Reengineering Revenue

Are You The Easiest Business To Do Business With?

This was a nightmare scenario for most CEOs…

A few years ago, on a Friday my boss pulled me aside and told me “Brett, we’re in a tough spot.

We have to close $50K to make payroll in two weeks, can you help?”

Talk about pressure.

I sent sales emails to our lead list in our CRM until 2 AM the next morning, and fell asleep with my phone in my hand.

Monday morning, I had closed $53K in sales by accelerating our “maybes” into “yeses”.

The average deal size was $3,800. I had closed 14 deals in less than 24 hours.

Everyone was going to get paid.

But an important question is: how do we turn those  “maybes” into “yeses”?

In business, you win by being the easiest company to buy from in your industry.

Remove the resistance and closing the sale becomes easy.

World-renowned business strategist Jay Abraham calls this “preeminence”.

Simply put, when your team puts prospects needs at the center of their world, your team will unlock trusted advisor status in prospect’s mind.

And if you’re a small to medium size business who wants to close more deals, your sales team is the bridge between people interested in using your product or service, and actually pulling out their wallets and becoming customers.

That’s how you not only make payroll, but have enough revenue to reinvest in the business, attract the right type of talent, and grow even more.

Winning sales and growing revenue is contagious. The more you win, the easier winning becomes.

Your sales team feels it. The whole company feels it.

 

But if your salespeople are not hitting their numbers…

…And if they’re not hitting their numbers and closing deals, then revenue suffers, and you can forget about growing your business. At that point you’re just trying to stay afloat.

The impact of deals not closing affects every person who depends on your company. A culture of losing is terrible for morale.

As you look out on the sales team, you can almost feel them updating their resumes and checking LinkedIn.

On top of everything…

Sales is getting more challenging!

People you’re trying to close are more sensitive to sales tactics. As a culture, our sales sensitivity is finely tuned and only getting shaper.

Think of the last time you got a cold call from someone looking to talk you into a service you’re not interested in. Did it motivate you to buy? How did you feel?

That’s not what you want your prospects to feel.

If you want your sales team to close more deals, create more customers, and grow your business, then help your team to focus on the prospect and put them at the center of your world.

And I’m about to show you how you can let your prospect tell you how to close them.

It involves two skill sets:

  1. Checking your assumptions at the door.
  2. Asking questions engineered to do all the heavy lifting for you.

 

Are Assumptions Killing Your Sales?

A big mistake I see sales teams make is letting assumptions guide their sales conversations.

…They assume they know what the prospect’s budget is.

…They assume they know what the prospect is saying.

…They assume that they know what the prospect is thinking.

I want to grab sales people and shake them when I see this in the wild.

When we leave our assumptions at the door, it’s easier to close because we’re forced to ask better questions and really listen to our prospects.

When our prospects feel listened to they want to give more clues on how to close them.

Years ago I was brought into a company for one reason: Close more sales.

Our inbound strategy was so effective, I could only allow one conversation per lead to qualify, present and close. Then dial the next lead.

In year one, I grew that company’s sales from $800K to $3MM, and up to $16MM by year three.

How do you get your prospects to tell you how to close them so that you can lock up more deals and grow your revenue?

Ask better questions.

Here are 3 questions you can ask your prospect to uncover deeper needs and gain valuable intel on how to close them.

You can start using these questions on your very next sales call.

-“What have you tried in the past to fix this?”

-Followup: “How did that work for you?”

Why this works: The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. This question is designed to show you what or if they have tried to take action in the past.

-“How does this challenge make you feel?”

-Followup: “Tell me more about that?”

Why this works: Our language should be intentional. Most sales people use the word “problem” instead of challenge.

Problems beg blame to be placed on something or someone. And this may be the CEO of a company.

Challenges are meant to be overcome. (Your company’s product or service WILL help them overcome their challenge, right?)

-“How much do you think this challenge has cost you?”

-Followup: “I know that you don’t know, but if you did know, what would you say?”

