Life Hacks

I wanted to take today to discuss a few life hacks that I have learned over the years instead of the constant discussion about the sales process, sales, and etc.  Hopefully these will help you at some point in your life.  They have helped me.

Life Hack 1

If you are like most people you have had to make a pitstop once or twice in your life while on the road.  Usually people choose a rest stop or gas station.  All are good if you only need to go number one, but when you are having an emergency that is a whole different ball game.  Did you know that hotels must clean their lobby bathrooms every morning in fear of an inspector coming in and giving them a bad report on hotel cleanliness?  Also, most people that stay at hotels use their own room bathrooms.  So that leaves a lobby bathroom relatively unused throughout the day.  You just have to use your super sales skills, not make eye contact with the front counter people, and find it without being caught.  If this book helps you with nothing else, this one tip will serve as well worth avoiding hepatitis or some other disease from those gross gas stations bathrooms.

Life Hack 2

A phrase called mark them up to mark them down.  Do you really think that the Black Friday deals are all that great?  I recently read an article that states the best time to buy certain products is Columbus Day, not Black Friday.  Do you really think that stores lose their profit to give you such great deals on everything?  If you don’t believe me, think to yourself how big is your house and how big are their buildings?  A website called lifehacker.com has a post on the best times of the year to buy different products.  Planning ahead will help you save in the future.

Life Hack 3

One other piece of advice for those that travel for sales is that of a product that the united states postal service offers for free.  It is called informed delivery.  They send you a scanned in email every day to let you know what is being delivered to your house for mail.  This is free and it allows you to check any mail that was not delivered to you that they informed you so they can investigate what happened.  This only works for your home delivery.  

Life Hack 4

Starbucks or Fivebucks which ever name you prefer has a couple hacks that I am not sure everyone knows about, or maybe you do, in either way I just learned about them.  This coffee connoisseur has some pretty cool options for you to save money.  The first is to become a rewards member due to the fact that on your birthday you receive a free coffee from them.  Free is always good to me.  Second, they have a fourth option for cup sizes that most do not know about and if you drink espresso you can get the same level of caffeine for a cheaper price and that is always nice.  For the espresso ask for the short.  Third, they offer free refills for brewed coffee and tea.  So, if you are planning on staying there for a while to people watch, have extra meetings, or whatever think about trying that one out. 

At this point I should note that I don’t drink coffee and am self-caffeinated which is why I am usually up at 5:30 a.m. to get my day started, but my wife loves coffee and I have had to learn this stuff as well as how to make a good cup of coffee for her to show my love for her.  She actually said instead of flowers that a coffee from Starbucks with a note that says I love you is preferred. 

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Three Types of Buyers

I was always taught that a salesman needs to have the knowledge to identify the DISC profile of the person they are speaking with.  It is helpful to know if a person a more dominance, influencer, compliance, or steadiness.  Rather than you trying to analyze the buyer to discover their hidden disc metric and get caught up in all that time waster.  I believe that there is an easier way to break down buyers that comes out in their behaviors even more quickly when they ask questions. 

In my experience there are three types of buyers.  Each is equally important especially when selling to a corporation where decisions are made in collaboration with each department.  The first type of buyer are the specialists who are more interested in specifications and how the product or company meets that need.  They are very detail oriented and can be very technical like engineers and department managers. 

The second kind of buyer are the users.  The user buyers are those that will be operating the product.  They are usually dental hygienists, nurses, and mechanics.  These are the people that are really key people to get engaged as they are the ones using the products all the time.  They are the most important people to engage to understand how the competition is doing.  They can tell you what they like and don’t like with application.  Keep them in mind when working through the selling process. 

The third kind of buyer is the main decision maker.  They are impacted by the return on investment.  They take the 10,000 feet view of everything and want to make sure they are profitable.  The main decision maker will ask for input from the other two buyers before they make their final decision.  This buyer is the last person to focus on as the other two buyers will have the main decision maker’s trust.  This is the case for most organizations today.

