1. A sales organization will never be any stronger than the salespeople who are recruited, selected, and hired to be a part of it.
2. Invest your time where it counts: with the best performing salespeople and with those who hold the greatest potential for superior performance.
3. A sales organization cannot be led from behind a desk.
4. The best sales executives and sales managers are the most skilled at judging talent and placing the right people in the right place.
5. You can’t lead where you won’t go any more than you are able to teach the things you don’t know.
6. Salespeople must be hired with caution, launched with clarity, and the underperforming ones replaced with dispatch.
7. Pay plans are essential to sales performance and should, ultimately, determine how much of what gets sold.
8. Turnover in a salesforce is normal and to be expected.  Zero turnover is bad, but too high a turnover is even worse.
9. Sales executives must never allow digital solutions to dominate a salesforce’s life, stifle creativity, or curtail proactivity.
10. You cannot motivate salespeople; you can only create an environment that rewards the things they are most motivated by in the first place.
11. No salesperson will ever reach any meaningful level of performance if expectations are not clearly established, communicated, and verified for their acceptance and total understanding.
12. Performance counts in sales, but it is accountability that really pays.

The Desire Myth – If you can think it, you can achieve it.  People can do anything they want to do as long as they are willing to work hard and make it happen.

Fact: Motivation is critical to excellent performance, but motivation alone is not enough.  Our society sends the message that people can do anything they want to do as long as they are willing to work hard and make it happen.  We hear this from elementary school on, but in the back of our minds, we know this just isn’t true.  People need the appropriate strengths in order to be successful in a given occupation.  Motivation, by itself, is not sufficient if you are to become a superior salesperson.  Most important, talent needs to be appropriate for the selling role you are in.

The Training Myth – Training alone will turn an average performer into a top performer.

Fact: It is hard to ignore that fact that while most of a company’s representatives will go through exactly the same initial training program, there is a big difference in the results those sales representatives generate.  Why?  While Gallup believes that training is helpful to improving sales performance it helps those with inherent strengths, primarily talent and motivation, much more than it helps poor performers.  Yet much of the training that companies provide is directed toward the poor performers.
Companies should provide training only to those that have the innate talents and strengths to capitalize on that training.  Training people without the requisite talent is an exercise in futility.  Below average performance is typically a function of a lack of talent and desire rather than a lack of training. Your best return on investment often comes from training your better performers so that they will become better.

The Right Sales Approach Myth – A certain style of selling is more conducive to certain industries than other styles.

Fact: The researchers at Gallup were constantly surprised at the dissimilarities of the sales approaches of the best people we have studied.  Within the same industry, and even within the same company, they found very different and yet equally successful approaches to the sales process.

These highly successful individuals had developed their own unique styles, styles built around their strengths.  For one to try to imitate the other would spell disaster.  Rookie sales managers, or even poor veterans, sometimes wrong-headedly believe their job is to get everyone to sell the same way they do.

While it is important for sales professionals to use a system or a process for selling, having the “right” process is less important than having “a” process.  The key to success lies in consistently executing in accordance with whatever process you choose and in tailoring that process to the personal style of the salesperson.

Finding the “right” process is typically a waste of time.  Besides, if you compare most “consultative” selling processes to one another you will find that they are all essentially the same. You are better using the time you would spend on finding the “right process” on finding the “right trainer or coach” to work with your sales organization.  This trainer should have the ability to tailor his or her program to the needs of your organization and people in it.

Find a system or a process for selling that fits the products and services you sell within your specific industry.  Use it as an overriding strategy and a means for communication, but be careful not to compel every salesperson to operate in exactly the same way.  Give salespeople the flexibility to choose the techniques that mesh with their strengths.

The Bottom Line: Recruit salespeople that are motivated and that have an innate talent for building relationships and gaining commitments. (You will learn more on this later.) Make sure those individuals believe in the value you deliver to your customers.  In other words, determine if they have a passion for the products and services you sell.  Find a system or a process for selling that fits the products and services you sell within your specific industry.  Use it as an overriding strategy and a means for communication, but be careful not to compel every salesperson to operate in exactly the same way.  Give salespeople the flexibility to choose a style and techniques that mesh with their strengths.  Train those people on how to maximize their effectiveness.  Remember, your employees do what they do for their reasons not for yours.  Find out what drives them personally and find a way to synchronize what they want with what you want.  Treating people fairly does not mean treating them all the same.

The Education Myth – A higher degree and better grades equates to better sales performance.

Fact: Gallup found that most of the salespeople in the top quartile did not have advanced degrees.  In fact, most of the best performers had not achieved high grade point averages in college. In all the companies Gallup has studied they have never – even in very technical fields – found a relationship between education and sales success.

