wrapping up the sales process and looking forward to other topics that come to mind.  I would love feedback on topics you might like to hear about in the up coming year.  Feel free to reach out at info@kevinsidebottom.com

As for now, lets Sell Our Product,

Taking the same strategy of selling your company you will use them for the product you are selling as well.  During this phase I tend to use a term “tie back questions”, shared in the book Action Selling.  That was a great book that helped me start understanding the process of sales.  I’ve since had to add upon the process to get better. 

Using the tie back questions you get to review the uncovered needs with the potential customer and highlight the ones that really were the pain points of what the customer currently dealt with.  For example, earlier when I talked about the lawnmowers where I could step off the back so I didn’t end up upside down under water with alligators celebrating that dinner was served.  I used the benefit of safety that was tied to the question I used previously to uncover a pain point for the customer.  This was a no brainer and anyone that cuts lawns in Florida understands this concept.  This made it easy to sell the aspect of not getting sued by the employee’s family.  Just about every larger lawn maintenance crew has been affected by that last issue.

So, highlighting the top three with a fourth benefit item in your back pocket that makes your product really shine is about as much as any customer can focus on.  I call it, “The Rule of Three”.  Call it what you want, I just have learned that people can only focus on a few things when they are interested and paying attention.  After that they start to lose focus and then you also lose the effectiveness.  Make sure you have their undivided attention when you are in this phase.  I guess maybe I could have said that earlier, but hey you’ll get it for the next sales call right 😊

After the potential customer is very interested and nodding along it is time to move to the next step which is finally “Ask For The Order.  Stay tuned for next week as there are some things that can pop up and instead of coming to a halt you can save the presentation and score the sale!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Selling Your Company You're Getting Warmer!

Happy Day after Christmas everyone!  I hope all of you have enjoyed Christmas.  I have been quarantined to my house for the past couple of weeks due to a sinus infection that will not go away.  As you can see my New Years Resolution will be to strengthen my immunity!

Hopefully you have enjoyed well deserved vacations during the Christmas and New Years holidays and are ready to get back to busting it.

If you are anything like me after a few days of relaxing I get bored and need to build / do something.  Typically for me that ends up being projects around the house.  I like seeing things being complete.  Like painting smoker white walls in the house to a better color.  No we won’t smoke, it is just the pale yellow that the house we own has on the walls.  Reminds me of what I grew up in when my dad would be smoking in the house and it just looked gross.

So enough of making those smokers out there feel bad…

Refreshing from the last two blogs that were focused on gathering and verifying needs from the potential customer.  I say potential customer, but that can be your current customer that you are trying to sell something new to, marketing packages, your old truck etc  I digressed again sorry! 

After having done your diligence of asking great questions to pull out the needs that they have, and how to better position your company.  It’s time to sell your company’s advantages over the competition.  Hopefully you have studied your competitive market out there to know their strengths and weakness.  It is not good when you say we have this great strategy that we use and the potential customer says so does your competitor.  That is when the game show music plays in your head when you get a “Whammy on that TV Show called Press Your Luck”.  Believing that you have already studied your competition well, we will move forward.

During the phase where you ask the questions to uncover the needs and have the potential customer agreeing that they are valid needs, it is time to highlight some of those areas where your company can help.  You can also mix in a little history on the company as well as some of the success they have had.  I also like to take one page out of Warren Buffet’s addresses to state an area where the company falls short and then come back with a fact of what the company does better than anyone.  People find your more trust worthy when you do that.  Think about what one stock of Berkshire Hathaway Inc goes for.  If it works for them don’t you think it will work for you? 

Highlight your advantages and how your company can help the customer make their life easier.  If you do that well enough you are ready to get into the next selling phase of selling your product.  It seems like it takes a while to do this selling stuff doesn’t it.  It does if you want long lasting customers.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Verifying Needs The Validation that you have Uncovered Those Correct Needs

Good evening everyone and I hope you had fun this past week drawing up some benefits and questions to ask to help draw out those benefits to your potential customer.  I apologize again for the time between Rapport and the Uncovering Needs post.  This is the follow up to Uncovering Needs.

