Don't JUST Listen!

By Jack Cullen

Take the advice of a good friend of mine, a Long Islander named Don. “Think about your BEST friend. Picture that person in your mind’s eye. Now, with that person in mind, think about WHY you regard them as your best friend.” Specifically, what is it about them that lead you to feel the way about them that you do? Go ahead and take a minute or two.

There is a very good chance that among the many things you value in your very best friend is that they really do listen to you. Or, simply put, he or she is a good listener. Someone who you can go to and tell about your problems, dilemmas, opportunities, challenges—things that are important, maybe even critical, to you. Further, it’s very likely this person isn’t quick to pass judgment on you either. They actual listen to all you have to say. They may serve as a solid sounding board that you feel comfortable with looking for advice or just given you the chance to unload your thoughts on. Either way, no matter what they do after first listening, you’re glad they were there for you. You trust them. You’re emotionally safe with them knowing what you are thinking.

Not only do they really listen to you but also, you know they are really listening to you.

And that is also critical in earning a prospective customer’s trust so they provide the valuable information you need to be of service or assistance to them. Just because a sales person asks good questions, doesn’t guarantee the answers are going to be meaningful. We must be certain the prospect knows we will listen to their answers. We have to earn their trust. They have to feel strongly about our credibility. To be able to do that can put you in a different class of sales people; those who have customers for life.

There once was a brilliant fellow with the ability to effectively carry out several activities simultaneously. He had no difficulty listening to someone while also reading, writing or even drawing! How productive he was! That strength when over used became a weakness though.

Imagine how a client felt giving a presentation about their organization’s future business direction to a small group of people from this fellow’s company. Sharing the most confidential of plans and watching this guy “doodle” or read the Wall Street Journal. No matter how skilled at listening he was the client, in their mind, felt they were being ignored. It’s not enough to JUST, listen they have to know they are being listened to and understood.

A good number of salespeople have heard people say, “You should go into sales; you’re a really good talker. You have a real gift of gab.”

Once in the profession, wise salespeople realize the key to success is in their ability to be an effective active listener. The ability to interpret and respond to verbal messages and other cues, like body language, in ways that are appropriate.

Unfortunately it is estimated that people filter out or change the intended meaning of what they hear in 70% of all communications.

Top salespeople don’t fall into that category. A case could be made that the best of the best are far more concerned and interested in the ideas, thoughts and feelings of others. They are very comfortable listening to their prospects and customers. Lesser skilled salespeople tend to dominate the discussion by doing most of the talking. When people are asked their opinion of salespeople this is often the first image that comes to mind.

When given the choice, most of us would prefer to buy from and do business with people that we like. When a salesperson is genuinely interested in what prospects and customers have to say they make those people comfortable in their presence.

Listening will help you establish credibility and build trust. That is the reason why it is so critical for salespeople to invest the majority of their time in an initial meeting with a prospect listening to them. These prospective customers will like a salesperson that listens intently in that situation rather than one who is just running off at the mouth.

The reason is simply that your listening to someone builds his or her self-esteem up. Of course you can probably think of a few people whose self-esteem is off the charts! You think they could care less about given the chance to express themselves. Guess what? Wrong! It doesn’t matter what self-image one has. Your active listening in a sincere way that is genuinely caring will make people feel good about themselves.

That salesperson that is too talkative and is a poor listener is on the fast track to annoying, irritating and alienating both prospects and customers. You see, in prospects and customer’s minds if you’re not listening you’re ignoring. The message is that you don’t value what they think. Now some salespeople are do make an effort to uncover a prospect’s thoughts, problems, opinions, etc. by asking good questions. However, people will be put off if their answers aren’t really being listened to. Worse yet they’ll be angry or hurt if they feel they aren’t being heard and understood.

We’ve seen far too many instances where salespeople have committed a major mistake by interrupting others in the middle of their sentences or thoughts. Resist the temptation to jump in even if you have some wonderful pearls of wisdom to share and enlighten them with. They’ll be offended you cut them off with “I know what you mean…” and your words will only fall on deaf ears anyway.

If people usually do make emotional buying decisions and then support them with logic, how well they perceive a salesperson listens will affect their decision to buy or not. Go back and take a few minutes to look through the last few paragraphs. We’ve been addressing things that involve emotions. Avoid the pitfalls the average sales person falls into.

So in selling your self, sound advice is to first listen to a prospective customer. Let their initial emotional feelings about the process be positive toward you. Nothing will get their emotions involved faster, one way or the other, than how well the prospect perceives you’re listening to what they have to say.

To be an outstanding listener, a sales person must most definitely possess strong self- discipline. Why is this so? The average individual only speaks at a rate of one hundred and twenty five to one hundred and fifty words per minute. On the average we can listen at a rate that’s up to four times faster than that: five hundred to six hundred words per minute! The bottom line is that you have two thirds of your listening time free or available to you to let your mind wander to think about other things. Sales professionals have to consistently be on their guard to concentrate on the prospect or customer so they stay focused. The sender of the verbal message draws conclusions as to whether or not you’ve drifted off on other things. We have to have the strength of character to maintain our focus when listening.

You can be quite confident that if you follow this advice you’ll find the prospective customer will provide you the information you need to be of greatest service to them. If you’ve invested the majority of the time initially trying to understand the thoughts, problems, opportunities, goals, issues and needs of the prospect you’ll see a return on that investment. That person will be more receptive to your ideas and solutions that will help them get what they want.

When they compare your presentation to another sales person they may well be evaluating both but emotionally they’ll be empathizing with you. They’ll be more receptive and appreciative of your proposals because of first having made an emotional decision to “buy you”. They know you understand the situation and believe you genuinely care more about assisting them then other sales people who just talk too much.

And, by the way, they’re probably right.

If this is all too complicated then AVOID:

• Being too judgmental.
• Explaining too early or too often.
  
• Interrupting.
• Sounding or appearing challenging, hostile or insincere.
  

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Jack Cullen is a co-founder of CRKInteractive, a US-based provider of cutting-edge performance development programs for over 20 years. Northbound Learning has an exclusive Canadian partnership with CRK.

New Years Isn’t the Only Time to Set Goals

By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Learning   

Tom, our fictitious and ambitious sales professional sees the new year coming down the track at breakneck speed. What activity does he make part of the season? Finding the best party to go to? Taking in the crazy Boxing Day sales at Electronic World? Yes and yes but Tom also views the dawning of the new block of twelve months as an opportunity to set down some fresh goals, sometimes referred to as New Years resolutions. And that’s great. Having goals always brings greater results than without, but if Tom could embrace some of the key components of achieving goals, he’ll be a lot happier next New Years.

