What the best salespeople know, say and do

HOW TO ENSURE YOUR SELLING IS A SURE FIRE BET

An Executive Summary of the Brilliant Selling Survey Completed by Over 200 Top Salespeople in 2009

www.brilliant-selling.com

What the best salespeople know, say and do

Contents

Subject
1. Overview 2. The BET model 3. Beliefs 4. Effects 5. Trust 6. Summary

Page
3 5 7 9 14 16

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 2

What the best salespeople know, say and do

1.

Overview

The intention for our book Brilliant Selling is that it will actually be read, rather than sit on a shelf, with page 27 turned over. We have a similar intention for this summary of our sales survey. So thanks for opening this document and do please keep on reading there is information that will be useful to you very soon! Just a little background first. We created the survey to identify good practice amongst successful sales people, so that the information could be used to help us shape our book Brilliant Selling, published in September 2009. The strap line for the book is What the best sales people know, do and say. We had our own ideas of course but we wanted to hear from salespeople at the coal face. So we created the survey to identify how the best consistently get the best results. We were not looking to identify key trends in selling. However we did discover that the 4 key sales issues that were highlighted again and again were: reduced customer budgets value for money weak economy maintaining margins.

Its a tough environment right now for many! We wanted to know how Brilliant salespeople achieved success. To this end, we set up some strict criteria before allowing anyone to complete the survey. These were: employed or self-employed direct involvement in the sales process in 2009 a minimum of 5 years experience in selling recognised by at least one organisation as being successful an average income over the last 3 years of 50,000 per annum from any market except retail.

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 3

What the best salespeople know, say and do

Our intention is to make this summary thought provoking. Inevitably that means we have chosen to only highlight various aspects of the results. The summary is deliberately short and we have focused on what we consider to be the most interesting elements for you. Before we give you a summary of the results, lets tell you about the survey itself. 210 people (61% between the ages 35-55, and 85% involved in business to business, face to face selling) completed our survey between April and July 2009. I f you were one of those who completed the survey many thanks for your time. From the results of the survey, a few distinct patterns occurred and we have created a model to help articulate what the results mean in a practical way that you can use and apply in your own selling. Brilliant Selling is published by Prentice Hall and is available from all good retailers (including Waterstones, WH Smith and Amazon). It is WH Smiths business book of the month for October 2009.

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 4

What the best salespeople know, say and do

2. The BET Model

Many of us like a flutter from time to time. But how often are we successful? Bookmakers consistently make between 8-13% gross profit, so rely on the punter to get it wrong often. So, what has this got to do with selling? Whether you win a sale by a short head or 3 lengths, what counts is stacking the cards in favour of winning the distance between you and whoever comes second doesnt matter. The most successful gamblers invariably work to a system that is sound and proven. What system do Brilliant salespeople use? From the survey responses, we have identified 3 core areas in which we captured a lot of vital information on what makes a Brilliant salesperson. We have chosen to focus on these areas and have created a new model which captures the difference that makes the difference in selling. Its called the BET Model.

By learning the 3 key psychological principles of how buyers make their choices you can turn sales from a gamble into much more of a certainty.

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 5

What the best salespeople know, say and do

The three core areas we want to highlight from the survey are:

Beliefs

The BET Model

Effect

Trust

Study and then apply these secrets of interpersonal sales success and you can guarantee to make every sales racea sure BET!

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 6

What the best salespeople know, say and do

3. Beliefs
Your beliefs underpin a lot of your actions in selling, either consciously or unconsciously. Quite simply, if you believe that something is possible for you then you are likely to attempt it and achieve the result that you want. If you do not feel it is possible then you may simply avoid taking any action, convinced that it would not result in achieving your desired result. Most of you have probably heard of Roger Bannister. He was a 25-year-old British medical student when he became the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes. His time was 3mins 59.4 seconds, achieved at the Iffley Road track in Oxford and watched by about 3,000 spectators. Before he broke the 4 minute barrier many people believed it was impossible. Indeed some doctors asserted that it was a medical impossibility! Yet within 6 weeks John Landy of Australia had run 3.58 dead and within 12 months 15 people broke the same barrier. Roger helped people change their belief around what was possible. Beliefs are not THE truth, they are just true for us as individuals. Beliefs are changed as we recognize that we hold a belief and choose to question or change that belief. What we discovered from the responses in the survey is that Brilliant salespeople hold very positive beliefs about themselves and the nature of the relationships they have with their services/products and customers. Here are five important examples of strong beliefs that were highlighted by respondees: 1. 91% believe that they and the customer have equal footing in the commercial relationship
Comment: So many salespeople I know believe that the customer/prospect is on a pedestal and has far more leverage than the salesperson. Often this means he will come across as desperate and accommodate whatever the customer wants instead of negotiating in a collaborative way.

