How To Build Business Relationships That Last?

Having spent over fifteen years in the sales arena, I have learned a few things about successfully building top sales performance consistently. While there are many things to keep in mind when looking to create winning territory or district, one thing more than anything stands out: building strong relationships.

Whether you are in traditional inside ales, out in the outside sales arena cold calling on small, medium or even large corporations, creating relationships that will st the test of time and competition is more important than ever before and here are three things to keep in mind:

1) Establish rapport. The number one mistake I see sales reps make is that they go into a new situation with both guns blazing, They are so fired up about pitching their products, pushing their message, and getting someone else to hear what they have to say, that they lose sight of the fact that the number one way to building and establishing rapport is to pay more attention to your prospect and less time talking. It has been said that we should be listening twice as much as talking, and I believe that makes good sense for a lot of reasons.

First, people feel important when you take the time to not only hear what they have to say, but can then reiterate much of hat they said with conviction. You should never be thinking about what you are going to say when someone else (especially your prospect) is talking because it shows that you are more concerned about yourself, your agenda, and yourself than them. Always be listening is the golden rule to keep in mind when meeting with a new prospect (or anytime you are meeting with a potential customer).

2) Find out what their 'pain' is. Everyone (personally or professionally) has things going on in their world and by taking the time to effectively probe for information will show them that you are not only a good listener, but it will help you come up with great solutions to whatever is ailing them. When you listen closely to their troubles, needs and wants you are better positioned to articulate back to them their situation and then present viable solutions that they will be happy with.

The Art Posture in Sales and Recruiting

One thing I've learned and observed over my 25 year career in business ownership and sales is posture is everything. Without utilizing posture from beginning to end in the sales or hiring process, you are setting yourself up for mediocre results. What makes matters worse, is that every time you lack posture in a business transaction, it makes it harder and harder to fix yourself. You are living bad habits and making it the norm in the business culture you are creating for yourself and your team.

I have learned the art of posture in business the hard way...trust me. I'm not talking about body language and the way I sit or stand; although that can certainly aid you in a sale. I am talking strictly about attitude. In the early days, I would be just so excited to have someone to get in front of to sell to, that I would let them direct the conversation and ultimately, the whole sales presentation. Without posture, there were too many objections and caving on my part.

Who is in charge of your actions, feelings, emotions and efforts? You are! Posture, is the key to your success.

Now for me, it begins the moment I first talk to a prospect or a new recruit. It is nothing fake. I genuinely feel and believe that what I have is what they need and want. They need me...not the other way around. Always!

If I am booking a sales appointment on the phone, I never give the client the time they are available. I always tell them what works for me; even if that's the only appointment I have all day. I am putting into that client's mind that my time is incredibly valuable and I dictate my schedule.

If you were to call a doctor's office to book an appointment, you do not tell them when you are available. You take the one or two options they offer you. Same attitude here.

I have had some call that arrogance; but you will not see me or my agents do it any other way. So it begins with the initial contact, and continues into the sales appointment next. If I am meeting a client in the home, I sit where I want, not where they offer me a seat. I am bold and tell them what they need to hear...not what they want to hear. I ask direct sometimes uncomfortable questions so can get to their real needs. Because I put my clients first, above my needs for a commission, it is important to know what the client really needs. If thee is no need for my services, or they cannot afford what I have, I don't push for a needless sale. However, if they do have a real need for what I have, I am very forward. I tell them I need them to get their checkbook and photo ID. The reason we do not get many, if any sales objections during the sale, is solely posture based.

Crazy thing is, that once I go down that path, I gain a ton of respect from my clients. I have no issue delving into their personal finances and telling them straight up that they are making so big mistakes. Where I am successful is that I can make fun of myself for having made those same errors in judgement in the past. I TELL them that I care about them and at they need to makes changes now for their own good.

Most people have never had anyone even take the time to dig deep and have a real conversation about things like that. It is appreciated and respected. I am bold, because I care about my clients. What's the worst thing that can happen? They ask you to leave...which is very, very rare. Their loss! I can always look at myself in the mirror and say I gave it my all for their benefit. If they didn't see that, then it's not on my conscious if in the future financial distress occurs due to their stubbornness or even stupidity. I did my job!

So that's sales...

Now how does that translate into my hiring process? Same, exact way.

They need what I have, not the other way around. It's amazing to me how many "Big Egos" are out there. Even in this economy, some of the people I interview have such a sense of entitlement, because they USED to earn hundreds of thousands even millions of dollars a year "a while back." They feel that they are entitled to instant success here without the work. Give me a "hungry" guy or girl who wants to work for their dream...and is humble and teachable.

