Years ago, when I was in high school, we did a short unit on Philosophy.  You’ll have to forgive me for not remembering which class included this unit – high school was quite awhile ago.  In any case, the teacher began the unit with an anecdote that, for him, summed up philosophy.  As part of a college philosophy class, the instructor brought the class in for the final, and told them that the final was one question, written on the blackboard.  The question was, “Why?”  The students began writing furiously, some filling page after page with verbiage answering the question, “Why?”  One student quickly finished and left.  When the grades were posted, this one student received the only “A” in the class.  His answer?  One word – “Because.”

I recount this story because it’s funny, and as they say, if it isn’t true, it ought to be.  I also recount this story because it seems to me that the most important questions in professional selling are the ones that begin with the word, “Why?”  Not coincidentally, these are also some of the questions that frighten salespeople the most (because they’re scared of the answer).  They shouldn’t.  Being a true professional salesperson entails a thorough knowledge of one’s products, one’s customers, and oneself.  It also entails a level of intellectual curiosity that demands that questions be asked and answered; questions unasked can never uncover a need or a buying motive.  With that, I’d like to give you my top five questions that begin with “Why,” and how asking these questions consistently can make you a better salesperson.

Why do my customers buy from me? Salespeople usually have no problem with asking why customers do not buy from them; postmortems on lost sales are part and parcel of a learning process.  However, salespeople who attempt to understand why they win business better position themselves to continue winning it, now and into the future.  It’s the difference between playing offense and playing defense; knowing why they buy from you teaches you to win.  Knowing why they don’t conditions you to prevent loss.  Both are important, but ultimately, knowing how to win is the most powerful thing you can learn.

Why would a customer be interested in seeing me? Like it or not, teleprospecting for appointments is part and parcel of most good salespeoples’ routines.  This isn’t a bad thing if you do it right.  Unfortunately, too many salespeople endeavor to use their precious phone time to educate, rather than to motivate. You can teach your customer all about what you do without interesting him or her in seeing you; instead of that, why not look for what excites and motivates customers to invest the time with you?  If you’re stuck, ask the customers who do appoint you why they did.  It can be a great educational experience that helps you get more appointments in the future.

Why should a customer buy my stuff over my competitors’? I’m sure you can recite features and benefits of your products as if they were tattooed into your brain.  The more important question is how those features and benefits stack up against your competitors’ products, and for what needs are your products more appropriate?  Can you identify those needs that make your product a better purchase – and which ones do not?

Why would fellow salespeople want to network with me? Networking is a great way to build your business and generate referrals – but do your networking partners truly win when they work with you?  Are you as active in generating referrals as your networking partners are for you?  If you can’t come up with reasons for networking partners to want to be a part of your network, you might consider making some changes in how you handle your relationships.

Why do I sell? I saved the best for last.  Sales is a tough job, and without the proper motivation, it’s even tougher.  Without knowing or understanding what it is that makes you want to sell, the peaks may never be as high as they could be, and the valleys could be career-killers. For a little self-analysis, make a list of the things you love about sales, and keep it handy.  There will be times when you’ll need it.

Of course, this is only a small sampling of the “Why?” questions that salespeople need to ask of themselves, their employers, and their customers.  Without the intellectual curiosity to ask them, however, you will never be as effective as you could be.

In small business, one of the least understood roles is that of the sales manager.  Sales managers tend to be very highly valued when the sales force is struggling (“We’ve got to get someone in here to turn this thing around”), while that same sales manager can be seen as easily expendable when the sales force is doing well (“Well, the salespeople are the ones bringing the sales in; we can cut this guy’s salary”).  The truth is that the RIGHT sales manager, with the RIGHT structure, can be a huge asset to companies large and small.  This month, let’s clear up some of the misunderstandings and misconceptions about the field of sales management.