The Experience Myth - Better salespeople typically have more experience.

Fact: Sales is not an experience-sensitive profession.  The learning curve in most sales jobs is usually short.  Gallup rarely found a strong correlation between experience and results.

The “A-Good-Salesperson-Can-Sell-Anything” Myth – Selling is selling; In other words, a good salesperson can sell anything.

Fact: From time to time the researchers at Gallup found salespeople who had done a good job in several different sales capacities.  However, such all-around naturals were rare.  Instead, they repeatedly found that salespeople who did the best in any company shared a configuration of strengths that were well matched to their roles.  Thus, a salesperson might do an exceptional job in one situation and a mediocre job in another.

The Relationship Myth – Relationships are critical to selling.

Fact: The notion that relationships are critical to selling is so widely held that everyone assumes it must be true.  And in part it is.  People with strong people skills frequently use those strengths to generate positive results.  But we also see people with great relationship abilities who are not able to sell a thing.  Why? Because relationship-building skills alone are not enough.

The best salespeople are able to get customers to make commitments.  They are not afraid to risk the relationship to ask for the business.  Surprisingly, Gallup has found a good number of top salespeople who have only average people skills, but they do have the ability to influence others.

The Money Myth – All salespeople are motivated by money.

Fact: Not all salespeople are motivated by money.  Even salespeople who have a strong desire to earn significant incomes are often motivated by other factors as well.  Gallup’s research shows that motivation is often very different for different salespeople.

Gallup’s researchers have met countless successful salespeople who did poorly in school.  Why? – Because school did not provide the right motivational rewards to satisfy them.  Gallup found phenomenal sales reps that were happy to earn $80,000 a year, and they have found phenomenal sales reps who are discontented when earning $300,000 a year.  If you’re anything like the best salespeople Gallup studied, your motivation is not one-dimensional.

Salespeople are often motivated by a desire to feel significant, or by competition, or by a desire to be in charge.  Some salespeople have an intense need for the respect of their colleagues or customers.  Your salespeople do what they do for their reasons, not yours.  Find out what drives them personally and find a way to synchronize what they want with what you want. Treating people fairly does not mean treating them all the same.

Next week I will address the second four myths.

If a sales rep doesn’t believe that he can actually do something, I can guarantee that that he won’t do it.  It’s like Henry Ford once said:  “One person believes they can, while the other believes that they can’t and they are both right.”  The person who doesn’t believe will not do it.  Their attitudes and beliefs become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Our beliefs form the foundation for everything we accomplish.  These beliefs cause us to make certain judgements.   These judgements, in turn, compel us to act in a certain way.  Our actions based upon these judgements generally deliver results that simply reinforce our original beliefs.

For instance, I once worked with a firm that sells a commodity product to the steel industry.  Despite its nickname as the Steel City, in the area surrounding Pittsburgh the steel industry has declined dramatically over the last twenty years.  The four salespeople who were working for the company at the time I began to work with them had all been with the company for a long time and they had witnessed this decline in the steel industry firsthand.  As a result, they had come to believe that there wasn’t a lot of new business left for their company within the steel industry. Their results reflected this.  For the previous five years, the cumulative sales of these four reps were stagnant.

Soon after I came along the company hired a young sales rep that was new to the area as well as to the industry.  Her manager instructed her to focus her efforts on the steel industry because they believed that there was a lot of untapped potential out in this market.  The company also had her work out of her home so that she had as little contact as possible with the other four sales reps.  In other words they isolated her from the others so that she would not be poisoned by the negative, non-supportive beliefs of the four “old-timers”.

The results were astounding.  In her first nine months on the job, she sold 60% more new business to the steel industry than the other four sales reps combined.  She just didn’t know that there wasn’t a lot of new business left in the steel industry. Therefore, if we are looking for different results we must first change the non-supportive, self-limiting beliefs that undermine our ability to achieve these results.  Here is how you do it.

(1)  The first step is to analyze your record collection to determine how and to what degree a particular belief is non-supportive by analyzing your record collection.

(2) Next, rewrite your records in a positive way so that if practiced, you will get the desired outcome.

(3)  Now, define the behavior that would be practiced by someone with the appropriate supportive belief.

(4)  Do this new behavior regardless of how you feel about it or what you actually believe. Make what you believe a function of how you act, instead of the other way around. In other words, “Fake it till you make it”.

(5)  Measure your results and track them on a daily basis.  This helps you to see it so that you will believe it.

(6)  Reinforce the new behaviors and the attitudes that support it daily in a journal.

