Article 6.2.2 Have a Quality of Consistency

I conclude the consistent man to be more valuable.

Great men have not always been supremely talented or gifted with genius. The habit of consistency brings with it a happy and organized life.

I have seen the qualities of the extremist swaying back and forth from greatness to weakness. I conclude the consistent man to be more valuable.

ACTION POINT: Focus on consistency.

Uncompensated Ideas II

When the customer sees that you have put in effort to offer a new perspective, they will know that you value the relationship

Salespeople are often reluctant to present uncompensated ideas for fear that they will come across as inappropriate. So is it really worth taking the risk of crossing established boundaries?

The answer is an emphatic “yes.” When the customer sees that you have put in effort to offer a new perspective, they will know that you value the relationship -- even if they’re not thrilled with the idea itself.

Uncompensated ideas are best unveiled at the end of the meeting, not the beginning. The offer a great way to end any meeting on a high note.

ACTION POINT: Take the risk of sharing “your” ideas with a customer.

Uncompensated Ideas I

Can I enhance the client’s industry knowledge

Before each client meeting, think of areas in which you could help the client by offering uncompensated ideas.

• Are they doing something that we know they could do better with better technology or software?
• What problems do they consistently raise -- how hard is it for me to research them?
• Is there something in a client’s non-working life where I could offer an idea -- for example, suggesting a venue for their child’s party?
• Is there something about the client’s facility that could be improved -- a lack of signage, for example?
• Can I enhance the client’s industry knowledge -- by recommending a good seminar or training program?

ACTION POINT: Look for opportunities to share a new perspective with your client.

Offering your Ideas

surprising your customers with novel and unexpected thinking accumulates great value and brings long-term financial reward

Many sales professionals think that all they have to offer is their products and services. But it’s not just what’s in your bag that’s important -- it’s what’s in your head. When you present your customer with an idea that helps them do their job a bit better, teaches them something new, or addresses a personal issue, you are building value in your relationship that lets you leapfrog way ahead of your competitors.

When a sales professional presents a customer with an idea that has not revenue attached to it it’s called an uncompensated idea. This is a great misnomer, because surprising your customers with novel and unexpected thinking accumulates great value and brings long-term financial reward. If you’re prepared to give, you will receive.

ACTION POINT: Look for ways to present ideas that help your customers do their job better.

The Human Touch

...the consumer does not want to buy from a catalog, a piece of mail, or a voice on the telephone

Back in the 1960’s, social forecasters were predicting that salespeople would be made obsolete by the turn of the century through advances in computing and revolutionary marketing vehicles, such as direct mail and telemarketing. They could not be more wrong. More people are selling today than ever before, and even professions that never considered using the “s” word in the past, such as banking, accounting, law, and medicine, find themselves soliciting business on a day-to-day basis.

That’s because the consumer does not want to buy from a catalog, a piece of mail, or a voice on the telephone. They want to buy from a person who listens to them, understands their needs, and responds with appropriate products and services.

ACTION POINT: Make your selling activity personal by face to face listening to and understanding your customer’s needs.

Article 6. 2. 1 Be Honest

Truth is the body of real things, events, and facts.

Unless whatever you build is based on truth it cannot stand. It will end with everything scattered and fallen around you. Your worth, your integrity, your family, your business, they will all fall away. It cannot stand the test of time. We must never enter a venture that does not benefit all involved.

These wise words are sometimes hard to learn, but must be learned. Truth is the body of real things, events, and facts.

Wisdom is honest, free from fraud or deception, genuine and real, reputable and respectable, straight forward and sincere, honorable and praiseworthy.

• In the end, people appreciate frankness more than flattery. (Proverbs 28:23)
• Dishonest gain will never last, so why take the risk? (Proverbs 21:6)

ACTION POINT: Build based on truth.

Prioritizing your Messages

Specific benefits are what close deals...

Information about your products and services and their corresponding features and benefits is fixed information -- it’s what you might include in your brochure, spec sheet, or catalog. By contrast, the needs of each customer and the specific benefits you present are variable. This variable information is at the heart of the needs-driven selling process -- it’s what elevates your presentation far above the canned pitch.