This week is where I am discussing the next step called “verifying needs”.   This is when we sit down to review with the customer some of their pain points, aspirations, and what makes them tick.  You most likely will focus on the pain points and aspirations during the review as sometimes the potential customer will not want you to point out that they have told you something they should have kept private about themselves.  That is an awkward few seconds that I have made the mistake of doing once.  It was a very awkward pause that I had to excuse myself from.

So today you are verifying all the main points that they person has told you that align with your benefits that will be used later.  I tend to make highlight of the top 3 or four.  People tend to only remember a maximum of three points in my interactions.  I use the main three benefits that I can offer and ask if those points are still something they would love to fix in the future.  I also tend to try to do step before I leave from asking all of the questions to uncover the needs.  This helps the person feel like I am really understanding them and that I really care.  Which I do.  I want to help those people get to a better place.  I don’t want to be one of those cheap used car salesmen from that move in the 80’s.  

At that point I reaffirm that I want to help them and if I can’t I do not want to waste any of their time as I understand how important their time is.  After this I either step into the next step of the sales process, or use commitment step to get the next appointment set up to present to them some options that may enable them to reach their goals and eliminate their pain points.

If you are doing a good job of this and have uncovered some major pain points for them, they will almost be nodding along saying and affirming.  When you have that point you know you are on the right track to move forward.   Please keep in mind they have to get back to work so allow them to do so and don’t linger. 

Make sure that you do your homework though for the next meeting and do not let much time away as they tend to forget what you talked about.  Believe it or not people will forget how important you are when they get back to their daily grind.  I also send a follow up prior to the next meeting so that what we talked about is fresh in their mind prior to us meeting.  Also schedule uninterrupted time where you can have their undivided attention.   Breakfast can be great for that as early in the morning there is less of a chance for someone to piss off your potential customer which could flow through to your interaction.   Plus people tend to want to help someone that has done something for them unconsciously. 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Uncovering Needs

Good evening everyone,

I want to thank all of you that have been reading along as I talk about the selling process.  I also want to apologize for the delay.  I have been sick lately and it has really taken a tole on me.  I apologize, so to make up for it, I will add another blog along with this to make up for it. 

Last week we started getting into the Rapport portion of the selling process and I apologize as I forgot to mention that you should be asking questions during the Rapport process as you are trying to gain influence as well as intelligence on your potential customer.  You should also be using questions with those that are currently doing business with you.

So, with that I will get into the uncovering needs portion of the selling process.  Keep in mind that all things in life require a process.  Even when you wash your hands you have a process that was taught to you on how to do this thoroughly.  Now if I could just get my eleven year-old to remember to wash after going to the bathroom…

Uncovering needs is a process of asking questions that pull information out of the person that you are having the conversation with.  There are all types of questions from open / close ended questions, leading questions, personal questions, etc.  You have to earn the right for the last one and usually after you have build up a relationship with the person that you are engaging.  I tend to try and stick with open ended questions, but let it flow if closed ended questions come up. 

The difference between the two is an open-ended question in one that allows the person responding to state something that can be used to go more in depth on the topic.  An example would be to ask someone what is the largest factor that would allow you to see yourself as a success in your current position.  A close-ended question is something that the person can respond with yes and no.  Then there is no more depth to the topic. 

I was told when I start in sales to always ask open ended questions.  What I found is that it is hard to come up with all open-ended questions and people tend to start getting defensive when you keep prying more and more into their lives.  That is why I tend to mix it up a bit.  I let the conversation flow mainly out of curiosity of the person and what makes them tick.  I am curious how people view their business and what they view as success, but also get to know them as a person.  People tend to give up more information when they like you.  In the book I am reading now called “Pre-suation” the author studied sales trainings to understand how sales works and how these people are able to persuade customers.  It is a long read, but worth the time to understand the mind.  The same person wrote the book “Influence”, which is another great book that I review usually once a year. 

So on to uncovering needs…  As you are asking questions to understand your target customer you are asking all these kinds of questions to understand where they have needs to become more profitable, likeable, have an easier life, beat the competition, etc.  You are also aligning questions that highlight your benefits for the next step in the process.   It can be product related, marketing, financing, design efficiencies, why you are better than Apple, etc.