The sad truth is that while 20% of the general population set written goals, only 5% reach them. Poor Tom, like most, do their goal setting and review only once a year—not nearly enough. In fact, most don’t even bother to do a review of last year’s goals leading to a repeat of the same unsuccessful strategy. To increase his odds of reaching his goals, he should be reviewing them monthly and the important ones weekly. Here are some of the other steps needed for goal fulfillment . . .

Effective goal management needs to be S.M.A.R.T. That is:

SPECIFIC: the more specific, the better. Saying, “I’d like to sell more this year,” isn’t good enough. How many more sales exactly? At what margin?

MEASURABLE: as the saying goes, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” You need to know if you’re winning or losing and you can’t tell if you’re not keeping score. It’s best to have major goals broken down into mini-goals that you can measure along the way.

ACTIONABLE: Hope doesn’t cut it. You need to have a massive action plan designed. And you need to be ready to change. How many more calls am I going to do each month, each week, each day? Are they scheduled in your agenda? Are you planning on increasing your selling skills? How? When?

REALISTIC: Goals need to be a delicate balance between too hard and too easy. Too hard and you’ll give up when you see it being out of reach. Too easy and you’ll feel like you haven’t really accomplished anything. R also stands for REVIEW. Reviewing your progress along the way allows you to adjust your tactics accordingly.

TIME PHASED: If there is no time frame, there is no goal. Would you really be happy if you increased your sales in your last year before retirement? Of course not. Attach dates to everything. Pull out your goals regularly and “keep your eye on the prize”. Don’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed by some of the uncomfortable steps along the way. Keep your focus on how amazing you’re going to feel when you’ve reached your objective.

A great thing about training and developing sales teams is that I get to work with salespeople who, by nature, are goal oriented and high achievers. If you would like to learn more about improving your skills in reaching goals, Northbound Learning offers “Bulls Eye! Setting and Reaching Your Goals,” a workshop dedicated to helping sales professionals get what they want out of their career and their life. To download our Goal Planning Worksheet, click here.

The Best Times to Call a Prospect

By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Learning   

I’m often asked “Is there a good time to call prospects?” The quick answer is that any time is a good time as opposed to not making a call at all. As obvious and somewhat sarcastic as that sounds, the biggest challenge most of us have is not making enough calls and I always recommend that the first focus should be on picking up the phone more often. After that, there definitely are times of the day when the chances of connecting to a prospect is higher than others.

A study at M.I.T. attempted to answer this question and although it was based on looking at connecting rates with prospects after they submitted website enquiries, I believe the conclusions extend to typical business-to-business calls as well. What they found was that the beginning and the end of the day delivered greater success. The time block with the greatest chance of connecting to a customer was between 4 & 6 p.m. with the block from 8 to 10 a.m. coming in at a close second. Important decision makers are most often at their desks at these times while their gatekeepers are often not. Before blocking out the 2 hour slot of 4 to 6 p.m. on your agendas, there are some other considerations:

1. How many hours of outbound prospecting activity do you need to hit your sales targets? If you don’t know, find out by doing a funnel analysis. If you don’t know how to do a funnel analysis, join us on our next Power Prospecting free webinar to learn how. Again, the most important point is to make sure that you have enough time set aside to make your minimum number of prospecting actions a reality.

2. When are you best able to make calls? For most people, making calls between 4 & 6 p.m. just isn’t practical. We all have lives outside of our sales role and late afternoon calls just don’t fit sometimes. For this reason, I recommend that calls be made first thing in the morning. Additionally, we are freshest and most energetic in the morning — important when wanting to sound your best. Psychologically, it can be very motivating to get this somewhat unpleasant task off your plate and move on to the rest of your day.

The best days for calling? The study shows that Tuesday to Thursday are the ones to shoot for if you have that option. If you can’t get the required number of calls made on those days only, however, you may need to include Monday and Fridays.

Using these guidelines, you can increase your contact rates but I strongly caution you to keep one thing in mind: A call made on a Monday after lunch is still better than the call that you intend to make on Thursday morning but don’t get around to!

The power of a testimonial letter

By Len D’Innocenzo and Jack Cullen, Authors of, The Agile Manager’s Guide to Customer Focused Selling   

One of the problems we hear most often at our sales seminars is, “How can I prove how good I am to someone who doesn’t know me?” This is a real obstacle when approaching an account you never have sold to.

The power of a testimonial letter can be an excellent solution. A testimonial letter is a written communication from a customer that talks about the value added benefits your company and you provide. It is tangible, written evidence that says you are not just another sales rep trying to make a pitch. It allows you the opportunity to showcase the specific reasons you are different from your competition. Testimonials enable the smart sales rep to cement relationship with the author of the letter.

I’m sure most of you have been asked to give a reference or two when you applied for a new job. What was the purpose of providing a reference? Obviously, to show your new boss that you are as good as you said you were. You provide a personal reference to vouch for your competence and to attest to your qualifications. Most employers require at least three professional references and one personal reference before you can start working.

Doesn’t it make sense that a new sales organization should also provide references to a prospective customer? Why should a prospect spend money with you if you can’t prove it? Sales people can greatly increase their effectiveness by asking for and using testimonial letters. An example of the type of services you have provided and the benefits received by your customer will increase your credibility.

How to get one

How do you get testimonial letters? First of all, you need to have a base of customers that are satisfied with the products and support you and your firm deliver. These accounts must be living, breathing references to your value added service.

Who are your best customers? How many have you serviced that are really satisfied with your work? Everyone that has been in sales for a year or more should have at least one or two. If they haven’t sent you an unsolicited letter of thanks, solicit one on your own!

Yes, call them up and ask them to send you a letter that talks about why you are different. A letter that says you helped them save money, time or anything else of value. A letter that says you helped them increase or improve efficiency, throughput, control or anything else of value.

Why mention you helped them save, increase or improve? Because that is how a benefit is described. Benefits help people save, reduce, control and decrease costs or expenses. Benefits help people increase, improve, enhance or gain money, efficiency or time.

People want to know what’s in it for them when you approach them. A good testimonial letter will help you to tell your story. It also will show that you know something about a specific market, industry or business.

How to get verbal into written

How many times have you heard a customer say, “This system is great! We’re able to use your system to cut our order processing time.” Or, “Your system has saved us a lot of time and money! We love our new system! We’re very pleased with your service and support. You really saved our butt!”

If you’ve only heard it, if you delivered what you promised to a customer, ask for a letter. The more you do for an account, the stronger your relationship should be. If you have a strong relationship, capitalize on it. Get a letter that says you deliver what you promise, (not everyone does), that you’re good and your company is good (not everyone is), that you help people save money or time and that you are someone that. people should talk to! These are powerful words that you deserve and that you can use!

