Hi, I am Sam Manfer and Welcome to my content rich blog on advanced sales training and relationship selling - especially at the C-levels.
Bonus Tip: FREE E-Book “Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers”. Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link . Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales person to feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders.
You won't believe how different you are from your competitor until you start analyzing what you have from the customer's prespective.
I was asked this question and thought many might benefit from my answer. So here is how to put pressure for a buyer to take action now. 1. What’s the action you want? In B2B selling low level people can’t buy. They can only recommend. In B2C be careful of spouses, children and other influencers. They can cause the buyer to hesitate. 2. Fear, greed, pain, want are all drivers for people to take action. So the first step is to find out which of these is motivating the buyer and the details of that driver. If none are in play, there will be no action taken. 3. What does the buyer want to do about relieving the pain, securing the want / greed, or eliminating the fear? a. If nothing, you’ve got to find another driver or move on. This person will not take action. b. If s/he does want to do something, you’ve got to find out how this person wants to accomplish or get it. Buyers don’t just buy the want, they buy their path to get the want. So you’ve got to know and deliver both or you’ll meet resistance, which means delays. 4. Feed back to the buyer how you can give him or her the want / greed or eliminate the fear / pain with the least risk of failure (or best chance of success) and with less effort than any other alternative. 5. Ask how she feels about your presentation as described in #3. If good, ask for the action you want. If s/he doesn’t feel good, there will be no action taken. Feel is the operative word, not, “What do you think?” a. If the feel is not so good, ask for an explanation of the concern or uneasy feeling and what s/he suggests you do about it. Do what s/he says - if you can - and then ask for the action again. If you can’t, this person will not take action. 6. Don’t assume you know any of the above. Without the words coming from the person’s mouth, you don’t know the drivers or their path to the drivers - no matter what anyone tells you. 7. For details on how to do all the above look for my Interviewing and Presenting CD’s at http://www.sammanfer.com/Products/CDs.htm as well as a ton of free articles, etc.
To see the article click this Selling at the C-Level link
Hi ,
Free Tele Seminar "Business Development During this Recession Using C-Level Relationship Selling"
Monday, November 10th - 3PM - Pacific/ 6PM Eastern
If you can't make it I will send you a link so you can listen up to 20 days later on your own schedule. But you have to register.
Learn how to handle Recession Issues such as: Low Pricing, Differentiating, Myths of Marketing, New Markets, and Self Limitations.
It is amazing to me what people believe they should do when business slows down.
I was at an association networking event the other night asking someone to network me to other associations as a speaker on Developing Business during This Recession. A gentleman approaches and so we all talk for a few minutes and then I ask my favorite question, “So what are your major issues as it relates to business development during this economic down time?” And he like most others says, “Getting more business.” So I ask my next favorite question, “Well, what are you going to do about it?”
He then starts to tell me how they have all the business from one big private company and the rest of their work is in the private sector. However, all the private companies they do work for have slowed tremendously. So his strategy now is to go after government jobs.
To this I say, “Do you have 100% of the business of your private sector clients?” To which he honestly said, “Obviously not.” So I then began to lecture him on how breaking into a new market is very tough and requires time and resources to penetrate, which is ok, if you have time and resources. He then said, “Well we already have closed three government jobs.” So I said, “Tell me who you were working with?”
Well, come to find out the people he was working with were all old relationship from his company and other private companies he’d worked with that moved into the government sector.
And to read the 2 points to be learn from this encounter read my full article - click this link
C-Level Relationship Selling Is the Best Market Strategy during This Recession .
It’s amazing to me that most sales people, mangers and corporate officers believe they know what their prospects and clients are thinking and wanting. On the surface and/or in general terms they may be correct sometimes. However, it’s not the vague generalities that win sales. Besides, when in a selling situation you don’t know if you are working with the rule or the exception.
As I’m mingling at a networking meeting an elderly gentleman stops me and offers a hello. He asks me who I’m with, so I say, “I help people develop business. So what are your major issues as it relates to business development during this economic down time?” And he says, “Getting more business.”
