Coach Andrea

Coach Andrea’s Intro

This week’s Tip by Art Sobczak is a great reminder to only ask one question at a time. Sometimes, in coaching, I get so excited about what the client is telling me that I can start to rattle off a slew of questions.  And then I remember, people can only answer one question at a time.  Be thoughtful about the question you ask and then listen for the answer.

Here in the U.S. next week is Thanksgiving. A very Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Thank you for sharing your ideas, thoughts, feedback, challenges and successes with me. I am honored to be included in your life.

There will be no Coaching Tip of the Week on November 25, 2011 due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Enjoy this time of thanks and gratitude. Our next Tip will be issued on December 2, 2011.

Quote of the Week

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”

~ Ernest Hemingway

How Many Questions Should You Ask at a Time?

By Art Sobczak

At a social function I was talking to a guy who asked five questions in a row, didn’t listen to any of the answers, and only used his questions as a springboard to talk about himself.

Since I didn’t take much interest in what he was pitching (he shoved his business card into my hand) I watched and listened as he did that with several other people he met.

Sure, we all know we should ask questions. But the effort is wasted if they’re not asked in the right way, or you don’t listen to the answers.

++++++++++++KEY SALES POINT+++++++++++

When a listener hears a question, their mind immediately is conditioned to begin searching for answers. However, when several questions are posed in rapid-fire sequence, you leave the person confused as to which one they should answer first. And, some questions are not answered at all if you don’t give them an opportunity.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For example, read this scenario without stopping to think about each question, as if you were the person hearing the questions:

Caller: “And what do you feel your company needs most regarding boosting morale and enthusiasm? Do you think it would be compensation related… or maybe training? And how does that affect performance in all of the departments?”

Did you feel like a spinning top, rotating around trying to focus on the questions coming from all directions? Same thing happens with prospects and customers.

EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING GUIDELINES

1. Ask one question at a time. If it’s not important enough to stand on its own, don’t ask it.
2. After you ask it, shut up. If they don’t answer immediately, resist the urge to answer it for them or follow up with another one. They’re likely thinking about what they’re going to say.
3. After they apparently have finished, remain quiet for 1-2 more seconds. You might get additional information, and ensures you don’t interrupt.
4. Follow-up their answer with a related question. Don’t ping-pong around from subject to subject. For example, if they answered with, “I believe the main problem we have right now is a lack of motivation,” a logical next query would be, “Oh, what are some specific situations where you’ve seen a lack of motivation?”
5. Be confident in your questioning. One reason people ask multiple questions is that they aren’t comfortable asking questions. The only way you’re going to truly help someone is by finding out about them. You’re not intruding. You’re assisting.

Fielding multiple questions is confusing for the listener, and counter-productive for you. Ask one at a time, and listen!

Continue having your best week ever!

Art Sobczak, Business By Phone Inc., provides how-to ideas and tips for rejectionless prospecting, selling, and servicing by phone. Get the free ebook, “29 Sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” at http://www.BusinessByPhone.com.

Coaching Call To Action

This week practice asking one question at a time and really listening to the answer. You might be surprised by what you hear.  This tool can be used at home, too!

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

In coaching we are trained to ask powerful questions.  The purpose is to help you know what you want and for you to access your inner wisdom.  Often we use “What” questions.  I love this week’s Tip by Art Sobczak because it’s about a very specific question – “What if?” I hope it prompts your thinking as it did mine.

Quote of the Week

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”

~ Voltaire

Ask “What if” for Better Results in All Areas of Sales, and Life

by Art Sobczak

Over the past 28 years, in delivering over 1200 training sessions and workshops, I have fielded lots of questions. Many of the same ones about parts of the sales call, some good, others not so much. But some of the toughest ones I ever received were from my kids years ago when they were younger.

“Dad, what if cars had wings and jet engines?”
“Dad, what would happen if people would sit on TOP of domed stadiums instead of in them?”
“Dad, what if ice cream came out of water faucets instead of water?”

