Common Attributes of a Top Seller Set 2

The second set of common attributes were identified by Drs. Jeanne and Herbert Greenberg. They suggest that a salesperson needs three basic traits to be successful: empathy, ego drive, and ego strength (Greenberg and Greenberg, 1983).

Empathy is defined as the ability of the salesperson to relate to customers effectively. An example of empathy is where a salesperson making a lot of money is selling insurance to less fortunate individuals. If the salesperson understands that the customer can only afford the bare necessities, he is more likely to make the sale by not pressuring the customer into buying something the customer cannot afford. In other words, being able to understand the customer's financial situation. Empathy is the guidance mechanism that allows the salesperson to follow the prospect through evasions and objections until the prospect's real needs are targeted and the sale is closed (Greenberg and Greenberg, 1983).

Ego drive is defined as gaining personal gratification by persuading another individual to do what you want him to do. The Greenbergs believe that the ego-driven individual is only satisfied when victory (the sale) is achieved. An example of ego-drive is where a salesperson is on the road visiting prospective customers, but he keeps getting rejected. In other words, the ego-driven individual will not be happy until he has made the sale. Ego drive is the motive force launching the salesperson toward the potential customer (Greenberg and Greenberg, 1983).

Ego strength is defined as the resilience to move onto the next sales situation after being rejected. An example of ego strength is where a salesperson pursues the customer until the sale is finished. In other words, "never give up.” Ego strength is having the stamina to follow the prospect through evasions and objections until the sale is closed (Greenberg and Greenberg, 1983).

While deficiencies in empathy, ego-drive, and ego-strength can guarantee sales failure, possessing them does not automatically guarantee sales success (Greenberg and Greenberg, 1983). In addition, having the ability to deal with complex ideas and concepts, make quick analyses and judgments, negotiate systematically and persistently, and manage/organize time are also traits that can improve sales performance. 

References

Greenberg, H.M., & Greenberg, J. (1983). The personality of a top salesperson. Nations Business. Retrieved February 6, 2002 from http://www.calipercanada.com/personality.htm.

Blanka Cigler

Senior Consultant, Coach

 and Project Manager

Common Attributes of a Top Seller Set 1

In previous post Do you CARE about your customersI present Pareto’s Principle which states that twenty percent of all salespeople make eighty percent of all sales, which means eighty percent of a sales force fights over the remaining 20 percent of business. This statistic reinforces how important it is to be in the top twenty percent of sellers. These top salespeople possess personalities and abilities that best fit selling as an occupation. In addition, 55 percent of salespeople have no ability to sell, and 25 percent have sales ability but are selling the wrong product or service (Greenberg and Greenberg, 1983). 

In the following three blogs I will presents three sets of attributes that researchers have identified for top sellers. Despite the studys and surveys presented top sellers are not born. Anyone can become a top seller by studying, practicing, concentrating, and focusing on his own performance (Basis International, 2002). 

Common Attributes of a Top Seller (Set 1)

The first set of common attributes comes from a recent study by the Harvard Business School. The study found that highly successful salespeople (BASIS International, 2002): 

•  do not take “no” personally;
•  take 100 percent responsibility for results;
•  possess empathy; 
• have above average ambition, empathy, and willpower and determination; 
• are intensely goal-oriented; 
• and can easily approach strangers. 

In addition, the study found that knowing how to sell effectively is not always second nature; these attributes can be learned and incorporated into a personal development plan for reaching top seller status.

Authors Patton and Sardar (2002) define five related qualities that they feel describe a successful salesperson: 

• high energy level;
• self-confidence;
• hunger for money; 
• well-established habits of industry; 
• and the ability to see obstacles as challenges. 

They believe that top sellers possess a compulsive need to win and hold the affection of others (Sardar and Patton, 2002). Ruth and Wysocki (2012) agree with all but one of the qualities that describe the successful salesperson. They do not agree that a hunger for money is a quality that describes a successful salesperson. While a hunger for money can lead to short-term sales success, long-term sales success is best nurtured by cultivation of internal motivating factors such as the needs to succeed and to make a difference.

References

Ruth A., Wysocki A.: Top Sellers: Characteristics of a Superior Salesperson Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/sn004 [December, 2012]. 

Gitomer, J. (2001). Specific characteristics are what make top sales people tops. American City Business Journals. Retrieved February 6, 2002 from http://houston.bcentral.com/houston/stories/2001/07/02/smallb2.html.

Greenberg, H.M., & Greenberg, J. (1983). The personality of a top salesperson. Nations Business. Retrieved February 6, 2002 from http://www.calipercanada.com/personality.htm.

