Back in the 1990s when business was bad, and corporations were downsizing or as they laughingly put it, rightsizing, no one was safe from executive scrutiny and the corporate axe. With dwindling sales, sales management was an easy target. To survive in what was coined, ‘crises management’ one had to be able to demonstrate that they had a plan and/or were doing everything they could, to drive sales.

So, what did sales management do? Suddenly, sales reps had to fill out detailed micro-managed reports that monitored their every movement: The number of calls they made every day, the names of companies and customers they spoke to, what was discusses, how many phone calls / cold calls, et al. It was endless! The data, and the time necessary to complete the detailed minutiae, was ridiculous and often fictitious [made-up].

One could ask, who was served by this burdensome activity? The sales manager; who, when the corporate axe-holder showed up at his/her door, would survive because they could show reams and reams of data they hoped might do 3 things: 1) Demonstrate they had a plan and were working the plan, 2) Stand apart from other managers without a similar plan, and, 3) Their plan would send the axe-man down the hall to other managers – those without reams of ‘insurance’ data. Crises management – the way to survive! In hindsight, the irony was that burdening frontline sales reps with this reporting strategy actually drove sales down – demonstrably! Why?

With over 3 decades in successful frontline sales and, having a Masters degree in psychology, I can shed light on the empirical human factor that operates like a system-of-influence within the demands of professional sales and CRM.

Think about the behavioural attributes of the best sellers you have ever known. Outside of their innate people skills and high energy, what was it they did best, that garnered sales success? Their modus operandi was to ‘simplify’ everything. They were minimalists. But the question is, did they learn to be minimalists or, were they naturally [psychologically] wired to be minimalists?

I had the answer to this long before my psychotherapeutic training. In the late 70s, I was a national sales trainer and recruiter for a fortune 500 company. Every applicant had to take an aptitude test to determine whether they fit the traditional psychological sales success mould. I was trained to mark and measure the results of these tests that were surprisingly accurate. The fact is, there are ideal psychological profiles for almost every profession. I need only look at an individual’s profile graph and could say, “That’s an accountant, that’s a politician, that’s a scientist and ‘that’ is the perfect personality profile for a successful sales person.” All results – for the most part – as I said – were surprisingly accurate and beyond chance.

Within each profile there are detailed personality traits that exist on a spectrum that predict the adequate and sufficient fit of that individual within that discipline. For sales, high energy, above-average people skills, high need to control and dominate and high motivation to activate [get things done] are the essential components for ‘the right stuff’.

But they possess another strong personality trait. One in which they are not so strong. Detail!

In psychology we know every personality has its strengths and weaknesses. For accountants, doctors and lawyers, detail presents strongly within their unique personality traits. But rarely in the best sales people.

Sidebar: One of the challenges for those who suffer from Attention Deficit Hypertension Disorder [ADHD] is the inability to concentrate on ‘detail’.

You may find it interesting that psychological studies posit there is a disproportionate number of top sellers, business leaders/entrepreneurs [who often got their start in sales] who suffer from ADHD. In my case, I have ADHD and mild Dyslexia. Is it a coincidence that creative over-achievers like Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, John F. Kennedy, Will Smith, Jim Carrey, all suffer from ADHD? Despite their disorder, what were they all good at? They are minimalists. Einstein once said: “If you can’t explain something ‘simply’ then you don’t really know it”. The fact is, they possess the ability to take what for others in their profession is seen to be exceedingly complex, and make it look simple – minimize the detail. The same system-of-influence exists within the art and science of professional ‘successful’ selling. The question remains, however, do they do it because they want to or because they must?

Going back the question, whose needs is your CRM programme serving, you may find it’s not your frontline sellers but rather the ‘detail-oriented’ architects that crave data or the sellers of larger more complex [detailed] CRM solutions.

As a consistent top 1% seller in fortune 500 companies, I can unequivocally attest to the fact that too much of my professional face-to-face customer selling time [where sales are made] was sacrificed to filling out too many and unnecessary data reports. One could point out that computers have made CRM easier to monitor. I counter that with the logic in the early 1980s when I was selling photocopiers and network printers were introduced. It was believed that copier volumes should go down because computer printers would reduce the need for copying. The reality was, computers produced exponentially more data and printers produced exponentially more ‘originals’ that drove copier volumes and costs through the roof.

