I’ve recently taken up cooking. This is not something that I ever thought I would do however lately it has become an obsession. When I first started the results varied greatly and I could come up with a number of reasons why a recipe didn’t turn out right. Bad recipe, horrible directions, stove or oven was too hot, cooking at sea level is different, didn’t have the right tools. I could always explain away the failures, and always pointed to my ability when succeeding. I was willing to accept responsibility for my victories, and just as quickly blame the perceived uncontrollable for my disasters. Well, two weeks ago I had a huge success with a new couple we had over for dinner. I presented them with an awesome rendition of Chicken Scaloppini. Over the top compliments were received from our guests and questions asked about how I learned to cook like that. I humbly accepted the praise and did say it has taken time to learn some of the necessary skills, to which I received the reply of “Well I could never learn to cook like that!” I blurted back “You can if you will follow the recipe.” As I sat through the rest of dinner I repeated in my mind the statement “You can if you will follow the recipe.” I thought back to my selling days. When I failed I blamed bad leads, bad prices, customer was a jerk, sales expectations were to high etc etc. the list goes on and on. When I had success, it was because I was just good.
There was a time where my head was on the chopping block for lack of sales and had been told that I had 30 days to turn it around. The pressure was great, and I looked for answers everywhere. I quickly realized that I had all the same leads, same collateral, same pricing and same support that everyone else had. Why were so many having success, but I wasn’t? That’s when it hit me like a truck. The only place I didn’t look was at myself. The only variable was me. I wasn’t following the recipe. Upon returning to the recipe an amazing thing happened, I started selling again. Last week I started a Strategic Selling Skills class. I divided up the room into 4 groups of 10 people and asked them to collaborate and write down the “Steps of the Sale”. I was asked by a brave soul in the room, “What do you mean steps of the sale?” When the laughter subsided, I responded with the directions of “What does the process entail from start to finish, what do you do first, then second and so on. Please don’t leave anything out. Go from A-Z. Then I said you have ten minutes to complete this activity. A full twenty minutes later the groups of ten were still trying to write down the process, and in some cases were involved in heated discussion about it.
Some the processes were 4 steps, some were eight, one had 17 steps and one even had 23 steps. As the spokesperson for the group reviewed their agreed upon process someone quite often would pipe up that they disagreed with that step. I remained expressionless for most of the presentations taking a few notes here and there. After it was over one thing stood out more than any other, 40 selling professionals in the room and there was not a consistent understanding of what the company’s process was. With 40 people out doing their own thing how could the organization hope to replicate what should be happening on the call. It matters not whether your process is 4-8-17 or 23 steps long (I even had one guy tell me his was a 3-step process, beginning, middle and end) it matters that you can document it and replicate it.
Regardless of whether you work in a ‘Boiler Room’ environment, you choose to use a Transactional approach, or Mood Selling, Relationship or a Situational approach the one thing they all have in common is that there is truly a process. Adherence to the process doesn’t always guarantee success however it does increase the likelihood of success. This is called the “Science of Professional Selling”. I have never been of the mindset to make little robots out of people. Making sure they all say the same thing and use only this tool or that one, or prospect here or there, I just want them to follow the process. Once the steps are followed then by all means focus on your delivery and what you say. This is called the “Art of Professionally Selling”. In general sales people focus more on the Art and less on the Science. That, my friends, is a recipe for frustration and failure.
If you want my Chicken Scaloppini recipe just ask and I’ll email to you, if you need to build, define or refine your organizations’ Sales Call Process you are going to want to call or contact us. We can help you.
Email: kris@transglobaldevelopment.com or call 917.930.0801.