Often I’d patiently give the logical answer that those things really weren’t reasonable to consider.

Other times I’d become frustrated in trying to explain how those situations weren’t possible.

I learned a very important lesson from my kids as it relates to sales, business, and life in general:

We too often think practically, logically, and in terms of what we think is acceptable or the way things are done. We don’t imagine enough, nor do our prospects and customers.

HP had a marketing slogan several years ago? It was “What if …?”

Same thing. It was designed to prompt people to think about possibilities. By doing so, you open up a whole new level of ideas, opportunities, and strategies. The imagination stretches.

Creativity expert Roger von Oech writes in his book, “A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD” (Warner Books), that playful speculation can yield positive results.

Albert Einstein developed some of his early relativity concepts by asking himself, “What if I were an elevator falling through space at the speed of light. What if there was a hole in the side of it? What if a shaft of light came through this hole?”

Ask Yourself
Why not “What if?” with yourself and your fellow sales reps?

What if you did a few things differently?
What if you decided you were going to beat all sales records next month?

Ask Your Customers
You can do this on the phone with your prospects and customers, too.
For example,

“Mr. Prospect, let’s set the money issue aside here for a moment and get crazy. What if you did have this plan in place. What are all the positive effects you would notice?”

Picasso said that every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after growing up.

It would be cool if ice cream came out of water faucets, wouldn’t it?

Art Sobczak, Business By Phone Inc., provides how-to ideas and tips for rejectionless prospecting, selling, and servicing by phone. Get the free ebook, “29 Sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” at http://www.BusinessByPhone.com.

Coaching Call To Action

Take the following categories: prospects, customers, things you want, your career, people you care about. Come up with “What if?” questions to get you and them thinking in terms of possibilities. You’ll like the results.

Insights

Last week’s Tip, Your Most Enjoyable Year Yet! recommended you create your own ABCD list.  I spent some time over vacation creating mine.  I found that after 14 years in business, there were a number of things I no longer needed to do (Ds).  For instance, tasks that are connected to “should” – I should go to this meeting, I should contact this or that person.  If there is a “should” attached to it, my energy is not coming from the right place and I will stop doing it.  Another task is all of the monthly reports I used to run to look at my business.  I can tell how I’m doing without the reports.  Why spend the time running them?

Would love to hear from you, what you found out.  Click here and let me know.

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Coach Andrea’s Intro
My process for choosing this week’s Tip? I loved the title and just had to read on! I hope you feel the same way! Art Sobczak describes what to do in a sales situation when your prospect asks you a question you don’t have a ready answer to. Instead of making something up on the spot, you need to determine whether the question is important to the prospect by asking “check questions”. Read on to find examples you can use in your sales process so you won’t be caught off guard.

Quote of the Week

“Sometimes we do a thing in order to find out the reason for it. Sometimes our actions are questions not answers.”
~ John Le Carre

Article Title

by Art Sobczak

I was on a sales call, talking with a sales manager at a high-tech firm that sold a highly specialized, niched product. Things were progressing smoothly, I seemed to have exactly what he was looking for regarding a telephone prospecting training workshop that he wanted, then he asked,

“Now, who else have you worked with that sells a similar product?”

I’ve done over 1200 training programs over the past 27years, and have worked in virtually every industry and sales model there is, but not in this one. I doubted if there WAS a company that sold a similar product.

I could have begun babbling some half-baked answer about companies I have worked with, trying to force a comparison, but certainly would have failed, and likely would not have sounded like a suave, polished professional. More like a bumbling fool.

So instead, I paused, and realized that question might, or might not have been important to him. Before I answered, I really needed to know for sure. So I asked,

“Are you asking if I’ve worked with a similar prospecting model, selling to similar decision makers? And, how much of an issue is that for you?”

He replied, “Oh, I know there aren’t many companies like ours. I was just curious. You seem to have what we want.”

Here’s the sales point for this week:

Early in the information-gathering phase with a prospect, have YOU ever had them ask you extremely technical questions that were out-of-the-ordinary?