The Bottom Line:

CRM is essential and is here to stay. It is integral to sales and corporate success. There is no argument that too much of anything is bad. The danger with CRM is it is often designed to meet the needs of those who are detail oriented at the expense of those who are not – sellers… the lifeblood of any organization! So, how do you know if your CRM programme is right for you – is not hurting sales? Look at your sales, and then… ask your sellers!

Is there a way to bundle leveraged sales in a way that it is lucrative to both you and your prospects? The answer is yes and we will cover the basic process promotion of bundled goodies. If you're looking to increase your income potential without having to rely on your primary offer, leveraged sales is the way to go. Small gains over time leads to decreased overhead and a stronger bottom line. You can see places like McDonald's, Amazon and even Starbucks offer unique items at a low cost. They offer value to their prospects that ends up building up their revenue flow.

Bundle your leveraged sales on the need of the prospect

Leveraged sales are only as effective as the planning that has been put into creating them. From concept to research and finally to deployment, every aspect requires attention to detail. Just like when you created your marketing strategy. The leveraged sales offer must be developed from a need. This need comes from knowing your prospects. It will take time to ensure that your offers are gaining sales. If they are not, you can look at your promotion efforts, type of offer and prospect profile to see if you're hitting the mark or not.

You can bundle your leveraged sales ideas together in order to increase value to your prospects. They can then lead to other offers or even to your main attraction. The most common way to bundle offers are to include two different offer types. As an example, for this would be an eBook and worksheet bundled in one package. Other examples include podcasts with personalized email correspondence. There is no limit to what you can bundle, you can bundle a series as well. The most difficult elements to work with is the pricing.

Promoting your leveraged sales bundle effectively

Promoting your leveraged sales bundled offers is very important to your success. Self-promoting can be hard, but nevertheless your revenue will require careful monitoring as you cast your offers out on various social media networks. As you promote informational material, you may want to mix in your offers as well. Some channels can offer you other ways to reach your audience, running a small advertising campaign could provide great insight to the effectiveness of your call to action message. Be careful with the data and always keep analyzing it to see where you can make improvements.

The holiday season is peak season for most small businesses. One of the most overlooked marketing tricks to boost holiday sales is using BOGO (buy-one-get-one) offers. In fact, BOGO is one of the most powerful marketing weapons. It's also one of the easiest. All you have to do is make your customers feel like they'll miss out on a great opportunity if they don't take advantage of this one and buy now. Many retailers and small business owners look forward to Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday to boost company sales, but it's usually after those dates the discounts began to simmer until the week before the final holiday of the year.

So, if you want to give your sales an extra boost this upcoming season – Choose BOGO. BOGO is a popular acronym that means buy-one-get-one free or at a reduced fixed price. It is used by many big and small businesses for sales promotions. It's appealing to consumers because, psychologically, nothing feels better than getting something for free. Right now, as I write this, shoppers are either using their phones to research trendy items online to buy at a reduced price or they are signing up to receive special offers and discounts in anticipation for the holiday sales of the season. Shoppers always intend to spend less than they did the year before and if the benefits of said discounted or free offer beats the benefits of the compared market price of a high quality item – they will jump at the chance.

Below are three ways your small business can benefit from the BOGO marketing strategy to boost your sales.

1. Use A Sense of Urgency – Start a holiday clock countdown. Think of the "Only 10 days left before Christmas" style promotions to use for your BOGO offers. Tell your customers that availability of special items are now limited and promote the end date to drive the point home. Appeal to the senses using rich media like photos, memes and even video. Be creative and make it colorful and fun.
2. Showcase Using Social Media – Whether you run an online business or not, social media marketing is prime for any small business. Use your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social sites to showcase your holiday promotions, sales, events, menus, clearance sales and inventory. You can also utilize social media to promote Secret Santa-style BOGO promotions that are only available to your followers who unlock the offer by using a time limited code on your website or in-store.
3. Gift Giving – Capture your customer's attention using BOGO holiday gift offers. Gifts are everything and everyone wants one. This is also a good way to appeal to last-minute shoppers by showing them that they benefit from said gift if they buy one item of equal value. Offer a different BOGO-gift offer everyday or spotlight a different product every week until Christmas. Not only does this boost sales but it invites new customers, drives traffic and gets rid of excessive inventory.

