Excerpted from My Most Ignored Advice | The Sales Wars
Today, when younger sales people meet me and they learn that I have a blog read by tens of readers every fiscal quarter, they constantly ask “How can I be better in sales?“.
Judging by their facial expression it appears that they are expecting some parlor trick or magical chant, e.g. “Ok, you have to sacrifice a virgin, and you will probably have to go out of town to find one.”
After asking some preliminary questions, my most common reply is
“Start walking in your customer’s shoes”
or to state it another way, start caring about the things that your customers care about.
I used to think that there was this huge chasm between the average and the top performers on a sales team. While the results may be separated by a lot of white space, the effort required to generate is relatively close. The key difference is that the top performing sales executive can have an intelligent conversation with a prospect on a range of topics relevant to the prospect’s business, the average performer can only speak about their solution.
It takes time to develop the knowledge to hang in an executive-grade conversation, however, if you put forth the effort, you will notice a progression of how more engaged your conversations will become:
- You will be able to tie your solution to a relevant, specific challenges in the prospect’s industry, and go past the crap propositions birthed from your marketing department.
- You will be able to articulate the secondary benefits of your solution and how they impact less than obvious areas of the prospect’s business, enlightening your prospects to benefits they had not realized existed.
- The Holy Grail: You will be able to ask the right questions that let your prospect know that you are a professional and that you know the challenges he is looking to solve.
For example: “We all know your industry is seeing growth in the Pacific rim. While its not listed on your requirements, would you like to spend a few minutes discussing how we can help you if/when you show choose to expand to this area?”
So here’s how you start “Walking in Your Customer’s Shoes.”
- Read the Front Page of Wall Street Journal (5 min a day)
- Read the first section in BusinessWeek (10 min a week)
Even if you only sell into one vertical, you need to know about whats going on in the entire business universe. These two publications have done an excellent job of condensing the main events into the first few pages (or page).
- Learn about RSS feeds and how to use Google Reader (10 min a week)
When a friend shared with me that they formed their entire personal political opinion from watching Fox News, I damn near threw up. With a RSS reader you can receive and consume your news from 50 sources everyday in less than 10 minutes.
- Love the PodCast (90 min a week)
I consider podcasts to be the secret weapon of top performers. The great thing about podcasts is that they are slimmed down to the meat of the topic, many are under 20 minutes, and you can listen to them at your convenience. For example, I listen to WSJ podcasts while doing my cardio work out.
Here’s are our podcast recommendations :
- Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders by Stanford Technology Ventures Program
When I first started listening to this podcast, my original reaction was “Holy #@$%!!!”. This series is absolutely awesome. Want to hear the thoughts of the lead product manager for Google? Want to hear what’s on the mind of Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists? Want to hear Carly Fiorina’s story? This is the podcast for you.
I lost track of the number of times that this podcast has allowed me to hold the attention of a “C” and have a meaningful discussion.
- NBC’s Meet the Press
Don’t think politics is important? Then obviously you do not work in the auto industry or financial services sector. MTP is straight forward, with little to no spin, and its directly from the news makers themselves.
Not only with this podcast let you speak intelligently about politics, but also foreign affairs, and kept you abreast of the details on which industry is next in line for a bailout.
- The Economist
This is a U.K. publication offering its insight into global affairs. Did you know Germany is one of the keys to the U.S. having a better relationship with Russia? Neither did I. It also interesting to hear how the rest of the world thinks of our affairs. What did the EU think about Sarah Palin? How do our bailouts affect the economies of countries like Kazakhstan? How do others view our relationship with Iran?
If you sell to global companies, this podcast is a must.
- Stuff You Should Know
Where is the best place to get shot? Whats the best thing to do in a plane crash? Really, how did the sub-prime mortgage thing happen?
Do not underestimate the value of small talk in your deals. If you can engage your customer in a non-business conversation that they enjoy, they are more likely to pick up the phone when you call. Add this podcast to your list and you will have a ton of topics to grab people’s attention during those off-script moments.
- This American Life
Man can not live on bread alone. I have been listening to this show for over ten years, first on radio now on podcast.
This is one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes and one of the best shows on public radio. At an hour long, this is perfect for the ATL-DCA flight.
If you are not familiar, hosted by Ira Glass, the show takes a theme and offers a series of stories based on that theme. The stories are real and always have a twist or edge that will keep you anxious in hearing more. If you like authors like David Sedaris, you will love this podcast.
BTW, this is the one of the podcasts to whom I gladly donate. If you would like to contribute, click here.
Public radio is taking a real beating this year. They are looking at a multi-million dollar shortfall and have been reducing staff. Any help you can lend will be greatly appreciated.
via My Most Ignored Advice | The Sales Wars
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