How about outrageous requests regarding capabilities or service?

I often see reps stumble all over themselves because they don’t know the answer, or because they are unable to provide the service the prospect asks for. They apologize and make excuses and in some cases look like a total doofus because they thought that what the prospect was asking for was a solid requirement.

Clearly not the situation you want to find yourself in.

Why do people ask these questions? On occasion, they might be sincerely concerned and interested in your ability to provide the service, or to meet a certain unusual technical requirement. In other cases, they might be using tactics to belittle your service, or get you off of the phone.

To determine the precise motivation for the request, you need to ask “check questions.” Check questions help you to gauge how important the information is to the inquirer. The response dictates with how much importance and urgency you should prepare your answer.

For example,

Prospect: “Does it come with a left-handed gold-plated adapter with an Experience Rating of 99.9%?”

Sales Rep: “Hmmmm. Will that be a major concern of yours in the decision making process?”

After your “check question,” you’ll need to be prepared for the possible answers. In many cases, they’ll say, “Not really, but I was curious,” therefore meaning you could likely gloss over the request. If they answer that the information will be important, you’ll want to ask more questions to determine just how critical the request is, and in turn, you’ll need to figure out how to answer their request.

Here are other examples of “check questions.”

After an outrageous request for service,

“How often do you run into those type of situations?”

“How often do you need that type of service?”

“Are you getting that service now? How much extra are you paying for it?”

After nit-picky technical questions,

“Wow! Just out of curiosity, how are you going to use that information?”

“Hmmmm. What will you be comparing those figures to?”

By using these questions, you’ll sort out the sincere requests from the shoppers, stallers, and people who are trying to fluster you and make you look inferior.

Art Sobczak, Business By Phone Inc., provides how-to ideas and tips for rejectionless prospecting, selling, and servicing by phone. Get the free ebook, “29 Sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” at http://www.BusinessByPhone.com

Coaching Call To Action

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

A number of my clients have been asking recently about following up with prospects – how, how often, what do I say? You get the idea.  This week’s article by Robert Middleton provides 3 client attracting steps to master.  My take away from the article is you have to have a process, a system that you use faithfully to turn prospects into clients. It’s up to you to create the timing of that process based on what’s worked best for you in the past, and then use it! (See Coaching Call to Action to read about specific strategies for follow up.)

Quote of the Week

“A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it.”
~ Frank Herbert

Bridging the Follow-Up Gap

by Robert Middleton

Pop Quiz: What’s the biggest canyon in the world?

No, not the Grand Canyon. It’s the “Follow-Up Gap.”

This is the gap between the marketing activity you direct towards a prospective client and setting up an appointment with this prospect.

No gap is wider, and untold millions fall between this gap every year. The prospect is interested, you’ve done a good job at marketing and then what happens?

You either don’t follow-up or you follow-up ineptly.

So how do you manage the follow-up gap? Understanding this could have a huge impact on the success of your business. Here are the three client-attracting steps you need to master:

1. Marketing generates interest and warms up prospects.  In marketing ball, you get the attention of a prospect, develop familiarity, provide information and then offer an experience of you and your business so they are at a place of genuine interest in your services.
2. You then follow-up appropriately, not to make the sale or even to pitch your services, but to talk to explore the possibility of setting up a selling conversation (also known as a Strategy Session).
3. A Strategy Session must be set up with a qualified prospect under favorable conditions. The conditions are: a) They already know you and know something about your services, b) they are able to meet with you for 60 to 90 minutes uninterrupted, and c) they are sincerely ready to explore working with you.

Once you’ve set up this session, you switch from Marketing to Selling and you finally have the opportunity of converting a prospect into a paying client.

Sounds easy, right?

