3 Secrets to Setting Qualified Appointments

If you have to set appointments over the phone then you know that delicate balance between building rapport, creating interest, qualifying and asking for and getting an appointment. It can be difficult knowing exactly when and how to ask for the appointment without sounding like you are closing them, and, of course, there is always the awkwardness of handling the no's if you're turned down.

The good news is that if you follow these 3 proven secrets of top producers, then you'll not only begin setting more appointments, but you'll set more qualified ones as well. Here they are:

Secret #1: Always use a script.

I know, this may sound basic enough, but you'll be amazed by how many professional sales people still insist on winging it through their initial call. Your script must help you deal with things like:

* How to deal with and get past the Gatekeeper
* How to handle your prospect's initial objections
* How to establish quick, relevant rapport
* How to qualify to see if your prospect is even the right candidate

This article is too short to script all these things out for you but don't worry I'm not going to leave you in the dark. I've covered all these topics before in previous articles, and I've even written word for word scripts for you to use. You can find them all on my website by searching the Inside Sales Training Blog.

Bottom line: Prepare and use an effective script!

Secret #2: Know when to ask for the appointment.

Many sales reps just don't know when the best time to ask for the appointment is. Because of this they either ask too soon and then begin fielding objections, or they pitch for too long and the prospect has then heard enough to say no. Either way, obviously, you lose.

Here's the rule: After you've made a connection with your prospect (built rapport), gained the right to ask a few questions to see if there might be a fit between what their needs are and what you're offering (how you can help), and after you verify a few crucial qualifiers - like if they are the decision makers, what their interest level and time frame is, and what their budget is - then it's time to suggest a possible meeting to explore if your solution might benefit them.

The key here is to ask enough questions to identify what their buying motives are (their needs) and then to give them just enough information to suggest a fit. Then it's time to suggest an appointment.

Secret #3: Know how to ask for the appointment.

Please, whatever you do don't use the age old sales technique of the "either or" close. You know, the "Well I can either stop by tomorrow at noon or would the next day at 4pm be better for you?" As soon as you utter those words, your credibility goes down. Everybody recognizes that as a sales pressure line and they react accordingly.

Here's the better way to do it:

"_________, from what I'm hearing from you it sounds like it makes sense for us to explore this a little further. Here's what I'd be willing to do: Let's make an appointment to briefly get together so we can get to know one another and I can learn a little more about your situation. If we find that there is a fit, and you think I can help you, then I'll give you some information that you can go over, and then I'll put together some options for you.

And if we don't see a fit at this time, at least you'll have another resource you can use at a later date - is that fair?"

And then you set the appointment. The strength of this close is that it's a none-pressure situation that gives your prospect a way out if they're not interested. Plus, it lets them know you're not coming over to try to close them. This script lets them know this visit is all about them, which is what it should be.

I guarantee that if you begin using the three secrets above for setting appointments, your appointment rate will not only go up, but you and your prospect will feel better during the whole process. And how great will that be?

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If you found this article helpful, then you'll love Mike's NEW book of phone scripts, "The Ultimate Book of Phone Scripts." Get over 220 Brand New Scripts to help you easily get past the gatekeeper, set appointments, overcome objections and close more sales. Visit: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/ultimatescripts.htm

The Real Secret to Qualifying Leads

OK, now I want you to pay very careful attention….

I'm going to give you, right now, the Real Secret to what it takes to really qualify a lead. Before I do, though, let me back up just a minute.

Here's how all this came about. Right now I'm involved with a company whereby I'm listening to and critiquing cold calls. These are qualifying calls. We've written the scripts for these reps, put in all the qualifying questions, and now I'm listening and seeing how good a job they are doing. Here's what I'm finding (and by the way, this is the same thing that I find with ALL of my other clients as well - i.e., that means I'd find it with you, too!).

#1: The first thing these reps are doing is defaulting back to how they've been doing it for the last several months (or years). In other words, they haven't yet begun using the new scripts and new proven techniques word for word yet. And that's OK. It's a process.

The good news is that once they do, they will immediately begin qualifying better, understanding true buying motives, and they'll begin understanding who isn't likely to be a buyer. That will save them A LOT of time.

#2) But here's the real secret: After they begin getting comfortable with the scripts and begin asking the key qualifying questions, what will come next are the REAL SECRETS to qualifying the leads. And here's what it is:

While I'm listening to these calls, what I'm dying for the reps to ask are the things that I would be asking that would tell me if I'm dealing with a prospect who might actually buy in the future, or if I'm dealing with someone who is likely not to buy on the follow up calls. And here are the things they (and YOU) should be asking of all of your prospects (Not in any particular order):

"How often do you check (prices, rates, suppliers, services, etc.) with other companies like mine?"