For an example when I used to sell stand on riding lawnmowers that held inclines and fit in tighter areas that traditional lawnmowers, I would ask questions about if the customer has ever had any employees trapped upside down when a mower flipped over, or what areas do they have to maneuver around.  I would follow up with questions about how they currently handle those areas and so on and so forth.  I was aligning them with the fact that my product could move around and if the operator got into a bad spot, they could simply step off the back and be safe.

I would try to pull out as much information on current issues and if I could help them what would the customer view as a win for themselves.  When the people feel the emotional impact of where they are and where they want to go, they become more open to you and trusting of you.  I used it in the automotive industry talking to engineers as well.  It works there even better because engineers will tell you all the issues of your competition if you let them! 

So, listing out your best benefits to your product is a great roadmap to some questions you can start to develop for your product to uncover those needs that the potential customer has.  This works when you are dating someone as well to find out what they are interested in to help you weed out the potential nut jobs that you need to run as far as you can as fast as you can from. 😊

So, take time to figure out your top five benefits of your product offering and where your competition has flaws so that you can build up question to ask your potential customer.  You’ll need those in the future when you make it to selling your organization and product.

P.S. Try writing the topics down that you are asking about as this shows the potential customer that you are genuinely interested in them, and so you don’t forget what you talked about!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises.

Rapport Follow Up

Happy Work week to all you out there.  And if you are anywhere outside of the south, I hope you are warm lol

A follow up from this weekend’s blog I wanted to further dive into Rapport with some information that was highlighted in Robert Cialdini’s book Called “Influence” and highlighted as I read his new book called “Pre-Suasion” 

Robert highlights six social influence “Reciprocation, Liking, Social Proof, Authority, Scarcity, Consistency.  These influences are related to rapport and building the trust with your potential customers.  Keeping in mind that you need to utilize them ethically, but knowing them will help you navigate how people think.  Utilizing these six social influences will allow you to help your customers faster to get to where they want to go.   Also, when you know you have arrived with rapport is when your customer considers you one of them / like them.  That is when they are calling you for all sorts of questions that have no bearing on work, but to catch up and get your opinions.

As some of you might know I am a really really really slow reader, but I have learned a while back that those who are successful are always trying to grow and learn.  Something that I have been focused on since starting in sales.  Yes, I do read more books in the past few years compared to all the books in school / college.  I actually like it now as well 😊

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Rapport

Good morning from Snowy Ohio,

I hope you are all enjoying this season of the year and all that goes along with the spirit of the holidays.  I love this time of the year for spending time with family and friends and the giving spirit.  

This fits well with this week's blog which is the second step in selling "Rapport" When trying to gain influence with prospects or customers we all need the rapport with them.  It is knowing your customer.  As discussed last week I spend time online looking up the prospects and learning about them from the business stand point, but when it comes to their personal side that is usually done when you meet them in person.

When I am talking with them I am looking around the room for pictures, trophies, interests outside of their daily grind.  When I took a Dale Carnegie course, one of the ideas is to be generally interested in people and learning about them.  That way you were focused on knowing them.  The principal that they used was the "House"   Picture a house as you walk up with a mailbox out front that has the names of the people and as you walked through the gate you looked through the front door to see the family, dogs, cats, etc.  Then you looked up and saw up on a chimney a plane which represented their hobbies.  As you were introduced to come into the house you saw more and more about the person.

For Rapport to be worth anything a solid value needs to be placed on the customer, prospect, partner, etc.  You really want to know someone that you are working to partner with.  It's just like when you are dating someone.  As you start a relationship with them you continually learn about them as you want to develop the relationship.  

Too often people just want to be superficial so that they can talk about their product which can be anything from lawnmowers to electrical architecture of an automobile.  The problem is that you need rapport to be able to come back and build your influence.  The same applies as I stated in relationships with your future spouse.  If you jump right into how great you are and your product it makes people feel like you don't really care about them and then shut off their attention and count the seconds until you leave.  Trust me I have been there and done this when I started.  

