Prior to the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) many salespeople didn't have to work too hard or too smart to be successful in their roles.

Based on a combination of the strength of the Products/Services they were selling and a buoyant economy, Selling was relatively simple.

Banjar has observed many so-called 'salespeople' who, in reality, operate more as 'order takers'. From our observations an order taker might have a good customer-service skills and represent their organisation professionally, however, they lack the ability to develop a more sophisticated understanding of their customers and struggle to develop a strategic or tactical approach to Selling.

In what is expected to be an increasingly competitive global marketplace, organisations will need to distinguish between genuine salespeople and 'order takers'. 

Do any of your salespeople have the characteristics detailed blow?

If so, grab them, hug them and clone them!

These five traits are not only key to their success, and obviously that of your business, but will be critical to continued success on the future.

It is from this strong foundation that these professional sales people will grow, adapt and thrive in the new business environment.  They will take challenges head on with enthusiasm and vigour.  They will not be daunted by the future but rather be excited by the opportunities this presents.

Is this how your sales team are behaving?

·       Customer Service Orientation - Making efforts to listen to and understand the customer. Anticipating customer needs and giving high priority to customer satisfaction

·       Curious and Inquisitive - Remaining positive and upbeat about the future and their ability to influence it to their advantage. Constantly looking for opportunities.

·       Creative –Coming-up with new ideas and original solutions to move things forward and being flexible in their approach.

·       Energetic and Active - Demonstrating passion and energy when communicating goals, beliefs, interests or ideas they feel strongly about and generating results through activity.

·       Professional - Having a strong belief in self and one's abilities to accomplish tasks and goals. Representing the organisation appropriately and responsibly. 

Everyone is different, that’s a given. BUT, our insight reveals there are particular competencies that are the standard of successful and influential sales professionals.

It is our belief that the following competencies have, and will continue to be, crucial to success in Sales:.

·       Planning - Taking a well-ordered and methodical approach to tasks to achieve planned outcomes.

·       Attention to Detail - Paying attention to detail in order to produce high quality output, no matter what the pressures.

·       Communication - Using verbal communication effectively as well as expressing ideas clearly in e-mail, proposals and other written communication.

·       Listening Skills – Seeking to genuinely understand other people by paying full attention to what they are saying and respecting their perspective.

·       Questioning Skills – Asking open questions that cleverly help the client identify challenges and opportunities. 

Organisations and individual salespeople need to develop strong networks in order to constantly drive Sales.

Although 'cold calling' may still remain part of some salespeople's repertoire, identifying opportunities through referrals and recommendations, or from people within their 'network', is critical.

Many organisations are recognising the emerging opportunities that Social Networking presents. Although a well-developed Social Networking Strategy is critical to contemporary business development, we still recommend face-to-face networking as the primary mechanism for developing business.

B2B Sales typically involves contracts with substantial dollar values and the vast majority of Buyers or Procurement personnel want to place an order with people they believe they can trust.

Face-to-face relationships are critical to building trust.

With this in mind, below is a list of essential qualities that have always been required of good salespeople and we believe will continue to be required for sustainable success into the future:

·      The ability to develop trust and confidence with other people

·      Personal integrity and honesty

·      An ability to self-promote and articulate the organisation's Value Proposition

·      Confidence and belief (self and organisational)

Good salespeople are increasingly difficult to identify and recruit using traditional methods.

Although the importance of good salespeople has always been recognised, the methods used to identify, recruit and develop salespeople in the future will need to be increasingly innovative. The traditional approach has often involved recruiting successful salespeople from direct competitors or from other non-competing industries.

We believe that, in the future, organisations will need to find Sales talent from currently untapped sources.

Many salespeople in the future will not see themselves as pursuing a career in Sales. They will, however, possess the skills, capabilities and attitude required for Sales success in the right organisation.

Organisations need to understand what qualities and capabilities are required by staff involved in their sales process and, in turn, they must develop the mechanisms to identify, attract and develop these people.

The challenge is so great that even us, Banjar Group, have taken up the fight – to find and place exceptional sales professionals. Natural Selection is our way of identifying and recruiting exceptional sales people for our clients.

Check out Natural Selection: www.banjargroup.com.au/natural-selection-recruitment

You all know I like a good story. It's about the shared experience.

Amazingly in this tecnological age, storytelling is making a comeback. Technology is allowing us to share stories in so many ways: video, audio, mp3, pintrest, youtube, animoto etc etc etc.

In business, storytelling is keeping customers engaged. Interested in our company, our products, our services, our developments. The power of this connection lays in the customer seeking out more about us!