2. 76% believe the sales starts right at the beginning of the sales cycle and 52% believe the sale never ends
Comment: You are always selling. If you get complacent you risk losing customers. You sell not just to the decision maker(s) but to all people connected within your customer. Once you have the first order, you need to
Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com Page 7

What the best salespeople know, say and do

ensure that the sale progresses smoothly. T hen you are on the hunt for the next opportunity.

3. 69% believe that problem solving is one of their core strengths

Comment: Customers are in front of you because they have a problem/issue they need to resolve. You are there to act as a catalyst to help solve the problem with minimum fuss and often with a fair degree of creativity.

4. 67% believe that they are outstanding at relationship building

Comment: Its a foundation to all selling. Knowledge is never enough the old adage that people buy people (often like themselves) is still true!

5. 64% believed attitude in selling was more important than skill

Comment: We have trained hundreds of salespeople over the years and so agree with the majority view here. Start with a great attitude and things tend to go your way!

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 8

What the best salespeople know, say and do

4. Effects
Do we really know what sort of effects we are having in our sales role? We are talking here about the consequences of our actions. We cannot control everything in a sales situation; the economy, the current financial restrictions placed on a buyer and the past history with your business are three examples of things we cannot influence. We can however control the effect we produce in two key areas the relationships we establish and develop and how we control the results of sales situations that form part of working life in sales.

4.1 Relationship Effects

4.1.1 Educating and Adding Value Part of building credibility with buyers is through educating and adding value. 92% of all respondees attempt to educate the customer. They do this in a whole host of different ways. Here are the top ten ways in which, according to this survey, we educate customers: demonstrating value highlighting expertise suggesting new ideas and solutions demonstrations explaining technical issues/language delivering seminars/workshops/tasters offering free services to help processes introducing complementary services/products benchmarking introducing white papers, books, articles, reports

Two other ways in which respondees stack the cards in their favour are: 33% use recommendations 84% believe networking is either very or quite important, with 37% actively network online (24% using Linked in).

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 9

What the best salespeople know, say and do

4.1.2 Questions

We all know that questioning is a core sales skill. Here we highlight a selection of questions that successful sales people use in their work. The question we asked was: What specific sales questions work best for you? If you want to reference the whole list take a look at the resources at www.brilliant-selling.com - Great Sales Questions. Here is an edited version of questions we think are great and you may not have used before. We have grouped them for ease of reference. In addition, we have used the SPIN model which will be familiar to many of you and is referenced in our book Brilliant Selling. Personal Questions/ Building Relationship and Values Questions What is your background? What do you want/need to accomplish in business, in life? Why is that important to you? What annoys you? S = Situational How is the business doing against stakeholder expectations? What does your business offer that creates a clear difference from your competitors? What do you consider is a good level of service? Where do you see your business in five years? What do you like best about the present situation? P = Problem What are the three biggest challenges that your business faces today? What keeps you up at night? What issue or problem would your boss/board love you to solve as a priority? If you could redesign your dept / structure / process from scratch - what would it look like? What problem area is costing your company the most money?
Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com Page 10

What the best salespeople know, say and do

Is there anything else I have not asked that I should have asked that you can think of? I = Implications What would happen if you didn't address that challenge? What would happen if you did not act now? If the status quo remains, how do you see things in 6 / 12 / 18 months? What would be the consequences of inaction? How long can you survive without addressing this issue? N = Need Pay Off What would it mean if there was a way to remove the issue of (insert biggest challenge?) What is the compelling reason for going ahead with this project? What is your perfect solution in your mind's eye? How would you roll something like this out to your organisation? How might you measure success? 12 months from now how will you expect my product / service to have benefitted your business? On a scale of 1 to 10 how committed are you to fixing that? What would make it a 10? (if necessary) Obstacles and Barriers What has stopped you putting your ideal solution in place before now? What potentially would prevent you from implementing this at this time? Is there anything we have discussed which would make you think twice about dealing with me/us? Where do you see potential problems arising in buying a solution like this? Purchasing History and Buying Decision Criteria How did you go about purchasing this particular product or service before? What criteria would you use for selecting a new supplier?