If your customers love you but have not had the time to write you a testimonial letter, write it for them. Yes, you write your own testimonial letter. Type up a “draft” for their review and approval. Ask them if this letter is a fair statement of what you’ve done for them. If they want to make any changes they can. If they change it at all, they will usually make your letter even stronger. Most of the time they just type it on their letterhead and sign it. It is that easy.

Don’t wait for that extra special person who goes above and beyond and sends you a letter unsolicited. Take control of your own destiny and draft your own testimonial. Besides, when you do it, you can say what you want to say. When they do it, you never know if the right message comes through.

Make this idea a reality. Give yourself a deadline before this month ends, and get a letter from your best accounts. When you get one, share it with your associates. Any sales manager reading this article should collect testimonials from each sales rep. Make copies and pass them around to every rep. A testimonial from one customer can be used for almost any prospect.

How to use one

What can you use testimonial letters for? Lots of things. Use them for approaching new accounts. If you did a good job for one business in your area, let other businesses know about it. Send a copy of a good testimonial letter to the same level (or higher) at another company. It doesn’t even have to be the same industry. The point is that you and your company are good. You can deliver what you promise. Someone also has checked you out.

You can also use testimonial letters with your proposals. Put them at the end to serve as proof that you are worth the investment. Encourage your prospects to call and check your references. Make sure you call, before they do. There is nothing more damaging than providing a bad reference on yourself A testimonial letter will also improve self esteem. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing your name in a letter from a happy customer. Well, I’ll admit it would be more satisfying to see your name in a letter that came in unsolicited but who can wait for things to just happen? Make things happen!

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Len D’Innocenzo & Jack Cullen are the co-founders of CRKInteractive, a US-based provider of cutting edge performance development programs for over 20 years. Northbound Learning has an exclusive Canadian partnership with CRK.

Six strategies to negotiating successful sales

By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Learning   

Contrary to what some think, negotiating isn’t something that only takes place at the end of the selling process. We are actually negotiating and laying the groundwork for further negotiations throughout the sale. When the customer has agreed that your solution fits with their needs but there is not agreement on variables such as delivery, terms and, of course price, good negotiating skills will bring the sale to successful completion. Here are six essentials:

Plan: Never go into a negotiation without a plan. Do your homework. What do you know about the individual you are negotiating with? What is their personality style? How can you adjust your style to be more effective with them? What information do you want to disclose or keep confidential? What is the time frame for this negotiation? Go through some of the other points below and write this information down.

Have a collaboration mindset: Most negotiations involve parties with which you want to have a long term, mutually profitable relationship with. You will only be able to protect and nurture this relationship if an agreement is reached that is truly win win. Enter the negotiation with this in mind and test the commitment of the other party to a win win, collaborative solution. If both parties agree that an agreement will be easier to reach if creativity, openness and collaboration prevail, the negotiation will have a much greater chance of delivering a successful deal.

Make a concession list: Make a list of all the things that you could give up and all the things they could give up. Then put two columns beside each, one for cost and the for value. By doing this, you will be better able to give up concessions that cost you little (but have high value to the customer) while accepting concessions in return that have high value to you. Click here to download a free Concession Planner from our Win Win Negotiations program.

Uncover goals: Make a list of goals from your point of view and the other party’s point of view. These should include objective and subjective goals along with business and personal. If you’re not sure of some of the goals of the other party, make an educated guess for now and attempt to confirm them during the negotiation.

Don’t counter immediately: when an offer is made, resist the urge to make a counter offer immediately. A person’s resistance to another person’s idea is the greatest immediately after they’ve given their own. Instead, explore it with the other party. Ask questions like, “Why do you think this might make sense for both of us? How exactly would that work in this area?” Probe for this solution meeting the win win criteria and show that you are truly considering it. If it doesn’t meet win win, state why it doesn’t work and then slowly come back by saying something like, “Something such as (terms) might work because . . .”

Know your walk away point: The goal of the negotiation is not just to produce an agreement. It’s to produce an agreement that works for both parties and protects the relationship. Know what the minimum terms are for you to accept an agreement. Understand that no agreement might be the best alternative. We call this your “BATNA” or the Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. By knowing your BATNA, you will prevent being driven into a deal that works for the customer but not for you.

Click here to learn more about Northbound’s Win2Win Negotiations program

Add simple marketing prior to your prospecting calls and watch your results soar

By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Learning   

Would you like a simple, inexpensive way to increase the number of meetings booked from your prospecting call efforts by 50% or more? I know—that’s like asking if you’d like to pay less in taxes. Of course!

The secret is to get a “marketing letter” into your prospect’s hands prior to your first phone call. While this sounds incredibly simple, it’s rarely done and will raise your prospecting success dramatically. There are several reasons why this works far better than making your first point of contact a phone call by itself:

It gives you a better opportunity to create your C.B.R. (Compelling Business Reason). You must build a case for your prospect to give you a few minutes of their precious and limited time. A carefully written letter will lay the groundwork of reasons for your prospect to engage in a conversation with you when you connect by voice. Your letter should include the 3 major benefits you may be able to bring to their organization, a quantifiable testimonial of results from other customers and a request to have a brief conversation. When your prospect has time to consider what the benefits of the conversation might be in advance, your chances of engaging them when you call will jump.

It allows you to schedule the call. The biggest dislike of people on the receiving end of a prospecting call is that it interrupts whatever they were working on. One way of minimizing this frustration is to let them know in your letter what day and time you’re going to be calling. Something like, “I’ll call you on Tuesday, February 9 at 9:15 to get a better understanding of some of your goals and challenges.” Allow them the opportunity to choose a time that works better for them if necessary. “If this date or time doesn’t work, could you kindly leave a message with a better one?” This shows that you respect their time. I recently used this letter technique with a billion dollar IT company. I sent my letter to the C.E.O. and on the precise day and time noted in the marketing letter, I called. After a couple of rings, I was greeted with, “Good Morning Michael. I was expecting your call.” Although this kind of response is not common, what is very common with sales reps who adopt this system is that by the time they connect with the prospect, he or she is far more receptive than if a call were made without the marketing letter.

It’s best to send a letter by snail mail. I can hear the groans already. “Snail mail? We live in an instant message world. Why would I ever resort to communication technology that’s in the Dark Ages?” Because electronic communication is so prevalent today, receiving something by regular mail is in fact more impactful. Additionally, email addresses are often difficult to get while mailing addresses are easily available. It also gives you the opportunity to enclose something of value such as a ad specialty or as simple as a coffee card. You will be amazed at how many prospects will remember you and your letter at the time of the call because of an inexpensive token. If you do your math to determine your R.O.I., you’ll see that spending a little time and money on strategic marketing to your prospects pays huge dividends.