Why this works: It’s absolutely critical that you get your prospect to put a number on the challenge that you’re trying to help them solve. If it’s a $250K challenge, your fee of $20K is an easy trade off for them to consider.

Often, they may not have considered what the actual cost of their challenge is.

They’ll respond “I don’t know.” to your question.

This is the moment that separates average and top performing sales people.

You say: “I know that you don’t know, but if you did know, what would you say?”

This works because it frees them up to give you a rough number.

When they do, they’ll be anchored to that number for the rest of your conversation.

 

Overcoming Objections…

Objections are a part of sales. Sales Tom Hopkins used to say: “They have to tell you ‘no’ before they can say ‘yes’”.

But if you know how to leverage those objections, you can win while the average sales person loses.

Let’s run through a common objections and discover how asking the right question can flip the interaction from “I’ll think about it.” to “Okay, let’s make this happen.”

Objection: Shopping around.

“I don’t know if there’s anything better out there. I’m just trying to see if you guys are the best.”

“Great. I appreciate your shopping us and comparing us to everybody else.

“Tell me, what’s going to be the number one and number two things that are really going to make or break this? What’s most important to you?”

Why this works: You’re asking your prospect for what’s important to them. It’s like sitting down to take a test, raising your hand, and asking your professor for the answers.

When you find out what’s important to your prospect, they’re telling you how they’d like to be sold.

Action Step: Every business is going to have objections in the sales process. Think about what objections your sales team faces regularly.

Make sure everyone on your sales team knows how to address those objections. Practice before you go live— no practing on sales leads!

Objection #1: ___________________________________________________________________

Objection #2: ___________________________________________________________________

Objection #3: ___________________________________________________________________

 

You MUST Believe In What You’re Selling…

A huge problem we see with sales teams that aren’t closing deals–salespeople don’t believe in what they’re selling.

Often it falls back to Sales teams who haven’t taken the time to carve out their internal agreements!

Internal agreements are truths that your sales team believes in when it comes to your product or service.

The MOST important sale is to themselves. It will also be the most important in sale in their career with your company. Period.

When your team aligns with these beliefs, it’s much easier to sell.

Because a savvy prospect can sense when a salesperson does not believe in what they’re selling.

Every business’ internal agreements are different.

Here is one of ours:

“I believe we are the best solution. I believe that buying elsewhere literally leads the customer into peril.”

Action Step: What are your internal agreements?

-What do you believe about your product or service, and why do you care enough to show your prospect that they should get on board?

___________________________________________________________________

-Why do you believe that entering into a business relationship is the best possible move your prospect could make?

___________________________________________________________________

-Why do you believe your prospect should make this decision now, not later?

___________________________________________________________________

 

Summary:

-Leave your assumptions at the door while talking to a prospect. Only assume that you know nothing about what customers want.

Use questions to uncover what’s really important to your prospect.

Let them tell you EXACTLY what they want!

Then, sell them huper-focused on what they want.

-Internal agreements matter.

When your sales team believes in their company, and that the product or service they’re selling is the best option for the prospect more deals close.

Target your sales team’s most common objections. Schedule a meeting. Run team members through those most common objections and how to address them.

When we put the prospect at the center of our world, we unlock trusted advisor status in our prospect’s mind.

This means that we listen to our prospect, address their objections, and if they’re a good fit for our product or service, we sell them because it’s the best move they could make.

 

Next Step:

Imagine having a question toolbox that you and your sales team could refer to, to help you prospect, qualify, and close more sales.

Well, that’s exactly what I have for you.

Enter your email below to get my 7-Step Sales System complete with 22 tested sales questions delivered right to your inbox.

(I used these questions to grow revenue by 275% in just one year, then 433% two years later.)

With these questions you’ll be able to:

  • Disarm skeptical buyers: Speed time-to-trust: In 5-minutes be able to reflect back who they are. (Sales people get paid to change the way we communicate)
  • Get your prospects to give you control: The key to sales mastery is being offered control, not taking it.
  • Key in on burning pains. Get acknowledgement on 3-5 pains. Then sell specifically to those.
  • And much more.

 

 

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