Remember:  Do the behavior regardless of how uncomfortable you may feel in the beginning.  Positive affirmations alone will not be enough to change your beliefs.  Don’t let the way you feel determine the way you act.  Let the way you act determine the way you feel.  You will be astounded by the results

1. Never skip a step to get to any other step.
2. Make sure you and your prospect are in the same step at the same time.
3. Don’t leave a step until you are sure that you have completed that step.

There is no magic in what you do on a sales call, the magic is in when you do it.  It is the order, the sequence, in which you do what you do that matters.  Selling is the act of qualifying or disqualifying a prospect.  If we do it in the wrong sequence we waste a lot of time and put ourselves in a position where we are at a disadvantage.  Remember, to be effective, the selling process should be one of mutual benefit to both you and the buyer.

The whole idea behind the Client Builder Selling Process is that you should only present your solutions in the context of how it will solve your customer’s most compelling problems or opportunities, within the investment parameters they have shared with you and in a manner consistent with how they make their purchasing decisions.  This should only occur once the prospect has agreed to make a decision one way or another at the time you present your proof or within a mutually agreed timeframe.  Without a linked sequential process you simply can’t do this.

Wouldn’t you feel that way about any professional?  After all, accountants have systems for completing tax returns.  Lawyers have systems for creating contracts and documenting business deals.  Financial planners have systems for developing investment strategies and financial plans.  I wouldn’t be comfortable using the services of any professional who doesn’t use some kind of system in their professional work.  Systems not only save time for the busy professional, they ensure a consistent level of quality for the client.  If almost every respected professional has a system for what they do, why should it be any different for the professional salesperson or the business owner who is fulfilling the sales role?

You may not think this is a fair analogy.  After all, surgeons are involved in matters of life and death. But is anything more important than sales to the health of a small business?  Maybe if we took a more professional approach to sales, many small businesses wouldn’t fail.

To be successful at selling you need a sequential system or process for selling that ensures that you do the right things in the right way every time you are in front of a prospect.   A selling system is an overall strategy and set of techniques designed to ensure that you handle every buyer-seller interaction in as close to the optimum way as is humanly possible.  Our selling system is called the Client Builder Selling Process.

In my sales training workshops I often have the participants do an exercise that illustrates the benefit of using a system.  The participants are given a piece of paper with the numbers 1 though 100 randomly placed in rows across the page. They are then asked to circle the numbers in sequence starting with the number one, followed by the number 2 and so on and so forth.  They are given 30 seconds to find and circle as many numbers as they can in sequence.  On average, most people find and circle about 10.

They are then told the secret for improving their score. They are given a new copy with the same set of numbers and asked to fold it into four quadrants. They are shown how the 1 is in the upper left quadrant, the 2 is in the upper right quadrant, the 3 is in the lower left, and the 4 is in the lower right quadrant.  They go back to the upper left quadrant to find the 5, the upper right to find the 6 and so on and so forth.  Once again, they are given 30 seconds to find and circle as many of the numbers in sequence just as they did before.  Using this rudimentary system, their results are dramatically different.  Using a system, the participants are usually able to double or even triple their original score.

Although the exercise is simplistic, it does a great job of illustrating the benefits of using a system, benefits that are readily transferable to what takes place on a sales call.  Here are the top ten benefits of using a system for selling:

1.  It saves time.

2.  You make fewer mistakes.

3.  You can readily recognize and correct the mistakes you do make.

4.  You can learn from your mistakes.

5.  You can work at avoiding these mistakes.

6.  You can replicate the things that you do right.

7.   You always know where you stand in the process, and have a greater ability to correct course if you get off track.

8.  It increases your level of competence and confidence.

9.  You increase your ability to stay focused and on track during the appointment.

10. It gives you and your colleagues, a common language with which to share ideas, analyze past sales calls, and strategize upcoming appointments.

Without a process, you are at the prospect’s mercy and forever winging it without a clue as to why a prospect will or won’t buy what you have to offer.  You have a process for running every other aspect of your business.  Businesses operate according to processes in order to save time, reduce mistakes and maximize effectiveness.  The sales department shouldn’t be any different.  To save time, reduce mistakes and maximize effectiveness, you and your salespeople should use a process as well.

In cultivating this skill, it helps if you begin to adopt a new set of beliefs or paradigm about selling. Whereas the old school, traditional form of selling had its own set of guidelines or paradigm, the Client Builder Selling process has a paradigm of its own.

Under the old paradigm the salesperson wanted the sale for his or her reasons. Under the new paradigm the salesperson only wants the sale if it is good for both him and his new client.  The chart below shows the paradigm of the traditional salesperson along with the new paradigm that a salesperson using the Client Builder Selling process must embrace.

