The Objection Formula

Objections are as much a part of process as any other step in your sales cycle and will likely happen more than once during the cycle.

If you are working your steps they can be handled quickly and easily and will strengthen the bond you have with your customer.

1. Agree

2 Restate

3 Isolate

4 Overcome

Customer Objection: Too expensive

Response:

Yes I agree it can be very expensive to find the right solution(Always agree, it validates the customer concern) So, your saying that it's cost that's preventing us from moving forward?(Restate his concern so you are aligned) But other than cost, you believe my solution represents your best path forward and cost is our only issue(You are now isolating his objection, making sure you get him to agree on the pain and how you resolve it)

well, I can't change the price but I can show you how having this tool will save your company money instead of costing you money.

Now review his admitted pain points and how you solved them getting his agreement along the way.

Do you see now how we are going to save, not cost you money?(if you did your pain points right he told you verbatim what those pains were, you can now close him using his own stated pains to deliver the close.

Why?

Because you can argue with me on my statements and opinions but how do you argue what you yourself have already stated?

This is why you must write down, verbatim the customer pain as he he describes it.

No pain no sale

To recap: Pain is felt differently throughout the organization and as such you will encounter different objections relative to addressing that pain at different points along the way.

Stick to your formula, work the steps and every time you get an objection write it down and review your best answer until you know it by heart.

Objections are buying questions, So know your answers.

Your pal,

Sean

Why Are You Saying No When Yes Feels So Good??

Say it with me: Yes! Yes! Yes!

This is a great word full of promise, hope and joy.
We need to hear this word a lot as salespeople.

Yes means, hitting quota, yes means achieving professional goals and yes means personal satisfaction.

But as salepeople we do not hear yes as frequently as we'd like do we?
Telemarketing studies say we only hear it about 1-3 times every 100 people we connect with.
Wow, that's a lotta no!

So, how do we turn a no into a yes?
Well, it really depends on you and your alignment with your prospect. But you can make that big "Yes", the close easier when you enable little Yeses along the way.

How do we do this?
We ask for it.
Your sales presentation and your process are full of opportunity for your customer to say yes So help them say it.
Here is a sample of how we might achieve this:

Telephone call warm:

Hi_____(prospect) my name is Sean O'Reilly and I build teams, I have over 25 years of successful experience doing this and based on my review of your(product good, service) I'm convinced that I can add immediate value to your organization.
Do I sound like someone you could work with?"

Customeer: 'Yes."

Sean: "Great! let me ask you a few questions to learn a bit about you and the process you have in place now and then based on that information we can determine whether or not we are a fit, and forge a path forward, sound fair?"

Customer: "Yes!'

Sean: "Tell me about your existing process and the path you take to get there.
(This part cannot be scripted but it can and should be frameworked, ask this customer, REAL questions and then right the answers down verbatim.)

Now, if you have used your most valuable of sales tools your ears, you have just been armed with all you need to win this account.

Sean :"Let me make sure I understand you, (read back what your customer told you, emphasis on pain and your value add )

"Am I on the right track?"

Customer :" Yes"

Sean "Great, I believe I can help you and we can get your sales ramped up right away, Are you ready to light this candle?"

At this point this is your baby to lose, you want to wrap up now and get the appointment.

Always leave the party early.

Your job here is to engage, not to educate.

The best presentation ends when your potential customer is left wanting more.

(to be cont)

"It's, The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of"

One of the most common problems in our society is the all or nothing approach to embracing new concepts, ideas and or philosophies.
Why?
It is, IMO, our innate need to constantly see and discover new and better ways of moving forward.

No methodology is perfect and no technology complete, there are always going to be alternative paths to achieve success and it is in our nature to seek them.
This human foible, is one of the key elements that make life and the evolution of sales and technology so exciting.

What approach do use to engage your head space in new ideology and alternative concepts?

Are you able to separate yourself from the leash of convention and explore the possible and the impossible?

Try to examine one new possibility every day, take a counterpoint to your own preconceived notions of what is and is not possible and then use that position to explore the cracks and fissures in your own reality.
What is then possible?

We have been extremely blessed to live and work in a time where the possible is limited only by our willingness to contemplate, explore and imagine.
Today, I challenge you to look around at you and find something that has confused frustrated or confounded you and rediscover it.
Why is this idea concept or belief impossible to you?

Chris Nielsen "What Dreams May Come?"

"Not only did I rediscover every experience of my life, I had to live each unfulfilled desire as well—as though they’d been fulfilled. I saw that what transpires in the mind is just as real as any flesh and blood occurrence. What had only been imagination in life, now became tangible, each fantasy a full reality. I lived them all—while, at the same time, standing to the side, a witness to their, often, intimate squalor. A witness cursed with total objectivity."

When you can do this and shed your armor of the possible you are free to embrace the impossible "What dreams may come?"

'Empower The Troops'

Usually I stay away from politics in here as they tend to repel rather than attract your followers But today I am making an exception to post a letter that I wrote to the editor published today in the SF Chronicle:



Empower the troops
Aside from being unconstitutional, "don't ask, don't tell" goes against the ideals we stand for.
We live by a code of duty, honor and country. As an Army sergeant my duty was to tear you down physically, mentally and emotionally and then rebuild you. To instill in you a confidence and knowledge that you were capable of far more than you ever imagined. To then reinforce that knowledge with praise, discipline and purpose and then demand excellence from you and allow you, the empowered soldier, to do the rest.
I cannot empower or demand excellence from someone who is forced to hide what and who they are, and constantly made to feel that they are not equals to those troops they will serve, fight and die with.
Thank you, America, for finally letting our brave LGBT warriors serve openly with the dignity, honor and the esprit de corps they deserve.

Bayonet!

A grateful veteran
Sean O'Reilly, San Francisco

2010 Year End Closeout

Before we start planning for 2011 we have to reconcile 2010.

We do this by by doing an assessment both personal and professional of the accomplishments and setbacks that we have encountered over the past 12 months and what lessons we learned from those experiences.

What lessons did you learn in 2010?
Did you tie up loose ends to get closure and allow you to progress physically, spiritually and financially?
Sales folks tend to personalize everything that happens to us.
This can be good and bad.
Good because reconciliation is crucial to your growth, and unfinished business will always come back to haunt you.
Bad, because hard as it is for us to accept, the world does not revolve around us.

Remember, you leave a dog out on the porch too long, you wind up with a cold miserable beast who might snap at you as soon as lick your hand when you open that door.
So be thankful,
You made it through didn't you?

Complete or close out all of your open business, personal and professional to allow you to be prepared for thr coming year and convert those experiences both good and bad into positive lessons to guide you in the coming year.
Make yourself a list of this years accomplishments and compare that list to last year. if you made one, or save it and use it to measure your success in 2011.

2011 What Are YOUR Goals? Or 'Was it Over When The Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor?

Previously we discussed goals and action plans. And how important they are in maintaining cohesion in both your personal and your professional life.
A young colleague informed me that he had not created any goal statement or action plan this year because he believed the economy was so damaged there was no reasonable expectation to presume growth.
He missed the point.
Your goals and plans are just that. YOURS. Not mine, not the economy's but yours.
Don't let negative influences in your professional or personal life dictate where you are going.

Bluto: Hey! What's all this laying around stuff? Why are you all still laying around here for?
Stork: What the hell are we supposed to do, ya moron? We're all expelled. There's nothing to fight for anymore.
D-Day: [to Bluto] Let it go. War's over, man. Wormer dropped the big one.
Bluto: What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: [to Boon] Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.

So, who's with me?