In our last post we mentioned the that the most important selling skill in a tough economy (any economy actually) is the art and science of showing up.  We like to call this the “hustle factor” because it’s through hustle that you out sell and out position your competition.  The importance of being there applies to much more than just sales of course, heck, showing up is important in just about every endeavor or pursuit you have in life.  And when we suggest you practice showing up we don’t just mean physically, we mean mentally as well.

You need to have your head in the sales game and to really care about your customer and care about doing what is in there best interest. 

Most people don’t really care.

Discussing all the reasons and wherefore’s about why people don’t care is the subject for a future post.  For now I want to move on to what we feel is the second most important selling skill in this tough economy.  This one is a two part-er.  If you’ve mastered the first most important selling skill you’ll be showing up everywhere there is a need or a demand for your product or service.  Now what?  Now you need to bring out selling skill #2 – you need to earn their trust and get them to like you.

Again, how you can do this is the subject of a future, much more in depth blog post or article, maybe even a new product!  For now let’s concentrate on why you need to get them to trust you and like you.  The why is simple…

People don’t buy products from people they don’t trust and don’t like.

Of the two qualities trust is by far the most important.  You will sell more if people trust you but don’t like you than you will if they like you but don’t trust you…until someone they like AND trust comes along.

Trust is the linchpin of the sales relationship.  You have a lot of technical knowledge, resources and intellectual capital you can make available to the customer but it will fall on deaf ears if they don’t trust you.  Similarly, people buy for people they like and who are like them, given the choice.  The effective salesperson needs to be a chameleon and adapt to the customer and prospect they are selling to at the moment.  Sure, this can seem like a balancing act between being your true self and being someone wishy-washy who changes in the moment, but it really isn’t that hard if you have a strong sense of who you are and what you product, service and company can really provide.

We will go into much more depth on this subject in future posts or, you can fast forward to the Bold calling System now for tips and advice on how to build trust and be more like able.

So here are the first two selling skills in a tough economy we recommend you emphasize:

1. Show up.  Conventional wisdom says this is 80% of the battle.  We beg to differ but agree it is important.
2. Get them to trust you and like you.

Simple yes?  Next time we introduce you to important selling skill #3.

We all know the most important selling skill because we hear it all the time.  In fact, I attended a high school graduation this week and, sure enough, the keynote speaker addressed this critically important component of success in any endeavor.

The most important selling skill is simple, it’s simply showing up. You want to show up in front of your customers, prospects and peers,  Depending on who you talk to this is 80% – 90% of success in any field, but it is especially important when it comes to sales.

80% of success is showing up. – Woody Allen

There is obviously more to being a success but don’t discount the wisdom in this saying.  A lot of people simply don’t show up where and as often as they need to be there to win.  To take advantage of this selling skill you need to be sure you:

Always show up at the sales call, the audition or the meeting.  Simply being there and available sends a powerful message because you will be viewed as a resource.  The job or the contract doesn’t always go to the most qualified, it goes to the person who is the most available and willing.  You need this person to be you. 

Showing up is even more critical in a tough economy because many of your competitors simply won’t bother, usually because they don’t think it’s worth the trouble.

Next time, the second most important selling skill.

The selling skills needed to succeed in a tough economy are far different than the selling skills you can get away with in a booming economy.  When things are going well, depending on the product or service you’re selling, sometimes you only need to show up and write the orders.  In this type of environment you really don’t learn very effective selling skills.  In fact, you will probably pick up some bad habits that will hurt you when times get tough, and they always do.

The Bold Call Guys are all about developing world class selling skills that will also you to excel in any selling environment.  Because the good times, and the bad times too, never last.  the business cycle still exists and the only thing that can ensure you’ll do well in any economy are a strong set of selling skills.

So how is your industry doing today?  While there are signs that areas of the economy are recovering it’s still a pretty tough out there for a lot of people.  We’ve entered a new era in terms of business and employment, an era in which the skills of the salesperson and the persuader will come to the fore.

Over the next few weeks and months we will explore how you can become a more effective salesperson, make more money and achieve a level of security fewer and fewer people have today.  Good salespeople never starve.  Good salespeople practicing effective selling skills are in demand by every business.

Bold Call selling – selling skills for the 21st Century.

Dear Sales Pro,

There are many signs in a number of markets that long postponed purchasing may be coming soon.  Are you ready?

If you have been dormant, waiting for the recovery, you are screwing up BIG TIME.

You need to be positioning yourself for the recovery; otherwise it might pass you by.  And these things have a tendency to go from ZERO TO 100 MPH very quickly (and this one might go back to ZERO after a short period so you’d better not miss it).