Dealing With Difficult People

By Len D’Innocenzo, CEO, CRKInteractive

Unless you work on a deserted island, dealing with people is a fact of life. The better you are at it, the easier it will be to get along—on and off the job.

No matter how even tempered you are, you probably know one or two people whose behavior put your good nature to the test. If these people happen to be colleagues, superiors, subordinates or customers and clients with whom you must deal on a daily basis, your ability to handle them will be critical to your success.

Dealing with difficult people begins with identifying and naming the behaviors that trigger a strong reaction in you. The more you learn about difficult people, the better you understand and deal with them. Even if you don't end up liking a person, getting to know him or her can lessen the feelings of tension. Understanding where they're coming from and what makes them tick is an excellent way of dealing with difficult people.
Lets examine two types of difficult people that you will have to deal with in your career. While some of the situations may not have happened to you personally, we know that they do occur. Reviewing each of these fictitious difficult people will prepare you for the real encounter.

Barry the Backstabber

Barry the Backstabber is someone who betrays your trust, and such a person can be deadly to your career or your success with a client project. Whether his motives stem from insecurity or ruthless ambition, Barry the Backstabber stands ready, and willing to make you look bad.

Unfortunately, Barry the Backstabber may not always be easy to identify, unless he already has a reputation. But there are clues that should make you wary. Is Barry the Backstabber someone you've never been close to, but all of a sudden he is pouring on the charm trying to be your best friend? Is he asking you a lot of personal questions? Have you heard through the grapevine that he is trying to find out about you through others? These are signs that Barry the Backstabber is gathering intelligence—possibly to use against you.

Dealing with Barry The Backstabber A good rule of thumb is to be especially careful about what you say to people when you first meet. The trick is to be friendly and cordial without spilling your guts and revealing your innermost feelings to people you really don't know yet.

To Barry the Backstabber, even an innocent comment like "I'd like to live in Chicago someday" could be used to try to make people believe that you are uncommitted to the company and planning to move away. Barry the Backstabber may be trying to climb the corporate ladder, and if he perceives you as a threat he'll seize any opportunity to discredit you.

No matter how good a judge of character or sincerity you think you are, the best defense against Barry the Backstabber is not to say too much. Avoid revealing your career or family plans, personal problems, gripes, or pet peeves to anybody in your office.

Society may be learning to be more tolerant these days, but that doesn't mean your company or client has. Remember TMI—Too Much Information—can be harmful to you.

If Barry the Backstabber is a client you need to be especially careful about what you say. Barry has his own agenda and may have it in for you or your company. He may be looking to find a way slow down your project. Even worse, he may be trying to sabotage the project altogether. A good rule of thumb is remind Barry the Backstabber that your there to do a job for his company. You're working for them.

Mike the Manipulator

Mike the Manipulator gets others to do his job for them through trickery, charm, or by eliciting sympathy. And the slickest part is that you won't realize you've been conned into doing his job or anything else he wants until it's too late.

Mike the Manipulator starts by engaging you in friendly, casual conversation. As an afterthought, he says, "By the way, could you do me a favor?" or "I wonder if you could help me out with something. I'm really tied up with a project and you're so good at writing letters (or organization, or filing, or research, or whatever the necessary task he wants you to do for him happens to be)."

This smooth talker may conceal his request as an opportunity for you to take on more responsibility and show what you can do. Not that he plans to give you any credit for doing his work.

Another maneuver might be to tell you how swamped he is and, wouldn't it be great if someone would help him finish this project so he could leave the office and have dinner with his family for a change.

Dealing with Mike the Manipulator Mike the Manipulator's goal is for others to do his job. What do you say in response to his tricky maneuvers? Some possible replies:

1. I'd be glad to help you, but I'll have to check with my boss first. He has me on an important project
2. I'd love to help, but I'm straight out today, myself. If I get some free time, I'll let you know. But it looks like I'll be working late tonight like you!
3. I'm willing to help you tonight if you can stay late tomorrow and help me.

Since Mike the Manipulator's goal is to get something for nothing, he'll probably steer clear of you in the future. If he is truly sincere (and everyone will need help at some time) then this last approach will let you know he is willing to help you in return.

If Mike the Manipulator is a client, watch out for nibbling during a negotiation or extra items outside of the scope of work. Mike is famous for requesting just "one more thing" he needs to make a deal happen. He's looking for something extra and usually doesn't want to pay anything for it. Refer Mike back to the statement of work or to company policy. If nibbling is one of Mike's negotiating tactics—don't make a concession without getting something in return. You want to negotiate with a win-win strategy.

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Len D’Innocenzo is a co-founder of CRKInteractive, a US-based provider of cutting-edge performance development programs for over 20 years. Northbound Learning has an exclusive Canadian partnership with CRK.

How to Leave Voicemail Messages That Resonate with Prospects

By Sian Henderson
Program Delivery Director, Northbound Learning

As frustrating as voicemail is when making chase calls to prospects, it’s the norm and unfortunately, there is an inverse relationship between the size of a company and the ability to connect in person. That is, the bigger and more attractive the prospect company, the lower the chance of your prospect picking up the phone. Like everything else in the prospecting process, you should measure your results in this area. The number of contact attempts divided by the number of connections with your prospect is called “contact ratio.” Sales reps that I’ve worked with report contact ratios on the high end of 30% and a mere 2% on the low. With voicemail confronting you so often, how can you increase your chances of being called back? Here are 6 common mistakes to stay away from:

1) You don’t actually leave a message

I had to get this out of the way because I still run into some salespeople who have been trained (poorly albeit) to “never leave a message”. This makes no sense. Why would you give up the opportunity to get your valuable message into your customer’s ear? I actually prefer to get voicemail on the first attempt. Why? Because it paves the way for my next call. It gives the prospect the purpose of my call and what’s potentially in it for him to have a conversation with me rather than just catching him off guard. Think about it. When you are interrupted from doing something by an incoming sales call, what’s the quickest and easiest way to get back to what you were doing? That’s right—by saying no. Have you ever quickly said “No thanks” to a telemarketer or a door canvaser and then thought later, “Hmm. I might have been interested in looking into that actually.” Even if it may be something you might be interested in buying, the natural knee jerk reaction is to say no. By having your prospect listen to a well crafted voicemail prior to speaking with you, it can prevent the knee jerk reaction.

2) You don’t have a Compelling Business Reason (CBR)

There must be a reason and perceived benefit for the listener to take time out of their busy day to have a conversation with you. Too many salespeople position the voicemail around how great they or their company is instead of what might be in it for the prospect to call you.

3) You ask for too much

Your first goal in a chase call or voicemail should be to have a two-way conversation. Salespeople shouldn’t ask for a meeting without having first established G.A.S.—that is, value that they may be able to Gain for the prospect, future issues they may help them Avoid or current problems that they might help them Solve. A voicemail should be requesting a very low commitment—a brief conversation to see if there might be a fit between some challenges the prospect has and your company’s capabilities for instance.