As we approach the busiest shopping season of the year it's time to get started prepping your promotional offers. Whether you're crafting a new discount strategy or trying to figure out how to refine existing campaigns, you can utilize the BOGO promotion. It is a very effective marketing technique that is guaranteed to generate sales making the 2017 holiday season a success for your small business while helping your customers maximize their savings.

In my years of experience in sales and sales management, I have observed many small and medium sized sales teams. Often, they struggle to perform at capacity and hit their goals and it's frequently a sales management issue. Sometimes it's because the CEO or business owner is the de facto sales manager and is wearing many hats. They are often just too busy running their business or spread too thin. Sometimes they're the technical experts in their field and their expertise and time is being used to improve products, systems or services. It's sometimes because a top performing sales person was promoted into a sales management role and their strength lies in salesmanship and delivering revenue to the business personally rather than in a broad sense. Below are five things you can do to improve sales management in your company now.

1. Planning
Many business owners have at best a rudimentary sales plan. If they do have one, often times it consists of higher and higher sales goals, without accounting for what will drive that new business. Will a new product line be added, a new market be opened or new additions made to the sales team? Will the company be able to support the added expense while markets are opened and new sales people trained? How much risk will the company bear? A good but simple sales plan takes this into consideration. Takeaway: Make a better sales plan with concrete steps to get to the desired goal.

2. Modernize
There are many new technologies that make it easier to interact with prospects. Among them are CRM systems, collaboration tools, the cloud, dialers, email tracking, prospect and customer information systems. Existing systems are being upgraded all the time with the newest capabilities. All are designed to more efficiently and effectively reach more buyers, publishinate information, warm them up and help make sales. Social media platforms allow a business to extend its reach inexpensively and makes your business more visible to search engines such as Google.com. Takeaway: Evaluate new technologies on a regular basis to make sure you are keeping up and modernize as needed.

3. Training
Training sales people serves three purposes. The first is that it provides them an opportunity to hone and refresh their skills. The second is that it reminds them that performance is important and that expectations for them performing well are high. The third is that it shows a willingness to invest in them and that they are part of the long term plan for the organization. Takeaway: Make sure you offer training to your sales people every year (a sharp ax cuts better than a dull one).

4. Lead Generation
All businesses need sales and most small and medium sized businesses are subject to the feast / famine paradigm. When they're busy, the first thing that gets pushed aside is prospecting for new business. Until business slows down. Then there's a flurry of sales activity and soon business is back where it should be. For a while. Most small businesses don't have bandwidth to prospect effectively in a consistent way.

Lists should be highly targeted and refreshed regularly. Technology should be used and a proven process followed. The technology should reinforce the process rather than detract from it. Top management should enforce the use of the technology and following of the process. Utilize social media and blogging to widen your reach inexpensively. Finally, no one can be an expert on everything so get help from the professionals when needed. Takeaway: Make prospecting part of the company routine and culture and call in the experts when needed!

5. Measurement
You get what you measure is the old adage and it's mostly true. The challenge is top management often has a hard time pinning down the exact actions, activities and behaviors they are trying to encourage and measure. Here's a practical example. Maybe top management believes that offering free webinars will increase sales since it worked well in the past. So the goal is to run well attended webinars.

How will these webinars be promoted to prospects and clients? Will a set of emails be sent, starting a few weeks before the first webinar? Then a prospect list with email addresses will need to be purchased and loaded and a compelling email invitation created.