In the past many small business owners felt that selling was tough.  Armed with this new paradigm, along with the strategies outlined in this book, my hope is that you will find selling to be fun.

When I was in my 20’s (many years ago) I worked as a whitewater raft guide.  I was very good at navigating a raft through the rapids, but I wanted the thrill and excitement of riding the rapids in a kayak.  In addition, the guides in kayaks made about 50 percent more than the guides in rafts.  I decided to learn how to paddle a whitewater kayak,

Without ever having tried it, I went out and bought a used kayak and all the gear. With no experience and no knowledge of how to perform an Eskimo roll, I joined a kayaking club and began taking lessons in the relatively calm environment of my local swimming pool.  Soon thereafter, I found that I could do an Eskimo roll in the pool and I was ready to hit the river.

Wow! Was I in for a surprise. I quickly learned that it is a heck of lot easier to perform an Eskimo roll in the heated, calm water of a swimming pool than in the middle of Class 4 rapids with water temperatures in the 50’s.  On my first trip down the Lower Youghiogheny River, I flipped upside down in the very first rapid.  As my head plunged into the icy water my brain swirled in panic and the air rushed out my lungs.  Gasping for air, I ripped off the spray skirt and found myself struggling to swim in the turbulent water, my legs being pummeled by waves and rocks as I washed downstream.

By the time I reached a calm spot where I could drag myself ashore, my knees and shins were bruised and bleeding.  I was exhausted – and yet I still had another 8 miles of whitewater to go!  After retrieving my boat, I received a further beating when my boat flipped again in the very next rapid.  I was beginning to question my judgment for taking up this crazy sport.  After my second swim I played it safe for the rest of the river, avoiding the trouble spots and even walking around a couple of the more dangerous rapids.  It wasn’t exactly the good time I had hoped for.

I went back to the pool sessions and tried harder.  I knew that I had to train my body to react without thinking about the dangers.  I needed to get my Eskimo roll down to the point where it was automatic so that I could right myself before my fear of drowning kicked in.

After a couple more pool sessions I went back to the river to test my new skills.  Although I made it through the first rapid without flipping, I went over again in the middle of the second rapid, a class 5 rapid called Cucumber Falls.  Once again I found myself gasping for breath as I tried to swim to shore.  The following day as I shared my travails with my parents and my saner friends, they call encouraged me to give up the sport.

Never one to quit, I did the same river again on the following weekend.  As I approached Cucumber Falls, I had to shut out my fear.  Under my breath, I chanted the refrain from the little engine that could:  “I can do it, I can do it..”  However, once again, I flipped my boat.  Only this time I controlled my panic, set up, and rolled my kayak.

From that point forward, I started to enjoy the sport.  No more bloody shins.  No more experiments in drowning. While I flipped my kayak more than a hundred times in the years that followed, I almost never came out of my boat.  It’s now been thirty years and I still enjoy the sport.

My point in telling this story is that after three miserable trips down the river with repeated failures, I could have given up.  Had a done so, I would have missed out some of the best experiences of my life along with some great friendships.

Owning your own business or a sales career is not unlike kayaking down a river for the first time. You don’t always know what’s ahead of you.  There are challenges that you are not always prepared for, and let’s face it, as business owners and sales professionals we have those times when we are afraid, not for our lives, but for our livelihood.

The same is true for salespeople.  For the uninitiated, selling looks easy.  Until you have to do it and you begin to realize that it is more difficult than you imagined. As you apply the strategies and tactics presented in this manual, there are going to be those times when you are not sure that you can do it.  You can.  There are times when, despite giving it your best effort, you will fail.

Don’t give up.  We learn far more from our failures then we do from our success.  If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not pushing past your zone of comfort.  If you are not willing to push yourself, you won’t grow as a professional or as a person. In the early going, you are not going to be good at much of what I present in this book.  Push past your discomfort. Practice. Work at it.  Consider your failures to be nothing more than stepping stones on the road to becoming more successful.

This same principal applies to the people that work for you.  As a business owner or as a manager you should never punish failure; you should only punish a lack of effort. Failure is often the first step toward becoming successful. It takes hundreds of hours to master the art of selling.  If you punish failure, your salespeople will give up before they have the chance to become good.

Don’t allow yourself or your salespeople to go back to doing things the traditional way.  Although the traditional way of selling might appear easier or might feel more comfortable, it doesn’t work very well anymore. You need to change, and change is never easy, but in the end, it’s worth it.

In time, you will find yourself doing things on a sales call you never thought you could do.  The process you are going to learn works.  Trust in it. It just takes time and practice.  Give yourself and your people permission to fail while you grow increasingly more adept at using our strategies and techniques.