Then I ask him, “Do your current clients have business that you’re not getting?” At first he says yes, but then quickly moves to tell me how he’s getting all the business from one of them. So I say, “What about getting more from the others?”
Well, somehow he dodges this question and tells me what his company has that others don’t. “We can react within a day,” he says. “Our competitors need 1-2 weeks.”
So I tried to say, “What if your other customers are not in a hurry, then what?” But he didn’t answer this. He just kept bragging about what he felt made his company special.
For the two key points to learn from this story click here for the full article Sales Management: Differentiating Your Business during This Recession
Many sales people have learn that the key to selling is getting people to like you. Well, getting someone to like you is not going to close sales during a business recession. It is amazing that this misconception is embraced by so many as the essence of relationship selling. Hopefully this article will clear up why liking doesn’t make a relationship nor put money in your pocket.
In the professional arena, as well as in personal situations, “people liking you means” they get from you something they want. In a selling situation, if you want someone to buy from you (like you), give them or deliver the results they want better than other alternatives. It’s not about being cordial, good looking, funny, etc. It’s about helping the other person get done what s/he has to do with less effort and risk, and/or with the assurance of bigger rewards.
So the moral of this story is to focus on the results people want for themselves. Don’t assume you know what they want. Let people tell you in their own explicit language. In this way you may learn something you don’t know, and they will know for certain that you do know. It’s nice to be liked, but without the results, it doesn’t buy much. Think of it this way, people will buy from someone they don’t like if they get what they want. The opposite is not true.
For the full article - C- Level Relationship Selling during This Recession Requires More than Getting People to Like You click this link.
We limit ourselves when it comes to selling and business development. Here is another story from my networking association meeting the other night. This article can help you or your people overcome self limiting sales beliefs and develop more business faster.
Back to the two ladies I talked about in my previous story, after I asked my favorite question. “So ladies, what are your major issues as it relates to business development during this economic down time,” here is what happened.
I started giving my suggestions about what they could do about the low price issue (see previous story.) As I’m talking, one lady is sort of listening as the other is checking out all the other people to see if there is someone better that she can network to. As people walk by she actually starts talking to them as I’m talking and then comes back to my golden nuggets of selling wisdoms. Obviously she wasn’t interested in hearing what she could to do about her issue. The other paid a little closer attention, but then wanted to tell me why the customer was wrong. Basically, without words, she told me she was going to continue doing it her way.
Now here is the irony. These people need to win more deals. Their business floats with the economy, meaning good economy, more business and bad economy, less business - always the same share or the pie. Yet, their employers want business - no matter good or bad economy. This means in a bad economy their share has to get bigger or they have to beat the competition more often. So why don’t these people want to get some tips and try to use them? Here are 2 reasons why.
Read the full article Sales Management Training: Selling in This Recession - Improve Your Sales Teams Performance
I was at an association meeting the other night doing some networking. As I talked with people, it was amazing how inefficient people are in their selling and business development. So I have five stories, each with a lesson that could help you develop business better.
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As I introduced myself to two ladies, I asked my favorite question. “So ladies, what are your major issues as it relates to business development during this economic down time?”
“Pricing - my customers are selecting only the low prices,” said the one lady. “Me too,” chimed in the other. “And one even told me the price I have to get to.”
Now since I can’t keep my selling tips to myself, I offered these two suggestions:
1. Relationships at high level are the key. Either these people will make it so that your higher price is accepted because they can depend on your work or they will tell you what price you have to come in at - ala the second lady.
So instead of spending all your time putting together a proposal with limited information from a spec writer, engineer, purchasing agent or administrator, use your time to network to the key decision makers to learn what’s important to them and show them how you can give it to them for this project.
