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Just a couple of weeks ago, I was invited into a large corporate
headquarters of a brand name company which I'm sure you've probably heard
of.
(In respect to the folks I met there, I won't mention the company name.)
I was invited to meet with the Sales Training Manager and his staff
because they were interested in seeing if Unlock The Game could help their
sales team performance.
Apparently the "economy" was affecting sales and they were looking for a
different sales approach.
I don't usually wear a suit these days, since I mostly work from my office
-- above a bakery -- just a quick three minute walk from my home here in
Sydney, but I thought it would probably make a better impression if I
dressed up rather than come in my usual attire: shorts, shirt and sandals.
...So I put the suit on.
But since the kind of person that connects with Unlock The Game is usually
someone who is actually doing the selling, rather than someone managing
sales people from a spreadsheet or training room, I wasn't about to set my
expectations too high.
But off I went to our meeting to see what they had in mind.
The receptionist at the front desk was kind enough to walk me to the
conference room as I waited to meet my hosts.
As I sat there alone, I couldn't help but to notice how sterile the room
felt.
Just a white board and some white walls.
I'm sure you've been in a meeting room like that at least once or twice in
your career.
After a few minutes of waiting, my hosts came in and began to introduce
themselves.
I of course briefly said who I was and then began by asking "Can you tell
me a little about your situation?".
That's the question I always ask when I'm meeting with someone new. (Tip:
that question is one of the opening phrases I teach in my Inner Circle
program. It does wonders for opening up the conversation around issues that
might be on the other person's mind).
The head honcho, the Sales Training Manager, a quite serious guy, started
to talk about the make-up of the sales force, the consolidation of different
departments and a history of the sales training the sales force had been
exposed to.
It was the usual suspects.
The sales team had been through SPIN Selling and Miller-Heiman training,
typical traditional corporate sales training that most large companies have
adopted over the years.
I asked, "So what's the issue with SPIN Selling?"
The Sales Training Manager began explaining that his sales team was really
good at asking questions to their prospects, but the answers they would get
back were at best, "half-truths".
Half-truths, hmmm, this was starting to get interesting.
He went on to say that their prospects were reluctant to open up to the
sales people because they didn't trust that the questions being asked were
for their benefit, but rather only for the sales person's advantage.
A lack of trust, now this conversation was starting to get even more
interesting.
Then he mentioned that his sales team uses account management sheets from
Miller-Heiman, where they're supposed to write down the details of all the
players in an account along with strategies of how to move the sales process
forward.
The problem with that, he said, was the information they were putting on
the sheets were getting sparser and sparser all the time, because they were
getting less and less quality information from their conversations with
their prospects.
Are you starting to see a trend here?
My gut was telling me, they don't have an "economic" problem
affecting their team's sales performance, they have a TRUST issue that was
the real reason their company was losing ground in their marketplace.
And I told them exactly that.
I went on to say that they've trained their people over the years to be
such by-the-book sales people, that they've lost the ability to connect and
create trust with their prospects at the human level.
When I said that, they just sort of sat there frozen, looking at me like I
had just said something they knew to be true deep down within themselves,
but were afraid to tell anyone about it.
This lack of admission and insight is so common in most companies today,
it could almost be called an epidemic.
I proceeded to explain to them why their corporate training programs were
quickly losing their value and what they needed to do to revive their sales
team and put their company back on the map.
Here's what I told them:
1. Begin by recognizing that your people have become so
"strategic", they've lost the ability to be completely present when
their potential clients are talking with them.
They aren't LISTENING!
They're trying to, but since the "next step" has been so drilled into
their minds by all the traditional sales training they've been through,
their trying to move the conversation forward rather listen without a hidden
agenda.
Listening without a hidden agenda is a core principle we teach to our
Inner Circle members.
2. Be willing to buck conventional thinking. Rather than start
by having your sales people ask a series of obvious questions designed to
get their prospects to admit their problems, enter the conversation ALREADY
knowing their core problems and begin the conversation with a "problem
statement" in words that come from their prospects, not from your corporate
brochure.
How do you know those problems ahead of time? You ask your current clients
what are the 3 to 5 core issues that went away after they bought your
solution.
They tell you in their own words what their problems were.
Asking questions designed to fish for a prospect's problems just doesn't
cut it in our new economy.
(Actually, I remember when I was a training developer for UPS about 10
years ago, some of the sales people had the same issue, probing for problems
without being able to articulate them at the beginning of the conversation
only got them B.S. answers.)
3. Record and listen to the conversations that your people are having
on the phones with your prospects.
I bet you'll hear a lot of rejection, abrupt conversations ending quickly,
and lots of "pitching" and boasting going on about how great your products
and services are.
You probably won't hear too many in-depth conversations about the issues
their potential clients are having and a willingness for their prospects to
open up and tell the truth of how deep their problems really are.
In other words, for many of your sales people, it's over at "hello".
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Before I could conclude all of my thoughts I had wanted to say, they said
they were very interested in rolling out Unlock The Game to their sales team
and wanted a proposal to do that asap.
I could see I struck a chord in their thinking and they were beginning to
see me as the guy who may have the answer they were looking for.
I told them I would send them something in a few days, we all shook hands
warmly, and I headed back home in a hurry so I could get back into my shorts
and sandals.
A few days later, I sent over a brief proposal.
The same day they received the proposal, I heard back from the Sales
Training Manager that they are just going through a re-organization and will
need to put the proposal on hold.
Even they were afraid to tell me the truth.
To your success,
P.S. Not a member of our Unlock The Game Inner Circle?
Join us here
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