Will prospects be called and told about the webinars? Then phone numbers will be necessary, a script will need to be created and a person designated to make the calls. To track call results, an activity report should be created and run on a regular basis to test the messaging, to make sure the calls are being made and to analyze the prospect responses. Will the report be grouped by prospect type (or industry or state or city or source)? Then that data will need to be captured or imported for each prospect.

Finally, reports should measure the success of each webinar, so that results can be tabulated. How many people registered and attended are important to measure, as well as what happened to the prospect once the webinar was complete to determine the ROI. Takeaway: Create reports that measure actions, activities and behaviors that drive sales success, run them regularly and share the results.

As more and more Americans are choosing to go green than ever before, it seemed there was equal enthusiasm surrounding all-electric vehicles. Impressively, fully electric car sales spiked by 58% in 2014. Despite this bump in overall sales, the all-electric segment is still incredibly small. Even more, while EV sales saw a surge, green vehicles (diesel and hybrids) as a whole fell a total 6.5% in 2014. What exactly is holding back sales from living up to predictions?

Gas Prices

Any car dealer will tell you that they are not throwing in the towel on increasing EV sales just yet, but are perhaps taking a long-term approach towards their strategies. As the price of gasoline dropped, many consumers chose to purchase larger, less-efficient models. With dramatic drops in gasoline prices falling below $3, interest in lower-mile-per-gallon vehicles picks up. Luckily for these vehicles, cheap gas will not be around forever.

Lack of Familiarity

Researchers from Indiana University and the University of Kansas conducted a survey asking basic factual questions surrounding plug-in vehicles. One of the most exhaustive surveys on consumer perceptions of electric cars done in years, it was conducted in several U.S. cities. The results tell all: 60% of the time respondents failed to answer correctly, with 75% of those wrong answers underestimating the advantageous aspects of these automobiles. A majority of the respondents were unaware that they require less maintenance than their gasoline-powered counterparts. They even underestimated the fuel savings involved when owning one of these models. The complete inaccuracy surrounding them has definitely contributed to the small pool of ownership.

Lack of Communication

The same survey reported that a majority of people was unaware of state and local sales incentives. If every car dealer and policy maker would increase the education about the perks and incentives available to buyers, sales would likely increase. Tax breaks and the ability to utilize carpool lanes on highways affect a consumer’s purchase decision. Immediate and easily comprehended reductions of the purchase price are more appealing to buyers than complicated, delayed benefits.

Public Demonstrations

With little knowledge or experience surrounding these vehicles, it is obviously difficult for someone to develop an interest in them, much less be inclined to purchase one. By performing demonstrations at local malls, sports venues, or at large businesses, a car dealer could benefit by changing the public’s attitudes. In fact, one study showed that over 71% of drivers said they were much more likely to buy an EV model after they were given the chance to test drive one of the models currently on the market.

Additionally, the National Research Council released a report examining these same barriers for EV sales. Their report cited obstacles including limited model options, inadequate driving range on a single charge, high prices, a lack of charging infrastructures, and the inconvenience of having to install a charging station at their homes.

Telling stories is a great teaching tool to use in many fields, especially sales. At one of our recent workshops on pain, a participant from a technology company shared a story about an experience he had at a big-box TV store. This person went in to the store to learn more about flat screen TVs, with no intention of buying. He just wanted more information so he could make an educated decision when it came time to buy a TV, and get the best deal online, not at a store.

When our participant entered the store, he was greeted right away by a sales person, and before he knew it, the sales person was telling him all about the great features and benefits of each widescreen TV. The sales person never asked a single question about why he was visiting the store, or if he'd even been there before. The sales person was nice but never uncovered any pain. All he did was say, "Can I help you?", And then proceeded to "spill his candy all over the lobby", and give our participant all the ammunition he needed to go get his best deal online. The sales person never had a chance to close the deal.