When it comes to brands and marketing, the application of story now needs to go beyond the traditional and ubiquitous tool of brand story; rather, it’s about engaging consumers in a brand’s stories and using the construct of stories and storytelling to create powerful connections. While the transition to digital media drove a focus toward content, today with ever more social tools and communication media, there’s a need for cohesive and meaningful connections in a marketing world that is now labeled “always on,” demanding more of brand communication. This is where story comes into play.

Kathy Oneto is vice president of brand strategy at Anthem Worldwide and has great insight on the subject.
"Why stories? It seems we’re all catching on to their effectiveness in connecting with people. When information is communicated in story form, we seem to remember it better and be affected by it more deeply. Brands are telling these stories across a number of different mediums--from packaging to video to visual and verbal content." Some tips on storytelling can be found from research consultancy Latitude, which recently released part one of its study, “The Future of Storytelling,” which identifies trends and audience attitudes about content. The tips Latitude provides on telling stories are the following:

1. IMMERSION  - Create an immersive experience through content that is delivered in multi-media and that is multi-sensory;
2. INTERACTIVITY  - Allow the consumer to become a part of it;
3. INTEGRATION  - Ensure there is coherence across the many touchpoints; and
4. IMPACT  - Make it lead to action
"Again, the difference today for marketers is twofold--storytelling is not an internal exercise alone; rather, it is an exercise that should engage the consumer. Brand stories need to now live day to day with the engagement of consumers to create strong, long-lasting bonds across all touchpoints, from packaging to video to visual and verbal content. Such a requirement transforms how marketers need to think about their role. It becomes less about directing and more about curating a brand and consumer journey."
Read Kathy's article and share your thoughts on how you might employ a story to ignite interest in your business, product or service.

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I have just been reading an article in the Harvard Business Review (July-August 2012) and was intrigued with the headline: ‘The End of Solution Selling’.

The article announces that “the old playbook no longer works” and that “star salespeople now seek to upend the customer’s current approach to doing business”.  Bold statement and interesting observation I thought.

For many years we have championed the cause of sales professionals solving the problems of their customers to win business, and ensure repeat business - solution selling. 

But in recent times it has become apparent that being the font of all knowledge to our clients and solving all their problems is not enough. For a start, customers make an approach or enquiry armed with more knowledge of our product or service than ever before. They have researched and compared all before walking through our door.

As the article outlines, “customers completed, on average, nearly 60% of a typical purchasing decision – researching solutions, ranking options, setting requirements, benchmarking pricing, and so on – before even having a conversation with a supplier”. With this in mind, the celebrated ”solution sales rep” can be more of an annoyance than an asset!

“Insight selling” is now the mantra of the best salespeople. It is a new strategy that demands a radically different approach across several areas of the purchasing process.

Sales professionals need to be adaptive. Solution selling skills need to be complemented with strategies to challenge, insights to engage clients and the touch to coach how they should buy. Successful reps “may still be selling insights. And in this new world, that makes the difference between a pitch that goes nowhere and one that secures the customer’s business.”

The full articles is linked on our website, so take the time to have a read and see how Insight Selling might better suit the ‘new age’ customer in your market?

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Hope all is well in your sales land. Are you becoming a sales cat yet?

Why do we often talk more than we should? When other people talk too much, we notice immediately. When we talk too much, everyone else notices—except us. 

Here are a few possible explanations why it happens: 

1.      Anxiety. People who are anxious use an avalanche of words to avoid dealing with potential conflict (like a prospect saying "no"). Instead of balancing talking with listening, they believe that their wall of words will protect them from what they imagine as a threat. They often refuse to give up control of the conversation by adding a trail of words that echo the ones that they've expressed previously. 

2.      Lack of preparation. The less clear we are on any given subject, the more words it will take us to talk about it. Here is an eye-opening exercise. Ask a salesperson to make a presentation about your company as if you were a new prospect. Time the presentation. Next, ask the salesperson to write a brief, but concise description of your product or service in 180 words. Now, read the copy at normal speed. How much time did it take? About one minute. It should not take more time to engage a prospect.

3.      Stress. When we are tired we tend to ramble and our ability to concentrate begins to decrease. Our brain responds to mental fatigue by producing more words and less meaning. The cure: Get enough sleep, eat healthy and exercise regularly.

4.      Lack of a roadmap. Do you know where your conversation will lead before you start talking? If not, write down the answers to three questions: What is my call objective? What information do I need to get? What information do I plan to give? Stay on track, stay on message and don’t skip vital steps.

5.      Lack of a time budget. Decide to invest a specific amount of time for each call and stick to it. If you are a manager and you want to save time, conduct your meetings standing up. This forces people to be brief and to the point. If you meet with longwinded people, ask the moment they get on your nerves: "We have another five minutes, what else do we need to cover?