For owner operators and end users the they will likely fall into all of these three buyer styles as they need to be.  Some people are very technically oriented and use the product themselves day in and day out.  They also are the main decision maker that is thinking about how this investment will impact them.  How will they make money on this purchase and how soon they will see success is their main questions for entertaining your presence. 

I am working on a small diagram that will help to understand these three types of buyers so that those of you that are visual people will be able to see what I am talking about.  It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  I hope to have that out to everyone before next week’s blog post.

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Commitments During the Sales Process Continued post 3

Hello everyone,

I hope all of you are starting to experience warmer weather.

To recap we are moving through the sale process and the commitments for each.  If you are done the work to build the trust of the customer and for the customers to explore options that might help them.  During that time you have asked questions to draw out the needs that align with your organizations benefits so that you can move into the “Sell Your Organization” step

During this step where you are addressing some of their areas that they are open to changing you are working to gain the commitments of change for owner operators and collaboration with the group of buyers.  In both of these types of customers you want to focus how your organization aligns with their big needs as well as how the organization will be able to help them get further.  It could be the software that your organization utilizes to help them to analyze their electric architecture, or the fact that you have a large marketing department that is pioneering the end user data to understand their buying habits. 

You will also be using these same commitments to leverage the next step in the sales process which is “Sell your product” change and collaboration are needed commitments to keep them moving along while you show them how your benefits of your product will help them with their needs that they have opened up to you about earlier in the sales process.  Typically you can sell the organization and the product during one meeting as they go hand in hand.  Hitting the largest needs that they have usually the 3-5 with a tailored presentation will get the customer to move forward and where you can ask for the order.

When you are in the “Ask For the Order” step in the sales process remember to give your price and shut up.  Then it is up for them to give in and commit to buying / decide to execute the transaction.  Now if the customer is resistant, then you need to move immediately back to the “Uncovering Needs” .  Hopefully it is a small need that you can hit with an extra benefit or two.  I have missed a few times and had to go back to uncovering needs which mainly was because I didn’t ask all of the questions to get the needs.  I blame myself for being an impatient person.  My name is Kevin and I am an impatient person. 

Moving along because we know you have done your due diligence and the customer says YES and you get past the confetti falling in your head and sounds of champagne bottles being opened, you need to immediately reaffirm the customer and move them on to the next steps.  For an owner operator / end user you are moving them to the delivery date and for the group of buyers to the commitment of implementation. 

If the group of buyers tell you that someone else needs to be involved in the decision then my friend you will need to go regroup fast and move to get the commitment to another collaboration meeting.  If you are not allowed to meet with the decision maker then you need to make sure prior to that meeting that you review all things so they are fresh in the buyers minds.  This is not the time to relax. 

Seeing that we are focusing on the positive we will assume that you are working on the implementation / delivery date.  After that time you can finally celebrate before moving on to the next customer briefly. 

During that time you need to commit to your self to constantly find ways you can improve as no one officially arrives.  Everyone can get better. 

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Commitments During the Sales Process Continued post 2

Good morning everyone,

I hope you are doing well even when you are having to deal with the cold and shoveling of winter.  Yesterday was yet another snow storm, but luckily it went north so we only had to deal with a couple more inches of snow here in Ohio.

I am looking forward to spring time.  When the snow melts away and reminds us of things starting to grow, new animals being born, and the warm feeling of the sun on your face.

I envision the start of the sales process with a new prospect of current customer with a new product the same way.  A feeling of a beginning of something new.  It gets me to think through the sales process and strategy sessions as I walk through the steps in my head with the person and see how I am going to make sure this product fits their needs.

Last week we talked about the commitments of rapport which is time.  You must be able to offer something to the prospect to gain some time with them.  The prospect is busy so we need to do our best to give them something if we want something in return of equal or greater value.  Sales people tend to be self-oriented, but I challenge that I push to be others focused.  This week we will talk about the next couple of commitments and how they look.