Far too often, salespeople try to spill their candy in the lobby for a living. They throw information and free advice and their own time and money and resources against a wall hoping some of it will stick. "If I go to enough networking events, if I make enough new prospecting calls, if I talk about my product enough, if I ask enough people if they need this for their business, and if I make enough cold calls, then I'll be successful. "

The numbers game is one way you can approach your career, but it requires a lot of work, and it often wastes a lot of time. On the other hand, the Sandler System is all about working smarter, not harder. Furthermore, if you combine the same tenacity and work smartly to uncover a prospect's pain, you will become a Robo-Salesperson. Armed with new, effective questioning strategies and proven sales techniques, you will discover the prospects' problems and deep-seated emotional needs, pains, and desires to find solutions (ones that you can provide). This will result in dramatically increasing your sales and reducing your work time and stress that goes with it.

Another participant in our Sandler Sales program sells gauges to machine shops and other companies. This guy is very meticulous and had a phone prospecting system he followed diligently, but when he left messages, very few returned his calls. Sound familiar? Well, this guy enrolled in our advanced training program and he carefully tracked all his results. Here's what he found:

After the first year of learning the Sandler Sales System, his market of selling to machine shops experienced a 5% decline, however, his personal sales went up 28.6%. Since he worked on a straight commission, his personal income went up an equal amount. So, his income went from $ 93,000 up to $ 119,598. Our sales guy attributed this to learning how to leave an effective voicemail message, encouraging his prospects to call back, and it worked. After his second year in the Sandler course, his sales went up another 32.3% and his income increased to $ 158,228. Why? He became more effective at closing deals. In the first two years in the training program, he had boosted his commissions by 70%. The bottom line, none of his success would have happened without learning to uncover his prospects' pain.

By the way, if you're one of those people who believe "you can't teach on old dog new tricks," check this out. This guy was not a kid. He was about 50 years old when he started learning the Sandler way, and still made those drastic improvements. I'm happy to say that 14 years later, he continues to attend and take advantage of our President's Club classes. This sales leader is committed to being at the forefront of his industry's selling knowledge curve and providing for his family, himself, and his own retirement.

As a sales professional of many years in fashion retail and other industries I've heard all the sales techniques and received countless lectures delivering winning scripts. I read, listened, processed and analyzed all of the information handed down and as a non-conformist discarded 99% of it. There are also those who consider themselves sales training gurus who profess they know it all. I have heard them referring to customers as low hanging fruit and or conversion rate. I often hear the term of "sales in the pipeline" and it makes me shudder to think the term is used so openly. The other one is "making the customer the hero". And here is a an odd one "competing in the bake off" so are we in cooking competition ?. What about sincerity and transparency, where and when do they come in?

If you think of customers as foot traffic, conversion rate, low hanging fruit, statistics and gauge their behavior in numbers, then you are most likely an accountant or manager and chances are you operate in isolation of the coal face. You'll crunch numbers (foot traffic) you'll most likely conduct a weekly sales meeting and deliver some kind of motivational speech that you read in the latest publication about a new revelation of closing a sale. What does closing a sale mean? Is it like closing a door for security purposes, so you're closing the door once the sale is completed, the money is in the till, and bingo you've already forgotten the face and name of the person you just sold a product to ? When that customer comes back you will then pretend to remember him, is that being sincere? You quickly move onto the next piece of low hanging fruit and close that sale quickly because you're on commission and competing with your other sales colleagues, or are you competing with your customers. You'll do just about anything to get a customer to buy.

It's all geared toward short term gain, or as one sales-guru on the networking circuit quoted "low hanging fruit". A consistently successful sales professional will look above and beyond for the fruits of his labor and he will push the boundaries of service every time, he won't think of low hanging fruit, closing a sale, conversion rates and foot traffic. He'll seek to establish a relationship, engaging on a foundation of mutual trust. This is a fundamental human need in any relationship, trust is based on sincerity. We subconsciously seek sincerity and character in others and if these qualities are not detected the whole foundation is undermined.

You can gather all the techniques and scripts ever written on paper for what they are worth and use them to fuel your BBQ. Every year a new wiz bang sales technique appears then it disappears and is forgotten just as soon as another appears, they're all geared toward short term gain. Why not read Stephen Covey, or Dale Carnegie, these two authors are a must for every library. Their focus in business and relationships is long term and built upon principles.

