One Piece of Advice – The Experts Speak (Part 2) - Business LockerRoom

One Piece of Advice – The Experts Speak (Part 2)

By Kelly Riggs | Sales + Leadership

Jun 25
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Note: If this is your first exposure to the series, you can find the introductory post HERE, and the second post – Part 1 of “The Experts Speak” – HERE.

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This series of posts was generated when someone asked me a simple question a few weeks ago:

“If you could only offer only one piece of advice as I start a career in sales, what would that one thing be?”

I came up with an answer that I shared in my initial article. However, I thought it would be quite interesting to see how other sales professionals might think. So, I asked 21 sales experts how they would respond to that same question, and their responses seem to fit neatly into five categories:

1. Completely unique (4)

2. Discovery (5)

3. Learning (3)

4. Relationships (3)

5. Mindset (6)

Last week, I shared the responses of 5 sales experts – Jack Malcolm, Lynn Hidy, Dan Waldschmidt, Andy Rudin, and Todd Schnick. If you missed that post, make sure you read what these sales gurus had to say!

This week, I will share the answers of 5 more sales pros:

Steve Rosen @StevenARosenMike Weinberg @Mike_WeinbergMiles Austin @MilesAustinLeanne Hoagland-Smith @CoachLeeNancy Nardin @NancyNardin

THE EXPERTS AND THEIR ANSWERS

Five more sales professionals, with five more answers, one from each category listed above. I think you will find the answers both interesting and insightful.

Steven Rosen

1. Steven Rosen (Unique)

Steven knows sales inside and out. He’s been in the trenches and commanded “troops” for over 20 years. He is the founder of STAR Results, a sales leadership coaching, training, and consulting organization dedicated to leadership development. With over 15 years of executive experience, his expertise is aligning sales and marketing initiatives to achieve key business results.

Steve’s answer is unique in the sense that it doesn’t fit the other four general categories, although you might be tempted to place it in the “mindset” category. Here is his response:

“Effort is the great equalizer. Put in the effort if you want to be successful.”

All of the answers in the “mindset” category are about attitudes and perspectives in one’s approach to selling, while Steve’s advice is both observable and measurable – you either put in the effort or you don’t. It’s great advice, for no other reason that many salespeople fail, or fall short of their potential, only because they are unwilling to do the heavy lifting. They aren’t willing to put in the hours, the study, and the practice that marks the sales champion.

I never claimed to be the smartest guy in the field, but I always believed I could – and would – outwork every one of my competitors.

So should you.

2. Mike Weinberg (Discovery)

Mike-WeinbergMike Weinberg is the CEO of The New Sales Coach. His passion is helping sales teams acquire new customers and he is known for his blunt, practical new business development and sales management consulting. Mike’s first book, “New Sales. Simplified. – The Essential Handbook for Prospecting and New Business Development” is a #1 Amazon Bestseller and spent an entire year as the #1 top-rated book in its category. Mike has been named to OpenView Labs’ Top 25 Sales Influencers for three consecutive years and Forbes named him a Top 30 Social Sales Influencer for 2014.

Mike is a smart guy. And hugely successful. He has been the top salesperson at three different companies, and has over 20 years of high-performance sales experience. One reason for his own success, by his own admission, is the first-rate coaching and mentoring he received along the way.

In 2010, he decided that coaching and mentoring was his calling as well, so he formed his owned sales consulting company. Just two year later, he published his first book, New Sales. Simplified. In an ocean of business books, it jumped to #1 in the Sales & Selling category, and stayed there for three months.

But “smart” doesn’t necessarily equate to success as Mike is quick to point out in his answer to the question:

“No one cares how smart you are, or how great you think your company or solution is. They want to know what’s in it for them. Said differently, your prospects and customers are not interested in what you or your company does, only what you can do for them. So, whenever you communicate with clients or potential clients, make sure to frame your conversation around their issues, not your offerings. Most salespeople don’t do this well, but if you do, customers will immediately perceive you as someone who can bring them value, and they’ll be much more receptive to spending time with you.”

“Smart” salespeople get that way because they understand that discovering a client’s issues is far more important than showing the client how smart you are – a snare that traps a significant number of salespeople.

Most salespeople make the mistake of connecting their presentation of a product or service – its features and benefits – to real value. Mike’s answer, on the other hand, connects discovery to customer value. In other words, the client finds value in the salesperson who seeks to understand before advocating a solution. I’m reminded of Zig Ziglar’s famous quote: “Prescription before diagnosis is malpractice.”

Sounds smart to me.

3. Miles Austin (Learning)

Miles AustinMiles is the “Web Tools Guy.” If it has a button, a switch, or an Internet connection, he has probably used it! He is recognized as one of the leading authorities on online sales and productivity tools, and his company, Fill the Funnel, helps sales leaders, managers and business owners with the selection and implementation of those tools.

