In this short episode of In-Sights, we dive into proven techniques to enhance sales productivity, from optimizing workflows to leveraging the right tools. Discover how to eliminate time-wasters, prioritize high-impact activities, and empower your team to close more deals effectively.
Lance is the bestselling author of Selling Is An Away Game and The Human Sales Factor.
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In-Sights: Boosting Sales Productivity: Strategies To Work Smarter, Not Harder
Three Critical Factors In Selling
Here's an interesting thing that we hear from salespeople. Number one, we're constantly hearing that salespeople and leaders are trying to increase sales productivity. I think anybody that's on here, whether you're a leader, an individual producer, I’ve yet to see that sales are going down. We're dealing with an international truck firm that is a private equity-driven organization. They have to grow double digits. We're with an NBA team where the sales leaders are really focused on how to have dramatic growth. The NFL team has to grow by 20%. Another one here in Ohio. We know that's important.
What stops sales productivity is really cycle time because as we try to grow sales, we also have to look to take steps out. We know for a fact that there is some confusion between negotiation and objections and they actually collide. I was at an airport one day and I was looking at a competitor of ours who had a book of objections. I picked it up. It was about 200 pages, and it was about 200 pages of tactics about what to do at the moment.
What stops sales productivity is cycle time.
This episode won't be about that at all. This will be about the strategy and understanding where objections come from. As we have to deal with those objections, and I am going to say this often, we're probably not going to deal with objections from here on out. We're going to resolve objections. That's a very big difference in objectives there. How do we reduce sales cycle times? Certainly, objections in negotiations could extend them out like an accordion. Ultimately, how do we get better close rates? They can be close rates on anything, from securing appointments to winning more deals, whatever it looks like in your world.
Mastering Sales Stages: From Prospecting To Closing
Let's dive into this information. Here's a map of sales stages. Any one of you, I know we have some clients and some sports teams on here. We also have a tech company that I was talking to. I know it's on this. If we looked at sales stages in a semi-complex to complex sales world, most of you here probably have to prospect. You have to reach out to somebody, have initial communication. That's you following up with things that you would do. Individual prospecting or leads. You probably are going to have to have a first interview, very common nomenclature or needs analysis. You develop some solution with the buyer and then you actually present a solution.
There's some evaluation from the buyer. This can happen in multiple meetings. This could happen a few meetings. This could happen in a one-time move. They're going to object after they evaluate, but then that's when the negotiations actually start. One thing you want to take out of this in closings, and we're going to talk about this, is if you go to the bottom of those stages, the evaluation, the objections, and negotiation, you could ask yourself this question. Where do objections come from? You actually have to go to the stage before that.
Objections typically come from some kind of presentation that's going awry. We say that evidence removes doubts. A good lawyer will present evidence that evidence is used to remove doubt. I think I said in one of my books. When you have the facts, you pound the facts. When you have the evidence, you pound the evidence. When you have neither, you just pound the desk. I think the bottom line is that if you are presenting the wrong information, you could actually be causing more objections.
Now, that affects negotiation down the line. It affects your closing and things like that. You have to go the step before that. You have to look at how you develop the solution. Are you selling to a need? Are you selling to a primary need or a primary interest or are you selling to a secondary interest? Sometimes, the right solution for the wrong problem is worse than the wrong solution to the right problem. Sometimes, we’ve got to get the problem or opportunity.
The right solution for the wrong problem is worse than the wrong solution for the right problem.
Resolving Objections Vs. Negotiating: Key Differences In Sales Success
What about prospecting, the initial communication? There's credibility issues and things like that. We're going to come at this strategy a couple of different ways. When you're selling, what's the difference between resolving and objection negotiating? That's the first question you need to ask yourself. I mentioned a little bit before, the question begets another question. Could you make a sale without negotiating?
The answer to that question is actually, yes, I have. Tyson Group, an Inc. 5000 company, which tells you one thing. We definitely know how to toot our own horn, but it also means we eat our own dog food. We practice actually what we preach. Being on the Inc. 5000 list actually means we grow at a pretty fast pace. I would say the sellers of my team, whether it be Brandon Lawrence, Jon Schollenberger or Zach Tyson on our team, and Gina Beltrama, who runs our team, we're constantly debating with each other on approach.
We're constantly debating with each other on strategy. We're constantly looking at are we getting negotiated or not? Is somebody making moves on us? I think as you look at things as, “Am I negotiating many times when I should have just resolved the objection? I would write this down. You can't bargain if you're blind, so you have to have a sight line. You’ve got to be able to identify objections. Does your sales process require you to identify what an objection is? Until you do that and identify the categories of objections, that's actually after you pitch, like I showed you in those stages. If you don't get them all laid out, you're going to have issues at some level.
Defining Negotiation And Recognizing Buying Signals
Let's bring this a step further. Here's what's interesting about the word negotiation though, as we tie these together because some people got on this because of the word negotiations. Some got on a because of objections and some got on, they go, “Maybe I don't even know what the difference is.” Let's define some terms.
First of all, as we think about negotiation, that really is around navigation. I'm going to talk about that in a second. We're going to look at some more terms defined with navigation negotiation. The next question you got to ask yourself is, “As I'm selling, do I know the difference between a buying signal and a warning signal?” Let me help you with that one right now. We'll go back to the first bullet point right after this.
A buying signal is, is anything a buyer says or does or doesn't say or doesn't do that indicates a level of interest. You'd be surprised. Salespeople never really gave that any thought. If I'm standing across from you or sitting across from you and have my arms crossed, preferably speaking, what does that mean? A lot of pundits would tell you that that means I'm not interested or I'm closed off. If I was across from you or on a Zoom call and I was rubbing my chin, what does that mean? Somebody said, “Maybe Lance is thinking. Maybe he's interested,” or that could mean I just need a shave.
At some level, what is a buying or warning signal? Let's go to the warning signal. A warning signal is anything the buyer says or does, or anything the buyer says or doesn't say or doesn't do that would indicate some hesitation to move forward. All during the sales process, we have to be recognizing these things because buying and warning signals would indicate a level of interest or disinterest.
The question becomes how do you actually not just observe them but engage with those things? How do you talk about them? Some of those solutions is how good you are in your sales process by asking evaluative questions. They're essentially trial closes. Trial closes are evaluative questions or questions that listen to an opinion. I might say something to Chip, like, “Chip, it looks like you’re maybe a little closed off to that idea or it seems like, or sounds like we're not hitting the mark on that.” He might say, “That's right.” Objections themselves. There has to be a part of the sales process after the pitch that we actually get those objections out.
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