1. The best salespeople make the best sales managers. This one is false in a big way.  It’s important for sales managers to be competent salespeople, but in truth, actual selling is one of the least important roles.  The very best salespeople tend to be very internally focused on their own territories, time, and customers, and have a difficult time transitioning that focus to an external focus on other salespeople’s territories, time, and customers.I’ve found that the most important skill for a sales manager is the ability to competently diagnose and coach sales problems in order to develop the talents of their staff.  Coaching and diagnostics is a continuous responsibility, not a one-time responsibility; and the best sales managers seek to improve their salespeople a little bit every day.  With this myth goes the #1 mistake made by small business owners – promoting their top salesperson to be the sales manager.  Usually, this one costs the company a good salesperson, plus one or two existing salespeople.  If the person you’re promoting would rather watch one of their salespeople close the big deal than close the big deal themselves, you have the right person.
2. Firing someone is a great way to “wake up” a sales team. Not necessarily.  In fact, fire someone arbitrarily to shake things up, and you’ll have lost credibility with your sales force that you can never get back.  If you’ve read this space before, you know that, unless exceptional circumstances exist, you shouldn’t fire a salesperson without a warning and an opportunity for them to correct themselves.  Fire an underperforming salesperson after a performance improvement period, and the rest of your sales staff will understand.  Salespeople know who’s getting the job done and who’s not.  Fire someone out of the blue, and the rest of your sales staff will never trust you again.
3. It’s okay to have high turnover as long as you replace weak players with strong ones. False.  This only works for a while; at some point, a sales manager should be free of weak players.  When a new sales manager takes over a struggling sales force, it’s expected that some “inherited” underperformers will likely go away, but from that point, a good sales manager should be hiring strong players rather than weak ones.  Companies that justify ongoing high turnover are companies that suffer significant lost sales productivity.  Turnover is costly, both in financial terms and in human terms – so good sales managers work to minimize it whenever possible.
4. A sales manager’s job is about hiring and firing. False.  While hiring and firing are important pieces of the job, the majority of a sales manager’s time shouldn’t be devoted to turnover-related issues.  Good sales managers approach their sales staff the same way they approach their customer base:  They work to Acquire quality new salespeople; Develop the talents and productivity of their current sales staff; and Retain the performers they have.  This is an ongoing effort, not an occasional one.The best sales managers are constantly monitoring the performance, activity, and mindset of their salespeople to spot potential current and future problems.  They run interference with other departments to help their salespeople focus on selling (rather than handling unnecessary and non-productive work), they teach new skills, they look for new markets or sales approaches, and they communicate information gathered at customer level back up to the senior management.  It’s not a small job, and the sales manager who spends a majority of his/her time on turnover is a sales manager who isn’t succeeding.  Turnover is the enemy of sales success; stability is its ally.
5. You can’t teach someone how to be a sales manager. False.  In fact, most companies don’t even try, and that’s why so many new sales managers fail.  Sales management is a skill set, and like most other skill sets in business, it can be taught.  There is a certain amount of instinct involved in knowing which salespeople have “it” and which ones don’t, but even that instinct can be developed over a period of time.  If you are a business owner and promoting a new sales manager, you owe it to yourself (and your sales manager) to investigate ways to educate them on their new responsibilities and tasks.

Sales management can (and should) be an important role in the world of small business – few things are more important to small business than the exchange of money for your products or services, and a sales force makes that happen.  The key is to select the right person and then empower that person to make the things happen that need to happen.

A while back, I was talking to a salesperson that I know who sells for a small business.  This business is a wholesale distributor of B2B products, and those products are manufactured by a nationally known, Highly Branded Company (you’d know it immediately if I typed the name – let’s call them HBC for brevity). He had been struggling with appointment setting, and was anxious to tell me about his new approach.

He calls his prospect, and says, “This is (name) with HBC, and I’m calling because…”  I had to have him repeat himself, but it was as I thought.  He was representing himself as an employee for the HBC, rather than a distributor of HBC.  When I asked him about it, he explained that by representing himself this way, he didn’t have to educate his prospect on what he does.  While that makes a certain kind of logic, there’s a big problem with this approach, and in that big problem there are some answers for those of you who sell for small businesses.

The problem is simple.  The salesperson is LYING.  Not stretching the truth, not fudging, not spinning.  He’s LYING.  If someone were to call HBC looking for him (and in fact, there is an office of HBC in his town), they wouldn’t know him from Adam.  He doesn’t work for HBC, doesn’t get a paycheck from HBC, and if HBC wanted him to represent them, they’d have hired him.