So, when the time comes to present, deliver the variable information first. Start by succinctly reviewing the customers needs; next, make recommendations and demonstrate how they address the customer’s needs -- the specific benefits. Only when this is done should you move on to presenting the generic features and benefits.

At first glance, this ordering of the information appears backward -- going from the specific to the general. However, it addresses the reality of your audience's attention span. High-level listening efficiency lasts a frighteningly short time -- up to 90 seconds -- before dipping precipitously. Specific benefits are what close deals, so be sure to get them in early, before your client’s attention wanders.

ACTION POINT: Address your clients known needs first with specific benefit statements .

Focusing on Specifics

Specific benefits speak to the confirmed, most important needs of a particular client

Your ability to express the features and benefits of your products is vital, but there’s one more conceptual step to take -- understanding and presenting specific benefits. Every customer buys for slightly different reasons: some base their decisions on quality, convenience, and price; others on the level of service, or personal reasons that reflect how they feel about themselves.

Specific benefits speak to the confirmed, most important needs of a particular client; they differ from generic benefits, which make broader statements about the value of a product or service.

ACTION POINT: Try using your sales brochure after you have presented, not before. Highlight the areas where your products meet the client’s needs.

Targeting the Pitch

you’ll set yourself apart from the competition

Features and benefits are the trusted selling tools that address the client’s questions “What?” and “So what?” But if you can answer one further questions -- “What’s in it for me?” -- you’ll set yourself apart from the competition. This question addresses the specific benefit -- the particular needs of an individual customer.

ACTION POINT: Answer the question of “What’s in it for your customer to set yourself apart.

Selling the Benefits

always try to link your features to the benefits

When you make your presentation, think in terms of benefit statements and always try to link your features to the benefits. If you don’t, you’re only telling half the story. The example below -- where a salesperson presents a new design of a stacking chair -- shows the types of connections to make.

Feature of Chair - Neat stackable design. Benefit of Chair - Saves space, making it ideal for even the smallest venues.

Feature of Chair - Metal Legs. Benefit of Chair - durable -- has lifespan twice as long as close competitors, saving money.

Feature of Chair - Stiffened back. Benefit of Chair - Enhanced comfort and better sitting position -- ideal for longer conferences.

Feature of Chair - Discreet handle. Benefit of Chair - Easy to carry and reposition -- gives more flexibility at the venue.

ACTION POINT: Practice turning features of your product and services into benefit statements.

Article 6.1. 11 Accept Change

Forgoing change will waste our talents, time, and money.

Improvements can always be made. A willingness to change and a strong desire for improvement shows wisdom. Forgoing change will waste our talents, time, and money. Life is not finished, don't stop improving your life or our business.

ACTION POINT: Look for ways of improving yourself and what you do.

Selling the Benefits

Benefits do no more than explain why a recommendation makes sense.

People make the decision to buy things because of their benefits rather than their features. However, most salespeople are more comfortable talking about features than benefits. It's not hard to see why.

Features are facts and hard to debate. you will rarely be challenged when you explain the features of a product or service -- they are tangible and objectively notable. Benefits on the other hand, are educated guesses. They are subjective -- what might be a benefit for one person may not be a benefit for another.

Talking benefits makes some people uncomfortable, because it feels like a "hard sell". It shouldn't. Benefits do no more than explain why a recommendation makes sense.

ACTION POINT: Know the features, sell the benefits.

Using Features and Benefits

This approach has stood the test of time for one reason -- it works.

Salespeople have used features and benefits to describe their products and services for many decades. This approach has stood the test of time for one reason -- it works.

Features tell customers how products or services work. They are characteristics, descriptions, attributes, specifications, and explanations. Benefits explain how the product helps -- why it is important to the client and how it addresses their needs. Benefits set out to the customer the value of the item being discussed and why it is in their interests to purchase it.

ACTION POINT: Understand the difference between features and benefits.

Making your Recommendations

Surprisingly, regardless of the situation, your approach will not vary that much

Providing solutions and making recommendations is the part of the selling process that most salespeople like best. It's time to demonstrate how you can help the customer, to tell you story, and to present your products and services.

Client presentations take many forms; they range from the informal one-to-one meetings to formal expositions to a conference room full of potential clients. Surprisingly, regardless of the situation, your approach will not vary that much: your presentation should focus on features and benefits.