2. Prices are usually too high because you’ve included too much of what key decision makers are unwilling to pay for. So the key is to know what the influential and top people really want and what they are willing to take less of or forego.
a. Everyone is going to say, “Well, I want it all.” So you have to say, “I understand, but what’s really important? What’s the deal buster or maker? What will really be your deciding factors?” “What are you willing to pay extra for?” You’ll have to push a little here, but it’s OK. However, this has to be done with the person / people that have the power.
b. So the first lady says to me somewhere along in the conversation, “They should select us because we are giving them more.” To which I said, “So what. If they wanted more, they would have asked for it. Besides, that ‘more’ is causing your price to be higher.
Now just in case you didn’t get the moral of this story, here is the summary. Get to the leaders - the chief decision makers. They can help get the job even if your price is higher, but within range. Otherwise, they can tell you what to do, what to eliminate or minimize to get your price in line.
If getting to these leaders is an issue for you or your people, go to my website where you’ll find a ton of resources on this topic. There are free articles, e-books, videos and pay for books, CDs and manuals and e-courses.
Forecasting can be simple and accurate. Try this forecasting method on some outstanding business. Try it also on some opportunities you closed and others you lost.
The simple system involves three components; (1) Will there be a deal for some vendor; (2) The match to your ideal customer profile, and; (3) the quality of the sales person.
Will There Be a Deal? Is there an approved budget that is authorized to be spent? Is there a deadline or else something traumatic will happen. Most forecast are inaccurate because many believe investments will be made that never happen.
Match to Your Ideal Customer Profile means how well does this opportunity and customer match to the kinds of customers and sales you’ve been successful closing in the past. The closer the opportunity fits the better your chances of success.
Quality of the Sales Person says a mouthful. Good sales people can smell a buyer and they have a process that works to close the deal. The less successful struggle with this to an increasing degree.
Determining the Probability of Success
· Deal or No Deal ……………. 0% or 30%; No or Yes
· Match to Profile ……………… 0% - 30%; depends on the degree of the match.
· Quality of Sales Person …… Top 10%=25%, Top 25%=10%, Top 50%=0%, Top 75%=-5%, Bottom 25%=-10%
· Add it Up!!
Refining the Probablity
If you have a sales process you can tighten this up tremendously because there are a series of element in any good sales process. The degree to which you can address these will determine your range of accuracy.
Now go forth and predict.
And now I invite you to learn more. See the full article with details and examples: Accurate Sales Forecasting
There is probably a lot of negatives going through your head when you realize you’ve got to get to the top decision maker for a particular sale? However, you know the executive suite is where you have to be to increase you chances of success.
Most sales people quickly boast that they can get to or have “no problem” meeting with the top executives of their prospects or customers. So if there is no problem meeting with key decision makers, why don’t more sales people do it?
1. It’s scary.
2. It’s a hassle.
3. You’re concerned about upsetting your main contact.
4. Past rejections make you gun shy.
No matter how you spin it, if the big dog is happy with your proposal, you get the contract. So who better than you to make him happy with your message?
Here are 5 tips to help you overcome the anxiety and make it easier to push upwards:
It’s mentally tough to set-up meeting with senior executives. Bottom line your sale’s decision lies in the executive suite. So set your thinking that you belong at the the top and you’ll get there.
For the complete article with more details and examples, click here Executive Reluctance: 5 Tips for Overcoming Fear and Making the Sale.
Do you have a desire for more sales? This is what I call a problem (not a wish) and the way to solve the problem or improve your situation is to do something about it. If you do nothing thinking that things will get better, well then it is a wish. You may think that every time you try to get better nothing really happens. Well that’s because you won’t let it. Here’s why.
You have been conditioned - yes that’s right, brainwashed from childhood that you have limits. Remember those words spoken to you such as; worthless, never amount to anything, lazy, why can’t you be like your sister/brother/other kids, etc. Well those voices are still talking to you and holding you back. You can’t get better because every time you move ahead, you sabotage yourself. Or every time you’re presented with suggestions to improve yourself, you reject them because you feel uneasy about them doing any good. Well that uneasiness is the thought of striving for success. You see you are more comfortable in your less successful state because that’s where you’ve always been and it’s familiar.