4) You “wing it”

Some salespeople are against using a phone script. Common reasons are, “It sounds so fake”, “You can’t predict what the prospect is going to say”, or my personal favorite, “I like to mix it up so I sound fresh”. Unfortunately, these same people have little success in booking appointments and after listening to them in the field, it’s easy to see why. Their voicemails are all over the map: convoluted, weak and generally pointless in nature. Yes, some people sound like they are reading when they use a script but only because they haven’t put the time in to practice it until it sounds natural. I do a little bit of amateur acting and on the first read-through of our scripts, it’s terrible. I sound 100% like I’m reading and I am! After rehearsing my lines hundreds of times over, however, it becomes a different story on opening night. A high priced Hollywood actor would never ask to roll the cameras until they know their lines down pat and neither should you.

5) You leave too much time in between voicemails

If you call your prospects once every few weeks, it’s easy to become forgotten. On the other hand, if you only leave a couple of days in between your calls to a prospect, you will be forefront and they will feel more compelled to respond. At the end of each voicemail you should say something like, “If I don’t hear back from you by say, end of day tomorrow, I’ll try you again at 10:15 on Thursday.” Your prospects will get the idea very quickly that you’re not going to be giving up anytime soon. Strike a reasonable balance between being persistent and pesky.

6) You act too submissive

If you act like a lesser business person begging for the prospect’s consideration, you have reduced yourself and the prospect can lose respect for you. You are one business person requesting to speak to another business person to see if there may be a mutual benefit of working together. Approach the call from an Equal Business Footing (E.B.F.) perspective. Picture how you might speak to another person you meet in a park while walking your dogs together. You wouldn’t be pushy or threatening. That’s how you should think of your prospect when you’re leaving a voicemail. If you sound relaxed, confident, open and honest, your prospect will be much more likely to want to speak with you.

4 Reasons Why We Don’t Set Goals

By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Learning

I'm not going to tell you in this article that you should be setting goals. If you’re a reader of sales-enhancing literature, you’ve surely read lots on the power of goal setting. If you consistently set written, realistic goals with all the other necessary components for goal success, then read no further. If, however, you are one of the 95% of the population who doesn’t, continue reading.

A powerful question then becomes, “If goal setting is so great, why do only 1 in 20 of us do it?” I don’t know what the statistics say for the number of us who exercise, but I suspect they are similar. Both are activities that undoubtedly produce immense benefits yet seem to elude the average person. There are 4 main reasons why we don’t.

1—Fear of Failure

The dreaded F.O.F. Many of us are stopped by the thought that, “If I set a goal and miss it, I will feel like a failure.” What is not understood is that having a goal always gets better performance than not—even if the goal is missed. What’s key is the need for goals to strike a balance between being too hard and too easy. If you’re hitting your goals all the time, it means that it’s time to raise the bar. You need to be challenged more to sustain growth and generate that feeling of accomplishment that salespeople thrive on. If, on the other hand, you are consistently missing your goals and all the other components of good goal setting are present, it’s important to reduce your goals to something more realistic. If your goals are simply too out of range, you will give up and they will no longer provide the power to motivate.

Also, what people who fear failure might not realize is that failure is necessary for growth. Knowing what not to do next time can be very valuable. Winston Churchill said, “I would rather fail my way to success rather than be a successful failure”. Failing can be the greatest learning experience.

2—Procrastination

To misquote Alexander the Great, “Why do something today that you can put off until tomorrow?” The art of procrastination is worthy of an article of it’s own (Want to Stop Procrastinating . . . Read This Now!) Setting goals, while incredibly powerful, isn’t something that has the urgency of other countless day-to-day tasks crying out for attention. Disappointingly, like other important but low urgency life enriching activities like exercise, learning and family, we put goal setting in the “when I have time” category.

3—“I’ve done OK without them”

If you’re satisfied with a just “O.K.” life, then this is a perfectly good excuse.

4—“I keep them in my head”

When teaching our “Bulls Eye!” goal setting workshop, I often hear this one. My immediate response is a query on the individual’s goals in key areas. The typical responses are some vague generalities with no time frame, no plan and most importantly no answer as to “why?” For the immense power of goal setting to be released, they must be taken out of your head and written down. The mere act of putting something in writing solidifies your brain’s ability to focus.

Your homework: Get yourself in a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted. Write down the biggest sales failure in your career to date. What were the negative outcomes? What were the positive outcomes? (yes, you will find some if you look hard enough) Lastly, what did you learn?

An M.I.T. study found that the 3% of a graduating class who had set clear, written career goals upon finishing school, had cumulative net worth 20 years later greater than the entire other 97% combined!.

With a little bit of effort and discipline to avoid the classic goal setting obstacles noted above, you too can turn your dreams into reality.

Coach to win . . . don’t just tell ’em, show ’em!

By Len D’Innocenzo, CEO, CRKInteractive   

The coaching process is more than a hypothetical run-through of possible scenarios. Ideally, it takes place all the time: in the field, after calls, and during periods of tough selling. The manager who is a good coach gets into the game and models the performance expected of the sales team.

Suggest the change

Regardless of the experience level of your salespeople, coach all of them all the time. Curbside coaching after a sales call can have great impact. Done properly, such coaching is a great time to help new salespeople develop skills relevant to your market and product, and a good time to review methods with intermediate and senior people.

Begin by asking for the salesperson’s reaction to the call. Did he accomplish his objectives? What does he think went well? Where does he feel he had a problem? What would he have done differently? What was the result of the call?

No matter how the call ended, try to sincerely compliment the salesperson. This can be difficult when the call went poorly, but a compliment opens the door to improvement. Look for the good points first. If the salesperson did a good job of establishing rapport, let him know that. If you thought he opened the call well, tell him. If he moved the sales cycle forward, congratulate him for doing his job.

During the call, be sure to observe your salesperson’s performance so that you can make a recommendation or two that will help. We suggest limiting your recommendations so that you don’t overwhelm the salesperson.

For example, if you thought your salesperson didn’t ask enough questions, you might say “good questions are important, but a few more open-ended questions would have provided a better understanding of the prospect's needs. I like to write down four or five good questions before a new call so I remember to ask them.”

A few of my standard questions are:

1. Why do you think your best customers do business with you?
2. What are your greatest challenges for this year?
3. What are your growth plans for the coming twelve months?

Explain how a the change in approach will help on calls. The salesperson should see the benefit to changing what he has been doing. You might say “on an initial call, good questions allow the prospect to do most of the talking. When the prospect talks more than you do, you can listen for problem areas, goals and needs. When you do most of the talking you won’t uncover the prospect’s goals and needs, and this prolongs the sales cycle.”

