28 September 2009 | Uncategorized | Miller Heiman

Ask your sales team this question to move sales forward:

Are your questions phrased in a non-threatening way that encourages your contacts to communicate feelings about issues they may have?

Why? Throughout the course of a sales opportunity, many professionals feel they are on a casual enough level with their prospects to engage in comfortable conversation. Jokes, small talk, and thoughts about recent events easily work their way into phone calls.

But it’s not always so easy to ask contacts whether they personally have an issue with the solution you’re proposing. Rather than assuming your contact agrees to what’s on the table, phrase your questions so he or she  feels comfortable enough to bring issues to light. Key words like “elaborate,” “explain,” demonstrate,” and describe” can be less abrasive than “why,” and can often uncover individual needs, desires, concerns and feelings. When used properly, incorporating these types of phrases into questions can even help you gain the customer’s perspective on the feelings of others involved in order to understand multiple concerns that exist.

Many professionals believe that personal feelings aren’t important when it comes to business, but because they directly affect a customer’s concept, it’s imperative to get that extra piece of understanding.

Previous Questions:

Week 4

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

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22 September 2009 | Uncategorized | Elizabeth Vanneste

Recently I attended the Sales 2.0 Conference in Chicago.  It was a great opportunity to speak with current clients, meet some longtime Miller Heiman fans, and speak with young salespeople who are looking for ways to improve their chances for success.

Much of the conference focused on the many technologies and social media platforms which are now available to sales professionals.  Gerhard Gschwandtner, publisher of Selling Power and David Thompson, CEO of Genius.com kicked things off by talking about how the world of selling has been changed by the volume of product information that is available to customers in the Internet age.  Both Gerhard and David said that in the era of Sales 2.0, salespeople “need to be aligned with the customer’s buying process”.  Wow – great confirmation of something that Miller Heiman has been telling people for over 30 years!

An industry analyst spoke about the need for consistent process in the sales organization.  He asked the audience how many of us knew if the salespeople in our companies always prepared call plans for customer meetings.  I raised my hand, along with only one other person in the room!  I don’t know about the other person who raised his hand but call planning is a key component of the Miller Heiman methodology and every client meeting I’ve attended since I joined Miller Heiman had a Green Sheet.

There were quite a few sales managers in that audience. How do they coach their salespeople if they do not have a process for preparing for client meetings? How do they conduct post-call reviews? How do they determine if a meeting was successful?  What a great reminder that there are still a lot of sales professionals who could benefit from Conceptual Selling®.

Several great speakers explained how their organization has implemented a technology that enabled them to improve sales productivity and sales effectiveness. In fact, an impromptu speaker (Clark Owen, Miller Heiman sales vice president) was kind enough to give me his take on how companies that invested wisely in their sales organization are going to be positioned to accelerate as the market improves. You can watch the video here. Miller Heiman client, Byron Matthews of Mercer, spoke eloquently about the importance of eLearning and CRM tools in supporting the extensive sales transformation project that Mercer has undertaken over the past 18 months which involved over 4,000 consulting professionals.  It is an amazing story of how powerful and impactful our processes can be.

The last panel of the day was on Social Media and was filled with anecdotes of deals won from leads that originated through LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. The most striking thought from that panel was Nigel Edelshein’s claim that “social calling” was eight times more effective than “cold calling.”  Quite believable based on the power of referral selling combined with viral marketing.  Is Social Media the “nail in the coffin” for cold calling?  Salespeople everywhere rejoice!  Now, if we could just get you to start preparing for client meetings….

Thanks Gerhard and Selling Power for a thought-provoking day!

photo credit: Ivan Walsh

1 Comment

21 September 2009 | Uncategorized | Miller Heiman

Ask your sales team this question to move sales forward:

Are there trends on our customers’ horizons that need to be anticipated?

Strengthening relationships with current customers can help uncover additional opportunity when new customers are hard to come by. Focus on adding value to their business positions your company as one that is sincerely concerned for their results.

Organizations have an opportunity to truly add value by assessing market conditions and anticipating trends and challenges clients may not be aware of. Sharing that information with customers so they can either avoid problems or take advantage of opportunities says much more about a sales organization than just “we can help you with X problem.” It says “we care about your success.” The company that cares about their client organizations’ success is much harder to find reasons to disengage with.

In today’s new economy, is there really room for transactional vendors? Would your company prefer to engage with a business that’s main objective was to perform transaction after transaction?

The answer is most likely “no.” Not when there are multiple organizations out there willing to go above and beyond.

Next Steps: Helping your customers identify early on the types of scenarios that will affect their business positions you as a valuable partner instead of a mere vendor. To increase your standing with customers and build long-term, profitable relationships, learn about Large Account Management Process^SM.

Previous Questions:

Week 3

Week 2

Week 1

photo credit: neubie

3 Comments

14 September 2009 | Uncategorized | Miller Heiman

Ask your sales team this question to move sales forward:

How does our customer see us in this business relationship? Vendor? Strategic partner?

Why? Your customer’s perception of the business relationship will affect its duration. Learn how you can manage and grow strategic accounts through team selling and customer collaboration with Miller Heiman’s Large Account Management Process (LAMP®).

See previous questions:

Week 2
Week 1

1 Comment

07 September 2009 | Uncategorized | Miller Heiman

Ask your sales team this question to keep sales moving forward:

Have we uncovered anything that our buying influences might be trying to avoid, and not just what they want to accomplish?

Why? Identifying problems your customers may be looking to avoid and demonstrating how your solution can keep them away from that scenario builds credibility for your organization and its solution. Conceptual Selling® can help you learn to better identify the multiple components of a customer’s concept.

See previous question:

Week 1

2 Comments