Archive for the ‘sales training’ Category
Practical Sales Training Tip: Practice Empathy!
Practical Sales Training Tip: Practice Empathy!
(an excerpt from The Progress Challenge by Dean Lindsay)
Empathy is knowing and feeling where the other person is coming from, walking a mile in their shoes, seeing things from their point of view. Empathy involves understanding that people make decisions for their own reasons, not ours. There are always reasons. Customers have reasons, prospects have reasons, employees have reasons, coworkers have reasons. They might not be our reasons.
To enhance our level of empathy, it is paramount to focus on understanding others’ parameters for progress. We may never fully uncover where another person’s motivation, their “motives for actions,” are coming from, but those motives,
along with their parameters for progress, are uniquely theirs.
To be a Business Attraction Magnet, always think, and say: “What that means to you, Mrs./Mr. Prospect, is…” Commit to doing what is best for the customer, ever striving to help provide the right product or service to meet their needs. Sure, we want to profit, but the customer’s profit is key to ours. Practicing empathy includes understanding that customers do not want our products and services – they want what they think our products and services can do for them.
One of my client companies is among the largest trade show booth manufacturers in the USA. They design, build, and transport the huge trade show booths you see at the big conferences around the country and world. At the very beginning of a program I was conducting for their sales teams, I stated bluntly, “No one wants a trade booth.”
The room went silent. The reps looked at the Vice President of Sales and each other as if to say, “What?”
Finally, one of the sales managers in the back raised his hand and said, “No, Dean. They actually call us up and order trade show booths.”
I said, “You bet. They order trade show booths, but a trade show booth is not really what they want.”
Again more silence. Then the Vice President of Sales spoke. “You’re right, Dean. Our customers don’t want trade show booths – they want profit. We must be able to show them how investing in our trade show booths will help them to profit.”
Business Attraction Magnets know it is not the goal of having the product or service itself that creates the momentum. It is the perceived benefits (feelings realized) behind having or utilizing the product or service that creates the momentum.
Be a BAM (Business Attraction Magnet)!
Be Progress.
(Practical Sales Training Tip: Practice Empathy! – is an excerpt from The Progress Challenge by Dean Lindsay)
Funny Sales Cartoon on Remembering Names
Funny Sales Cartoon on Remembering Names!!
Click link for Funny Video Clip on how to Remember Names!
Listen as if your lifestyle depended on it. IT DOES!
Business Attraction Magnet #3. Listen as if your lifestyle depended on it… IT DOES!
Link to: Business Attraction Magnet Key # 1: Become Buzzworthy
Link to Business Attraction Magnet Key # 2. Ask Progress-Based Open Ended Questions
Solid listening goes hand in hand with asking powerful questions. I don’t mean “listen” as in taking in sounds and passively processing them. As BAMs, we must LISTEN with all we’ve got. This is a basic but sometimes challenging principle to consistently put into practice. It means that, for the duration of our contact, we step outside of ourselves – our own needs, our every preconception – and attend entirely to someone else.
Everyone has a need to talk and be heard. Listening helps us treat others as if they were the most important people on the planet because – in their minds – they are. Many professionals forget to involve the prospect and drone on about how great their ideas or their company is, forgetting to ask probing questions and listening for ways to show how they can be progress for the other person.
Sometimes our motivation to actively listen is not all that high. We think we can get by without really focusing. This is a huge mistake. The ability to understand and value what others say is critical to being a BAM. So be determined to focus on and understand completely what others are trying to communicate. It is close to impossible to uncover someone’s parameters of progress when you’re preoccupied with previous conversations, unfinished tasks, or the impression you’re making.
Good listeners absorb and reflect on what they hear. They are active in the listening process. This requires energy and motivation, because listening is more than just hearing. We must become active listeners rather than passive hearers.
Repeating back (as questions or tentative statements) what you think you’ve heard the other person say helps avoid mind-misreading errors. Good clarifying questions offer the person a chance to rephrase their thoughts and say precisely what they mean.
Be Progress.
FREE Trade Show Tips – yes more
FIVE MORE Free Trade Show Booth Tips – Running a Successful Trade Show Booth (part one)
Insight from CODE Cracking for Trade Show Booth Success
Working a booth at a trade show can be such a powerful way to network, reinforce existing relationships, and build name recognition that I wanted to offer some trade show tips into making the most of the investment. The key is to find ways to encourage visitors to stop and comfortably begin building a solid relationship with you. Here is the first batch of trade show tips. I will offer more insight from on running a successful trade show booth over the following weeks.
Free Trade Show Booth Tip # 1
Build rapport by being friendly and nonthreatening.
A smile goes a long way in welcoming people to visit your booth.
“Every business is built on friendship.” — James Cash Penney
Free Trade Show Booth Tip # 2
Create the right first impression.
Stand and be interested in making contact. Do not sit, read, drink, eat, or smoke in the booth. Don’t just chat away with the people working the booth with you. This makes you less approachable.
Free Trade Show Booth Tip # 3
Keep the booth looking sharp.
Do not let the booth get disorganized, cluttered, or untidy. Throw trash away. If skirted, the space under the table is a great place to store boxes and stuff. Many trade shows last weeks. Even if it is a lengthy show, do not let your booth get run down.