But since most have such a hard time making this happen, something must be wrong. What are you missing? Well, a whole lot of things can go wrong in this process without you being aware of them. Here are a few:

1. You fail to implement the marketing process effectively. You don’t get the attention, build familiarity, provide information or offer experiences. In other words, you don’t build relationships. People like to do business with people they know, not strangers.
2. You follow up either too soon, trying to get an appointment before the relationship is established or you follow up too late, even if the prospect is qualified and interested. Or worse, you don’t follow-up at all because you’re afraid of being rejected.
3. You conduct an incompetent selling conversation. You talk too much and don’t listen enough, failing to really understand the prospect or their needs. You close too soon, too late, or not at all and wonder why nobody appreciates your wonderful services!

Look, attracting new clients to your business is not a mystery. Many people have cracked the code and enjoy as much business as they can manage. It’s not luck. It’s a skill implemented with discipline and consistency.

But if you had to work on only one thing, what would it be?

It would be mastering the Follow-up Gap.

Why? Because if you get into the habit of following up, sooner or later you’ll discover when follow-up works best and what marketing you have to do to warm up the prospect. And if you follow up a lot and get more appointments, sooner or later you’ll get the hang of the selling process.

Byron Katie says something similar: You can have anything you want in the world if you are willing to ask 1,000 people.

The More Clients Bottom Line: There are three simple keys to attracting more clients: Marketing, Follow-Up and Selling. Master all three and you’ll never worry about your future or the economy or money again. But you might want to start with follow-up. For one, it’s free, and secondly, the opportunities are infinite.

Copyright (c) 2010 by Robert Middleton and Action Plan Marketing. All rights reserved. Please visit Robert’s web site at http://www.actionplan.com.

Coaching Call to Action

Are you hitting or exceeding your sales goals for 2010? Do you have a follow-up process? Is the process automatic?  If you answered no to any of these questions, read another article Robert wrote about some specific techniques on follow up strategies. Click here to read more.

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

I laughed out loud when I read Art Sobczak’s list of avoidance behaviors!  A few of my favorites are – the dog just has to be brushed, it’s of upmost importance to organize the freezer and lastly, I need to call my friend Jeanne and catch up. Now that we can label these behaviors (thanks Art!), are you ready to take step #1, make a commitment to improve?  Keep reading to learn steps 2 to 7.

Quote of the Week

“I believe half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things.”
~ William J. Lock

What Avoidance Behavior is Holding You Back?

Picture the sales rep who spends two prime hours every day online, and reading trade journals, the Wall Street Journal, and more, “so he can be well-versed, just in case someone asks questions.”

And the rep who feels obligated to assume ownership of all minuscule customer service situations–ones easily delegated–because she wants to be certain they’re handled correctly. And her call productivity suffers as a result.

Or, the salesperson who is always fixated on one “big deal” devoting tons of time–at the expense of placing other calls–working on the proposal.

Know anyone like these people?

ARE you one of these people?

If so, you are flat out avoiding something.

And probably denying it.

There are all kinds of avoidance behaviors. Whenever I get particularly ambitious around the house…tightening things, replacing filters, (by the way, I’m the most un-Home Depot guy in the history of males) it is a sure sign I should be parked in front of a computer, preparing for a training program or writing articles.

What non-sales activities do you engage in that steal from your productive selling time?

Or, what call behaviors do you practice that are not as effective as what you should do?

For example, some reps insist on just asking a few questions during a first call, “touching base” on a second call, then phoning a few more times before finally getting into the meat of selling. They rationalize that they’re building a relationship. Bull. They’re constructing a fat follow-up file.

Sure they’re busy, but it’s like running on a treadmill. Lots of sweat, but no forward progress. Oh, but they’re building “relationships.” Not so much.

Here’s one way to deal with avoidance behavior.

1. Make a commitment to improve. If you don’t have that “want to,” read no further.
2. Pinpoint what you know you should do, but don’t, or don’t do it often enough.
3. Identify the activity or behavior that you rationalize as important, but deep down you know it’s a mask. This is where you need to be brutally honest with yourself.
4. Determine what activity or behavior you will replace it with. For example, calling higher in an organization, asking for the bigger sale earlier, sending out fewer proposals to only the more highly qualified prospects, or spending less time internally chasing down answers to questions and delegating more instead.
5. Set specific, quantifiable, time-sensitive goals. Write them out. Any time is a great time to start.
6. Take action. Track your progress.
7. Reward yourself! What gets rewarded gets repeated.