"Have you found that you can get better (service, pricing, rates, etc.) from another company?"

If so: "Did you go with that other company (or - "Did you give them a try?")?"

And if not: "Oh, why was that?"

"What would you need to see from our (company, information, service, etc.) that would motivate you to actually try someone different?"

"What part of the decision process are you involved in?"

"What happens next after I give you a (competitive quote, price, service analysis, etc.)?"

"If you like what you see, what would be our next step?"

And then my favorite - a trail close! You absolutely MUST say this at the end of ALL Qualified calls!

"_________, let me ask you, if you like what (we can offer you, pricing, service, availability, whatever is appropriate for your product or service), can you see anything that might stand in the way of us doing business together?" (Note: You can use many different trial closes here - just pick one that matches your product or service the best).

These are the Real Secrets to qualifying a lead. Yes you need to ask the other important qualifying questions that I list in my blog, books and CDs but after you do, you need to find out if you're really dealing with a buyer, and asking these types of Real Questions is the way to do just that.

Compare these questions (and the kinds of answers you'll get from them) with the kinds of questions you or your team is currently asking. If you're far off from them (in other words, you don't ask them at all), then you need to incorporate them TODAY. Not tomorrow or next week, but TODAY.

I guarantee that when you do, and when you begin getting the Real Answers to these Real Qualifying Questions, and your sales career will begin to dramatically change (and so will your company). This is how you move from the bottom 80% into the Top 20%.

But like everything I give you, don't take my word for it. Try it and see for yourself. If it works, all you have to gain is hundreds to thousands of extra dollars a month. How good will that feel?

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Do you have an underperforming inside sales team? Talk to Mike to see how he can help you and your team reach your revenue goals. To learn more about Mike, visit his website: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

The Road To Success Is Simplicity

I want to share a simple concept with you that can help you grow your business, close more sales, make more money and be more successful in just about everything you do. The good news with what I'm about to share is that it isn't complicated or hard, in fact, it's just the opposite - it's simplicity itself.

The following excerpt comes from an article in "The Economist" by the author Schumpeter. I think it speaks for itself:

The Economist

"Keep things simple, said Schumpeter. That is the key to a successful business, according to Bain & Co. consultants Chris Zook and James Allen. In their new book, Repeatability, they lay out how the world's most successful companies "make a cult of simplicity" and relentlessly apply stripped-down business models to new opportunities. You can see this winning formula of "simplify and repeat" in Ikea's flat-packed furniture, McDonald's hamburgers, and Berkshire Hathaway's buy, improve, and hold approach to investing.

"Lego learned the lesson the hard way. In the mid-1990s, the Danish toy company expanded feverishly into theme parks, television, and clothing lines; that led to years of dismal results. Only when it went back "to its roots"--those little plastic bricks--did big profits return. Businesses have a natural tendency "to grow more complex as they mature," and that complexity can be a "silent killer." For all the worries companies have about being "crushed by the next big thing," the best way to survive dramatic change is to "keep hammering away at the simplicity mantra."

The great thing about this article is that it reminds us all to focus on the fundamentals of what makes us successful, and I can tell you from my own experience that is right on the money. Here are a couple of examples:

1) When I was a struggling sales rep prospecting and closing business, I was always on the look-out for the latest technique (you know, the one that happened to work on the last close) or the best leads (there had to be a better lead source than the one that I was calling), or I was looking for some other easier way of finding deals.

I spent a lot of time changing my approach, searching leads, etc, but in the end what I learned was that I was the most successful when I just called a lot of leads and used the proven scripts I had developed months before. In fact, I closed a lot more deals when I concentrated on following the proven scripts and techniques that always worked. When I concentrated on the simple fundamentals of properly qualifying leads and following up with proven buyers, my business took off.

What I ultimately learned was that there was no easier, softer way to write business - I simply had to do the things that were proven to work. And once I accepted and concentrated on being the best qualifier and closer in the office, and once I combined that with making more calls than anyone else in office, that's when I became the top closer out of five branch offices.

It was as simple as that.

2) Fast forward to my current business as a sales consultant. I have spent a lot of time and money chasing the next (complicated) best thing. In my line of work there is a new distraction (supposed to be an easier way of getting clients) being promoted seemingly every day. There are new leads generation programs, new social media groups to join, new ways of delivering my content - heck, the list really is endless!

Now I've chased a lot of these new (complicated) programs and without fail, they all cost me a lot of time, energy and money. Did they bring me a lot of new business? No. What I learned is that when I just focus on my core competency of teaching business owners how to grow highly successful inside sales teams, my business took off. It's as simple as that.

