🔍 To level up sales questions, ask "who else is involved" in the decision-making process and walk through the approval steps, including timeframes and sign-offs, to gain valuable insights and manage expectations effectively.
🏢 In B2B sales scenarios, typically 6-9 people are involved in decision-making, making it crucial to uncover the entire approval chain to avoid miscommunication and set realistic expectations.
💡 The quality of questions asked during sales conversations is critical for gaining valuable information and selling effectively, requiring salespeople to constantly evaluate if they're asking the best questions to close deals.
🔢 To enhance question quality, start with a simple yes/no question, then ask "who else is involved," and finally walk through the approval process to uncover the entire decision-making chain and gain crucial insights.
📊 By understanding the client's approval chain, including steps, timeframes, and sign-offs, sales professionals can use this information to manage expectations and close deals more effectively.
🎯 Reminding yourself of the value you provide to clients and the motivation it brings can help regain energy and enthusiasm for sales activities, even when feeling unmotivated.
💡 Focus on the impact and benefits your offering delivers to clients, companies, and their employees, rather than just the product itself, to maintain motivation and drive.
🤝 When struggling with motivation, consider how your product or service helps individuals, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large companies, and their employees, focusing on positive outcomes and results.
🌟 Understanding the default human tendency to help others and the value you provide in return can help maintain motivation and purpose in sales activities.
💪 Focusing on the value you provide to clients can help maintain motivation and drive in sales activities, even when faced with rejection, disappointment, doubt, and the temptation to dodge responsibilities.
🔍 Conducting a post-mortem analysis after losing a deal is crucial for understanding the root cause of the loss and taking full responsibility, even if it's painful.
📊 Gathering insights from the customer through post-mortem questions helps improve future sales strategies and builds a foundation for continuous improvement.
🔄 Incorporating a switching strategy into sales presentations is essential when facing an incumbent competitor to address the customer's psychological fear of change.
😌 Customers often choose incumbent competitors due to their comfort level with existing relationships, even when new products exceed expectations in multiple areas.
💪 Overconfidence in winning deals can lead to painful explanations to managers, but post-mortem analyses help rebuild confidence and proactively address customer concerns in future presentations.
🎯 50-60% of salespeople not achieving quota is frustrating companies, yet managers fail to properly train their reports, resulting in lost opportunities.
🏆 Top management should have one-on-one conversations with managers, asking how they learned to become great salespeople, inevitably leading to the answer of having a great mentor or coach.
💼 Managers prioritize hitting sales numbers and focus on top performers, making coaching new salespeople low on their priority list.
❓ The power is always in the question, guiding managers to conclude they need to coach new salespeople through a series of questions rather than being told what to do.
📊 Companies are trying various methods to encourage managers to coach their salespeople, including emails, conference calls, and meetings, but these efforts are largely ineffective.
🧠 Acknowledging potential resistance with phrases like "I know you might not want to" can lower buyer resistance and increase agreement rates by up to 50%.
🕰️ Offering flexible options and acknowledging time constraints (e.g., "Maybe now isn't a good time, but can we meet Monday for 30 minutes?") removes prospects from "reactance mode" and gives them a sense of freedom to choose.
💬 Using variations of "I know you might not want to" followed by a request (e.g., "would you be willing to start next week?") can effectively frame sacrifices and increase compliance.
🤝 Recognizing the potential sacrifice for the client while highlighting long-term benefits (e.g., "it will save you headaches and money") can improve the likelihood of closing a sale.
⏱️ Proposing brief, specific time commitments (e.g., "5-10 minutes next week") when acknowledging a prospect's busy schedule can make requests seem more manageable and increase the chances of securing a meeting.
🔍 Provide options and agency instead of direct answers to give customers freedom to choose and a sense of control.
🤝 Frame questions as "A or B" choices rather than giving single answers to help customers feel less trapped.
💡 Use "sales agency" approach by offering alternatives and options when asked for opinions.
🎯 Avoid telling customers what to do, instead present multiple possibilities for consideration.
🧠 Giving options helps customers feel more in control of their decisions and less pressured in the sales process.