Why Did I Lose The Sale?

June 15, 2008

Q: George, I lost this account I have been working on for months and I’m really demoralized. I worked on this
deal using all the techniques you taught us in the Sales Strategy seminar, got close to them and knew the issues they were facing.
Our solutions were not only the best solutions, but the issues on which they based their decision weren’t particularly important.
I’m upset for two reasons; one that I lost and two that I believe that they lost as well. HELP!
Alicia L; Arvada, CO

A: The reality is, that the one with the best solutions or the highest sense of service isn’t always the one that wins the battle. Solutions and service are prerequisite for success, but the one who wins is not necessarily the best person with the best product but simply the best competitor. You are not in a club by yourself. More than one sales professional has fallen victim to the feeling, that if he/she were the best at everything he/she didn’t have to worry about the competition. Think about the story of the Tortoise and the Hare as exemplifies that statement as well.

Under estimating the competition abilities can easily be the destruction of the sales process for you. You may have outsold your competitor on the issues YOU deemed to be most important but it sounds like you failed to outsell the competition on the issues that THEY FELT was most important to THEM.

1. Know your competitors: Knowing your competitors includes knowledge of where they are weak, where they are strong, their services and products and compare all of that to your product and services. Determine where you can be attacked as well and prepare.

2. Keep a beginners mind; don’t get frustrated, don’t panic, view all objections raised by the prospect as opportunities to validate your products, services, company and YOU. These types of objections can many times be the direct pipeline into what is MOST IMPORTANT TO THE PROSPECT! Solve these issues and more and you’ve got the sale.

3. If you can control the issues you can control the sale. Pick the issues that give you the competitive edge and create an emotional reaction for the prospect. You’ve heard me say in past newsletters, “set the prospects hair on fire” with your enthusiasm.

4. Sell to the individual not the group as a whole; when speaking to a group don’t address just one person in the room. Survey the participants and do it more than once to be certain that there is not some objection in their mind that is going to raise its ugly head as soon as you leave the room. Again I say, control the issues and you control the sale.

5. The issues you choose must carry the emotional energy I mentioned above. You must carry yourself in a manner that exudes confidence, knowledge and demonstrates your strengths.

If you will recall from our seminar, I said many times, there is 4 key items to making the sale;

a. You must know yourself inside and out including all of your strengths and weaknesses.

b. You must know everything there is to know about your products or services

c. You must know your competitors

d. You must understand the intrinsic needs of the prospect. Once you have what is important to the prospect, you can make the match.

If for whatever reason you are not able to evaluate your competition, what is MOST IMPORTANT is point “d” above.

Yogi Berra said it best, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Make an appointment with this prospect and perform a post mortem on the sale. Ask the decision maker why you didn’t get the sale. Don’t become argumentative, but this will give you one more tool to turn the sale around. And if you’ve truly lost this one, it’s a lesson well learned for tomorrow.

As always, I wish you a tremendous personal and business week. Call me if I can be of assistance.

Regards,

George F. Mancuso

George F. Mancuso, CPC
“WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT GMAN”

Any Thoughts On Motivating My Employees?

Q: Would you kind enough to give me some tips on motivating my employees? I feel like most of my employees are just marking time and the next thing I know we are in a time crunch for a project. We are a service organization and this problem includes office, customer service and sales people.
Paul B, Columbia, MO

A: Without visiting your business and observing your people it is a bit deceiving what is transpiring. However on the surface is sound like they have a lack of focus which will destroy any chance you have at developing good time management skills for all.

A friend of mine shared an idea with me last week and in part, allow me to share some of that with you as well. At your next company meeting or through a companywide Email offer your employees this scenario:

Imagine arriving at work you find that your workstation office is covered with $100 bills from the floor to the ceiling. As you find your way to your desk, on the loud speaker you hear the President announce, “Between the Hours of 9:00 and 11:30 AM and 1:30 and 4:00 PM today, you can keep all of the $100 bills that you can gather up – no strings attached!”

Ask yourself the following questions:

Would you REALLY until 9:00 AM to start?

Would you REALLY go to lunch?

Would you REALLY take personal phone calls?

Would you REALLY send or read personal Emails?

Would you REALLY go onto social Internet sites?

Would you even go to the bathroom?

You probably answered “NO” to most of those questions, because you would be extremely focused on gathering and keeping as many $100 bills as you could.

THE REALITY:

Those $100 bills are in your office right now. In order to grow YOU as an employee, or YOU as a company, harvesting those $100 bills is critically important to OUR success!

You have many people on both sides of the sales process and our co-workers can also be a distraction. And don’t forget that we often distract ourselves when our attention switches from work to family, friends, vacations etc.

Often family members and friends don’t realize they are taking money out of your pocket when they distract you during business hours. It is important to limit those distractions by just letting people know they should call you before work, during lunch or at the end of the day.

They take money from YOUR pocket because if your company doesn’t grow, you just might not get a paycheck next Friday. If you limit the distractions, you will earn more money and you will have more time.

There are several ways to help people manage time better, become more organized, learn to grow themselves while growing their organizations. If you need more information, just contact me, George@GmanSearch.com.

Find a way to make a difference this week in your life and of the people around you.

Regards,

George F. Mancuso

George F. Mancuso, CPC

Knowledge vs. Skills

ALL THE KNOWLEDGE IN THE WORLD IS OF LITTLE USE UNLESS YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO TRANSLATE THAT INTO A DEFINED ACTION AND RESULTS!

Today I’d like to provide you with a “threefer” to make the point. (yes I know there is no such word as “threefer” but cut me some slack, it’s Memorial Day weekend)

FIRST POINT: “A consultant is someone who knows 99 ways to make love but doesn’t know any women.”