It’s not rocket surgery (just heard that term the other day…pretty funny, I thought). Most worthwhile things aren’t. They just require effort.

Art Sobczak, Business By Phone Inc., provides how-to ideas and tips for rejectionless prospecting, selling, and servicing by phone. Get the free ebook, “29 Sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” at http://www.BusinessByPhone.com.

Coaching Call to Action

So why wait? Don’t avoid it any longer. Take some action, any action right now that you’ve been avoiding. You’ll be glad you did.

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Coach Andrea’s Intro

Earlier this week, I was assessing which of my “prospects”  were really potential clients and which were very unlikely to do business with me.  The former were the ones I wanted to focus on and the latter were the ones I wanted to let go.  Doing this review gave me more energy and time for clients and people who were ready and wanting to work with me.  Art Sobczak provides a straightforward process for cleaning up your follow-up file.  As we all know there are only so many hours in the day and better to focus your time on the activities that have the most potential for your business.

Quote of the Week

“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
~ John F. Kennedy

Ask the Cleansing Question to Clean Up Your Follow-Up File

by Art Sobczak

A question I received through email asked, “I’ve got a lot of prospects pending, but not a lot closing. What should I do?”

Like many questions I get, that’s extremely vague and requires a lot more information before I could give a specific detailed answer. But it did get me thinking about a possible reason, and remedy.

I call it the Cleansing Question. Let me set it up first.

What percent of the people in your follow-up file at this very second do you feel will ever do business with you?

Sixty percent?

More? Less?!

You’re fairly typical if you answered 50% or less. It’s not a good percentage, but typical.

Why? Oh, there are several reasons. Reps like to hang on to prospects, thinking that shred of interest might eventually turn into something. They’re right: Disappointment, and a waste of time, usually.

Others stake their claim to prospects, tattooing their name on the prospect’s record in the “system,” just in case divine intervention comes into play and the person decides to call up and order on their own. These reps then usually pounce upon the order and say, “It’s mine. See, has my name on it.”

Ask the Cleansing Question
But, the main reason reps have too many “leads working” is that they don’t ask the tough questions early enough. You need to find out if the person you’re talking to is really a “player.” It’s always better to get a “no” early, than to waste time, effort, paper, and postage chasing shadows that never will materialize.

Here is what you need to do starting today.

Begin cleaning up your “non-prospect” prospects now. Ask this Cleansing Question, “Mr./Ms. Prospect, we’ve been talking for awhile now, and have agreed that we’d be able to help you (fill in with how they would benefit.) I want to be sure I’m not bothering you, or wasting your time or mine. Tell me, what is the probability we’ll be able to work together in the next month?”

Think of the possible results here.

1. They say, “Zero probability.” Great, now at least you can find out the real problem, or move them out. Movement, forward or out, is progress.
2. They give some other probability. Good, but not great. You want to ask what you both need to do to move forward now. Get specifics. Commitments. Ask them to attach time frames to the commitments. Don’t allow them to continue putting you off. Again, movement here is success.
3. You just might get the business right now. Perfect. Sometimes all it takes is the nudge to get the boulder rolling down the mountain.

Do some first quarter cleaning. Examine your follow-up files. Prepare you own strategy and ask the Cleansing Question.

Go and Have Your Best Week Ever!

Art Sobczak, Business By Phone Inc., provides how-to ideas and tips for rejectionless prospecting, selling, and servicing by phone. Get the free ebook, “29 Sales Tips You Can Use Right Now” at http://www.BusinessByPhone.com.

Coaching Call to Action

While Art’s process may be too pointed for you, I recommend you create a plan/system to look at your pipeline regularly and realistically and cull out those who aren’t real prospects.  Then, focus on those who are and get clear on what you need to do, provide, ask, or tell them so that they become clients.

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