Finding Your Own Selling Style: A Key to Sales Success
Finding Your Own Selling Style: A Key to Sales Success
One of the stages all consultants must go through in their careers is to learn to build relationships with senior client executives. To move from being a “do-er” to a trusted business advisor.
In my case I struggled early on to adapt to this. The role models and teachers I had were great - highly effective relationship builders. But I just couldn’t seem to do the things they did. The techniques they used just didn’t seem to work for me.
Luckily one of my mentors gave me the clue to finding my own style. “Look at those other guys.” he said, “You can’t do what they do or say what they say because you’re not them. You don’t have the same experience or the same capabilities. You have to achieve the same outcomes in different ways. Ways that work for you”.
When we talked over what he meant, he highlighted two main areas:
1) Adapting the words you use to fit in with your natural language patterns
2) Making sure your personal positioning - your source of credibility - is based on your actual experience and capabilities.
When it comes to language, I see mistakes most often when it comes to scripts. I’ve been looking at cold-call scripts recently for example. These can be really helpful to focus calls and avoid the umms and ahhs that creep in to our speech when we’re under pressure. But many of the scripts I’ve seen include language that I can’t imagine anyone other than a character from a 19th century novel using.
For example: “In researching your firm prior to calling you today, I noticed that….”
Really, does anyone you know speak like this? Do you?
Exactly.
The idea is great - show you’ve done your homework. And most of the cold-call scripts people showcase contain great thoughts and are well structured and proven in the field. Don’t change those aspects. But please, please, before launching them on your own potential customers, adapt the language so it fits with your style. I don’t mean major changes. If you’ve got a good script don’t change the structure or the key words - especially if you’re new to sales. You run the risk of changing the very elements that make the script work. But do make sure that you can use the words naturally - they fit with your way of speaking. If you wouldn’t say the phrase “when researching your company prior to this call” in real life, then it won’t sound natural. Try “When I was researching your company before this call”. You keep the structure and the critical words like “research” - but gain a naturalness which will shine through.
The other key area where your style is important - probably even more than with your language - is what I call your “source of credibility”.
One of the key criteria for effective sales is that the customer trusts that your product really does do what you say it does.
When the product or service you sell is complex or intangible, customers rely very heavily on you yourself for that trust and credibility - since they can’t see, touch or easily “test drive” the product itself.
You need to think through why your customer should trust your opinion and your advice - and position yourself in that way. In my case, I was trying to copy successful sales people whose source of credibility was their many years experience as senior executives in business, or the fact that they were part of the same “old boys network”. But the strategies they adopted and the words they used didn’t work for me - because I didn’t have the same source of credibility. I couldn’t talk to senior executives about the business challenges they faced as if I had faced the same ones running my company - because I hadn’t. But what I did have was many years as a consultant successfully helping clients overcome similar challenges. I was able to use this track record as my source of credibility - my invitation to the “top table conversation”. And from there I was able to build strong business level relationships with senior executives - relationships that led to major sales.
Ian
Finding Your Own Selling Style A Key to Sales Success - To learn more about this author, visit Ian Brodie's Website.
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One of the best pieces of advice I received early in my sales career was from a consulting industry veteran who urged me to “find my own style” in order to sell effectively. I’ve found the advice to be as relevant today as it was over a decade ago when I was just making the transition from managing large consulting projects to selling them.
One of the stages all consultants must go through in their careers is to learn to build relationships with senior client executives. To move from being a “do-er” to a trusted business advisor.
In my case I struggled early on to adapt to this. The role models and teachers I had were great - highly effective relationship builders. But I just couldn’t seem to do the things they did. The techniques they used just didn’t seem to work for me.
Luckily one of my mentors gave me the clue to finding my own style. “Look at those other guys.” he said, “You can’t do what they do or say what they say because you’re not them. You don’t have the same experience or the same capabilities. You have to achieve the same outcomes in different ways. Ways that work for you”.
When we talked over what he meant, he highlighted two main areas:
1) Adapting the words you use to fit in with your natural language patterns
2) Making sure your personal positioning - your source of credibility - is based on your actual experience and capabilities.
When it comes to language, I see mistakes most often when it comes to scripts. I’ve been looking at cold-call scripts recently for example. These can be really helpful to focus calls and avoid the umms and ahhs that creep in to our speech when we’re under pressure. But many of the scripts I’ve seen include language that I can’t imagine anyone other than a character from a 19th century novel using.
For example: “In researching your firm prior to calling you today, I noticed that….”
Really, does anyone you know speak like this? Do you?
Exactly.
The idea is great - show you’ve done your homework. And most of the cold-call scripts people showcase contain great thoughts and are well structured and proven in the field. Don’t change those aspects. But please, please, before launching them on your own potential customers, adapt the language so it fits with your style. I don’t mean major changes. If you’ve got a good script don’t change the structure or the key words - especially if you’re new to sales. You run the risk of changing the very elements that make the script work. But do make sure that you can use the words naturally - they fit with your way of speaking. If you wouldn’t say the phrase “when researching your company prior to this call” in real life, then it won’t sound natural. Try “When I was researching your company before this call”. You keep the structure and the critical words like “research” - but gain a naturalness which will shine through.
The other key area where your style is important - probably even more than with your language - is what I call your “source of credibility”.
One of the key criteria for effective sales is that the customer trusts that your product really does do what you say it does.
When the product or service you sell is complex or intangible, customers rely very heavily on you yourself for that trust and credibility - since they can’t see, touch or easily “test drive” the product itself.
You need to think through why your customer should trust your opinion and your advice - and position yourself in that way. In my case, I was trying to copy successful sales people whose source of credibility was their many years experience as senior executives in business, or the fact that they were part of the same “old boys network”. But the strategies they adopted and the words they used didn’t work for me - because I didn’t have the same source of credibility. I couldn’t talk to senior executives about the business challenges they faced as if I had faced the same ones running my company - because I hadn’t. But what I did have was many years as a consultant successfully helping clients overcome similar challenges. I was able to use this track record as my source of credibility - my invitation to the “top table conversation”. And from there I was able to build strong business level relationships with senior executives - relationships that led to major sales.
Ian
Finding Your Own Selling Style A Key to Sales Success - To learn more about this author, visit Ian Brodie's Website.
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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