Now here is the moment you have been waiting for; and the best sales technique ever is "no sales technique" no hoodwinking or smoke screens just complete transparency. With sincerity at heart you connect with your fellow human beings on a fundamental level, all barriers are broken down and a relationship is formed. No scripts remembered parrot fashion, no wiz bang techniques by the latest sales guru. Don't think of closing a sale, think of opening a relationship, the customer you spend an hour with may not even buy from you. But statistically there is a 90% chance he or she will return one day and buy. Satisfying the buying needs of a customer can be a very rewarding experience if done sincerely.

I hope this has been informative, any comments or feedback are very welcome.

Are you one of those guys (girls) placing tens maybe hundreds of calls on a weekly basis? And besides that, you have this Sales Coach over your head (Manager, Rep, etc) pushing you to achieve your KPI's and you constantly hear all these advice on how you should do this or that, what tricks you should use to succeed in cold calling or sales.

Fact is that those coaches, most of the time are uneducated idiots with a very limited perception of the world, people that because averagely did a little bit better as cold callers in the past were given this position.

I can explain to you why in those positions you find most of the times idiots with no sales management skills.

First, is the lack of a combined background.

With regards to a Sales Coach, Sales Managerial position you find 2 kinds of people. The ones that started as simple salespeople and climbed their way up. They started as simple salespeople because they did not have another choice. These ones are most of the times experienced, talented professionals that know the practical aspects of the work done, however their lack of theoretical education, limits them regarding their managerial role. Short-sighted, know how to solve the day in, day out issues, but lack vision and analytical thinking, and incapable of having what is needed for the role of sales manager.

On the other hand, you have those "educated" Sales Managers, the ones that supposedly have the sales manager qualifications, that come straight out of the college and never, ever sold anything, and even if they did, that was just for training purposes and only a job that was made for the experience. They never get under the skin of this job, and although they have analytical thinking and maybe vision, they talk nonsense because they have never sold anything and do not know what it takes.

More than ever in today's world are missing: Hardcore Salespeople, educated, with analytical skills, marketing knowledge, IT literate, to work as Sales Managers and Sales Coaches.

Secondly, is the lack of independent thinking

"Corporate reality" and real-world reality are 2 terms that nowadays distance themselves every day more and more. Leaving and working in a big corporation make people adapt to the norms and "culture" of the corporation, most of the times with disastrous effects not only on the corporation but most of all on themselves. The "politically correct" way of thinking of a corporation, which is the do's and don'ts, do not only kill creativity, not only prohibit you from thinking outside of the box, and not only distance you from reality and the real responses you would have received if you lived outside of the "big hug" of the corporation where you work but most of all kill your independent thinking and the no-nonsense, no bullshit reality a prospect of yours wants to hear. How possibly are you going to address real issues that a prospect is facing in the real world if your response is the script someone wrote in the company where you work. How is it possible to bring results if your opinion is not going to be listened to?

Thirdly, is the lack of understanding what qualities a really good salesman has

A close friend of mine had an interview with a hiring manager, a 25-year-old guy of a big and known British corporation. During the interview, my friend (a world-class salesman) told the hiring manager that the core of the sales is equal regardless if you sell oranges or super sophisticated IT solutions. The hiring manager's response was with great disappointment: "Unfortunately sir, we do not sell oranges here." And my friend's CV was dumped in the garbage bin.

For some reasons, my friend had a talk with the managing director of the company some weeks after where he referred to the conversation with the hiring manager and the managing director asked him why he said that. His response was: "Sales are generated through the same triggers to all people, and the complexity of the product makes the facade of the sale complex. However, the core of it is based on the same principles the sale of a simple product is based . Diplomacy is not one of my strengths; honesty and sales results are. " The managing director took the chance and gave him the position he asked as a salesman in the company, where he proved to be the best salesperson the company ever – ever had.