Sardar, A., & Patton, M.A. What makes a great salesperson?: Links between our heritage and the future. Retrieved February 7, 2002 from the Internet. [Site cannot be linked. To access online, direct your browser to <http://130.195.95.71:8081/www/ANZMAC1999/Site/S/Sardar.pdf>.


BASIS International. BASIS: Your Portal to E-Business. http://www.basis.com/advantage/magv4n2/portal.html [September 1, 2011]. 

Tamara Ćetković

Consultant, Coach & Project Manager

The Difference between Tellers and Sellers

What is the difference between a teller and a seller? A good source for determining the difference is The Top Ten Ways to Know You are a Teller or a Seller by Terri Levine (2000). 

Terry Levine, a business coach for sales and marketing professionals, has been the number one salesperson in two different national organizations and bases his teller or seller list on personal experiences. Although many people in sales title themselves “sellers”, in reality they are just “tellers”. 

All too often we fall back into the teller mode. To be a successful as a salesperson or a top performer in the sales industry, you need to be an effective seller not an effective teller. Figure 2 distinguishes tellers from sellers (Levine, 2000). Which one are you?

References 
Levine, T. (2000). The top 10 ways to know if you are a teller or a seller. Coachville Coach Training Resource Center. Retrieved from http://www.topten.org/public/AF/AF102.html.

Blanka Cigler
Senior Consultant, Coach
 and Project Manager

Do you CARE about your customers?

In the era of modern communications, it’s become easy to lose track of the most effective sales tools. Too often, the sales process has become one of faceless and nameless entities submitting bids via telephone, e-mail or fax. Or the process has been diluted so significantly that only one sales call is made, although statistics show that more than 75 percent of all sales are made after the fifth call.

Is it any wonder that Pareto’s Principle states that twenty percent of all salespeople make eighty percent of all sales, which means eighty percent of a sales force fights over the remaining 20 percent of business? This doesn’t mean that the top 20 percent are incredibly different; they just tend to do the little things better and win the close ones.

In today’s competitive market it’s more important than ever before to understand the sales process. Have you ever been told that prospects only want to know: What is the price? How long is the warranty? How long have you been in business?

Under these conditions, it’s even more important to understand the process. Have you ever lost a contract to a competitor who is higher in price? Have you ever purchased an item that was not the lowest priced? Why did you make the decision? Did you feel that the salesperson understood you? Did you gain a higher level of confidence in the company you chose over the company you did not? There it is — the sales process at work.

How can you improve your sales effectiveness?

Listen. Pay attention and keep up with the conversation going on. Do you finish their sentence in your head or out loud? Do you have a response before they are done speaking? It sounds obvious, but if you’ve ever been told you could sell ice to Eskimos, you need to be a better listener.

Listening is a difficult task as well as very effective sales weapon. Silence makes people uncomfortable and someone is going to fill the void. The professional should know better and resist the urge to chase a question with an easier question. For example: “Mr. Prospect, how much have you put aside for this project?” Silence. “Mr. Prospect, if you’re not sure, how about a ballpark figure?” Each time you feel uneasy about the silence, take a deep breath and slowly count to five. You’ll be surprised by what you learn.

C.A.R.E. (Communicate, Articulate, Respect and Excite), about your client:

• Communicate with them and try to understand what makes them tick. Are they new and feeling overwhelmed with responsibility? What is the history of the decision-making process? Who are you competing with and how was that decision reached? Every sales opportunity is an opportunity to make a friend and learn about your competitors firsthand.
• Articulate the most important benefits your prospects will gain by doing business with you. You should have a list of the 10 key benefits customers receive when purchasing your product or service. After talking with your prospects, you should be in a position to articulate how your benefits will suit their needs.
• Respect their time, and make them respect your time. Determine the ground rules. At the appropriate time, ask your prospects how long they have set aside for this meeting. Then stay within that time frame and end the meeting on schedule. This dependability will help you set future appointments. Schedule the follow-up appointment before leaving.
• Excite them. If you don’t believe your product or service is the absolute best choice, why should they believe it? You need to excite your prospects about your solution to their problem. Excite them about the product’s or service’s benefits, the ways it will make their life easier and how it will create more time for them.

In this new era of technology, it’s more important than ever to personalize the sales process. Differentiate yourself and your company. You’ll increase your sales through stepping around the impersonal methods of communication that are all too prevalent in today’s business world. 

This article is extracted from: Ken Lundin: Sales Techniques, Sales Consulting. PaintPRO. [URL: http://www.paintpro.net/Articles/PP501/PP501_SalesSilence.cfm], 11.04.2013.

Blaž Mertelj

Managing Director & Senior Consultant

"Recommendations are the best method of generating new business opportunities." But are they really?

What Drives Your Business Today? Recommendations?

Often we hear and read that recommendations are the best possible method of generating new business (sales) opportunities. In addition to »cold calling«, recommendations are actually one of the few marketing activities that also work well in the complex B2B sales process – this was recently described by my colleague Tamara Ćetković in the article 'Do you really make sure you have enough »meat« for sale'. 

The reason for the effectiveness of recommendations is, of course, very simple. Recommendations work on principle of trust and acquaintances. One to recomend us, is usually a very well well-known person, our relationship is based on mutual trust – with recommendations, there are no concerns about inadequacy, self-interest or even malicious intents.

Such personal information are very much appreciated, as shows the BusinessWeek research which provides clear and convincing evidence: out of 700 companies surveyed, 22% of companies selected recommendations of acquaintances and business partners as the best method for generating new opportunities. Therefore companies strive to be recommended forward.

But is this true? Are personal recommendations really that great? Do they really generate so many sales opportunities and yield? Our experiences tell us no.

Recommendations from acquaintances VS. my ego

An important part of recommendations, one that is often missed in the professional literature and discussions, is the psychological impact that recommendations have on those to whom the recommendation relates.

What does a scenario that is doomed from the start according to our experience look like:

We at the Customer: "Well, do you know anyone else, to whom we might help the same way we helped you?"

Existing Customer ZX: "Yes, the person XY in the company XY also has similar problems. You can call them, here is the contact, and tell him that I sent you!"

We: »Greetings, g. XY. We are XY person from the XY company, and we are offering XY services/products, we also collaborate with your colleague ZX who mentioned that you have similar problems, and recommended you to hear more about it, so that you could find out if we can solve your problems as we solved his.«

XY swallows hardly: »Of course. I'll meet you at that time and there, LP.«

This is a mock example, however. What have we achieved with this? In principle, we were only able to step on XY's ego with this, when we told him, that we know, that something is not working properly. Even more – this was told to us by his acquaintance/business partner, i.e. a person that he is dealing on personal level with. His confidant therefore considers that XY is weak in a certain area, which is almost the worst thing that can happen to any individual's ego. If you already have a 'problem' (and you do), you certainly do not want them interpreted to an acquaintance. Nor to the company by an acquaintance recommendation. Finally, do we discuss the most serious problems with our partners or friends in private life... Or do we pretend to be strong in front of them, and rather repress problems or tell them to a »competent stranger«, i.e. a psychiatrist?

So we really have not done anything. We will get a first meeting, definitely. But we won't acquire more information or even perform a transaction. We are too close to the acquaintance of XY and there is a real concern that XY will be seen as weak, if he has any errand with us.

Are consequently personal recommendations worthless?

Absolutely not. Recommendations are dry gold in sales. However, they require a methodical approach and a well set plan of how to contact the person XY, when to pull recommendations out of the hat and how to do it.

Do you have opinions, comments? A good know-how from personal recommendations? Join the debate on LinkedIn or contact us at +386 (0)1 5444 999 or email us. 

  

Gal Kočar
Market Development Lead

Do you really make sure you have enough "meat" for sale?

A Focus Above the Funnel is Esential to Generate Leads

When we talk about sales management, most of the time is dedicated to monitoring and managing the sales funnel sales opportunities. Too often, not enough emphasis is given to the structured acquisition of leads, although activity in the early stages of a significant impact on the outcome of individual sales opportunities.

 

In order to deal with good sales opportunities, we need greatest possible number of leads and also a clever salesperson would you want as much as possible. The problem is that generating leads is seriously hard work, and the majority of sales that are like in action and on the ground, does not proceed.

    

Below we will mention a few ways of generating leads. All will work if you put them in to practice, and do so in a consistent ongoing way:

• Referrals
• Dependent Referrals
• Networking
• Directories
• Cold Calling

Referrals

Very few actively generate referrals. We think we need to know or "have a relationship with" the person you ask for referrals, but it is not. Referrals can be obtained from a lot of people you deal with in business, from prospects, clients, vendors, tradesmen, even other leads. .It is never too early to ask for referrals, you may not get one right away, but people will know you are ready for them.

Direct Authority Referrals

Part of referrals needs to be exempt from the above categories. These are the referrals of people who have relationships with people who could use our service or product, and are in a position to have to more than strongly influence matters with their authority. They have information that can accelerate the transition stakeholders in a business opportunity and also shorten the sales cycle. These could be lawyers, accountants, business advisors, bankers, ie persons who are entrusted to our interested party and it has a direct impact.

