Hospitality Sales & Management International


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Sales Management Training: Differentiating Your Business 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. 

So here are two points to learn from this story.

You may feel you have a differentiator – fast in his case, but be careful.  Not everybody wants what you think they should want?  In his case fast is a macro differentiator.  This can be used in marketing campaigns to attract leads that want work to begin with a few days.  However, once someone shows interest, you’ve got to move to the micro differentiators.  These are the issues and concerns that the individual wants solved and/or the desires s/he wants you to deliver.  Fast maybe one of them, but there may be others.  So just in case another competitor can do it fast also (because they have extra capacity during the slowdown), you’d better have some other deliverable that the person wants that you do well.

Not everybody wants you’re macro differentiator even though you think they should.  So when you’re going after a project and you want premium pricing, you have to find those that have to have you’re macro differentiator.  Actually this will be one of the criteria of you Ideal Customer Profile.  You want customers that need your services delivered right away. 

For those that don’t, you’re going to need other differentiators or else you’ll have to be the low bidder.  So, are there other things you do well?  Of course there are.  Start documenting how well you do them and what experience you have doing them.  Then when someone says they want services like you have, but not for a few weeks, and they want it done accurately with quick follow-up if needed, you can tell them how accurate you are and what your follow-up program is, as you back it up with numbers of jobs, testimonials and other proof.

The moral of this story is that in a recessionary period seek customers that fall in your sweet spot, but also open your thinking to other things you do well.  Document those other things and market those strengths also.  You don’t have to be the best or the only, just good.  And, the best place to start is within your existing client base.  You want 100% of the business from 100% of your clients.

And now I invite you to learn more.

Bonus tip:  FREE SALES TEAM ASSESSMENT TOOL.  Would you like to see something tangible that gauges the skills and behaviors of your sales people?  Just click this http://www.sammanfer.com/cleveltest.htm  C-Level Relationship Selling Link.   Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales manager to be effective coaching his or her sales people to feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders. 

Sales Management in This Recession – Improve Your Sales Team?s Performance

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.

People that are employed are content and feel they don’t need to do anything different.  If anything they want to change their employer – i.e. complaints, suggestions, and excuses.  Even if they are on an incentive or commission they blame the company for their failures.  That’s why I advocate a negative commission, i.e. you lose money if you lose a sale that’s forecasted.

These people have no reason (in their mind) to change.  This is where management has to step in (a) to tell their people what they have to do – coaching, and (b) then hold them accountable for producing results – task master.

People hold themselves back.  From childhood we are conditioned to attain a level (get a job.)  People get so far i.e. employed with a steady paycheck, and they have subconsciously reached their level.  Yes, everybody says they want more, but they are held back by their own negative self talk, and this, believe it or not, keeps them in their comfort zone.  Subconsciously they are saying, “The devil I know is better than the one I don’t.” or “Why invest in self improvement, I’m good at what I do.” or “This is as good as it get’s.  Why risk, why make the effort?” or “It’s everyone else’s fault,” or some other limiting negative self talk.

This again is where managers have to step in.  They have to realize these self limits about their people and (c) train them on how to sell,- trainer (d) show them on how to do it, – mentor  and (e) again, hold them accountable for the implementation – task master.  The lack of accountability for implementation is why training and self-help fails.  Without reinforcing the changes, the negative self talk that is solidly programmed in the minds of everyone, takes over and sabotages any progress towards change.  See John Assaraf’s book The Answer for more on this topic.  www.johnassaraf.com  

So the moral of this story is that employed people do not have the incentive to change.  They are content in their status and unless someone – like a manager – is not content with their outcome, nothing will happen to raise the level.  It’s as good as it gets with more of the same happening, but everyone hoping for better results – the classic definition of insanity.

And now I invite you to learn more.

Bonus tip:  If you’d like to see to what extent your people limit themselves, use this FREE SALES TEAM ASSESSMENT TOOL.  Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link -  http://takemetoyourleaders.com/Assessment . Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales manager to be effective coaching his or her sales people to feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders.