How Salespeople Sell the Right and the Wrong Way

ProActive Selling describes what is going on in the buyer’s mind and how salespeople can use this information proactively. It shows salespeople how to use the right tool at the right time so they can sell more effectively in each and every sales call.

Remember:

There is a motto for ProActive salespeople, and it is:

Tactics before strategies within a process. It’s that simple. Successful salespeople sell in a process. Within that process they should use tactics and then combine them with a sales strategy, rather than strategize an account and then implement tactics. It’s important to put the pieces of the process in the right order, tactics before strategies, to be ProActive. Otherwise, the customer controls the sale, and the salesperson is forced into a reactive posture.

Putting strategies first makes salespeople reactive. Because their tactics are poor, they are getting poor information in the development of their strategies. Putting tactics first allows the salesperson to gather quality information during a sales call so the strategy part of the sale has complete and competent information.

The number one reason salespeople lose an account is that they are out of control of the sales process. Period. That’s worth saying again. The number one reason a sale is lost is because the salesperson is not in control of the buy/sell process.

Salespeople will always claim the reason they won a deal is because they were so smart, and that the reason they lost a deal could be one of a host of other reasons, none which are in the salesperson’s control, of course.

What these salespeople don’t realize is that control of the buy/sell cycle is the number one factor in determining whether a sale will be won or lost, even above best fit of product or solution. In addition, this control is totally the responsibility of the salesperson.
In discussions we have had with senior sales management, we found they all want the same things.

Shorter sales cycles: Shorten the sales process so more transactions can be made per salesperson.

Better forecasts: Better quality and quantity of deals in the pipeline—the ideal is 90 percent-plus accuracy in the 90-day forecast, rather than the 50 to 60 percent accuracy they deal with today.

• Elimination of “maybe” or bad deals early in the cycle.
• Control of the sale throughout the sales process, so value can be sold instead of price.
• Lower cost of sales while increasing the average selling price (ASP) per order.
• Implement a sales communication process into the sales organization and the rest of the company.
• Constantly increase the competencies in the sales team to take the Aplayers to A-plus status.

Sales managers wrestle with these strategic issues day in and day out, and must understand how easily they can be dealt with if they focus on the right things. Sales managers can have a major impact in all of the above issues if they focus on the tactics of selling and follow the rule of putting tactics before strategies; it’s that straightforward. For the most part, salespeople are instructed by their managers to strategize objectively and sell to their accounts, so that the sales manager can obtain his or her own strategic objectives. It is the salesperson’s job to develop and set account strategies and to deliver on them so the manager meets his or her overall objectives.



After a while, when sales are not going well, the sales manager panics a little and spends hours with a salesperson behind the scenes dabbling in account strategies that have been developed. He or she will “assist” on issues such as whom to call on, where in the organization the salesperson should call on next, and so on. He or she is “helping” to develop and refine the salesperson’s account strategy of all the next strategic moves that are needed to “make the sale.”
This is all good, but where are the tactics to go along with it? It’s nice to work out the strategy before you get face to face with the customer, but once you are with them, what do you do? What do you say? What do you say first, second, and third? How do you end the call and stay in control? What tools do you use at the point of attack? How do make sure you control the sales call effectively, at each tactical step?

You use tactics before strategies, within a process.

ProActive Selling has 20 tools for the salesperson to use during the sales call and maintain control of the process. These tools are also the tools the sales manager can use to make sure the salesperson is really in control of the sale, at the point of attack, the sales call.

You can combine the tactics and tools of ProActive Selling with any of the strategic sales methodologies you like to round out your selling experience. If you have only a strategic piece of the sales puzzle, and then try to figure out the tactics to go along with it, you will falter at the point of attack. If you are armed with tactics and the buy/sell process along with your own sales strategy, you will increase your chance of success, dramatically.

Some Thoughts…

Most salespeople do not have a sales process. They think they do, but try to have them describe it for you. Most salespeople can’t. Without a defined sales process, salespeople can react only passively to customers. Such reactive salespeople base their approach on:

• Customer selling: The customer leads the sales process and the salesperson follows.
• Experience selling: This is the process of hoping that past experience will lead to future success.
• Catch-up selling: The competition directs the sale and then you have to play catch up all the time.
• Bad sales manager selling: The sales manager enforces the “do it like I did” methodology.
• Situational selling: The sales person is “winging it and praying” on every call.

There is a process of selling that is more successful than most so-called selling processes. It is two-dimensional; it not only has the selling process covered, but also addresses the buying process. As you will find out, there is a process in how people buy. Salespeople are drilled on controlling the sales cycle, but without the added dimension of understanding the buying cycle and matching the salesperson’s selling process to the buyer’s buying process, they will not be in control of the overall sales process.