It is smart to connect with companies who offer complementary solutions to ours, and who allready build confidence to our interested party. They help us to sell our solutions, as they are trusted client for those who provide them with a comprehensive solution to the problem.

Irrespective of the nature of the recommendations we may take the initiative to circulate some recommendations in order to build a healthy relationship that will show the long run results.

Networking

Networking is the everyone's task, which does not mean that it is done effectively. All networks are not suitable for every type of sale, but there are always a number that will provide you a steady stream of leads. Since networking is part of the company's strategy, do not exaggerate, but do it properly. It is necesary to set targets to measure and perform networking based on clear objectives and results.

Directories

There are a number of different directories for different prices, but if they provide us the leads we need, the cost are negligible. The advantage of databases is that they can be filtered if necessary, and extracted just what you need.

Cold Calling

In addition, other than referrals, cold calling is still the most time and cost effective way to gain and qualify leads and turn them in to prospects. The survey results showed that the top three ways companies generated quality new leads over the past two years are:

• referrals from clients or partners (22%);
• general referrals (16%); and
• cold-calling or telephone prospecting (13%). 

That wea are able to enter in to transactions, we need opportunities and high-quality cold calling is an effective ay to find those prospects that need us, but do not know how to find us.

Using the above mentoined methods can ensure that you have sufficient and a steady source of leads as well as you can qualify, rank and continuously convert those leads to prospects and then to sales.

Although, it's not easy way, the above-mentioned approaches ensure that interested parties, with whom we have contacted so far, will find our solutions, when they'll need it. 

This article is extracted from: "Lead Management - A Focus Above the Funnel - Part II", Tibor Shanto

http://bit.ly/xoSjQ3

Tamara Ćetković

Consultant, Coach & Project Manager

Unmotivated salespeople? The incentives will not solve the situation.

What motivates a sales force?

When my colleague googled the phrase "Sales Management", he ran into an article, written by Ms. Sabine Petrov, titled: Most Common Errors in Sales Management. The article was very practical unlike many theoretical articles and interviews found in media and was discussing concrete situations in sales departments of our companies. 

I would like to briefly comment one topic from this article -- namely, the negative assessment of the incentive plans expressed by sellers. The article states that the sales people at least agree with the following statements:

1. Everyone in our sales department is familiar with the rewards and sanctions for exceeding or underachieving sales targets;
2. Non-monetary rewards are tailored to meet the individual needs;
3. The manager clearly explains why I have or have not received the award;
4. Financial reward is directly tied to the individual performance or meeting the sales targets. 

Of course we should be aware that in almost all employee satisfaction surveys rewarding usually comes last on the scale and there is nothing wrong with that. Employees are hoping that this will affect the salaries -- who can blame them :) 

   

But above statements are specific and well placed, so disagreement with them is not to be taken easily as general whining about the salaries. Why? 

Because they do not speak about money but about fairness and the so called hygiene.

     

The theory of managing people is blessed with Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory which basically says that the factors that motivate human beings are not the same as those that demotivate them. For example, poor relationships at work demotivate us, but very good relationships on the other hand do not motivate us. A seemingly useless assertion but let's see an example. For employees it is really great to have excellent relations in the company (conversations, coffee, socializing, etc..) but this will not directly stimulate them to put in extra effort on challenging tasks.

    

More important for the practical aspect of people management and rewarding is Herzberg's claim that motivation can only be built on hygiene. This means that you must ensure first there are no factors that demotivate, only then can you motivate your people with motivators. So what, you say? 

A reward system that is not understood does not work!

Now comes the shock - this means that if your employees perceive the reward system as undefined, nonobjective or even unfair -- awards and sanctions will not work at all. Given the above arguments or denial of above claims by salespeople we can assume that a huge amount of effort and money for incentives in many companies is practically thrown away. 

So, an incentive system needs to be: 

• simple and understandable ("less is more");
• clearly defined in detail (money is a sensitive issue);
• repeatedly communicated (any misunderstanding is dangerous);
• thoroughly discussed (so all is clear and perceived fair). 

only then can it can work. The first point is important so that points 2-4 are not too difficult. If it is simple we can accomplish the rest.

Well, let us now know your comments and questions! And send the link to this post to your superiors, the incentive systems must be improved. 

      

P.S. For managers - do not throw money away for incentives that do not work! 

Tamara Ćetković

Consultant, Coach & Project Manager