To win at life it is vital to really put value on the others.  if you don't you'll be that person standing on a soap box talking while no one is around.  I also was that guy when I got into sales.  It's probably why the first year in sales I sold nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  I was just blessed that the owner decided to value me and pour into me with training and working with him to learn.  Even though I don't see him that often I still check in every once in a while, to see how he is doing.  Something about that value that was placed on me that I am grateful for.

A great book on rapport building is Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People"  

Looking forward to next week about asking the right questions to uncover needs.

If you'd like to carry on the conversation feel free to contact me at info@kevinsidebottom.com

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises.

The Start of The Selling Process from You The Sales Guy

Good morning everyone

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and ate lots of food.  I may have eaten a little too much, but have to keep it at may because Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days as an individual and I through all workout / healthy eating out the window.  I truly just go for it...All In! :)

So enough about my eating habits and let's start with the first step of the selling process.  This is the first of nine steps the correspond with the five buying decisions that your customers have to walk through.

So let's get to the first and hardest sometimes for sales people to accomplish.  It is "Commitment"  You need to get the potential customer, prospect, person that comes to the door, or dreadfully the person on the phone. 

I have to work to not get angry when the sales person for extended car warranties call my phone.  I keep telling myself to give them a chance.  One guy the other day had such a great approach that I said I would listen.  Even though I still do not own the 2013 Jeep Wrangler.  He was that good so I stayed on the call. 

So on to commitment and how do you gain it.   I have had to make cold calls in new territories in the past.  In my recent past I have used Linked in to study the potential customer, and anything else I could use to gain intelligence on the buyer I was about to meet.  

I tend to use the Columbo approach.  I would passively wander around the area until the curious potential buyer would walk up and ask me what I was doing there.   Sometimes if I was able to I would walk in through the service area.  In experience at one of the Big 3 I would ask around to find out who the engineers were for a specific commodity. 

I would use the first time to review the customers products, the engineer's cube, the manager's office, etc.  I would try to build a little rapport by finding common ground as much as I could to and schedule the follow up call to gain the commitment to state I have some information that I would like to share.  Typically when you state you have intelligence to share with the potential customer they are more than willing to have you come back.  

Keep in mind that for each selling phase you will need to ask for commitment to enter into the next stage / contact.  So, it goes back to being open to asking for something.  They need to commit so you can move on to the next stage.  Think of it like asking the cute girl out or the fact that you wanted to and never did.  How did you feel.  Take the initiative because the worst thing that could happen is they say yes and now you have to bring the value.  :)  

Try making as many commitments as you can.  Sales is a numbers game.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales And Leadership Enterprises

Giving Thanks

Good morning everyone,

Hopefully you have found value in the five previous posts to help you think through the customer's decision-making process.  There are more details obviously to what the customer has in their head, but you know that already.  Also, this is a way to think about all of your interactions with people as you are selling your ideas and yourself to people every day. 

For today, I would like to talk about being thankful.  Being thankful even if everything isn't going well for you and during the stress of the holidays.  As I sit here on this frigid morning in the mid-west and look out at the kids watching cartoons.  I am thankful for a warm house and having both of them here while enjoying the Thanksgiving Holiday.  Being thankful in every situation is something I struggle with sometimes even though I am told I am usually upbeat and happy.   

 I encourage you to take time during this week to really analyze those things that bring joy and happiness to you as you relax during this holiday season.  Enjoy the moments that come with this holiday season and especially enjoy the Thanksgiving Day feast that is upon us.  I am running a 5k on Thanksgiving morning so I can feel better about the amount of food I will consume later that day :)  Call it my caloric balance sheet if you will, although I'm sure I will take in more calories than expel in running.  If only income was that way :)

Sometimes I struggle with enjoying the moment and taking my mind off of the to do lists.  This economy is as fast as it has ever been and so are the demands.  I tend to focus on the tasks mainly because that is how I am wired.  So to combat that I have to make a constant checklist of my priorities to keep me in the moment with the kids.  It is hard to believe that my son will be eleven this year which has flown by!  

