Category: Uncategorized

Even champs who make it look easy play with pain. To master the art of “making it look easy,” try this exercise:

1. Write down every issue that nags at you…it could be a physical or mental malady. However big or small, itemize it.

2. Review each issue and decide how you can minimize its distraction. (The sheer act of acknowledgement will help you gain the strength you need to perform at your best.)

Self-pity is normal and acceptable… to a degree. However, success in The Sales Life means you must develop your minimizing muscle.

Today, review your account plans and focus your attention on these three areas:

1. Who do you need to talk to now to affect rev for the quarter? (Which KDMs need love?)

2. What has Chat told you is new about the macro strategies of your key accounts that you can use to tweak a proposal…or adjust your value prop?

3. What new ideas can you present to your key target accounts that will yield rev this quarter?

Let’s tackle the issue incrementally:

1. Push for more F2F meetings…and add “elevate body language” to your priority list when you’re meeting with customers.

2. Record yourself in your pitch meetings. Hide at an undisclosed location during playback and appraisal. (It’s gonna hurt…just know that going in.)

3. Clean up the language. Focus first on eliminating the garbage words you say (See “SKILL”), and then next, work on enunciation as you study the “word of the day” on your Webster’s Dictionary app.

Think of your CRM as one big alarm clock…an alarm clock with a 90-day timer. In that light, your CRM is all about the WHEN.

WHEN is your opportunity in the pipeline going to close?

Today, craft questions you will ask your customers that qualify the WHEN.

Try this… “Hey Joe, we’ve been working toward a deal for a few <weeks/months>…by your estimation, when will this deal happen?”

And this… “When will you know about the when, Joe?” (Don’t let buyers give you ambiguous answers about the timeline of their decision.)

This Champion development exercise is easy:

1. List your running client and A prospect account names.

2. Review all KDM names on those accounts and nominate those you feel are potential Champions.

3. ID those individuals by these filters:
a) Shared interests (table stakes, but a good start),
b) How can you be of value to them? What specific action can you DO to help these prospective Champs?
c) What’s their biggest headache that you can help with?

This will require you to dig deep to understand their personal and professional motivations…and that’s the point.

Sometimes you wake up on Saturday and the info, data, and work stimuli are still coursing through your veins. It’s hard to just shut it off.

Well, use this downtime to get the week out of your head by journaling. And while you might keep a WINS Journal – regularly espoused by MySalesDay – that’s for all the good stuff that happens to you in The Sales Life, Mondays through Fridays.

What about the non-work stuff in your life?

Journaling always offers a valuable perspective on life’s complexities.

And, journaling is also a reminder that you – and everyone else – are just a dot on our big spinning marble.

A sobering thought? Yes. But a freeing one, too.

Today, in your pitch meetings, proactively address objections and obstacles.

If you’re in a 1:1 meeting, try the surfacing approach: “What part of our offering presents a problem that we have to work through?”

If you’re in a group meeting, try the seeding method and suggest the objection you know they’re thinking about: “Often, buyers like you have challenges around the blah blah part of our offering…what are your thoughts on that?”

Whatever you do, don’t let a meeting go by without proactively addressing objections and problems. The longer the buyer sits with their negative perceptions, the lower your chances are of scoring.

Schedule a lunch date with your manager to discuss any tricky strategic issues you’re facing. Tablecloth meals are best for those convos; no Chipotle….too fast, too chaotic.

Bring your most challenging issues to the meeting, and, of course, pre-notify your manager of your agenda.

Never drop a pile of dung on your manager’s lap…they’re not good at turning piles into gold. Thus, you need to bring strategic thinking and solution ideas with you to lunch.

Knock down a few of those meetings each quarter, and you’ll earn the right to hit Chipotle together for informal discussions.
You’ll benefit when your manager is a strategic partner.

The best way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a good habit.

Today, practice your meeting close technique.

Here’s your formula going forward:

“We’ve achieved a lot today, but obviously we need another meeting.” And then…

1. Qualify their interest. “What is the most appealing part of what we discussed today?” (After asking, don’t move a muscle – especially the ones in your mouth).

2. Summarize your value prop and qualify them again, “What about our value prop interests you the most?”

3. Determine next steps. This includes actions assigned to the customer, e.g. asking for intros inside the org.

Instead of playing NYT’s Connections on your break today, try this exercise to help you manage any selling angst that may be residing inside your brain.

Write down everything and anything that causes your stomach to gurgle.

Second, write a sentence about their root cause – and weight – to help you define the context of these issues.

Last: jot down a sentence on how you can control and combat these distractions. And then, focus your energies there.

If need be, talk to your manager or BFF seller about these gnats flying around your head…communication always helps.