What Makes Good Sales People Great?

Have you ever thought about what makes good salespeople great?

I started thinking about this last weekend and created a list of qualities that, based on my observations and experience, make good salespeople great.

The difference between being ordinary and being extraordinary is actually quite small.

Consider the difference between winning the Kentucky Derby and finishing in second place.

Consider the difference between winning the Indianapolis 500 Race and finishing second.

In both instances the difference can be quite small.

Winners do make a difference especially if you're a sales professional.

There's nothing scientific about this list. It's just 12 qualities that most great salespeople seem to have.

Here's your list:

1. Great salespeople always seem to be smiling. You may not realize this but a simple smile acts as an attractor factor. Your smiling immediately warms up the environment you're in. And since your smiling creates an involuntary reflex, it forces your sales prospects and customers to smile too.

2. Great salespeople always seem to have a "Can do attitude." They don't recognize the words "Can't" and "Impossible." Whenever they are challenged they always figure out a way to get the job done, especially if it involves one of their customers.

They never "Whine" about anything!

3. They're also good listeners. They always pay close attention to their sales prospects and customers. Their eyes are like laser beams and not easily distracted when talking with their customers.

4. They also ask good questions. They prefer to ask open ended questions because these questions are the best to get their prospects and Customers talking.

5. Great salespeople are always focused on solving problems, not just making a sale. They realize the key to making more sales is solving more problems for their prospects and customers.

6. They never talk too much because they realize the less they say the smarter they'll sound. Talking too much often puts the brakes on building rapport and credibility. The best substitute for talking too much is asking questions and attentive listening. Attentive listening usually means taking good notes.

You can assess every one of your sales calls easily by examining your notes after your sales calls. The more notes you have is the best indication of how much listening you did throughout the sales call.

No notes simply means you're talking too much.

7. Great salespeople are slow to commit and quick to deliver. They seldom overpromise, which gives them the opportunity to exceed customer expectations. Over promising is one of the quickest ways to underwhelm your sales prospects and customers.

Let me give you example. When I take my car in for an oil and filter change they always tell me it will take at least one hour. So when the service manager brings my keys to my car in about 25 minutes how you think it makes me feel? Of course it makes me feel really good because they exceeded my expectations.

And don't forget this - in this case the service manager established the expectations.

8. Great salespeople are always on time which means they arrive early for all appointments. Look at it this way. Being on time means you're late. So always be early for every appointment you make.

9. They're always enthusiastic. They love their work. They're passionate about their products and services. They exude positive energy that can be felt whenever they walk into a room. This is not something people are born with. If enthusiasm doesn't come naturally to you fake it. I'm serious! It's important if you want to become a great salesperson.

10. Great salespeople are extremely goal oriented personally and professionally. They always have written objectives for every customer sales call. They don't make routine sales calls because they know it's simply a waste of valuable time.

They live every day with purpose and passion and so should you.

11. They never make assumptions about anything. They deal with facts and reality. They also treat their sales prospects and customers the way "They" want to be treated.

The Golden Rule says you should treat people the way you want to be treated.

The platinum Rule says you should treat people the way they want to be treated.

Think about this for a minute and let it soak in a little.

12. Great salespeople seem to have an attitude of gratitude. They appreciate your business and will often tell their customers that.

Face To Face Selling

Face-to-face communication often involves selling; face-to-face selling always involves communication.

Even outside the sales presentation environment, it is no secret that the ability to convincingly communicate one-on-one is a bonus. In career terms, it can be the tie-breaker between employees of otherwise equal ability; on the social scene, it can mean the difference between popularity and obscurity. So in my selling skills workshops, we get right back to basics, always beginning the journey with a thorough revision of the three 'Vs' - verbal, vocal, and visual. Our verbal skills - using the right words in the right context - and our recognition of the key visual signs - sending and receiving the critical body and facial language signals - are obviously high on the agenda, but we can never overlook the importance of the vocal aspects. Let's take a quick look at some of them here...

Vocal signs are conveyed by inflection, accent, tone, volume, and perhaps most importantly, the timing of our speech. In the English language, these elements can often override the actual words used, changing meaning and intent, sometimes to the point of implying the opposite. Even so, we should be content with our lot. Compared with people living in multi-lingual environments such as Europe, we need to master only this one language, so we really should be pretty good at it. Yes, as professional communicators, salespeople should be nothing short of superb with the use of their native language. However, before we get carried away with the idea, there is a real case for a bit of conservatism.