Miles is a regular on my radio show, “The Business LockerRoom.” He provides the content for the “X’s and O’s” segment of the show, which is where we discuss critical sales and productivity tools for businesses and salespeople. Listeners benefit from the enormous amount of time Miles spends learning about the new software tools and applications that drive increases in productivity and sales performance. Software is integral to a functioning business, they need to make sure they are meeting their goals and are utilizing what is available to them. Business can stand out by incorporating custom software development so they are able to have a unique system and meet their competition. However, for that, it might be necessary for them to hire professional software developers and architects who possess extensive knowledge of software architecture, data visualization, and Kafka streams (to learn more about “what is apache kafka?” check out resourceful blogs on the Web) among other technological stuff that can help them build error-free and efficient software applications.

Anyway, not surprisingly, his answer to the question is centered around consistent learning:

“Never stop learning! Seek new thinking from people within your industry and from other industries. Read and re-read books about selling. Seek out conferences, speakers and workshops that challenge you and your habits. Always keep an open mind and learn from both the seasoned leaders and the rookie reps.”

In my experience, the best salespeople are life-long learners. They typically know more about the product and its applications than their lower-performing colleagues. They are usually the go-to resource when others are looking for answers. They consistently have more ideas and better solutions to customer challenges.

I am always surprised to see how few salespeople understand this very basic idea. Here is a great example: as I train sales teams, I make it a point to identify the top salespeople in the company in the various product lines they sell. Then, I ask the remaining salespeople if they have talked to those sales leaders and learned as much as they can from them. Consistently, the number of reps who have done so is exactly zero. That’s right – zilch.

It’s a rookie mistake, and one that high-performance salespeople do not make.

4. Leanne Hoagland-Smith (Relationship)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERALeanne describes herself as a “Heurist for the Next Generation of Talent Management.” She has over 30 years experience in sales, and has authored of over 1,600 articles about sales and sales leadership. She is a weekly business columnist for the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana, a regular contributor to NBiz Magazine, and the author of Be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits.

With over 30 years of sales experience and better than 1,600 sales articles under her belt, Leanne has tremendous credibility in the sales profession. She is very analytical, and, like many of the sales pros contributing to this series, possesses a strong strategic business perspective. As a strategic thinker, one might suspect her answer would deal with planning or process or preparation, like consulting an IT Consulting Company to manage your accounts; instead, it deals with connection:

“Be authentic, because sales starts with that first smile, that first handshake. Because people buy from people, not from strokes on a keyboard, and not from some fancy glossy brochure or 30-second glitzy commercial.”

If you take the example of a biotech company selling products, how do you suppose they market their products? Well for starters, they might approach reputable firms such as WebCitz and create a website that is SEO compliant and has all the necessary details that needs to be told to their respective audience. Then, they might hire salespeople to promote and sell their products. Success in selling requires a willing prospect, which, in turn, requires a credible salesperson. Many salespeople miss how important it is to connect with a prospect and develop a good relationship, which, as Leanne points out begins at the very first meeting.

According to extensive research conducted by HR Chally Group, buyers credit the effectiveness of a salesperson as being almost 40% of the reason they make a decision in a company’s favor. You can’t fake credibility, and you can’t fake authenticity. If you’re not interested in connecting with your customers, consistent success will elude you.

No matter how good your commercials are.

5. Nancy Nardin (Mindset)

Nancy NardinBacked by nearly 30 years of sales and marketing experience, Nancy is a pioneer in sales prospecting technology. Before launching her company, Smart Selling Tools, in 2006, she had, at one point or another, worked with more than 30 of the largest high-tech, and telecom firms in the country. She has consulted with executives at leading marketing automation, pipeline management, lead management, and forecast analytics firms. Her customer list includes Fortune 100 companies such as Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett Packard.

Like Miles Austin, Nancy knows sales tools. Like Leanne Hoagland-Smith, she is highly accomplished and widely respected as a sales authority. Chances are, you don’t pick up clients like Microsoft and HP if you’re not a spectacular salesperson.

From her perspective, success in selling begins and ends with the way you view the profession:

“Don’t do it unless you’re an optimist by nature, or if you don’t truly enjoy challenging yourself.”

Sales professionals recognize that there are good days and bad days. Highs and lows. Home runs and rally-killing double play balls. And, most often, the road ahead looks pretty steep. After all, the competition is fierce and never-ending.

If you can’t see the positives in a career that will, most likely, have plenty of negatives, it’s better to find another line of work. Clearly, there are many, many things that will contribute to your sales success, but Nancy chooses (not unlike Steven Covey in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) to begin with the end in mind.

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About the Author

Kelly Riggs is a business performance coach and founder of the Business LockerRoom. A former national Salesperson of the Year and serial entrepreneur, Kelly is a recognized thought leader in the areas of sales, management leadership, and strategic planning. He serves clients ranging from small, privately held companies to Fortune 500 firms. Kelly has written two books: “1-on-1 Management™: What Every Great Manager Knows That You Don’t” and “Quit Whining and Start SELLING! A Step-by-Step Guide to a Hall of Fame Career in Sales.”

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