Asking for referrals is one of the best ways to generate warm leads from satisfied customers but most of us don’t do enough of it (and some of us don’t do it at all) because we don’t know how to ask in a simple way that doesn’t come across as pushy.

At the CAPS Convention (Canadian Association of Professional Speakers) a couple of weeks ago Stuart Morley of Morley Consulting shared an absolutely beautiful way to ask this essential question:

“Were you happy enough with the work I’ve done for you to be comfortable introducing me to a few a of your colleagues and associates.”

What a beautifully worded question.  What I like about it is that inside this simple one sentence question there’s a lot going on. Let me share:

1. It causes the customer to reflect on the value they received from you and increases the likelihood of being re-hired.
2. It harnesess the Law of Reciprocity, which basically says that when you do something for someone, they want to reciprocate and do something for you.
3. It plants a seed for future referrals.  Simply by asking for introductions you trigger the customer think about referring you at some future point in time when an appropriate opportunity presents itself.

Here we are in the Christmas Season and many of us are out visiting clients, dropping off gifts or just visiting to say “thanks for your business”.  Now would be a great time to ask for referrals using the simple sentence here.  You’re clients won’t be offended an you’ll be amazed at how many referrals you actually generate.  This will give you fresh fuel to get an early jump on next year’s new sales activity.

What’s The Best Medium For Communicating?

Have you ever fired off an email that was misinterpreted?  We all have. Email, text and voice are all valid communication methods, but there are times when one is most appropriate.

Text is great for logistics – where to meet and when, or to notify someone when you’re running late.

Email is ideal when you need to keep a record of your correspondence, or to communicate something detailed to a group of people.

And voice? Well, voice is for when you mean business. There is simply no emoticon in the world that can substitute for the real tone in your voice. Only 7% of what we communicate is verbal – 93%  is tone and body language, so if you have something to say, and you want to ensure that it’s received the way you intended it, pick up the phone and call. People will appreciate you for it.

Get Your Revenue Rockin’ : Sell The Way Your Customers Buy

An Exclusive Event For Small Business: Saturday June 4th

Master the art and the science of professional selling by turning it into a comfortable, natural process.   Join Howard Olsen for The Three Truths of Selling a powerful, street smart, results focused experience on closing more sales in less time without pressure, friction or manipulation.

A Complete Go To Market Sales Strategy

The High Output Sales System is a full scale, proactive communication plan that helps you establish trust and relevance for profitable relationships. Our Proven 5 Step Process breaks the sales cycle into bite-sized, manageable pieces and builds value at every step within your own personalized blueprint for repeatable sales success.

What’s In It For You

We Guarantee when this workshop concludes you will have Your Own Step-By-Step Recipe for Success:

• Sell yourself before you sell anything else.
• Build unshakeable TRUST that wins business.
• Lead masterful natural sales conversations
• Develop clear value propositions and get ‘uncommoditized’.
• Differentiate yourself, your  product and your service.
• Receive premium fees by getting the “ice” out of price.
• Shorten your sales cycles.
• Eliminate tough objections.
• Close more sales pressure free.

Registration Details

When:       Saturday June 4, 2011
Where:      Delta Hotel Burnaby
Time:        8:17 to 5:21
Fee :          $197

 

How Do You Prepare For A Call – Are You In The Game?

The conversations with yourself are the most important conversations that you have.  Your self talk determines more about your outcomes than you might think.  So how do you prepare for a sales call?  What are the conversations you have with yourself and how do you get in the game.  Enjoy this new sales training video that explores your call objectives and getting in the game!

Want to meet Howard Olsen? In this fun and candid interview, you can get an inside look at what makes him tick, what he does, why he does and why that might be useful for you. Come take a listen and discover the genius and greatness inside you haw it might be released.  Who knows you might even get inspired!

From my friend Ray at instituteB

The devastating crisis in Japan and the honor with which the Japanese people continue to conduct themselves offers a lesson to the rest of the world.  Here are 10 Things we can all be positively influenced by:

1. THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly

Get Relevant And Keep Out Of The Sales Trap

Let me share with you the sad truth: Most business presentations are completely irrelevant.  Here’s how it normally goes.  We walk into a meeting and the prospective customer asks something like:  “So what can you for us?” or “What makes you different?”  or some variation of that.  Since the customer has asked us a question, we feel compelled to answer it.  So here’s what we do;  we launch into an amazing presentation so full full of impressive and compelling facts about what we do that we wow even ourselves.  The meeting concludes, everyone is enthused, we shake hands with the client and give ourselves a little congratulatory High 5 as we make our way back to our car or our office convinced that we nailed it and that we’re going to make a sale.    Days, maybe weeks go by and we realize that the sales process comes to an abrupt halt:  The phone doesn’t ring, they don’t return our calls and no sale gets made.  We can’t figure out what went wrong, it all looked so good.  