The expression “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know” is a perfect example of this limiting mentality. It says, stay in your misery because if you try to change for the better, it could be worse. But if you do nothing, you’re guaranteed to stay the same or get worse if other move beyond you. Or when you’re presented with the opportunity to learn more or do something differently, you say you can’t afford the time or it’s not worth the money. So again you are guaranteeing that you will stay where you are or get worse as others improve themselves.
Here is my ultimate test for you to decide if you are suffering from limits of your subconscious / upbringing. Think of something that could help you or that you just want. It could be attending a seminar or buying a new outfit. If one of your children came to you and asked for the same thing with an explanation why s/he wanted it, what would you say. If you’d give it to your child, yet not to yourself, then you have limits that will continue to keep you right where you are i.e. your financial status, social status, outlook for the future, and you’re happiness.
So if you’d like more because you’re not satisfied with what you have now, then you have to change your subconscious and here’s a start. Think, I’m not satisfied with the devil I now know, and I am going to step forward in thoughts and actions to find the happiness, financial status, or whatever you’re desire. See this kind of thinking will give you a good chance of getting it, whereas the other guarantees you won’t get it.
For more on this topic see the full article Your Selling Success or Failure Is Predetermined and Only You Has the Power to Change It.
C-Level Executives are tough to meet with – even if it’s a small company. So here are 5 tips to help you secure c-level executive meetings and with any hard to see buyers.
1. Ask for help. People you know, know people. If you ask, they will help connect you.
2. Use your Golden Network. These are the people that have benefited from working with you in the past or are believers of you in the present, i.e. the people you work with the people you’ve sold to.
3. Attain Credibility. It can be earned by you or it can be transferred to you from someone who has already earned it.
4. Communication Effectively. With C-level executives you have to listen to hold their attention. So ask opening questions to get them talking about their business as it relates to you.
5. Follow Up. If you delivered the results the executive wanted, you have to go back in and get associated with those wins. Otherwise, you’ll get not credit and no relationship.
And now I invite to learn more from the full article about these 5 Tips for Getting C-Level Executives Meetings
Bonus Tip: FREE E-Book “Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers”. Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link. Sales Mastery makes it easy for any sales person to be effective and feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders.
Seth Goden, the marketing guruwho I respect very much, wrote in a recent blog; To get higher prices if you’re not the low bidder, sell the intangibles that you or your company can provides to customers. He then went on to list a bunch or examples.
Spoken like a true marketer. Do this and you’ll go broke.
Here’s why. You can provide a basket full of services / intangibles to a prospect and they are worthless unless the prospect values them. So which ones and how many do you put together. And while you’re stocking up your basketful of services / intangibles, it costing you money to produce or provide them. Even if you canvass your marketplace and determine these are the intangibles most prospects like, when you’re selling an individual you don’t know if this person fits the model.
That’s the difference between marketing and selling. Marketing is appealing to or exciting the masses. Selling is closing the individual. The individual in front of you may fall outside the masses.
When you want a higher price for your tangibles, you have to show the prospect (1) how your offering will do his or her task or project (2) better than any other alternative.
First you have to know exactly does this person want to accomplish and how does he want to do it. Exactly means his way, not what you think it should be. To do this you will have to interview the person and drill down to completely understand his concept, risk tolerance, political environment and motivation. Then you’ll have to know how to add, delete or modify it in a way that’s of interest to the individual.
Second to show your offering can do the prospects’ vision solution better than any other, you’ll need to know how to differentiate. Now anything can be differentiated. I show people how to do it with the most commodity type products all the time. Like interviewing it’s another skill. But it has to be differentiated in the areas that the customer is sensitive about, which takes us back to the interview - determining the specific mindset of the individual.
Prospects are willing to pay extra or higher prices, but you’ve got to know for what and how come. So ask them. “What are you willing to pay extra for?” Knowing this let’s you build your offering for the specific application and not waste all your resource building intangibles. I wish all my competitors would build a basket full of intangibles. They’d go broke and out of business.