You can also ask for the salesperson’s input. You don’t have to provide all the answers. Let the salesperson come up with some.

Model the method

The most common ways to model a desired improvement include role-playing and observing the manager in action. Role-playing can be very effective either one on one with the salesperson or at a sales meeting with your other salespeople. Some hints for successful role-playing:

1. Talk over the desired method first.
2. Let the salesperson play the prospect.
3. The manager plays the salesperson.
4. Role-play the last sales call.
5. Demonstrate the improved skill for the salesperson.
6. Debrief after the role-play for the salesperson’s feedback.

Sales managers can also demonstrate a sales technique for the salesperson right in front of the customer or prospect. This is called “jumping in” and can occur when the manager feels the salesperson has missed something important or is in trouble.

Although there may be benefits to this approach, managers should avoid jumping in at the first sign of trouble. It deflates the salesperson’s ego and doesn’t allow the manager to see how the salesperson handles trouble.

To demonstrate a specific sales skill or technique on a sales call:

1. Talk over the desired method first.
2. Plan the objectives of the sales call with the salesperson.
3. Model the desired method for the salesperson with the customer or prospect.

Seasoned veterans like this approach because it occurs in real time. But it can be risky if the call doesn’t go well. When it does go well, the manager looks very good. So, choose the right situation and go for it.

After you role-play the desired method, ask the salesperson to try it. After you leave a call where you modeled or jumped in, debrief the salesperson on the method you’ve just demonstrated. Analyze the sales call immediately after leaving.

An ongoing process

Working with salespeople regularly allows you to help them master specific techniques. Always make positive performance evaluations before recommending improvements.

Encourage new salespeople to experiment with you in “safe” role-play environments. Allow your new and experienced salespeople to team up by observing you in action. Don’t assume your senior salespeople have mastered all the important sales skills. Even your best salespeople will appreciate your coaching on key account strategies and strategic planning.

To become a better coach for your sales team, ask yourself the following reflective questions on your way home at the end of the day:

1. What did I do today to help my people?
2. What did I do today to improve the performance of my people?
3. What did I do today to lead my people by example?

If you can list productive answers to each of these questions, you are doing your part as their sales leader, and you will earn their respect.


You do not lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership.

— DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

Ten coaching tips

1. Coach all your people all the time: top performers, those in the middle, and those at the bottom.
2. Coach each person at least once a month.
3. Coach at the peaks, the valleys, and in the middle.
4. Don’t wait until sales are down—your people may resist.
5. Avoid jumping in at the first sign of trouble on a sales call, but don’t let your people drown either.
6. Find something positive in every sales call you make with your sales people.
7. Have them analyze the sales call first—what they liked best and least.
8. Ask them what would have made the sales call more productive.
9. Recommend and model a preferred sales method.
10. Continue coaching and practice, practice, practice! Role-play different situations, one-on-one and in group settings.

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Len D’Innocenzo is a co-founder of CRKInteractive, a US-based provider of cutting-edge performance development programs for over 20 years. Northbound Learning has an exclusive Canadian partnership with CRK.

Never give up! . . . unless you should.

By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Learning   

We’ve heard them for years, the so called mantras of sales professionals:

• Never give up!
• The only sale you’re sure not to get is the one you quit trying for!
• Persistence pays off!

For most of the salespeople I’ve worked with, however, there is a clear tendency to give up too quickly. And yet, there is a point when giving up on a sale is the most logical and productive thing to do. Let’s examine when it’s best to keep your foot on the gas and when it’s time to apply the brakes.

When to keep going

Research has revealed some startling facts about the number of interactions or “touches” required to make the average sale. A recent M.I.T. study shows that 80% of sales are made after five or more interactions, where an interaction is any action that leads to some sort of connection with the prospect, even it’s one-way. It could be a phone call, an email or a meeting, for instance. The sad fact is that most salespeople give up after a mere two interactions, and it doesn’t take a PhD in math to see that these stats don’t often lead to success. So, why do salespeople often give up after only one or two “chase” attempts? Some of more common reasons I see are:

1. We figure that if the customer was interested, they’d call us back. Wrong! As much as we love to believe that customers place the decision of whether to buy our product or service as a top priority, it isn’t. Customers have dozens of other priorities that, in their eyes, are far more urgent. Unfortunately, there seems to be an acceptance in business these days that it’s okay for customers not to return phone calls to salespeople. It may be bad business form, but it seems to be a fact we need to accept. Your job is to help increase the sense of urgency of solving a problem through your product or service, and you most certainly can’t do it by waiting for the customer to get around to it.
2. We don’t want to appear too “pushy.” There is that fine line between being persistent and being pesky, but most salespeople are far to the left of this line. Personally, I am very tenacious in my chase calls and space them no more than three days apart. In the thousands of calls I’ve made, I can count on one hand the number of times I have had someone say anything to the effect of “Please stop calling me!” When the prospect and I finally do connect, I’m most often met with something like, “Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you” or “I respect your persistence.” In my books, unless you get some strong push-back on a regular basis, you’re not being persistent enough.
3. We let other things get in the way. Let’s face it, you don’t have to call that prospect today,nothing terribly is going to happen immediately; and because of this, we let the follow-up calls slide . . . and slide . . . and slide. After a while, we feel even less motivated to contact them because it’s been so long. That’s why I recommend that in all follow-up communication, you make it clear to the prospect when you will next attempt to contact them. Something like, “Today’s Tuesday, and if I don’t hear back from you, I’ll give you another try on Thursday morning at 10:00.” This does a few things: it lets the prospect know that you’re not going to be giving up any time soon; it forces you to schedule the call, increasing the chance of it getting done; and finally, it prepares the prospect for the call instead of catching him off guard. When prospects are caught off guard, the quick, knee-jerk reaction is to say “no thanks.”

When to move on

Yes, those words that are hard for us to say “I give up.” Seems crazy to some, but good funnel management must include regular purging to ensure that you are spending your valuable (and finite) time where it’s going to get you the best R.O.T.I.—Return On Time Invested. Some factors to help you make the decision to let go are:

1. The size of the sale. Bigger deals will naturally take more time. Not only is it usually harder to connect with decision makers, but there are often multiple decision makers and influencers as well. When you’re going “whale fishing,” always be asking yourself how many smaller deals you could close in the same amount of time. Sometimes the allure of a whale may prevent you from thinking logically!
2. The fit. Based on your intelligence gathering and research, does it appear that there is a strong potential fit between the prospect and your company’s offerings? The more “fuzzy” the fit, the lower they should be on your priority list.
3. When you’ve had absolutely no response after a wave of contact attempts. At Northbound, we recommend that chase attempts are done in a “wave,” meaning that you use multiple contact tactics (phone, email, snail mail, fax, drop-ins) over a short period of time. There is no doubt that the number of calls required to connect with someone has increased over the last few years—today, it is frequently more than seven, but if you’ve had no response whatsoever after leaving several voice messages, the first thing to do is to mix up your media. Try e-mail, if you can, faxes, even hand-written notes; but after a good effort, you need to ask yourself “are there bigger fish to fry out there?” The answer will often be yes, so put the prospect on a drip campaign of loose contact and move your wave to a more rewarding prospect, possibly even the competitor of the prospect who wouldn’t call you back!