If you are like me and get caught up in the tasks that need to be done which usually end up on a sticky note on my laptop, put a line item for those important relationships that are important to you.  Whether it is a small text to say hi to an old friend, a phone call with a parent, or Mario brothers on the Wii with your kids.  Make sure to put them on your priority list. 

One quick idea on improving your mood:

Most of the time I find my mood growing brighter when I am helping others.   Serving at a soup kitchen or helping the homeless tends to give me more joy than scoring the big deal, or buying a new thing.  During this holiday season think about helping others and investing in others.  I bet you will reflect on that and see you are very thankful.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom 

Sales And Leadership Enterprises

It's Finally Time

Hopefully you are enjoying the fall weather and the steps in the customer's buying decisions.  It has been fun writing about these decisions.  It has also helped me understand how the buyers make the decisions especially in automotive since I took the past six months to work in purchasing.  Call it a sabbatical if you will.  It will help me in the coming years as I enter back into sales on how large organizations strategically manage their supply base.

So, we are here at the final buying decision and it's the decision to "Buy".  This is the time they decide after all the hard work you have done to buy you, your company, your product / offering, and your price.  Now they are ready to say yes let's sign the contract and issue you a purchase order.  This is the time when you have been dreaming about finally arriving. 

Now if you have followed the buying decisions, answering all their questions, and fulfilling their needs that you will see the reward.  Some older sales trainers would say this is where you use the close, hard close, etc.  I do not like hearing closing because this is a process and a start for future business.  This is your opportunity to reaffirm the customer of their decision and schedule the follow ups to get them thinking about next steps.

I do have to warn that some large purchasing organizations like to make a last time nibble and strong negotiations at this point.  I still believe that if we have gone into negotiations that the sales person has not done all of their duties finding all of the needs.  So, it is this point where I like to have that extra need to answer in my back pocket to show how we answer their needs.  Also knowing your walk away is a good thing.  This way if they offer a nibble for a last second requirement you can say, "If I give you this then we need to complete this sale."  Make sure you get their signature though if you give them this nibble.  

Sign, complete, and celebrate.

Then review and see where you can refine your approach as well as find out more information about your customer and how you might gain more business :)

Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales And Leadership Enterprises

Buying Your Price

Hello all,  

Welcome to the fourth buying decision that your customers make.  This should be a quick post as this topic if you have done all your steps correctly is quite quick.  This is the part if you have asked all the questions and understood your customer's needs, desires, aspirations, and also staged your benefits and features in a way that highlight meeting those needs, desires, and aspirations that you have the customer engaged and looking for the investment.

I am sure you have studied your market and know the pricing that your competition is offering and understanding of the competitions market share.  This is where you get to provide your price and then shut up.  Yes, you heard me shut up.  I still remember when my mentor shared with me how to deliver the price.  He said when you provide the price you shut up, I mean don't even make a sound breathing.  You wait and wait and as uncomfortable as it is wait.  The next person to speak loses he said.  It is true, and sales people tend to lose because they HATE silence!  

Sales people are often wanting to prompt with how to validate the price.  If you validate the price and speak the customer sees an area of negotiation.  So, provide the price and sit back and wait for the next person to speak.  Which hopefully will increase your margins.  

Your customer will say okay and you can move to the final buying decision or ask questions to which you pull out another feature / benefit card out of your pocket to close the deal and move to the final step that I will share tomorrow.  

As you can see if you do your work in the first three buying decisions, this one is fairly quick.  Depending how long you can keep from making a sound :)

Have a great week and enjoy the day light savings!  

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales And Leadership Enterprises

Buying Your Product, The Customer's Third Buying Decision

So, now we are to the area of selling where we all know best.  Where we can rattle off our features and benefits, our what's.  What sets us apart from the competition and structure the discussion on how it helps the customer.  We all know how to structure this conversation pretty well.  Some would say they have the silver tongue on how to make people love their product.

So with that said this post will not cover how to sell your features and benefits because you already know this.  For a strategy on that look up tie back questions from action selling a great book on sales.  Where you tie back each of your benefits to questions to ask.  It's a great tactic.