Click this link for a detailed CD Seminar on Interviewing and Presenting
For people new to C-Level Selling getting to executives, knowing who the right executives are is a problem. This is followed by getting to the executives and then developing professional relationships with them.
The right executives are the profit-center leader and his or her staff. These are the people that discuss capital authorizations and budgets and pass their recommendations to the profit-center leader for approval.
Now there are many others involved in the decision to buy your products and services. They are anyone who has direct responsibility for an area, department, or process in the company that your product/service touches and/or significantly impacts.
Now supervisors, purchasing people and a host of others have power. However, you can not leave the fate of your sale in their hands. These people are definite barriers for your success and if you hang with them alone, your sales will stall, your pricing will suffer, and your competition with be horrendous. This is why you have to get their approval and move up and out beyond them as quickly as possible.
As for getting to the executive there are two elements to consider to be successful. The first is realizing that you need to get to these people. That is, you have to truly believe there is a big advantage to doing it. The other is becoming consciously aware of why you don’t do. Once you determine the reasons, obstacles or rationalizations, you can develop strategies to deal with them. What fits you?
1. Can’t get to executives.
2. Executives are very busy and not interested in what I’m selling.
3. The executive already has a good relationship with a competitor.
4. There is no need. It’s been delegated to a subordinate or committee.
5. I don’t feel comfortable with senior executives
6. I don’t know what executives to meet.
All of these reasons are very real and very common. To get the edge over competition, or to determine whether this sale will ever happen, you will have to learn how to slay the dragons, cross the caverns, solve the riddles, and wrestle you own demons. Actually it’s a lot simpler than that, if you know how. Read my blog, articles on my website and my book TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER$ and/ listen to my CDs seminars to learn how to easily handle these challenges.
Finally winning over executives and forming relationships is easy if you make it all about them. The whole key to executive conversation and developing relationships is let them tell you what issues they feel are important to them and what they want to do about them. Once you know what the executive wants, you’ve got to show how s/he can get it with you better than any alternative. Do this and you’ll win the sale.
As for the developing an ongoing professional relationship, that’s easy. If you deliver the expectations of the executive and s/he gets the benefits desired, you will be in a position to establish a relationship. However, you’ve got to ask for it.
For a more detailed explanation see Executive Relationships - The Primer
Here are two key tasks that are often overlooked, forgotten or not practiced when it comes to generating fast and easy sales.
Read the full article on The Two Most Neglected Selling Elements
C-Level relationship selling is all about win-win. A professional relationship will be established when each party feels the benefit for themselves. This means that the C-Level and senior executives you would like to be close with want to receive from you benefits, results, etc. that help them with their jobs. Job wins are what executives want. If the executive wins with you, your bond will strengthen and you will then be able to call on this individual to help you make more sales and network. That's C-Level relationship selling.
Most sales people get relationship selling mixed up with social relationships. Other than the ability to communicate with each other effectively, there is no need for outside the office interaction. C-levels want you because you can help them keep their jobs, which dictates their lives. I don’t care if you’re the Godfather to their children. If it’s their career or you, well, you do the math.
Additionally, there is always the undertone of caution with any the client / vendor relationship. This again is about the job and an impropriety that could jeopardize a career. Treat social events as a thank you for doing business with you. They are nothing more than that.
Professional relationships are all about trust. Trust that you can deliver job related benefits. If you confuse corporate benefits with career benefits, there will be no relationship. Give it to them and you will have a relationship that will pay off and off and off.
And now I invite you to learn more from the full article C-Level Relationship Selling: Enhance and Protect Your Client’s Career
What is the one thing a sales person can say to a prospect or client to set himself apart from others?