Relentless tenacity is generally the hallmark of successful salespeople—of success in most endeavors. But we have to be vigilant in balancing this persistence with smart funnel management. Giving up on a prospect is not a sign of failure, but rather, it could be a sign of high intelligence!

Want to stop procrastinating? . . . Read this now!

By Michael Caron, President, Northbound Learning   

Congratulations for reading this and not putting it off! Procrastination has been appropriately called the “silent killer of careers,” yet few people have ever had formal training on how to overcome this immensely costly habit. While managing this problem is a constant challenge to me, I have learned some strategies over the years that have worked very well.

Urgency versus importance. The first step in overcoming procrastination is to understand that by definition, urgent activities are usually done before non-urgent. On the surface, this seems to make sense until you take into account the additional factor of importance. In Northbound’s Goal Aligned Time™ program, however, we train people to place every activity in their personal and business life on a quadrant with these two variables before they decide what to put on their plan. Important tasks are often not urgent and so get pushed off the agenda. Unfortunately these are also frequently “growth” activities such as prospecting and skills development, on the career side, and exercise and building stronger relationships on the personal side. Have the discipline to schedule these activities so they get done and start saying “no” to low value, urgent activities that are screaming for your attention.

The 15-minute strategy. Psychologist David Burns recommends simply making a promise with yourself that you will give some task you’ve been putting off just 15 minutes of effort. His point is that we often become overwhelmed by the sheer size of a task and talk ourselves out of it. We might tell ourselves “it’s going to take so-o-o-o long” or “it’s too big to do now, I’ll leave it until I can really focus on it.” Instead, talk back and say “okay, I’ll give it just 15 minutes and then I can stop.” How hard can 15 minutes of anything be? Once you get started, you will have broken that psychological barrier. Most often, you’ll find that it’s not nearly as hard as you thought it was going to be, and you’ll either keep going or not fear it so much next time.

Think of the end result. Instead of thinking of how difficult the process may be to accomplish something, think rather of the end result and all the great things that it will mean to you. Turn thoughts of “I hate cold calling, it’s not much fun” into “if I make two hours of calls, I’ll probably book one meeting, I usually close one out of two meetings, so I’m 50% towards a sale if I make some calls!” Once your brain clearly connects the doing of a task with the major benefits of doing so, you will be unstoppable!

Five reasons why you can’t afford to procrastinate on CRM!

By James Carter, President, Path Marketing, Inc.   

1. Leads cost money, and your team is probably dropping more than you think! According to a major study of top US firms conducted by CSO Insights, over 50% of leads are not properly followed up, and only 20% of all leads are actually followed up in the recommended fashion!

2. Do more with your existing database! The existing database is the single most neglected asset in most small to medium enterprises! It costs 500% more to get a net new customer than it does to nurture and up-sell or cross-sell an existing one. But for some reason everyone is addicted to the “what’s new” dogma! What’s new is right in front of you, assuming you have a CRM system from which you can effectively mine and execute marketing campaigns.

A second part to this is re-engaging leads. Without a coordinated marketing database, leads that are not qualified are generally discarded. Studies have shown that over 50% of disqualified leads may just not be willing to purchase today, but could result in a sale eventually if you make the effort to keep your brand in front of them. In this way, a CRM database can be a two-way bridge between sales and marketing efforts, ensuring that leads that are not immediately sales-ready are still being nurtured with e-mail newsletters and relevant information.

3. Accurate reporting and better coaching Okay, that’s more than one reason, but a well implemented CRM system can not only deliver reports in real time and tell you where things are, it can also be set-up to reinforce best practices every time.

Reports can now be dynamic. No more excel sheets: opening up a salesforce.com report means a sales manager can drill down on an opportunity and immediately see:

• What decision makers were contacted and when?
• What are the defined next steps?
• Have client’s needs been captured completely?
• Is the deal really as far along as they think it is?

A good CRM system can completely change the dynamic of a sales pipeline review from one where the sales manager asks the same questions over and over again:

• Who’s the signing authority?
• Did they say that we were the top pick?
• What were their top needs?
• What is the business case/ROI and who are the competitors?

Leave micro-management to the system. All these questions are captured in the opportunity record so that weekly meetings can be much more strategic; that is, “how can we win this deal?”

4. Increase per-rep effectiveness and goal-focus with dashboards A properly configured CRM system can not only help reps be more effective at closing business, but can also help them keep the funnel moving with real-time dashboards. Products like salesforce.com can actually set-up a dashboard for each rep.

It is a great exercise to sit down with a rep and set-up the dashboard goals in relation to the plan. They really love the dashboards, and it transfers some ownership of goals to the rep so that they don’t get a nasty surprise at quarter-end when they don’t meet their quota. Instead, every day, they can see if they’re on track.

5. What if every deal was done “the Right Way?” Most people admit that after about every fifth sales meeting, they walk out and say “I did everything right today!” Sales is not a skill so much as a science—a series of steps that will get you the result you are looking for. If you have a well defined idea of what these are, using a CRM system to map them into a sales record can mean dramatic improvements in your closing rates.

A well constructed CRM system can map your company’s sales practices to ensure that all these key steps are being met every time.

• Budget
• Needs
• Authority to sign off
• Decision makers
• Influencers
• Etcetera

If you even think you might need CRM, you’re already leaving thousands of dollars of revenue on the table! At a minimum, every customer we work with who says “yeah, we might benefit from CRM” will see a lift of 10% in top-line sales by doing so.

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James Carter is President of Path Marketing Inc., one of Canada’s leading CRM consulting firms for SME to Mid Market. As Salesforce.com and ACT! Certified Consultants, James has helped over 300 companies to increase sales, customer retention, and many other factors attributable to successful CRM implementation. If you think it’s time to get your CRM tuned up, or you’re just starting out, you can find them at Path Marketing.

Looking for high R.O.I.? How about 400% of your time?

By Charles Plant, Schulich School of Business, York University   

These days, anything with a positive return on investment sounds too good to be true. We’re not talking about financial investments per se here but rather something just as valuable—your time.