The fact is that our biggest asset is trust – the trust we establish with our customers, our prospects, and our employers.  When the very first thing you tell your customers is a lie, how do you expect to maintain that trust?  Simple:  You can’t.

Of course, there’s still that problem of selling for small business.  Small business selling is different, because unless you’re selling for a franchise, you don’t have branding working for you.  In fact, one of the first things you have to do when selling for small business is to educate your prospect on what it is that you do, and why you do it well.  Let’s face it:  That’s a burden that salespeople for HBC’s like Xerox, UPS, or Coca-Cola never really have to cross.  It’s even tougher when you’re a small business salesperson selling against HBC’s.  Let’s talk about some ways to bridge that gap:

Less is more when it comes to introductions. We already know that salespeople for HBC’s don’t have to expend words on “what we do.”  You should work on a “what you do” statement that is powerful, yet concise. If you can’t sum up how you help your customers in one concise sentence, you need to revise your introduction.  Don’t feel that you have to give your prospects and customers a full education on the telephone; focus on getting them interested enough to see you.

Let the buying experience be your edge. HBC’s and other large corporations are perceived (rightly in some cases, wrongly in others) as impersonal and uncaring.  Differentiate yourself by the quality of your buying experience.  Take the time to get to know your customer rather than overloading him with meaningless information about your product.  Make yourself the difference.

Don’t use “underdog” selling. One of the approaches I hate the most is the “We’re the underdog, and that’s why you should buy from us.”  It’s the sales equivalent of begging for a mercy kiss.  If you position yourself as the underdog, your customer will assume that there’s a reason for your underdog status; namely, you’re not very good at what you do.  Always sell based on your higher ability to help your customers, and back it up with testimonials.

Your company history is probably meaningless to your customer. The most overused paper in the world of selling is the “Company History” page that leads roughly 80% of the proposals issued.  Here’s the truth:  If your prospect really cares how long your company has been in business and who owns it, they’ll ask.  If they don’t ask, don’t bore them to tears with fifteen minutes on the wonderful 30-year history of your company.

“Agent of” is a great phrase. I started this article with an example of a salesperson that I know who sells for small business.  Although representing himself as an employee of the HBC is completely wrong, it’s perfectly OK to say, “I work for XYZ company, an authorized agent of HBC.”  That conveys what he does concisely to his prospect while being completely truthful.

Having been involved in small business selling for most of my 17 years in sales, I can tell you that small businesses can compete with, and beat the pants off of, the big boys.  But it has to be done truthfully and in ways that focus on what your buyer wants, and less on what you want.

Every day, salespeople commit suicide – or at least, professional suicide. The scenario goes something like this:

Skeptical Customer: “So, why should I buy from you? We’ve been buying from (company X) for years.

Earnest Salesperson (smelling the sale): “But, we have great service!” Or, if Earnest Salesperson decides to put a little extra oomph behind it, “We have the best service in the business!” Earnest Salesperson confidently smiles at Skeptical Customer, knowing that at any moment Skeptical Customer is going to reach for his checkbook. Instead, Skeptical Customer yawns and says, “Yeah, but everybody says that. Why should I buy from you?” And another sale dies before its time.

It doesn’t have to be that way, but it is that way more often than salespeople would like to admit. Why do we do this to ourselves? Answer: because, Einstein, you – or your boss – don’t have a better idea. Want the truth? Everybody says they have the best service. When everybody says it, it’s meaningless. And yet there are businesses – lots of ‘em – where service is the main differentiator between competitors. There are also buyers – again, lots of ‘em – who make service the main criteria in their buying decision. Sales result when salespeople communicate “great service” to a buyer who wants to buy “great service.” Of course, to make that sale, your “great service” proposition has to stand out from the white noise of your competitors promising “great service.” Making your “great service” stand out from your competitors – and making it mean something – is a three step process.

