I know what you’re going to say now. You’re going to say that it would be criminal to stop in their tracks a prospect who is baying for a meeting. And you’d be right. So what to do? What I always recommend is the Backpedal™.

What is this secret piece of sales magic? It’s simple. Let the prospect lead. Let them demand a meeting. Agree the date and time. Then BACKPEDAL. The key Backpedal phrase: “Before you go, let me just ask you one quick question”. Then you ask your qualification questions, leading one to the other in a conversational style.  If the prospect objects, you simply say that this is information you need in order to be prepared for the meeting. In a worst case scenario, you can always email them for clarification on any points not covered.

If they don’t qualify, then you have several options. If they are not the right person, you can ask for their help to include the right people in the meeting. Don’t exclude them; get them in the meeting as well. If there is no opportunity there, you can make a decision on whether you think that it is still worth making contact; perhaps a coffee before work or a lunch would be more appropriate for a casual introduction. Whatever you do, keep your backpedal casual and friendly.

Why do this? Because if you spend your time visiting unqualified prospects then you are really visiting suspects, which means that you are not fulfilling your potential. It’s vital to be sure that each and every meeting you have has clearly defined objectives, is with an potential sponsor, influencer and/or decision maker and that you have gathered enough information to present your solution in context. Otherwise you’re just shooting in the dark.

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If you’re not at one with GTD, I suggest that you check it out forthwith. Sample these excerpts from David’s newest book, ‘Making it all Work’ as a free taster.

And if that’s whet your whistle, here is a video of David talking to the boffins at Google. It’s quite long, but very informative, and of great use to us Productive Sellers.

I’ve used GTD principles as part of my personal productivity system for years. Where the challenge comes is in adapting the framework of GTD to meet your individual needs and to work with the technology that you have available. I’ll post shortly with some free on-line resources to help you manage everything, but for now here is a technologically agnostic tutorial from GTD Times to get you started on GTD for salespeople.

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One of the best ways to do that (apart from coming here of course!) is to check out the excellent Sales 2.0 by Brent Holloway and Anneke Seley(amazon link).

Check out these two free excerpts from the definitive sales 2.0 book.

Download the preface from Sales 2.0 (PDF)

Download an excerpt from Sales 2.0 (PDF)

If you want to know more, never fear, there’s a review coming soon.

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Don’t have that yet. Grab some paper and get going.  One goal per page with plenty of space underneath. Don’t forget, there are no wrong answers here. While The Productive Seller is all about sales (click here if you arrived at this post and want to know what it’s all about!), this exercise has a broad focus, so get it all in there. Want to quit sales and be a fighter pilot, write it down.

Remember, all goals are possible; it’s just a case of planning, directing your resources at the ones that matter and managing the process effectively (the productivity bit).

Let’s get started

1. Grab one of your goal sheets.  For our example, let’s say that I really do want to leave sales and become a fighter pilot (I don’t – apparently people shoot at you!).

2. Draw a line under the goal and start to write down all of the things that you will have to do for this to take place. (e.g. speak to air force recruiting office, plan budget for salary drop, overcome my fear of heights, etc).

3. Just keep going. Go mad. Need more paper to fit it all in…good. The more the merrier. Don’t worry about organising the list for now, just list like your life depended on it.

4. Finished. Excellent. Pop it in your tray/folder/dog (just checking you’re still concentrating!) and grab another one.  Repeat steps 1-4.  If you are starting to panic, read on first.

One of two things will start to happen to you

• Either you will start to feel enthused like never before about the incredible range of opportunities that your life has and feel overcome by the richness of existence

OR

• you will be overwhelmed by the complexity of your fulfilling your goals and become despondent. Don’t. We are going to make this very simple in our next post.

The Next Step

If you’re panicking, stop! It is all going to become very simple shortly. In the next post you will start to create a plan to take you from where you are now to having the life you dream of. In the meantime, have faith in yourself and keep scribbling.

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Check out these ideas and free (and/or low cost) resources to help you beat the market.