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 11

What the best salespeople know, say and do

Under what conditions would you consider a new or additional supplier for XYZ? What would you need to know about the service I provide, to be convinced that I can provide this for you? What do we need to do to win your business? What is the decision process for solutions like this in your company? Who would be affected if you were to implement this solution? Momentum/Closing Questions Do you see any reason why you can't proceed with this order? Have I answered all your questions? Are you ready to sign the proposal? Does this solve your problem? Will you buy this if it works? Do you think we can make progress together?

4.1.3 Objection Handling

You would expect that Brilliant salespeople would be good at handling objections. However what is interesting here is that the top five answers do not coincide with the now outdated (in our view) training that was probably drummed into you - that you have to overcome objections. Who would really like their objections overcome? It smacks of arrogance, manipulation and aggression. We asked the question: How do you deal with objections? Here are the top five most popular ways in which respondees deal with this thorny issue: 1. Listen, understand and review requirements 2. Understand motivation behind it 3. Offer alternative options/solutions 4. Answer the objection with integrity - be open and tell the truth 5. Evaluate how real the objection is and how critical to the successful completion of the deal.

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 12

What the best salespeople know, say and do

4.2 Situation Effects

4.2.1 Sales Process

One of our first questions when we work with organisations is - what is your sales process? It is amazing how many different answer we can get from individuals working within the same company. Interestingly, in our survey, 70% follow a distinctive and recognised sales process.

4.2.2 Preparation

Yes of course we know the old clich that salespeople are bad at administration and getting themselves organised. Brilliant salespeople know the value of preparation for all key sales tasks. We asked the question: What preparation do you do before seeing/calling a new customer? Here are the top five most popular responses: 1. 55% research the organisation understand company, background and key situational information, search online 2. Prepare client case studies 3. Plan a series of questions 4. Visualise successful outcome 5. Prepare agenda, objectives and get customer to participate in agreeing these.

4.2.3 After Sales Call Debrief

We have been out with many salespeople and many do not recognise the importance of a post call debrief. 68% of respondees write notes, send a summary of key actions and plan the next steps for the customer as part of this reflective exercise.

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 13

What the best salespeople know, say and do

5. Trust
If you think about the psychology behind selling, being trusted is of critical importance. Would you buy something from someone you did not trust? Unlikely. And yet how do you guarantee that a customer/prospect will trust you? This is trickier to define. We would argue that trust comes from 3 core areas: Competency (ability or skill) Integrity (honest, sound, moral) Benevolence (disposition to do good).

These three areas are highlighted in the research.

5.1 Competency
We asked: What are your key strengths as a sales person? The 5 top answers were: 1. Listening 2. Building rapport and managing the relationship 3. Presenting and persuading 4. Questioning 5. Gaining agreement. Top salespeople recognise the importance of continuous improvement - 63% choose to improve their skills with regular training, which has this sort of impact: Better techniques and planning process Up-to-date with latest thinking and jargon Improved presentations

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 14

What the best salespeople know, say and do

More variety of techniques used to suit different customer types/social styles Reminder of the basics.

5.2 Integrity
All customers are sorting for integrity. Do you demonstrate consistency with your promises, actions and behaviours? Interestingly 34% of respondees mentioned honesty and integrity as a core strength.

5.3 Benevolence
So often it is the small things that matter. Tom spent 2 years chasing a client whose first order was over 20,000. He did this by constantly being benevolent. For example, the client was interested in mentoring and he dropped around a manual on the subject for no charge. We occasionally do taster sessions to allow clients to identify what we can offer. Equally we always provide welcome packs for all new clients. They cost us less than 50 but are the sorts of benevolent actions that will build trust. Examples of benevolent actions identified by respondees included: Passing on a key contact and effecting an introduction Corporate hospitality Training internal people Help with positioning presentations internally Responding quickly and under-promising and over-delivering

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 15

What the best salespeople know, say and do

6. Summary
Many thanks again if you initially completed the survey. We trust that you have found this summary useful. If you have any questions or thoughts about it we would be delighted to start a dialogue. Congratulations to Adrian Foster of Parker Hannifin who was picked out as the winner of the iPod. This prize has now been sent to him. You can find many more resources at www.brilliant.selling.com. If you have not already done so, join the Brilliant Selling Club there will be lots more resources to come. We hope you will go and buy our book Brilliant Selling, and, if you can, please feel free to recommend it to others.

Survey Executive Summary www.brilliant-selling.com

Page 16