The next step in the sales process after rapport is asking questions.  Sometimes that can be done in the same meeting as building rapport which is what I try for, or schedule a meeting to come back to revisit some of the data plus an opportunity to show the prospect or customer something else of value to them after learning about them a little more. 

When asking questions, you still need the commitment of time whether it be an owner operator, end user, or a group decision.  The main focus is still with the primary contact with the individual even if there is a group that will make the decision.  This person will be your champion to move forward if the product fits their needs as a company.  Time is their commitment that must be able to give so that you can ask more questions about the organization and their needs.  Being that they are the same commitment I try to do my best to ask best questions in the meeting that I am building rapport.  Sprinkling them in every now and then when having the conversation.  This tends to make the prospect more likely to answer them and be more relaxed.  I also like to use the mirroring tactic at this point that helps go deeper. 

The mirroring tactic is what hostage negotiators use to pull more information out of the bad guys.  It really works as I have learned of recent in sales.   It works like this.  When the person you are speaking with makes a statement, you follow up with the last three words they said.  This makes them feel like they need to go into more detail subconsciously to help you understand.  Doing so in a calm voice eases them into telling you more and more until you feel like you have gotten as much information as you need.  Try it on your significant other or friends sometime while you are out and see how long you can keep them going without grinning. 

The next step in the sales process is “Needs Analysis”.  This is where you are sitting with the customer / prospect and asking them if you understand their needs correctly.  The commitment for this is trust / exploration.  They need to trust you a bit and make sure that you understand their needs fully which is exploring them together.  The person on the other side of the table will need to trust you at that point and be willing to explore with you some root causes that you will lead them to get to together.

If you have done a good job building rapport and have some level of trust with them, then they will likely allow you to come back or asking more questions to have a conversation about their needs.  I do caution that people tend to think they know all the answers, so tend to use a little humility to position that you are trying to understand them better.  This lowers their resistance and helps them feel that they can confide in you.  This is where you have already structured questions around you benefits to pull our those needs to the customer.  Make sure you are asking the best questions.  I also recommend wearing light blue and white in your color scheme as those colors represent truthfulness in the subconscious. 

Once you have moved out of this step you are ready to start the Agree on Need which brings you to the point where they need to commit to be open to change.  The prospect must be open to change at this point to believe that there may be another way and that they should hear you out and see if you truly understand them.  You will be reviewing your best questions previously to make sure they are solidified in the prospect’s mind that they are real needs for them.  This is setting the stage for the selling steps that most people are comfortable with, but for now lets break so that you can think back about how all this flows together.

As always if you have questions, want to dig deeper, or if you would like to ask about other topics feel free to reach out to me at info@kevinsidebottom.com 

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Commitments during the sales process

Good morning everyone,

I would like to take a step back and talk about Commitments that you will need throughout the sales process.

Each step of the sales process will require a new commitment.  Now they won’t look identical word for word as I put on the screen, but they will be in the general area.  For instance, if I say that your commitment for the second step in the sales process “Rapport” is Building Rapport, it may not look like that when you approach your customer or potential customer.  It may be bringing back information about the area for top 20 customers he or she might be interested in. 

What you are really looking to do is get them to commit to building rapport with you and you will need to offer value to them to you to have that time for building rapport.  This is the early part of the sales process where the customer is feeling you out and trying to see if you are genuine or if you are just trying to push your product.

I had to spend multiple visits to the northern area of Florida to build rapport with the prospects up there.  They are as close to the south vs. north stigma that is out there.  They can literally sniff out a northerner a mile away and they are very protective of letting some guy come in a have trust just given to them.

To mitigate that I had to do a lot of intelligence work in the area to uncover who did the most work in the area, what they valued most about the product, who they were, who they chose to do business with, and why some would drive to Georgia to do business with landscaper shops rather than use shops in their area.  A great deal of time was spent on obtaining the data needed so that when I asked for the commitments they were seeing the value to them and let me work to help them. 