Free Trade Show Booth Tip # 4
Avoid drinking alcohol or eating spicy or garlicky foods.
Bad breath is bad business – as is slurred speech and inappropriate behavior. You do not want to be remembered as the drunk guy, or halitosis girl.
Free Trade Show Booth Tip #5
Ask open-ended questions — Avoid asking questions that can be answered with a yes or no. Create a list of questions to ask that begin with who, what, where, when, why, or how. This will stimulate thought and encourage conversation. Relate questions to the event, industry, product/service and its benefits, or to a specific situation.
Examples of Stimulating Questions:
What brought you out to the show today?
How could you see using this (product/service)?
How important is (benefit) in your present situation?
What are your most important needs in (situation)?
How familiar are you with our product/company/service?
Be careful not to overuse common and overused questions, like:How are you doing today?
Can I help you?
Are you enjoying the show?
Our new program: CODE Cracking for Trade Show Booth Success is now available. Contact us for Details – Dean@DeanLindsay.com 214-457-5656
A BAM Dozen: Solid Sales Questions from BAM Sales Training Program
A BAM Dozen: 12 Solid Open-Ended Questions for becoming a Business Attraction Magnet
Link to: Business Attraction Magnet Key # 1: Become Buzzworthy
Link to Business Attraction Magnet Key # 2. Ask Progress-Based Open Ended Questions
Please find your own voice when asking these questions. We must be truly interested in finding a way to help.
Be a BAM Sales Training Program #1: How did you get interested in your line of work?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 2. If a journalist were to write about what’s been happening in your industry over the past six months, what might they write?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 3. I connect with new people all the time; how would I know if someone qualified as a solid contact for you?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 4. How would you define progress for you/your business?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 5. What major shifts do you foresee in your industry?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 6. Where do you see your greatest challenges?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 7. Why do these challenges persist?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 8. What difficulties will you face if you don’t meet these challenges?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 9. What actions are you taking to overcome these challenges?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 10. What results are you expecting?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 11. Who is involved in the decision-making process?
Be a BAM Sales Training Program # 12. If you could solve these challenges, what kind of progress would you make?
Also, encourage prospects and clients to expand on their answers by asking:
Would you tell me more about that?
Could you please elaborate?
Could you clarify…?
How so?
What did you mean when you said…?
Do not ask too many questions or ask them at a rocket-fire clip. People should not feel they are being interrogated. Being interrogated is neither attractive nor enjoyable.
insight from The Progress Challenge by Dean Lindsay and featured in the Be a BAM! Sales Training Program
Link to: Business Attraction Magnet Key # 1: Become Buzzworthy
Link to Business Attraction Magnet Key # 2. Ask Progress-Based Open Ended Questions
Ask Progress-Based, Open-Ended Questions.
Link to: Business Attraction Magnet Key # 1: Become Buzzworthy
Business Attraction Magnet Key # 2.
Ask Progress-Based, Open-Ended Questions.
In the medical profession, it is known that prescription without diagnosis is malpractice. The same is true for Business Attraction Magnets. We must ask a variety of open-ended questions to diagnose the situation, so our recommendation (prescription) will meet the need.
“The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.” – Thomas Berger
There is a classic story, told in sales circles, of the inept salesman trying to explain to his boss why he closed only one sale per month. “You know, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink,” the salesman says, shrugging his shoulders. “Make him drink?” the manager replies. “Your job is to make him thirsty.” That sounds good enough, but there’s a fundamental oversight here: Clients and prospects are already “thirsty.” They are thirsty for peace of mind, pleasure, profit, prestige, pain avoidance, and power. They are thirsty for progress. We must uncover others’ particular parameters for progress if we hope to make them thirsty for the progress we offer.
The most powerful way to uncover the prospect’s parameters for progress is to ask open-ended questions. These questions commonly include the basics of:
- Who
- What
- Where
- Why
- When
- How
Click for: A BAM Dozen: 12 Solid Open-Ended Questions for becoming a Business Attraction Magnet
a “Be a BAM!” SALES TIP – Become Buzz-worthy!
insight from The Progress Challenge by Dean Lindsay and featured in the Be a BAM! Sales Training Program
Become Buzz-worthy — Key # 1 to Becoming a Business Attraction Magnet
Business Attraction Magnets provide so much value, so much heat, and so much enthusiasm that customers are inspired to talk about them. A BAM is worthy of attention, worthy of the spotlight, worthy of wattage, and worthy of referrals.
As Progress Agents, we must not only show enthusiasm for our work – we must HAVE enthusiasm for our work. If we want prospects to get excited about our products and services, we need to have that excitement first. Likewise, if we want others to believe in our products and services, we must believe in our products and services first.
To win the prize, we must be the prize. Enthusiasm shows in the way we hold ourselves and in the passion we have for our jobs and our lives. If we want loyal customers and referrals (and we do), then we need to feel worthy of loyal customers and referrals. I am sure you have sensed by now that, whenever possible, people do business with people they like. Passion for our lives and belief in our work make us attractive and likable. They draw people to us.