What I want to focus on is the Why.  Simon Sinek has a great video of the difference in great companies, leaders, Ramsey Solutions and organizations on how working from the inward out starting with Why to How, and then to what (your features and benefits).  I think there is more to that though.

The key is to make your features and benefits need to flow from the why and tie right back to how they really improve your customer's life.  Why does your organization exist, how do your features and benefits reflect that "Why" from your organization?  This is a tough objective, but if you want people lining up for six hours for your product.  So, I challenge you to study Apple, Google, and all those other companies that seem to have most of the market share compared to others in the same arena.

This is the fun part, but it takes some work to really understand and talking with the leaders of the organization.

Feel free to reach out for help with this process.  I would be glad to help.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales And Leadership Enterprises

The Second Buying Decision

Hey Everyone,

I apologize as travel has been quite heavy lately and I have slacked as an individual.  I really apologize and will work my best to have this blog updated weekly.

So, by now you have read the first of five buying decisions and are probably thinking this guy is out of his mind.  Have you tried it though?  Have your customers looked at you with a strange look on their face?  It does feel unnatural, but trust me it is the correct thing to help your customer, because at the end of the day if you are not helping your customer, then why are they talking to you?

Okay onto the next buying process of your customer " Buying Your Company".  You customer hopefully trusts you and is sold that you can make it to the next discussion which is why should I buy from your company.  What value would your company bring and how will that help me.  That is what is swirling around in their heads as they read your website, your literature, and listen to you spill tons of facts about your company.

So, this is where you have to be asking deeper questions about the customer and what issues are they facing.  Do they know what everyone else is doing in their area?  Who is their largest competitor?  What data does your company offer that will help them overcome their obstacles they are facing?  What does your company stand for?  Is it just to make a sale, or does your company do much more than that?  I am guessing if you look at all the things your company does, your company does not just make, distribute, sell products.  What services does your company do as well?   Does the company do specialized marketing that other companies in your arena are missing on?  Are there special buying programs that help your customer save more money lowering their cost?  Do you have IT that can help them integrate software? 

What value does your company bring to the table?  This is the time you need to study your competition and what they do really well and see how you stack up and if you can do something better.  Chances are, you and your company can do one or two things that are far better and may help your customer.  Still the warning is out there.  What is the largest value to your customer and how can you meet that better than anyone else.  The focus is on the customer and now you, your company, or your check book account.

Hope that helps!  

Next week we hit the fun part of the sell and something that you probably can spit off tons of features that support it.  Until next week, get out there help your customers and enjoy this warm weather at the end of October.  Winter is coming!

Sincerely,

Kevin

Sales And Leadership Enterprises  

Why People Buy

Sales people are still thought of today from the 1980 movie Used Cars featuring Kurt Russel.  If you have not watched that movie, try it for a good laugh.  You don't want to be thought of as one of these guys, trust me :)

Today there are so many avenues for sales / selling to customers.  There is new language every single day on how you can sell to anyone at any time. 

Please understand, if you are selling to customers, make sure you are putting their interests first.  First, they want to buy a product or service, not be sold.  When people are sold something that is when buyer's remorse sets in following the transaction.  When people buy they have a sense of accomplishment and belief that this product or service will help them.

In the sales process the buyer actually has five buying decisions to make starting with Do I trust the sales person.  So, you better ask yourself, why should they...

People buy for many reasons and as a sales person your job is to understand that reason and help the customer navigate that process.  Sometimes that does mean helping the customer buy from your competitors if your product is not right for them.  Blow your customer's mind next time you are talking with them and show them a product that might benefit them instead of selling your product.  Now I am not saying go to them always be selling other people's products, but if that product actually does help them more for their needs, help them.  Gain their trust.  It will pay off in the long run.  Don't be one of those telemarketers selling extended vehicle warranties.  They are annoying and at this point fun to mess with seeing I do not own the vehicle the keep calling about anymore lol  

I'm sure you are thinking that this guy is crazy with his statement and that I did say there are five buying decisions, but I don't want to keep you much longer for today.  I will post again the basics of the buying decisions so that we can get to work on understanding the customer in the next blog.  

Until then have a great day and think about how you can gain your customer's trust.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales And Leadership Enterprises