I will work to have all of the commitments laid out for each step and how they look for single owner operator businesses as well as larger corporations where multiple people / teams come together to make a decision.  Unfortunately, how the two businesses function there is kind of a separation in how you have to look at the sales process and commitments or commitment objectives. 

I will do my best to have most of that laid out for you next week.  That is my homework for this week. 

I will also let you in on a little secret.  I am working to put together a book, so all of this will be in one location for you.  I will have visuals in it and help you understand the different aspects in the sales process.   More to come on that.

For now, enjoy the weekend and I will have more value for you next week.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Sales Process Visual

Good morning everyone,

I am still new to learning how blogs work and investigating pod casts / video blogs.  

Currently I am trying to see how I could provide you a visual aid to understand the steps in the sales process, but unfortunately I am unable to do it on this text format.  

With that if you would like a free visual on the steps in the sales process and how they relate with time then feel free to email me at info@kevinsidebottom.com

I apologize I was looking forward to loading it up here for you.

I am also working on providing a visual as to how the commitments that you need to get in order to move to each step of the sales process look.  

More on that to come.

Again for a free visual aid feel free to email me at info@kevinsidebottom.com

No I will not spam your inbox from there on out.  I still haven't figured that out either lol  

Not that I really want to spam people.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

How the Sales Process Can Be Used In All Relationships

Hello Everyone,

First I must apologize as I was traveling to the sunny state of Florida this past weekend and forgot to upload during all the hustle through the airport.  Still that is no excuse.  I will try to make it up with the next blog coming Feb 3rd.

In analyzing the selling process that we recently have gone through the past several weeks one might see how this can be applied to all relationships in our lives.

If you are newly dating someone doesn’t the building rapport, being interested, showing value, asking questions to learn what makes them tick, and selling yourself all sound just like the dating process?  How about when you are at work and you are trying to get a group of people to move forward on a project?  What about if you are leading a department or an organization trying to change the culture.  You will use this process to get buy in from the teams to move in the direction you want them to go.

Lawyers convincing a judge and jury, teachers hoping to get their students to want to prepare for college, parents trying to get their kids to change their clothes to get out the door on time…sometimes I felt like I had to sell my son to get ready and eat the food I cooked when he was younger. 

To the point you can apply the sales process in all relationships in your life.  Not that you want to sell people, but following the steps will allow you to move forward a little faster and with less resistance. 

We all use these steps even if we are not recognizing it at the time. 

Try it.  What is the worst that can happen if you try to visualize the sales process when engaging others.

Also to the dating crowd, watching the movie “Hitch” would be super helpful! 

I will see you guys in a couple days!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Getting Better

Good morning everyone!

We have made it to the nineth and final step in the sales process.  It is probably the most forgotten step and likely the most important. 

This step is to analyze the process to see where you did well and what you could improve on.  What areas during the process did you get hung up on and what questions did the customer have that you could address in future sales calls?  Chances are there are a few.  Efficiency and constant improvement is what I pride myself on.   I constantly sit down after ever deal I negotiate to see how I can get better.  I may take a victory lap for a quick second, but then I review my notes and comments to see where I can improve.

This is crucial if you want to enhance your craft and grow as a sales person.  No one ever truly arrives and says there is nothing else to learn.  Hence the reason that those that are truly successful are reading three to four books a month.  I unfortunately am such a slow reader that I use audio books mixed in with regular books.  Yes, I like regular books, so I can highlight, dog ear pages, etc.  That way when I come back to review something later I can figure out where it was. 

So, pat yourself on the back for a job well done and keep moving forward with your growth on sales. 

Feel free to reach out if there is anything I can help you with understanding better.  I know my grammar isn’t the greatest at times.  I blame it on my engineering background 😊

Next week I'll discuss about how everyone truly is a salesperson and how this process will help you in all relationships that you have. whether you are a manager, lawyer, parent, or in a new relationship.