When I had interviews in big corporations, I was often asked by the hiring manager, "Is money the only important factor for you to work for us?" A certain poor girl that was put in the position to be the one to judge who the company is going to hire as a salesman and who not to, had been advised by the idiot she had as a manager that salespeople with some "niveau" do not care about how much they earn, other values ​​are more important. So, let me tell you this: GOOD SALES PEOPLE WORK FOR MONEY AND THE NUMBER ONE REASON THEY ARE WORKING IS ONLY MONEY. If a salesperson you are interviewing tells you that money is not important to him, or they are not as important as other things, do not hire him, he is a bad salesperson. Welcome to the real world.

When Dorothy landed in Oz, she wanted to go home and was told by the Munchkins to see the great and powerful Wizard of Oz. "But how do I find the Wizard", she asked. "Follow the Yellow Brick Road". "And the best way to start, is at the beginning." And that holds true for the Sandler System as well. Start at the beginning.

The beginning step in the Sandler Sales Process is to establish bonding and rapport with your prospect. Once you've created a good relationship with this person, you can then set an up-front contract on what you will discuss, typically their agenda and yours, with a specific outcome in mind. This up-front contract should lead them down the path towards revealing some pain. If there's no pain to reveal, then you can shake hands and part as friends, and move on to the next prospect. However, if you do reveal some pain, then you schedule a next meeting where you can delve deeper into the prospects issues and pain.

THE PAIN FUNNEL IN ACTION

Let's look at a sample story showing the pain funnel in action. In this story, our sales person works for a contractor who builds navigation systems for fighter jets, and has an appointment to see Henry Jones. Henry has an engineering background and is very technical in nature. Watch how the sales person starts out using the questions from the Sandler Pain Funnel to better understand his prospect, and then slowly moves Henry through the funnel towards a sale. The questions are broad at first, but then become more specific and designed to make the prospect more emotional. The idea is to grasp Henry's problems and lead him to reveal how the problems affect Henry personally.

Henry starts by asking the salesperson, "Can you design a system that will easily retro-fit our F-16s so that rewiring will not be problematic?" As you can see, this is a very technical question for a very technical problem. The salesperson can try one of one two things: answer the question directly and speak about the product's features and benefits, or try to uncover the real intent of the question and ultimately, if there's any pain. In this example, the salesperson employs the Pain Funnel to dig for the pain behind the prospect's question. The salesperson responds, "You know, that's a great question. Can you tell me more about that?" Henry answers back, "Yes. We've had some experiences retrofitting F-16s with different types of equipment and ran into some challenges. It takes a very long time to rewire the system, and that becomes problematic when you have to disconnect wiring harnesses and lots of other systems that are related to whatever it is we are installing. " The salesperson probes, "Can you be a bit more specific? Give me an example."

Keep in mind, each and every question the salesperson asks comes from the Pain Funnel. Even though the questions are in order, you can tell it offers a very smooth arc to the overall conversation. If you have internalized the questions and the process, it won't feel awkward guiding a prospect through the Pain Funnel in exactly the order prescribed.

Henry continues, "Well, recently we had to retrofit replacements into the planes. We had to take out the ejection seats and remove some of the navigational systems. We even had to get into the hydraulics. So, what we originally anticipated would be a 25-hour job turned into a job that lasted close to 200 hours. It's not so much the hours that really bothers us as the amount of time the fighters have to be out of service in order to get it done. " The salesperson continues down the Pain Funnel, "How long has that been a problem?" "It's been two years that we've been dealing with this," Henry replies. "OK. What have you tried to do about that?" the salesperson asks, following the Pain Funnel method exactly.

Henry answers, "We talked to a contractor to see if there was a possible fix, and they came up with some recommendations." The salesperson goes to the next Pain Funnel question: "And did that work?" Henry responds, "The only potentially viable solution they came up with was to redesign the entire system. That would actually take the planes out of commission for even longer." The salesperson asks, "Do you have any idea how much that would cost you?" "A lot. But it's not just dollars. It also puts peoples' lives at risk. Every day that one of those planes is out of service, we risk not having a jet ready to protect people", Henry says more emotionally now. "How do you feel about that?" the salesperson asks sincerely. (Or alternatively, the salesperson could ask, "What's your level of commitment to seeing if there is a way to make sure this problem doesn't happen again?") "Honestly? We're very upset this is happening, and we have to get it fixed. We need solutions that minimize the amount of time these planes are out of service. Do you think you can help us? " , Henry pleads.