• The critical focus for you has to be your client-base.  The key to surviving the recession is to diversify your sales pipeline.  If you are reliant on a few large clients to bring in your target, then you are vulnerable.  Use all of the points below to grab new clients, in new areas.  Spread your risk, then if one market drops, you still have a rich pipeline to keep the deals flowing.

 

• Don’t sell on discount.  If you drop off this cliff who knows how far you will fall! It’s about value, not price.  Focus on the added value that your product and your company brings. Educate the prospect that cheapest is not necessarily best. Highlight the hidded costs of the competition (remember to make sure that what you say is well founded; we are not in the business of slating the competition) that they haven’t thought about. It’s the old principle of fear, uncertainty and doubt – but it works!

 

• You’ve heard me mention methodology before.  If you haven’t got one, you need to get one.  The Productive Seller recommends Keith Eades’ excellent The New Solution Selling (Amazon.co.uk link). At the very least, you’ll gain a fresh perspective on selling and boost your motivation. At best, you’ll add a whole new dimension to your selling and even to that of your company.  Nothing will boost your sales career (and if you’re not thinking about job security, you should be) like driving the success of not just yourself, but your whole team.

 

• Jill Konrath (author of Sales 2.0 mainstay Selling to Big Companies (Amazon.co.uk link)) has a series of free two-minute video tips for salespeople too.  Take a look and you’ll be taking the first step on the path to reinvigorating your sales greatness.

 

• Never forget the basics.  Remind yourself of the critical points of professional selling with this great free video.

 

• In a recession, selling is all about having a powerful Return on Investment case for your prospect.  Check out this great free article by Michael Nick et al, authors of the definitive book on the ROI selling (Amazon.co.uk link).

 

• Look at your goals and your motivation.  The road ahead is tough and you need to stay focussed.  We’ve mentioned it before, but here’s a great free article from Zenhabits on motivation.

 

Finally, if you’re feeling burnt out, don’t worry.  In the next few weeks, we’ll be running an article on the practical things that you can do to deal with sales burnout.  

Click our RSS Feed and get free updates on the latest articles and advice.

Keep your chin up and sell smart.

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Let’s talk about goals for a moment. What are your goals for today, for this week, even for this year?

You probably have a loose idea of what you want to achieve in the short term. If you take the time to examine it, you’ll

find that most of it is reactionary; that is it is determined by what is going on right now – deals, meetings, sales targets, household chores – you get the picture.

That’s fine. These things have to be done. They represent what we are going to call the operational level of your life.

Now we know that, we are going to forget it…for now.

Above the operational level, we have the planning level. This is comprised of the operational things that need to be achieved, but they are not happening right now. For instance, you know that you are going to have to replace your car this year; the mileage is high and the maintenance costs are going to outweigh its value. You can’t afford to do it now, but you plan to do it this year.

Or let’s take a sales example, as this is a sales productivity blog. You know that your company has a new product coming out in quarter three. You know that, to get ahead of the game, you need to start learning about the market for that product, but you don’t have the time right now. You think that you will probably look at it closer to the time – if the opportunity arises!

They are still tasks that are dictated by the daily machinations of your life; they are just a bit further out. This is the planning level.

Then we come to the exciting stuff! What do you want to do with your life? Whoa, steady on there for a minute. That’s a big question. Do I even know that? My bet is that you do. You might not have your entire future mapped out, but I know that you have ambitions and dreams for at least some areas of your life. That seat on the board, or moving from the telesales team to major accounts, becoming team leader – anything.

And what about your life outside work, because to be a productive seller, we need to live our lives outside work just as effectively. Everything has a balance and if all you do is work, you will burn out.

This is the strategic level, and it’s where all of our work will start.

So, your task for the week is to take a few sheets of paper and a pencil and start to write out your long term objectives for your life. Don’t worry about when you are going to do what: one year, five years, twenty years; it doesn’t matter at this stage. Write each one at the top of a sheet of paper. That’s it. That is the basis of the strategic level and it’s where your journey into sales productivity will start.

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