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Confirming The Sale and Next Steps

Hello Everyone! 

I hope you are staying warm during these winter months and I am helping you improve your understanding of the sales process.  It took me over 7 years to really understand it.  So if you have questions or even to bounce ideas, I am here for you.

Today we are focusing on the next step after you have gotten the potential customer to say “yes” and now most people will stop right there or even run out of the location making the Heisman pose forgetting to get the signature which is the most important part.  You are picturing that pose aren’t you 😊

After you get the potential customer to now become a customer, you need to confirm the sale with the person and discuss the next steps.  Psychologically when someone makes the decision to buy they get a little sweaty and adrenaline spikes.  Then all sorts of thoughts go through their head about maybe I just made a mistake.  It has been called “Buyer’s Remorse”, and chances are you have gone through it as well.  Especially on large purchases. 

I have seen sales people at dealers come right out and tell the new customer that they will have this feeling to reaffirm them that it is okay, and they understand.  Then the sales person follows up their statement by saying you made the right decision.  They are confirming and reaffirming the customer of their decision to buy.

People tend to look for others to reaffirm that they made the correct decision and by default the person nearest to them is the one they start trusting most.  By confirming the sale and reaffirming the decision to purchase the person starts to feel at ease and can move forward.

To do that I have always been the proponent to confirm the sale and then discuss the next steps to take such as delivery date, a follow up discussion on another topic, dates to help set up marketing materials, so on and so forth.  By doing that you are taking the customer through the process and helping them move forward.

Too many sales people get the sale and walk away never to be heard from again.  That is bad sales and it annoys me to no end.  By doing so and not helping the customer move forward the sales person is only hurting themselves.  Usually the sales person does not see any reoccurring sales turns and can end up picking up the goods sold to move somewhere else.  In worst cases even damaging their credibility as a salesperson that can spread quickly through their industries.  No one wants to be known for that statistic. 

In closing of this step think back so some of the past sales and notice where you have done this without consciously knowing you have confirmed the sale and moved the customer along to the next steps.  Most likely they are one of you better customers. 

One last step to go and you guys know all I know to the sales process.  In later blogs I will go more in depth if you wish and really break down the steps.  Let me know you thoughts at info@kevinsidebottom.com

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

Ask For The Order Let The Nervousness Of the Sales Person Begin!

Good evening all!

We are there we are finally there!  It’s time to ask for the order after you have done all your hard work.  You are at the point when you can feel confident and say, “How many would you like?”  At this point if you have done the work correctly the customer is saying as many as they can get.  Please use discretion on that last part.  What you may get is a stop as in they are not sure yet.

At that point you really need to go back and review in your head the questions that you asked previously to remember if you answered the pain points or not.  If not you need to make sure that you focus on that, or ask more questions as to why the potential customer is hesitant so that you can understand.  They will usually tell you why pretty quick if you have done all of the steps correctly because they trust you. 

You will need to answer those questions immediately before you can pass go and collect your sale.  Also having that fourth benefit in your back pocket helps to help confirm that they are making the best decision if you can get them back on track. 

So, assuming if you were able to get the customer saying yes and how much then it is up to you to do this next step very carefully.  Tell them the price and “shut up” no more peeps from you because the next person that talks loses.  I’m serious!  I have been in situations where I could not handle the silence and lost margin on the product and walked out thinking that I was a failure.  Please by all means do not be the next to speak.  Wait for them to speak!  If they come back with they are still unsure, go back to the questioning to find out what you may have missed. 

This is the fun part of sales and is the time where most sales people have the uneasy feeling and not sure they can ask for the order.  Same thing applies when you were asking your significant other out on that first date 😊

If you get the okay it is time to jump right into the next step and very important step called “Confirm The Sale and Next Steps” It has a psychological aspect to it that we will talk about next time.  Until then have a great week!

Sincerely,

Kevin Sidebottom

Sales and Leadership Enterprises

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