SECOND POINT: “A man comes across a little boy with a dog. He says to the boy, that’s a mighty fine dog you have there, son. Does he know any tricks?

The boy replies, why yes sir, he knows over a hundred different tricks.

The man smiles and says, wow, that’s amazing. Can I see one?’

The boy answers, well not really. He knows lots of tricks but he can’t actually do any of them.”

THIRD POINT: The WANT AD specified: “Seeking one armed sales consultant with technical skills and industry experience.”

A professional sales consultant called up the prospective employer to inquire more about the position. She said, I understand most of the qualifications you require, but why ‘one’ armed?

The employer replied, I have hired too many sales consultants who tell me one thing and then tell me, “one the other hand………”

MY POINT: Knowledge is not the same as skill. Skills in diagnosis, evaluation, analysis, planning, project management, communication, facilitation, team building, honesty and many other disciplines are integral to being an effective manager. And that holds true if you are managing people, a project, a division or an entire company.

Be confident in your assessment and course of action. There are always options, but you should be experienced enough to understand the implications of each and select the ones that YOU will stand behind.

I hope you and your family have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.

Regards,

George F. Mancuso

George F. Mancuso, CPC
“WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT GMAN”

Why Should We Change

Q: I have been reading your newsletters with interest and my employees are pushing me to “make change.” But we are a 15 year old manufacturing company and we gross about 8 ½ million, year in and year out and we are profitable. Why would I want to consider making changes?
M.R., a CEO in Davenport, Iowa

A: First off if your revenues have been the same year in and year out, your growth is not only flat but most analysis would agree that you are going backwards by not going forward! Allow me to share a true story with you about the Golden Eagle and maybe this will help make some sense of “why change.”

The Eagle has the longest life span of its species. It can live up to 70 Years

But to reach this age, the eagle must make several very hard decisions.

In its 40’s its long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey which serves as food.

It’s long and sharp beak becomes bent and difficult to use.

Its’ old-aged and heavy wings, due to their thick feathers, become stuck to its’ chest and make it difficult to fly.

Then, the eagle is left with only two options: DIE or go through a painful process of CHANGE which lasts 150 DAYS!

The process requires that the eagle fly to a mountain top and sit on its nest.

There the eagle knocks its beak against a rock until it plucks it out.

After plucking out its beak, the eagle will wait for a new beak to grow back and then it will pluck but its talons.

When its new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking its old-aged feathers.

And after FIVE PAINFUL AND UNCERTAIN MONTHS, the eagle takes its’ famous flight of REBIRTH and lives for 30 MORE YEARS!

Why is changed needed you ask?

Many times, in order to survive we have to start a change process.

We sometimes need to get rid of old memories, habits and other past traditions.

Only freed from past burdens, can we take advantage of the present!

Re-birthing or reinventing yourself and your organization has never arrived at a more critical time.

The Eagle is a wise, powerful and magnificent bird of prey. Truly an imposing force to be dealt with in the wild.

Perhaps a lesson from the Eagle is a great lesson to be learned about change in 2008! What option would you choose?

Make this week a week to remember.

I get many Emails every week when one of our readers truly identifies with the message. You are welcome to utilize our newsletter as a tool. Forward it with a personal message and say you thought they might enjoy this newsletter as well and that signing up is easy. All they have to do is go to our Home page and on the left side put in their first name and Email address. If you’d like me to address an issue or question, please Email me at George@GmanSearch.com .

Regards,

George F. Mancuso

George F. Mancuso, CPC

Making Bold Statements

Q: I have been told that making a BOLD statement or meaningful prediction might help grow my business and enable me to gain some free publicity for my firm. I have made some interesting observations regarding emerging trends in my field and I would like to share and publicize my unique views with others in the industry. My concern is that I want to be perceived as credible. What can I do?
DR, Harrisburg, PA

A: Back up your points with established research and analysis. Look for papers, studies and surveys that support your points. Don't forget to also familiarize yourself with the research that is contrary to your view. Also, make sure to properly credit the sources you have cited.

Another way to support your unique views is to prepare and distribute your own survey to key people in your industry. Some points to consider if you decide to administer a survey:

1. Creating an effective survey can be a complicated job and requires great care if you want to obtain meaningful and actionable results. There are many good books on the subject of effective survey creation and administration. If you are interested in building your credibility and not seeing it quickly erode, you might even want to consider getting help from someone who specializes in survey creation.
2. One way to stimulate participation is to promise those who participate that they will get the results or summary for free.
3. Make sure to perform adequate testing/piloting prior to sending out the survey to the entire intended audience.

Tip: Coming up with "big ideas" or a possessing a unique point of view are not the exclusive domain of experienced practitioners; sometimes it takes someone with a "fresh" view to see the forest through the trees. Remember, though, that BOLD thoughts from someone viewed as inexperienced can open one to questions and criticism. Do your homework. Anticipate the questions and the opposing points of view and prepare your responses in advance. Responses supported by established research, thought leaders or analysis carry significantly more weight and help you to build credibility.

PPS: Another great way to make a bold statement or two is on your corporate website. For example, on our Home page (www.GmanSearch.com) near the bottom we have two particular topics that we continually “drive” prospects to read. One is “Why Employers Should Hire Gman Business Resources “and the other is “WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT GMAN”. Granted these are self serving but it’s important that we continually make BOLD statements that we can back up! The testimonials are 3^rd party BOLD statements that substantiate our credibility.

I get many Emails every week when one of our readers truly identifies with the message. You are welcome to utilize our newsletter as a tool. Forward it with a personal message and say you thought they might enjoy this newsletter as well and that signing up is easy. All they have to do is go to our Home page and on the left side put in their first name and Email address.

I hope you have a wonderful and prosperous week.

Regards,

George F. Mancuso

George F. Mancuso, CPC