“Maybe’s” and “think-it-overs” waste your time.  They cause you to follow-up on deals that should have been dropped from your pipeline.  They give you false hopes.  They prevent you dedicating your energy to more prospecting.  They are poison to your sales career.  Eliminate the “think-it-overs” and you’ll blow through quotas faster than Usain Bolt running the 100 meter dash.

The way to do this is to tell your prospects up front that it is okay to say “no” and then push for a no (instead of a yes) whenever your prospect shows any ambivalence about becoming your customer.  Don’t be arrogant.  Don’t be tough.  Be sincere and nurturing, but be firm. The wrong tonality is going to sound like sour grapes.  Help your ambivalent customers bring an end to the sales process so that you can quit wasting their time and yours, and find someone who is more likely to buy. The best part of going for “no” is that your prospect will never feel threatened or manipulated into doing something they don’t want to do.

Traditionally, salespeople have always pushed a prospect towards saying “yes”.  We’ve all heard the line:  “What’s it going to take for you to buy from me today”; or the ubiquitous “If I can show you a way … will you buy from me?”  In pushing for a “yes”, the traditional salesperson makes their prospect feel like they are being “sold’, and they naturally resist.  People love to buy but they hate to be sold.

Instead of pushing your prospect to buy from you, you should tell your prospect up front that at some point they will need to make a decision.  Obviously a decision to buy from you would be wonderful, but a “no” is also okay.  As you move through the sales process you are constantly seeking agreement on whether you should take the next step together.  At the end of the sales process, your prospect knows that are expected to make a final decision one way or another by giving you a yes or no.

If by the end of the sales process, they still aren’t sure, don’t back down and accept a “think-it-over”.  Nicely explain to them that you would love to have them as a customer, but if they aren’t comfortable saying “yes”, you will happily accept a “no” and with their permission, close their file.  Oh, and by the way, if they need to think about it, you are going to have to assume that, in their mind, it really isn’t a good fit and you will take that as a “no”.   We call this “going for the ‘no”

When you go for the no, one of two things will happen.  A prospects that isn’t really interested in buying your product or service will admit that it’s over, thereby freeing up your time to spend with prospects that are truly interested.   However, prospects that are interested (but still aren’t convinced that they should buy your product or service) will not want you to go away.  In going for the “no” you will shake out the hidden obstacles and uncover the real issues that are preventing the sale from happening. Once these concerns are out in the open you can address them and give your prospect another opportunity to make a final decision.

The fact of the matter is that while most salespeople say they would like to hear the truth, they actually avoid uncovering the truth when they think the answer might be “no”.  Crazy as it sounds, many salespeople would rather hang on to a familiar prospect long after a deal is dead rather than pursue a stranger who might actually buy.

By the way, if you actually get a “no”, clarify whether it is a no “forever” or a no “for now”.  Just because a prospect isn’t qualified today doesn’t mean that they won’t be qualified someday.  Ask them if they want to continue to hear from you in the future.  If they do, ask them what needs to change for it to make sense for you to revisit this issue with them in a meaningful way and when it would be appropriate for you to follow up.

Ask them if they would like to stay on your mailing list, so that you can continue to send them relevant articles and case studies on the problems you’ve solved for other companies like theirs.  Just because they aren’t ready to buy today, doesn’t mean that they won’t be ready to buy someday.

If your prospect has a problem you can fix, but they don’t have the money or aren’t willing to spend the money to fix the problem, it’s over. Once again, they are disqualified.

If they have a problem you can fix and they are willing and able to spend the money to fix it, but the person you are dealing with does not have the authority to make a decision and will not give you access to the person who writes the checks, once again, it’s over. It’s time to move on.

As you work your way through the Client Builder Selling process, you should constantly be asking these questions of yourself.  If your prospect doesn’t have pain, or refuses to recognize it; if they don’t have any money, or they refuse to spend it;  and if they can’t make a decision they are disqualified and you should no longer view them as a prospect. You should close the file and move on.

As the late Bill Brooks used to say: “The secret to selling is to be in front of qualified prospects when they are ready to buy, not when you need to make a sale.”  If the prospect is not qualified, move on and find someone who is.  With our process, you will know when to disqualify a prospect and how to disqualify them before they disqualify you.  When your prospect isn’t qualified, it is time to gracefully exit. Your prospect will be better off and so will you.

The most important resource you have as a business person is your time. Allocate it wisely.  You want to spend your time with clients and prospects that are most likely to buy your products or services.  Smart business people don’t waste time with prospects who are not qualified.