Specifically, the investment is the fifteen minutes that you can use at the end of your day to plan your next day. Simply by taking those few minutes and following a few simple steps, you will very likely experience a minimum of one hour of increased productivity the very next day!

Here are some basics to follow:

• Review your list of tasks and mark which ones got done and which are still outstanding.
• Note your accomplishments—important for motivation. List your outstanding tasks and any new ones you’d like to get done in your next day’s agenda sheet (or electronic organizer).
• Prioritize the tasks as As (need to get done tomorrow) or Bs (important but don’t absolutely have to be done tomorrow).
• Put appointments/meetings in the time slots.
• Work on one task at a time until you’re done (easier said than done we know) before moving onto the next. Multitasking seems to be a good idea but the lack of focus that comes with it causes ineffectiveness.
• Mark off your tasks as you get them done, allowing time for interruptions and unplanned activities.

Being hit by discount requests? Follow these steps.

By Michael Caron   

Naturally, we always want to sell value and reduce the times that customers ask you for a price discount, but regardless of your attempts, you will not be able to avoid them. You always have the ability to say no and lose the sale but if you are willing to reduce your margin and still make the sale, you are going to need to enter the dance of price negotiations.

There are certain steps to follow. Before you even start the process, you should assure the prospect that your price is fair. If and when they continue pushing for a discount, follow these steps:

Step One: Ask why they are asking for a discount. This may sound like a strange thing to ask but can be helpful when the prospect is forced to explain. Often they have weak reasons and some will ease off when they can’t come up with anything better than, “I’d like to pay a lower price”. Sometimes, negotiations may even stop right there when the prospect returns with, “Well, I had to ask.”

Step Two: The next step is to offer something in kind rather than discounting your price. Trade of your product or service always costs less than a cash discount. You could say something like, “I’d really like to have your business and if you’d like to get additional value, I can offer you (blank).” What you offer will be specific to your company and industry but try to make it something that has low cost to you and high perceived value to the prospect.

Some ideas may be: additional service, better payment terms, free shipping, future volume discounts etc. Your goal is to maintain your price integrity while giving up something that costs you little.

Step Three: If you must discount further, never give up something without getting something in return. This is a basic rule of negotiation. If you simply discount, you have opened the door for the prospect to keep asking for discounts now and into the future. Using the same concept as barter, you can give a discount in return for something that is high value to you yet low cost to the client. It could be references, quicker payment terms, volume guarantees, exclusive vendor arrangements, introductions to other internal departments, etc.

Step Four: If you truly believe you must give a discount in order to secure the business, do it slowly and with a good amount of resistance. If you quickly concede, the prospect might say to themselves, “That was easy. I’m going to keep going” Do not get caught on the treadmill of discounting whereby the prospect asks for a discount and you give it only to have the prospect ask for more. It’s a deadly downward spiral and can be prevented by the next step.

Step Five: Try not to give a discount without an agreement that if you agree to X discount, the prospect will buy. You could say something like, “I don’t know if I can give a discount of what you’re asking for George but if I can, does that mean that you’re willing to go ahead. The last thing you want to do is to offer a discount that’s only going to be used as leverage to squeeze another vendor’s price who ends up getting the sale.

The best way to handle discount requests is to reduce them! And the best way to reduce them is to work on building perceived value—right from the first contact while prospecting through to doing a proper “Customer Focused Sales Interview.” If the prospect truly sees that you and your company provide value and advantages over your competitors, they will be less willing to risk NOT doing business with you by pushing for unreasonable discounts.

Remember, dropping your price is the quickest and easiest tactic for a salesperson to help close. It takes little skill but comes at a high cost in terms of margins and commissions. Talented sales professionals—ones who can truly build value—discount far less often than less skilled salespeople. Our recommendation is to focus heavily on improving your selling skills so that you will need to deal with discounting less frequently and protect your margins and commissions now and down the road.

How are you doing on your New Year's resolutions?

By Michael Caron   

Resolutions or goals—whatever you want to call them—can be the source of motivation and drive yet they can also represent endless frustration if we fail to reach them.

Everyone knows that goals make a difference, an incredible difference in fact. We all know (and maybe even secretly envy!) our friends and colleagues who set and reach their goals. High achievers will rarely be heard saying things like, “I don’t know how I did so well. It just sort of happened!” Rather, they use a process that others don’t.

If goals are so powerful, why do only 5% of the population set clear goals for their career and their life? The biggest reason is the dreaded F.O.F.—Fear of Failure—an enemy I was first introduced to many years ago in training as a summer manager for College Pro Painters. The thinking seems to be “If I don’t have goals, I certainly can’t fail reaching them can I?” Of course, this is skewed logic leading to failure.

What these people might not realize is that failure is fundamental to growth and higher performance in the future. Further, research proves that having goals almost always leads to greater results than not having them — even if you fail to reach them!

Reaching goals is something you can learn

The second most common reason for not setting goals is not knowing how. Setting & reaching goals is more complex than many people may think. It is a process that needs to be taught. Strangely, most people have little to no training on this powerful skill. If you are one of the few who took the time to write down some goals for 2008, congratulations. You’ve taken an important first step! Now let’s check to see if you have some of the other components that will lead to success. Effective goal management needs to be S.M.A.R.T. That is:

SPECIFIC. The more specific, the better. Saying, “I’d like to sell more this year,” isn’t good enough. How many more sales exactly? At what margin?

MEASURABLE. As the saying goes, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” You need to know if you’re winning or losing and you can’t tell if you’re not keeping score. It’s best to have major goals broken down into mini-goals that you can measure along the way.

ACTIONABLE. Hope doesn’t cut it. You need to have a massive action plan designed. And you need to be ready to change. How many more calls am I going to do each month, each week, each day? Are they scheduled in your agenda? Are you planning on increasing your selling skills? How? When?

REALISTIC. Goals need to be a delicate balance between too hard and too easy. Too hard and you’ll give up when you see it being out of reach. Too easy and you’ll feel like you haven’t really accomplished anything. R also stands for REVIEW. Reviewing your progress along the way allows you to adjust your tactics accordingly.

TIME PHASED. If there is no time frame, there is no goal. Would you really be happy if you increased your sales in your last year before retirement? Of course not. Attach dates to everything. Pull out your goals regularly and “keep your eye on the prize”. Don’t allow yourself to be overwhelmed by some of the uncomfortable steps along the way. Keep your focus on how amazing you’re going to feel when you’ve reached your objective.

A great thing about training and developing sales teams is that I get to work with salespeople who, by nature, are goal oriented and high achievers. If you would like to learn more about improving your skills in reaching goals, Northbound Learning offers “Goal Aligned Time”, a workshop dedicated to helping sales professionals get what they want out of their career and their life.