Here’s what went wrong.   Sometimes even the most compelling presentation often fails to hit the mark because it’s made way to early in the process.  Even the most captivating presentation made at the wrong time can be your biggest detriment to success.  It’s usually made long before we know what the client’s real need is, before we understand with any depth where they are coming from, what they need and what really inspired their interest to meet with us in the first place.  Remember:  Every customer buys for their own reason and people buy outcomes.  We were so busy telling them how great we are, that we never got around to understanding THEIR underlying “why” and the outcome they were after.  Even though we made a compelling presentation and the client was genuinely impressed we never connectected with their own unique situation.   In a word … we  were irrelevant.  

Here’s the good news: If you simply begin by trying to discover what your client actually needs wants and desires, without assuming that you know,  they’ll tell you.   To get there all you need to do, is ask them.  When that happens you’ll know what present and how to present it and you’ll be positioned as a trusted, relevant potential partner who understands them.  Remember this: Every human being on the planet including you, me and your customer hungers to be profoundly understood.  Ditch the pitch and get to a place of mutual understanding.  Selling  is a conversation not a pitch or an interrogation;  your thoughtful questions will be the sparkplugs of that conversation.  Your sales will be the fruit of that conversation.

You Are The Sale!

I’ve long been a raving fan of The HR Chally Group because their research on world class sales organizations scientifically validates the sales process and methodology we we instill into our clients.  One of the core assertions we make is that the key  differentiating factor that swings a customer’s buying decision is the salesperson him or herself.

In a recent article published by Chally they sate: “Sales and customer research conducted by Chally Group Worldwide summarizing more than 35 years of data reveals that “the sales representative ….  has become the single biggest factor (39%) in a customer’s purchasing decision.”    Customers expect salespeople  to transform themselves into professionals who are exceptional at identifying and satisfying their new buying needs

Here’s What Will Set You Apart

The following needs, in the customers’ own words, are:

1. Be personally accountable for our desired results.
   Customers are tired of pass-the-buck sellers. They do not want a salesperson to close the deal and run; they want to work with a partner who is personally committed to a successful outcome.
2. Understand our business.
   For salespeople to personally manage a customer’s results, they must deeply understand the customer’s business. This means knowing their competencies, strategies, challenges and organizational culture.
3. Be on our side.
   Buyers expect salespeople to be their internal advocates, manipulating their own company’s processes and politics so the customer gets what’s needed throughout the buying process.
4. Design the right applications.
   Customers want salespeople to think beyond technical features and functions to the implementa-tion of the product or service in the customer’s business environment. They want to know not just what the offering will do, they want to know what it will do for them.
5. Be easily accessible.
   They expect salespeople to be constantly connected and within reach, whenever and wherever needed.
6. Solve our problems.
   Customers no longer buy products or services; they buy solutions to their business problems. They expect a professional salesperson to diagnose, prescribe and resolve their issues, not just sell them products.
7. Be creative in responding to our needs.
   When they have a business problem and pursue outside assistance, it is because they perceive their problem as unique and not addressable with conventional solutions. Buyers expect professional salespeople to be innovators who bring them fresh ideas to solve their problems. Creativity is a major source of value in today’s salesperson.

If you want to win more sales, run circles around your competitors and get the excellent results obtained by World-Class Sales Performers, you need to impliment better sales process and then create environments where sales professionals can get creative within the context of your business so they can bring solutions to your customers.

If you’re looking for better sales process that supports the needs wants and desires of your customers, you may want to take a look at our High Output – The Three Truths of Selling – and Our Sales Blueprint.   You can find a copy of the Chally Report Here.

Here’s A Clue:  Think Outcome!

What’s your customer really buying?  What are you really selling?

Chances are it’s not what you might think it is.  In this video, Sales Trainer, Sales Coach and Keynote Speaker, Howard Olsen explores why people buy outcomes, not products or services.  Your product or service is just a vehicle to deliver an end result. 

What’s your tagline? Have you thought about your elevator speech? Watch this video and then think about what you’re really selling.  This simple principle will positively impact your bottom-line sales results.

Check Out Our New Video Newsletter: It’s All About Influence

If you ask most leadership experts for a definition of leadership they’ll tell you it’s about having positive influence with people.  If you ask me for definition of selling I’ll tell you the same thing.  Selling is about expressing your ideas from someone else perspective and having positive influence with them.  So how do you increase your influence?    There’s no short answer but there are lot’s of little things you can do to be fully present with another human being that will help you with your influence with them.

Coach’s Corner Video Blog Tip #1 from Howard Olsen on Vimeo.