There are a number of things you need to be doing RIGHT NOW and Steve and I spent about two hours laying it all out in our product TOUGH TIMES SELLING which is available over on the right side of our webpage.  It is available for download onto your Ipod in mp3 format (or make a cd)  or you can listen to it on your computer.

I guarantee that if you listen to those 6 tracks it’ll give you a fresh perspective on TOUGH TIMES SELLING..

And the RECOVERY PACKAGE including Bold Calling is to good of a deal to pass up.  These products previously sold for $197 and $97 and now both are available for a steal.  Price could go up at any time.

The economy is still going through tough times. Unemployment is still high and, while there are signs that the economy is improving somewhat businesses, individuals and families are still suffering and worried about their economic future.

What can we as individuals do to boost our economy and help make things better both for ourselves and for our country?

Well, we can get out there and sell something.  A strong and healthy economy depends on one thing and that one thing is that people need to buy things and for this to happen they often need to be sold.

To a large extent, salespeople hold the key to economic recovery.  It’s not the President (surely), it’s not the Congress and it’s certainly not the Federal Reserve.  A healthy economy relies on good salespeople getting out there and selling things.  Things people can use to better their lives, make them happy and even make them more productive.

Now, get out there and sell something.

With this sluggish economy, many people are immobilized by fear…

They are more cautious than ever, and they are buying less and less. I hate to tell you this, but everyone is predicting that it is only going to get worse in the short-term. 

You can’t just be mediocre and expect to keep bringing in sales every month.   As things get tougher, you need to work harder just to stay even.  

To get ahead in this economic climate, you need fresh, new, proven techniques… like the ones you’ll find in this blog. 

With fewer opportunities, you need to have a method for finding as many of them as possible, and then maxing out your chances of “sales gold” once you identify them… 

It’s Not Just Effort,
It’s “Effective” Effort…

Do you really think that the sales pro that makes $500,000 a year works 10 times as hard as the peddler that struggles to make $50k? 

Not a chance… 

The high-flyer works smarter, they work more effectively, they concentrate on the important things and they ignore the trivial… Most importantly they have a confidence and a competence that leads to sales success… 

Seize the Day,

Rob

Steve here coming to you from Key West, Florida.  If you’ve spent any time reading sales literature or have ever attended a sales training course you know that there is a never ending discussion on selling on price.  If you’re good at sales, then you needn’t worry about price.  All you have to do is focus on selling the benefits and frame your offering in just the right way and you can overcome price objections.

Sales Trainer Tom Hopkin’s advocates reducing the price to “the ridiculous.”  Instead of saying that your product costs $1000 more you want to break the price down to a daily level.  Something like, “…and you can enjoy this bad boy for only nickels a day more than that other, not quite-so-good brand.”  (This by the way is the heart of the ROI sell.)

All this is good stuff, but I’m here to tell you that price is still a very effective strategy, especially in economic times like today and especially if your product has no real definable difference.  (Yes, you can still find something to differentiate yourself but sometimes the effort is not worth the reward.)

She lowered the price so I bought it.

For example, here in Key West the main street, Duval Street, is lined with shops selling T-shirts and other assorted tourist stuff.  Walk from one to the other and there is absolutely no difference between the merchandise in one store versus the merchandise in another.  How do they differentiate themselves from one another?  You guessed it…price.  And they are willing to deal when you’re in the store because once you leave you probably ain’t coming back.

So while we all need to place some effort into adding value and creating a great customer experience we need to never forget that having the lowest price is always an effective selling tactic.

Till next time…

A reader Kate McKeon asked a great question in a comment about my latest post about Dealing With Reality…

“It’s tough to accurately asses what opportunities are out there if you come from the frame that you create your own opportunities.

At what point do you interject limitations?

Should you?”

This is a great question for those of us that have spent a lot of time on personal development and in sales training where we are told repeatedly that the sale is up to us– the saleperson– and we shouldn’t be making excuses about the economy, and our industry, etc.  If only we will get out and work harder, all will be well…

Here are my thoughts on this paradox…

Of course we are the ones that create our own opportunities, and one of these acts of creation is to decide that we are employing “Level Ten”sales skills in a “Level One” or “Level Two” sales opportunity.   

It is a given that we are going to make the most of every opportunity we are given.  But we also need to look for the opportunities that give us the best chance to succeed in the ways that are important to us– financial success, adequete time with family, time off for occasional long weekend or long vacation, being able to work with people we like and respect, etc.

Each person needs to decide for themselves what they want to achieve and then make a conscious decision to find the sales job or position that most closely matches our ideal– and then attack it 100%…

Think of the world’s best stagecoach salesperson when the car was introduced…

Would we call him a quitter if he gave up on stagecoaches and started selling Model T’s?

