Weak salespeople have what we call Happy Ears.
Weak salespeople have what we call Happy Ears. At the first positive words that come from their prospect, they get excited and sound like Sally Fields at the Academy Awards in 1985, “you really like me!” (in case you are too young to remember here is the link)
Salespeople who have a high need for approval will succumb to platitudes from their prospects. This stops them from being effective because they stop asking questions. The salesperson who needs to be liked more than they need to sell, cannot ask enough questions, good questions, and forget about asking the tough questions.
So, why is that important? Well, if your salespeople cannot ask questions, they cannot help a prospect uncover a compelling reason to buy nor develop Urgency! Without a compelling problem to solve soon, the prospect does not buy.
Consider the graphic below. Our Partners at Objective Management Group show the importance of creating urgency by illustrating the correlation between Elite salespeople and the Weak salespeople.
Prospects do NOT buy because they have some interest or because your product would be nice to have. They buy it because your solution solves a problem. The problem must be significant to the business and or the individual prospect. It must be urgent that the solution is implemented. In other words, your salespeople must find compelling reasons for a prospect to buy. If they don’t, they will not sell the solution.
By the way, the best salespeople can frame your product’s solution in the context of Time, Money or Risk. The prospect does not care about features or benefits, they don’t even care about the product until they understand how it solves a problem: how much time they save, money they save or the risk they mitigate.
A few questions to ask yourself or your sales managers:
Do your salespeople find compelling reasons to buy?
Are they asking enough questions?
Are your front-line sales managers coaching the sales team to uncover compelling reasons to do business?
If you are not sure, ask.
The sales managers should be able to walk you through how they coach the sales team. Sales Managers should be coaching 50% of the time. Are they?
If you want to learn more about how your sales organization ranks in your industry, this link will show you.
We are available to help you determine if there is an ROI in helping your current sales manager(s). Do they have the right stuff?
Can the sales managers be coached to be better coaches and what does that mean to your revenue and margins?
If you don’t have the answers to most of the questions above, maybe we should have a business conversation. Click HERE and we will make it easy to schedule.
#salesmanagers #makessalesteamsgreat