After the hello and pleasantries, ask what the issues /challenges /expectations the person in front of you is facing as it relates to the solutions you provide. For example, I sell my sales consulting and sales training services to help sales people and companies make more sales. So when ever I’m in front of someone that could be a prospect, I'll ask, “What are the issues you’re facing as it relates to revenue generation (or sales or business development)?” I then sit back and wait for the person to tell me his or her story - all of it. Most sales people, after the hello, want to tell their story. For example, “Let’s talk about me and when we’re finished, you can talk about me.”
For more on this topic see my selling article “Be Distinct or Become Extinct Differentiating Your Company To Your Customers”
Large Account Management requires knowledge of where the account is going in relationship to it's customers, competitors, industry and the economy. This knowledge is housed in the heads of the profit-center leader and his or her staff. So anyone that wants to manage a large account has to get to these leaders on a regular basis and learn issues, concerns, problems or target opportunities these people are thinking about. The only way these leader are going to let that happen is if the vendor has established relationships with these C-level and senior executives.
The sad truth is that account managers believe they are high enough with their main contact – especially technical sales managers - and there is no need to go higher. The other travesty is that account managers feel that a relationship is knowing who the senior managers are and/or being able to say hello to them as they pass by.
What is even more disconcerting is that 90% of large account managers don’t know how to get to, talk with, and perform to the standards of senior executives. If this seems unbelievable, ask any Sales VP or CEO
how many senior level relationships their account managers have developed that can be leveraged for price advantage and/or against competition. You’ll find it is very few.
So follow this link for the full guide on How to Create and Manage Large Accounts
Confidence is a salesperson’s biggest asset. Confident people exude confidence and others pick-up on it. It opens doors because confident people are believable.
There are three ways to get confident: (1) Prepare yourself professionally, (2) Prepare for the situation, and (3) Prepare yourself mentally.
Preparing Professionally
Learning the correct behaviors of selling and making them into habits is critical for our success and our confidence. Learning requires studying, coaching, trying, assessing, more coaching, correcting and trying again. The process continues forever.
Preparing for the Situation
Just as Tiger walks the course or takes practice shots from various locations before a match, you too must prepare for the situation. Without preparation you will feel nervous and uneasy. This is fear, and fear destroys confidence.
Before a meeting I will fill out my sales call plan. Based on my pre-call work, I know what I have to learn. I’m prepared to present. I’m also prepared to ask for commitment and to deal with objections. This preparation is extremely effective making me feel confident. The people feel this confidence and it becomes easy to move forward. This preparation also eliminates anxiety which destroys confidence.
Prepare Yourself Mentally
Confidence comes from within - getting over self-doubt. Since we know we are capable - we can talk to people and we have sold before - our feeling of self-worth needs to be bolstered by positive self talk about previous successes. Go into meeting or approach selling situations with positive thoughts and this will keep you confident. If you go in with the thought that you have nothing to lose, you’ve already lost. You have no confidence, only failure, and you create your destiny - the eventual failure.
Positive self worth, positive projection and getting pumped up will lead to confidence. This has to come from within, and the best way to draw from your strengths is to prepare yourself professionally and mentally, and prepare for the situation.
In the 21st century selling will require Relationship Selling, Network Selling and Investigative Selling.
Prospecting will require territory sales people to use the internet to passively draw potential buyers to them while they actively prospect for cross-sells in existing customers.
Building professional relationships are going to make a sales person be seen as a resource to protect or enhance buyers’ careers. If one attains that status, these people will buy more and more from you and refer you to other as well.
However, one has to learn how to use these relationships to get networked to others. People will help you if asked, but rarely if they are not asked. So to make the process productive, what you ask for and how you ask for it will make all the difference between getting to the right people and getting to useless people for your initiative. This process is Network Selling.
Finally, a sales person needs to investigate the critical drivers of an individual in order to provide what he or she wants to buy. People buy for their own reasons. Everyone is different and with out knowing their triggers, a sales person will flounder or worst yet, be annoying. But if the sales person can make the connections between the desires and the deliverables, a relationship can be established and the cycle begins again.
For more and the complete article see ”Selling and Business Development in the 21st Century”