Wouldn’t he be able to transition his sales skills from one product to the other?  I’m betting a lot made the switch.  Others started selling other things (or became sales trainers)…

Hi, Rob here again with another post that all sales pros need to think carefully about…

Napoleon Hill, in his classic Laws of Success (pdf of chapter at link), discusses Accurate Thinking and how it is vital that we separate actual reality and facts from all the information that we are hearing, seeing and experiencing.  

Often, we “believe” things that make it easier for us in the short-term, such as passing along a small lie in order to advance our cause.  Other times, believing things that are not true can allow us to escape from reality (for a short time).  Hill states:

 “The accurate thinker deals with facts, regardless of how they affect his own interests, for he knows that ultimately this policy will bring him out on top, in full possession of the object of his definite chief aim in life…”

 If we choose to keep blinders on and not act on real facts, then we are giving up a very precious commodity—time.  Some situations will “come out ok” and others will not.  By basing decisions and actions on reality rather than wishes and desires, we maximize our chances for success.

When Steve and I were recording CD1 of Selling in Tough Times* we spent some time discussing the importance of taking a brutally honest look at the job that you are in (or the business you run) and the industry that you serve.  We talked about the critical importance of making an honest evaluation of whether it is in your long-term interest to stay on the same path, or to start making plans now to shift our focus going forward… 

Especially in tough times…

Sales pro skills are HIGHLY transferable to other industries.  Business owner skills are transferable to other products and services.  Most people are in their present situation due to a random assortment of factors starting from their late teens, and can make a decision at any time to start working away from a bad situation towards a more vibrant future.

Ask yourself these questions and FACE REALITY:

1.  Is the business/industry you are in suffering just because of the economy, or are there other long term warning signs?

2.  How safe is your job? How safe is your business?

3.  Have you eliminated all the waste and bad habits that accumulate during “easy times” and which will sink you in tough times?

4.  Are you in a state of hope that things will improve?  Or are you taking action to make sure that it will?

Have a great day soaring and hunting…

Rob

Hi, it’s Rob here with another Bold Call Guys post…

The global economy has seen almost two decades of solid growth, with a few minor setbacks on the way.  Many people who are in sales now have never seen a recession up close and personal.  They only know the good times, and their sales habits and philosophy were formed during the boom.  Now that the world has changed, they are unsure how to adapt.  We are in the trenches, and we would like to share our thoughts and Action strategies…

THE SKY IS FALLING?

There are many industries that are severely affected by the present economy, and many salespeople and business owners are seeing tough times in their markets.  Doom and gloom is the mood of the moment in the news media and the frenzy is also being stoked by the 24/7 news cycle on TV and the Internet. 

We are regularly hearing comparisons to “The Great Depression” and fifty-year lows in various statistics.  The average consumer is scared, somewhat angry and they are considering lifestyle cutbacks.  At the same time, the government is making unprecedented intrusions into the banking system and other parts of the free-enterprise markets, with unknown results. 

We should not bury our head in the sand, but we should put this in some perspective before we jump totally onto the Chicken Little bandwagon.  Business is normally cyclical, and we are overdue for a slowdown by most past measures.  We had somewhat of a perfect storm of events with the bursting of the real estate bubble, the insolvency of many banks due to ridiculous lending practices, and the incredible spike in oil prices which acted like a huge tax on the entire economy.  These events are now unwinding and causing pain, but there is a limit to the amount of damage that they can still cause.

For the millions of people whose livelihood depends on selling goods and services to pay the bills, there is no choice but to get up in the morning, put on the work attire, and get out there and sell.

 During boom times, when things are easy, we often stop working as hard and we stop doing all the many things that improve our sales success.   But business is still good, and the orders are coming in, so the bad habits and inefficiencies are masked.  We end up with our “B Gane”.

In tough times, we must have our “A Game” to prosper…

How Can You Get Your A Game Back?

There is no magic pill, but there are magic habits… Here are a few things to look at carefully…

 1)     You need to work full days, and full weeks without cutting corners…

2)     You need to stay in close touch with your best customers and resist the urge to cut back…

3)     You cannot let any projects “slip through the cracks”…if it is real, stay on top of it…

4)     You need to market more aggressively for new leads and new business…

5)     Your presentation materials and personal grooming need to be top-notch…

6)     You need to make every sales call count… pre-call planning and sales strategies are a must…

7)     You need to stretch you expense dollars and not waste money on things without a return…

8)     You need to invest in your personal development with cds and video training…

9)     You need to remain positive and upbeat and someone your clients want to interact with.

Your customers want to work with dedicated, optimistic sales professional and you need to do everything you can to meet this ideal.

We’ll talk more about this on a few days, but for today just pick one or two above and concentrate on them completely.  Write down how you are going to apply them to your situation and take an action today…

Happy hunting,

Rob