To effectively sell a promise of “great service,” you must do three things: first, you must Define exactly what that great service means to the customer; you must Offer Proof of your specific service; and you must Have Consequences for failure to provide that service. Sound tough? It is – but it isn’t. Some of America’s best companies have been built on this simple philosophy.

First of all, Define your great service. Preferably, you’ll do that by offering something that your competitors don’t. Start out this way: get your key people together. Include salespeople, customer service people, department managers, and anyone else whose primary responsibility is dealing with the customer. Go around the room and ask each person to come up with one specific thing your company does to add value to its product or service offering. Then, next to each thing, write the benefit to the customers. Make this a no B.S. meeting – only list those things you really do consistently, not the things you only do on your best day when all the stars are aligned properly, and the boss is in a good mood.

When you have all the ideas in the room, you have a nice feature-and-benefit list for the sales department. Now, on the board, go over each item and ask which competitors do the same thing. When two or more competitors do it, erase it. It’s good for the salespeople to know, but it’s not your “great service” offering. You should be able to come up with one or more things that make you unique, are specific, and have tangible benefit to the customer. (If not, get to work and figure out something you can do.) You have now defined your service offering.

Next, you must Offer Proof. A good way to do this is with a specific written service policy. A better way to do it is with written references from happy customers who have received quality service from you. Either way, salespeople should carry a “brag book” and be prepared to prove their “great service” promise.

Finally, you need to Have Consequences for not living up to your service promise. The most common form of this is a money-back guarantee, but it doesn’t have to be the only consequence. Other forms of consequences for failure to provide service could include merchandise or merchandise certificates, some sort of gift to the customer (such as a catered lunch for their employees), or other “make good” gesture. The key here is that the consequences need to be part of your written service policy, and they should be presented to the customer as part of the service presentation, rather than decided upon after the fact.

In real life, there are several excellent examples of how this type of service promise can help to build a company. Perhaps the best one is Domino’s Pizza. Now, I can’t think of anyone – including Domino’s founder Tom Monaghan – who would say that Domino’s is the best pizza you can buy. Monaghan’s concept was that, if you called Domino’s for a pizza, you’d have it in 30 minutes or less (thus Defining his “great service” proposition). Domino’s made that service proposition part of its advertising (Offering Proof with their written policy), and gave you the pizza free if it took longer than 30 minutes (the Consequence for failure). This simple promise grew Domino’s from a single college-town pizza joint to one of the largest fast food companies in America. Domino’s was eventually forced to drop this policy due to a couple of lawsuits resulting from overzealous delivery driving, but it’s still rare to get a Domino’s pizza in less than 30 minutes.

Domino’s service promise has been copied in one form or another by restaurants from coast to coast. One common version is where a restaurant usually known for dinner will institute a “timed lunch” offering, where lunch is guaranteed to be served within a certain time from ordering, or it’s free. Another version is the “quick oil change” outlet that guarantees a full oil change and fluid check within 20 minutes, or it’s free. Both service promises are targeted at busy people who don’t have time to linger over small tasks.

Let’s put the three-step process to work for a hypothetical business. Whenever I go new car shopping, I’ll always ask the salesperson, “Why should I buy here when there are several other dealers selling the same car?” The salesperson will enthusiastically reply that they have – you guessed it – “great service.” No sale. But what if the car dealer put some meat into the promise? A program could be started where the salesperson could honestly reply, “Because buying a car here gets you extra privileges in our service department. When a car that’s been purchased here is brought in for routine maintenance, we guarantee that the maintenance will be finished within X time, or it’s free, no matter what. With or without an appointment, we put you to the head of the line if you buy your car here. Here’s a copy of our service policy.” Now, there’s a service promise that means something.

Service promises don’t have to be elaborate. If your company gets a lot of phone calls for service or support, how about a promise that the phone will be answered by a real human being who is empowered to help? The cable TV company’s promise that “our person will be there between 8 A.M. and 6 P.M”. doesn’t mean much to me – but the air conditioning repairman’s promise that he’ll be there at 4 P.M “and if you don’t mind, allow me a half hour either way” does. Make it matter to your customers, and it’ll matter to you.