ACTION POINT: Focus on features and benefits when presenting your recommendations.

Benefits of Joint Calls

With more than one of you interpreting what the customer is saying, you may get a fuller understanding of the customer's needs.

There are times and circumstances where a joint sales call is advantageous. Joint calls should be used when the following benefits can be realized:

• Specialized Knowledge - Inviting colleagues form different functional areas of your organization to join you at the meeting allows you to offer a greater range of expertise to the customer.
• Looking Good - Bringing a team especially if it includes senior members of your organization -- may impress the customer, and make them feel that they are important to you.
• Different Perspectives - With more than one of you interpreting what the customer is saying, you may get a fuller understanding of the customer's needs.
• Two Pairs of Ears - Sales meetings can be fast paced, especially if you are acting as the facilitator. If you have a colleague with you, they can pick up on small details that you may miss.
• Improving Performance - Your colleagues can give you feedback on your performance, enabling you to be even more effective at your next sales meeting.

ACTION POINT: Focus on realizing the benefits above when making joint sales calls.

Article 6.1.10 Have an attitude of decisiveness

When a matter is finished, it is finished.

In all things, stand either for or against. Bring projects to a conclusion. An unwillingness to finish the task is procrastination. All great leaders have an ability to make a decisions and to come to conclusions. When a matter is finished, it is finished.

ACTION POINT: Decide and act.

Managing a Joint Meeting

...it is important that every member of your team makes a contribution, so call on you colleagues when their expertise is needed, and explain why.

In a joint sales meeting, it is even more important that you act as the facilitator, managing the process and trying to ensure that both your objectives and your customer's are fulfilled. Get the meeting off to a positive start by inviting introductions: make sure that everyone knows who everyone else is and that all are clear about what each party hopes accomplish.

During the meeting, it is important that every member of your team makes a contribution, so call on you colleagues when their expertise is needed, and explain why. "I would like John to answer that question since it falls within his area of expertise."

ACTION POINT: When making joint sales calls manage the process.

Being Prepared

First, anyone you bring with you to the meeting needs to have a full understanding of its objective.

Preparation is the key to effective joint sales meetings. First, anyone you bring with you to the meeting needs to have a full understanding of its objective. At the very least, they need to know who the customer is, what they do, where you are in the relationship, and what you hope to accomplish.

Equally importantly, your colleagues need to be clear about what their role in the meeting will be, or you run the risk that they will be unprepared. Are they there to ask questions, make recommendations, help deal with objections, or to show support and interest.

ACTION POINT: Prepare anyone you bring on a joint sales call before the meeting.

Selling with Others

...joint sales meetings need to be managed carefully if they are to live up to their potential.

Bringing a colleague with you -- whether it's your manager, a subject expert, another member of the team, or the new salesperson who just joined the company--can potentially make your sales meeting much more effective. However, joint sales meetings need to be managed carefully if they are to live up to their potential.

When you introduce your colleagues on a joint call, emphasize why it is important that they have been able to come along. For example, "I'm delighted Susan could join us -- she has been working on these kinds of problems for 15 years.

ACTION POINT: Use joint calls when they will enhance the sales meeting.

Article 6.1.9 Don’t have a Boastful Attitude

A mans actions speak much louder than his words. Don’t tell me show me.

• Like clouds and wind without rain is a man who boasts of gifts' he does not give (Proverbs 25:14)
• There is one thing worse than a fool, and that is a man who is conceited. (Proverbs 26:12)
• Don’t brag about your pans for tomorrow - wait and see what happens. (Proverbs 27:1).

ACTION POINT: Let your work speak for itself.

Timing the Review

Concluding a meeting by reviewing needs ends it on a positive note and sets the stage for the next meeting when you will present.

The best time to review needs is either at the end of a needs-determination meeting or at the beginning of a meeting in which you are presenting (especially if new people are present, or a lot of time has passed since the last meeting).

Concluding a meeting by reviewing needs ends it on a positive note and sets the stage for the next meeting when you will present. If you have done everything right, the client will already have a strong inclination to buy from you.

ACTION POINT: Build moment for the client to buy.