THAT'S HOW IT WORKS

In our prior scenario, the salesperson effectively uncovered Henry's pain. So what's next? Uncover even more pain. An effective Pain Step means uncovering 3 to 5 elements of pain the prospect is dealing with. However, don't use the same approach each time, vary it a bit to keep the prospect unaware of what you are doing. A classic bit of sales wisdom is, "The best presentation you will ever give is the one the prospect doesn't see." Since the prospect has revealed to you what to present in order to win the sale, you will want to move forward in the sales process by offering direct solutions that relieve his pain. However, don't do it right away. First, be sure you really have uncovered three to five pains, and done a good job on the Budget and Decision Steps. In other words, stay within the Sandler Seven Step process. At this point, you will be ready to present the appropriate solutions in the Fulfillment Step. Moreover, if you've done your job correctly, like Dorothy did, and followed the Yellow Brick Road to Oz, all you need to do is click the Ruby Slippers together and the deal will close itself, and may even take you some where over the rainbow!

Sales managers frequently approach me for advice on how to keep salespeople

motivated, especially when sales reps get into a rut – and seem to keep slipping

deeper into it. Telling managers what not to do usually solves the problem. Most

managers do things to de-motivate salespeople without even knowing it.

Let’s take the idea of funnels and forecasts, for instance. Funnels and forecasts are

important aspects of running any sales operation. Both salespeople and managers

need to know where they stand in terms of potential opportunities, and funnels

serve to track those opportunities. No successful business can operate and properly

plan for the future without accurate forecasting. In theory, these are absolutely

essential to the success of any operation. In reality, however, few words strike terror

in the hearts of salespeople like “funnel” and “forecast.”

For most salespeople, the term “funnel review” equates to micromanagement,

probation and performance improvement plans. Just hearing the term is enough to

shift a sales rep’s frame of mind from positive to negative. He or she suddenly loses

enthusiasm and doesn’t know why. Many managers increase funnel reviews as

performance slips, which causes performance to slip further, and in the end nobody

wins. Endless funnel reviews, especially if they’re not positive, only serve to

reinforce salespeople’s self-doubts and limiting beliefs.

Forecasts are a similar problem, but in different ways. Few salespeople forecast

accurately. Nobody wants to fall short on their forecast, so they embellish,

exaggerate and make sure the numbers add up to where they should be rather than

where they really are. This results in managers who expect those numbers, and

salespeople who dodge managers because they know they aren’t going to perform

as forecasted. Then there are salespeople like myself who do the exact opposite –

since I hated nothing more than having a manager constantly ask me, “When is this

one going to close? When is that one going to close?,” I intentionally left good deals

off my forecast. While it eliminated the problem of constantly being asked when all

those deals would sign, it created another form of stress in having to deal with the

consequences of a funnel that fell short of expectations.

Another word that instantly de-motivates salespeople is “activity.” Unfortunately, in

the absence of any other viable advice, most managers simply blurt out, “You need

to increase your activity” to anyone who isn’t at quota. This accomplishes nothing

other than setting up the rep to believe that a series of funnel reviews and

performance improvement plans are soon to follow.

Finally, I see entirely too many managers pushing too hard to spend extra time with

salespeople who are falling short. While it’s necessary to spend time with these

people, it’s not a good idea to keep asking them what they need help with and to

insist on riding along with them. This only turns up the heat another notch on an

already stressed-out rep. Nobody who is having trouble likes to be singled out,

especially when the extra attention easily can be mistaken for micromanagement.

To keep a struggling salesperson motivated:

1. Keep the talk of funnels, forecasts and activity to a minimum.

2. Offer help without being overbearing.

3. Put your trust and confidence in that salesperson.

Stick with these guidelines and you’ll not only do a better job of helping those who

are having difficulties, but you’ll see an overall increase in your sales team’s

motivation and enthusiasm.