For example, although varying the volume of our speech can be an effective tool, particularly a deliberate lowering of the voice which implies importance, inclusion, secrecy - even intimacy - we should be careful not to overdo it. We know that if we want to smell something better we sniff harder; if we want to feel something better, we touch harder; if we want to see something better, we can focus harder; but short of holding a horn to our ear, it is physically impossible to hear harder. Vital meanings in our whispered message could be lost, particularly if our listener is one of the surprisingly large percentage of people who are hard of hearing, or there is distracting background noise.

Again, my workshop exercises reveal that an alarming percentage of people struggle a little in the hearing department, and the situation is not likely to get better any time soon. Degenerative hearing impairment is becoming much more widespread than generally recognised, particularly as our population is ageing due to the effects of the post WWII 'baby boomer bubble' combined with longer life expectancy. Added to this is a higher incidence of actual hearing damage. Among the younger generations, this is growing alarmingly, with high-volume use of personal MP3 players often pumping an unreasonable level and intensity of sound direct to the eardrums. This is now surpassing industrial noise as the main culprit.

The reality is that most people are too embarrassed to ask us to repeat what we have said, so the risk of miscommunication is unnecessarily high. In a normal discussion, it is better to be a bit too loud than too soft. Of course, it is important to avoid the dreaded monotone pitch, but we can rely on our carefully chosen timing and inflections to do that. They can provide all the emphasis, even the pizzazz, we will ever need, but first we need to be heard.

Speaking too quickly is another common pitfall, often prompted by nervous excitement or anxiety. It can be caused by urgency to close the deal because we are running behind time, or we are feeling the pressure to press home a key point. Mostly we are quite oblivious to it. When we are 'on a roll', we simply don't realise we are speaking too fast. To make matters worse, we inevitably speed up even further to compensate for the waning interest of our listener, which ends up turning them off completely. Our greatest challenge is to try to foresee circumstances that are likely to prompt this, recognise it in time, and maintain our discipline of speaking slowly and clearly.

This is where thoughtful use of the pause can help. As well as controlling our own flow of adrenalin, silence is the ultimate attention-grabber... it can be used to succinctly prompt our listener to absorb what we just said or to signal that something important is about to come. That is why the well-timed pause is such a vital control tool for those experienced in chairing meetings or MC-ing conferences. They know that the engaging silence makes them appear more confident and more sincere. Salespeople too, should recognise the importance of timing, and remember that pacing ourselves with our customer, rather than raising our intensity or galloping off ahead, contributes enormously to the building of both trust and empathy.

How About Business Rules And Regulations?

Business rules and regulations are going to vary from state to state, city to city and even county to county. If your in the process of planning or well underway in opening a brick and mortar business then your going to need to sharpen your pencil and do your home work. Small business rules and regulations are getting tougher and tougher for the Mom and Pop operation because they are increasingly geared toward the large corporation or franchise. These business entities have deep pockets and at the swipe of a pen can easily pay for all the new commercial building code bylaws.

When is comes to business rules & regulations you have to be aware that what you see allowed and practiced today may no longer be regulation. Many business's that have been opened for any period of time are grandfathered in and may not be required to update to current codes. In almost all cases when a business changes hands or opens from scratch, you can count on having to jump through the hoops of updated business rules and regulations to come into compliance to even be issued a business license.

In my own experiences there has been a series of inspections and each of these departments have a different purpose. At a minimum you can count on the building and zoning inspection, the fire department inspection and if your serving food the health department inspection. You will have to pass all of these to be given the green light to open. Be sure to check with your city and they should be very helpful in giving you all the guide lines required to open up your new business from a store front.

Remodeling is a different animal than opening from scratch but the business rules and regulations still apply. This may be even more difficult because your operating and conducting renovations at the same time. Be ready to upgrade any electrical, plumping, handicap and landscaping requirements that may not have been on the books when you opened. Be prepared to have thick skin during this process and you will undoubtedly spend $1,000.'s on what you think is wasteful or unnecessary.

The cost in today's times to open a business and keep current up with the business rules and regulations can be astronomical. Keep in mind that your are going to spend a fortune while your trying to make one. Be sure to crunch the numbers and figure out how long it will take you to get your seed money back before you even make a dime. This will be a real eye opener when it could take many years to even get back to zero.