6.      Lack of humility. Some people think that everything they say is profound and important. When they talk, they experience a rush of good feelings and they often fall in love with their own words. They may use catch phrases and complex language to impress their customers. Being expressive is nice, however good relationships require us to be receptive to others.

7.      Ineffective thinking. While some salespeople continue to hopscotch from problem to problem, others quickly get to the core of a customer's problem, solve it and close the sale. Decide which thinking style would be most helpful to achieve your objective: convergent thinking or divergent thinking? Convergent thinking leads to a focal point in the middle of a circle, divergent thinking radiates - like the sun - away from the centre in every direction. Divergent thinking opens people's minds; it leads to new ideas, thoughts and possibilities. As a result, the conversation goes on and on. Convergent thinking leads to conclusions, and concrete results, like a closed sale.

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Sales is shifting again. We have moved on from the order taker – the GFC fixed that. The GFC gobbled up natural demand and forced the real sales people to thrive; and thrive they have. The order taker sales person is finished.

Sales people who have survived the order taker cull have decided to tell faster. These people don't get the rules of the sales cat. They figure the more they know and the faster they can tell people about it the more sales they will make. Right? Wrong.

This behaviour of course allows the cream to rise to the top. Enter the transformers.

These are the sales people that live in the third circle of selling. 

The first circle is all about product knowledge, throwing it at the marketplace and hoping for sales.

The second circle sees the sales person pitch the product at the customer, adding some value and describing how it may help them.

The  third circle is where the knowledge of the customers environment, combined with the problem the product solves for the customer, integrates a mature approach to business dynamics.

Transformers get how their 'stuff' solves business problems.
Transformers can link product, problems and solutions very well.
Transformers are masters at getting customers to see the value.
Transformers sell outcomes not more 'stuff!'
Transformers deliver 87% of sales results.

In this new world of selling it will be the transformers who thrive. Do you have one? Do you know who the others are and what they are costing your business?

Transformers – the sales cat of today.

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There is a common myth in sales circles that sales people are born not trained. Of course this is nonsense. Send me the details of any midwife that recognised an up and coming sales person like Zig Zigler at birth!

The facts are that selling and the science of selling, like any science, is a learnt skill. The basic foundations of this learning are effective communication, planning, goal orientation and problem solving. These elements combined form the foundations of what we call "Sales Swagger” or the “Sales Essence” of an individual.

For many years now I have said consultants are in a privileged position when it comes to selling. They generally have a fantastic ability to solve problems. They have become good listeners by being forced to understand their clients issues in order to offer solutions. They also, if involved in accounting and professional services, come from a ‘trusted’ position via existing relationships and the perception of accounting in the wider community.

So what is the issue with selling if all these factors are stacked in your favour?

Why is it so hard to become “A Business Person who Sells” when the customers prime driver is to go forward, achieve their goals, be successful and achieve growth and profit?

Through observations, training and my own business experience, here are the top key blockages:

• Confidence in your own selling ability 
• Inadequate time allocated to proper sales cycles, from start to finish 
• A poorly thought out (SCA) or Unique Selling Proposition (USP) 
• Lack of sales process or model to find suspects, convert to prospects and then convert to customers 
• Fear 

Fear is not even worth talking about. I have never seen a salesperson shot by a customer! The worst thing that can happen is the customer says “No”! If you have a robust pipeline this will never be a problem.

Selling is not something you can do once a month at the Club Golf Tournament. You need to allocate time to the process of selling. Time for pipeline development, relationship building, sales calls and follow up conversions. Everyone in your organization need to be involved in the process of customer development — not just the ‘rainmakers’.

You need to be able to anchor your sales process with a point of difference to make sure your USP is in fact unique. Understand your SCA. Build a sales process and then consistently use it leaving nothing out. Don’t skip steps.

Lastly, begin to build goals, targets and milestones. Set yourself a meeting target, proposals out for consideration target, conversion goal and win/loss ratio.

Lets be clear. Customers want future goals and success. They are not interested in your products and services, sorry to burst the bubble. I challenge you to ring 20 customers now and ask if you can come over and show them product X, Y and Z. I bet none take you up on your offer. Instead ask them if you can meet to discuss their top 5 blockages to success you can help them fix, and you may even find they offer to pay for coffee!

Here is a model or approach you may have heard of. Sit down with a customer and ask them “Where are you now?” (Listen) Then ask them, “What are your top 5 issues for the next 3 months? You know, the burning ones.” (Listen) Then ask them “Where do you want to be in 12 months time?” (Listen) Then with them, discuss and agree on actions and strategies to get them there. Abracadabra! Looks like a plan!

If you want to be “A Business Person who Sells”, become a person that helps everyone you meet grow in some way. As these people slowly make sense of the value they are getting from the relationship chances are you will become very popular, very successful and well paid.

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