Of course, every business doesn’t necessarily have to have a service promise. Businesses that differentiate from their competition on price (like Wal-Mart), by product (like Apple Computers), or by emotional appeal (like a sports or entertainment business) don’t usually provide service promises – but if yours does, make sure to define it. Your salespeople and your customers will thank you.

As I started going through their customer list, I noticed that their top customer was pretty profitable because they had held good margins, and also that the sales and profits generated from this single customer were greater than the sales and profits generated from the next four customers COMBINED.  Since I had the company owner, sales manager, and salesperson for this account in the room, I asked if they were selling this customer everything they could.  No, they responded, they had about half of the business that they could have, and their biggest competitor had the other half.  I asked what their plan was to pursue the rest of the business, and they explained that they didn’t want to go after the other half, because they didn’t want to “stir anything up,” they were happy with what they had.  I then asked if they thought their competitor felt the same way – and I watched three people turn white as a sheet.  It had never occurred to them that their competitor might be after THEIR half of the business.

I explained to them that, unless they knew their competitor had the same complacent stance that they did, this account should be considered in jeopardy.  I asked the salesperson how often he was in there.  He said that he was in weekly.  I then asked about the competitor’s salesman.  “He’s in there weekly, too.  Matter of fact, I see him sometimes,” was the response.  I told them that if their competitor’s salesman was making better use of his visits than the one at the table, they could be in trouble.

We then strategized a way to start going after the other half of the business.  Unfortunately, this story doesn’t have a happy ending.  We were too late.  As it turns out, the competitor had been selling the virtues of their products and of single-sourcing for about a year – and they got the deal a few weeks after my conversation.  My client’s salesman did get into the mix, but too far behind the competitor.  A short month after the initial meeting, my client was out – and hurting badly.

The moral of this story?  Simple.  Fear is bad.  My client hadn’t pursued the rest of the business because they were scared.  They were scared of the re-evaluation of their current business that might happen while they were pursuing the new business.  Paralyzed by this fear, they talked themselves into thinking that they were in a good situation and “happy.”  They weren’t.  They built their sales strategy around trying not to lose, rather than trying to win.

Their competitor wasn’t scared of being found wanting.  Nor was their competitor afraid of taking a risk for a big reward.  By taking that risk, they not only got the new business, they solidified their hold on the existing business (since their competitors no longer have a reason to be there all the time).  They deepened their relationships, and are making a LOT more money, since the increase in business can be covered by the same salesman with about the same investment in time.

If you hadn’t figured it out yet, the point is that the best defense is a good offense.  Don’t talk yourself into thinking that your competitors won’t go for your business – because they will.  Don’t get too comfortable with a partial share of a customer’s business – because you’ll lose it to someone who isn’t comfortable.  Here are some quick guidelines for selling to current customers:

1.    Have an agenda for each call, and use it to advance the relationship.
2.    Always have a customer in a sales funnel for additional products and services.
3.    Keep selling to them until you have 100% of the business you can service.
4.    Don’t be afraid of your customers reviewing your effectiveness.  They do anyway.  Wouldn’t you rather prompt it than have your competitor do so?
5.    Fix any problems before your customer discovers them.
6.    Never, ever, ever trust your competition.

Play not to lose, and you’re guaranteed to lose.  Play to win, and you’ll win more often than you lose.

THE HOT QUESTION:

Troy, I’m trying to roll out a new service line, and I’m having a tough time getting people to understand what it is so that I can get appointments to sell to them.  I use a personal commercial, but I seldom get to finish it before my prospect says they’re not interested.  Do you have any ideas?  B.L, San Diego, CA

B.L., it’s pretty simple.  If you can’t finish your personal commercial, there are only a few possible problems:  First, maybe it’s too long.  If you can’t get through your intro and a strong benefit statement in 15 seconds, shorten it.  Second, you may not be communicating a powerful enough benefit.  Instead of communicating what your product is, focus on what it does, and why someone would buy it.  Communicate that, and it should help.  Finally, you may be calling the wrong people.  Is it realistic to think that your prospects will, in fact, buy this product?  Work with those parameters, and your appointments should go up.  Good luck, and good selling!