In sales, we have got to be on. Have game. Bring heat. Same is true for customer-service professionals and those in leadership. Buzz. Buzz.
Next Up: Key #2 to Becoming a Business Attraction Magnet — Ask Progress-Based, Open-Ended Questions.
For info on the Be a BAM Sales Training Program Click here
Be a BAM!! – Become a Business Attraction Magnet!
Be a BAM! -
Become a Business Attraction Magnet!!
Become a Business Attraction Magnet!!- an excerpt from The Progress Challenge by Dean Lindsay and featured in the Progress Agents’ Be a BAM! Sales Training Program
The business of sales is the business of attraction. We are attracted to products, services, ideas, and people that we trust can help us progress. Everyone profits when sales professionals focus on being progress, and being progress turns sales professionals into Business Attraction Magnets.
The great Dottie Walters, one of the founders of the National Speakers Association, shared with me many years ago that the word sales comes from the Scandinavian root word meaning to serve. Soak that in…to serve.
If we just made that little shift in our own thinking about that word sales, think of how many more people we could serve with our products, services, ideas, and contacts. (Not to mention our smiles and solid listening skills.) To sell is to serve. To serve is to Be Progress.
The days of the “Surefire Closing Statement” and the “Glad-handing Slick Salesman” are long gone. Today it is imperative for Progress Agents to truly get to know their prospects and help prospects get to know them. Selling is therefore a state of mind more than a series of steps. It is a dance, a buzz, a willingness to be involved, to connect, to attract. Those of us who make our careers selling are, by and large, outgoing, caring, and driven. We want to help others progress. We believe we can make a difference, that we can help. Being progress puts wind in our sails and in our sales.
Becoming a Business Attraction Magnet is about TRUST. The customer has a need, or a step they desire to take. They must trust we can meet that need and help them take that step. Customers and prospects need to trust our belief in ourselves, in our companies, and in our products and services.
Next up — The Seven Keys to Becoming a Business Attraction Magnet!
Link to Key # 1. Become Buzzworthy
Info on The Progress Agents’ Be a BAM! Sales Training Program
Julie Weber’s (of Southwest Airlines) Foreword for The Progress Challenge
Southwest Airlines
The Foreword for Dean Lindsay’s The Progress Challenge
Foreword by Julie Weber, Senior Director, People, Southwest Airlines Co.
Let me just get this out first: The Progress Challenge is a great book. It is fun to read and crammed full of thought-provoking, practical and motivating take-aways. I recommend this book to HR professionals, business leaders, sales leaders, and anyone who is trying to not only navigate the world’s economy today, but to succeed in it. With the Six Ps of Progress, Dean gives us all the incredible opportunity to be purposeful in creating progress, not just change, in our lives and work.
If only I had read this book prior to the Tech Bubble burst in 2001. While working at a software company, like many of my fellow HR professionals, I was doing my best to “lead change,” to “manage change,” in an unprecedented time when high-technology companies dramatically went from such incredible highs on Wall Street to such devastating lows in a short period of time. We were reeling from the emotional shock and uncertainty after the events of 9/11. This book would not only have provided a new way of looking at change management, but also a more hopeful way of beginning to answer the question: “What now?” So here we are again in the midst of unprecedented economic times. HR professionals are again faced with the challenge of managing our workforce in a shrinking economy. The Progress Challenge is a must-read for all of us. Only the businesses that are able to grow, gain market share, gain Customer loyalty, and gain Employee loyalty and engagement will survive when recessions occur. That requires more than change management; it requires progress. It requires committing to progress and it requires persistence.
I am so fortunate to be working for Southwest Airlines, a company that truly gets what taking care of Customers and Employees really means in any economy. (For starters, the “C” in Customers and the “E” in Employees are capitalized deliberately.) In describing the 6 P’s of Progress (I won’t give away too much!), Dean captures why Southwest Airlines Employees provide such incredible Customer Service. We LUV what we do and our Company LUVS us! We work very hard during the selection process to hire Employees with a natural desire to serve others. At Southwest, we hire for attitude and train for skill (as needed). Yeah, some skills are incredibly hard to train, but to train someone to have a great attitude and to enjoy their work, their Customers, and their fellow Employees is completely impossible. The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. Try doing that with a lousy attitude! Having a Fun-LUVing Attitude is not just part of our “core values,” it is a requirement of every Employee.
What Dean explains in a witty and entertaining way is that our attitudes, our ability to endure and successfully emerge from the current recession, our shot at getting what we want out of this life, is up to each one of us. I have always believed that “if it is meant to be, it is up to me.” Dean explains why that is true and gives us the tools to make it happen! We have to grab every minute of every day and create progress in our work and in our lives. We own it. I own it. I will be progress. This book is so timely.
Thanks, Dean.
– Julie Weber, Senior Director, People
People & Leadership Development
Southwest Airlines Co.
Networking with Lions, Elks & Moose, Oh My!
Networking with Lions, Elks and Moose, Oh My! – Proven Places to Nework (Part III)
Part One of Proven Places to Network
Part Two of Proven Places to Network
Funny Video from Dean on Remembering Names!!