Could I improve my CRM system? Sure. Could I start yet another group on LinkedIn? Sure. Could I start a membership site for residual income? Sure. Would all those complicated and expensive measures earn me more money than simply concentrating on what I do best? No.

My simple business truth - just like the little Lego's - is that I make the most amount of money and help the most amount of people when I focus on my fundamental core skills - helping business owners grow their inside sales teams. And that's what I've focused on over the past two years. And, coincidentally, I've had the best two years of my business!

Now it's time for you to think about your core competencies. What do you and your company do best? If you're a sales rep, when was the last time you concentrated on the fundamentals of selling? If you're a business owner, when was the last time you focused on how you help people the most? By going back to basics and perfecting those fundamentals, you will likely grow market share and be more successful.

It really is as simple as that.

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Mike is hired by business owners to implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. For more information, visit his website: http://www.mrinsidesales.com

How to Manage Your Sales Manager

If you're a business owner, then I know you place a lot of responsibility on your inside sales manager. In many companies, managers are not only responsible for finding, hiring and developing successful reps, but they are also responsible for training these new reps and for the continued training of existing sales reps as well. Sales managers are also directly responsible for the achievement of reaching quota each month, quarter and YTD. In addition, managers are often responsible for reporting on daily, weekly and monthly progress, with motivating the sales team and with proper management of lead resources, sales pipelines, and many other reporting processes. When you add up all the duties and responsibilities of your sales manager, it can seem overwhelming and begs the question of you as the owner - how do you manage your manager?

The answer to that question for most owners is they manage their manager and the sales department through a series of sales metrics sometimes called sales dashboards (there are many other names for this, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about). These dashboards have a variety of metrics and statistics on them including lead conversion percentages, closing percentages per rep and for the team, pipeline numbers and percentages, time on the phone, number of calls, etc. These metrics are important for predicting revenue and directing activity and lead distribution and for measuring the trend of sales for the month and quarter, but they don't do what you have hired your manager to do - drive sales.

All the metrics listed above have one fatal flaw when it comes to driving sales - they are snap shot of what has happened in the past. They are a rearview mirror look at what your team has done up to this point, and as such, they are ineffective for driving or improving current sales. This is a hard point for many business owners to accept, because experience tells them that if the team just works harder, makes more calls and contacts, then deals and revenues increase. The problem with this is that increased activity (say 10% more calls) doesn't result in 10% more business. Again, these metrics, while important, aren't what drive sales.

And that brings us to the point of this article. What drives sales isn't the activity around the sales (the metrics listed above), but rather it's the activity that takes place during the sale that determines results. It's what your reps are saying during the prospecting call, during the call backs, and how they handle the objections and stalls that occur during the close. It's what your reps say and how they handle the smokescreens and put offs on the third and fourth calls that determine how much business they write. And when it comes to measuring these crucial activities, most sales managers and business owners don't have a system or a process to do this, and so they don't have the means of truly impacting and consistently improving their sales results.

The good news is there are a series of steps and processes you can use to do this, and it's the way that successful business owners effectively manage their sales managers. To start with, your sales manager must get more involved on the sales floor and more involved in listening in during the prospecting and closing calls. Your manager must be able to step in and affect the sale while it's in progress. There are a variety of ways for them to do but these exceed the limited scope of this article. I will list a resource you can turn to for more information on this later. The important tool for you as the owner, though, is a script grading adherence form.

If you're not already using a script grading adherence form, then this should be your first priority to develop. In a nutshell, a script grading adherence form breaks down each part of your sales approach or script, and assigns a numerical grade to each section. For example, your reps are graded on how effectively they get past the gatekeeper, greet and build rapport with the decision maker, handle initial objections, qualify prospects, create commitments at the end of calls, etc. The total grade will be 100, and it's your manager's job to grade live calls or recorded calls to see how well each rep is adhering to your best practices and solid inside selling skills and techniques. This is the only metric that truly measures what matters most: how skilled your reps are at navigating their way through your sale.

Think about your Top 20% closers for a moment. Wouldn't you agree that they almost intuitively know how to qualify and close prospects more effectively? Aren't their leads almost always more qualified, their close rates higher and their closing cycles shorter? Don't they seem to handle brush offs and objections more effectively? Aren't they more confident and empowered? Now compare them to the rest of your team. Isn't it true that the other 80% struggle in all of the areas above? Again, the metrics that make up most company's dashboards don't affect your rep's ability to get better in these crucial areas. They simply measure past results. Only measuring and grading what your reps do during the sale has the ability to drive sales.

The best way for you as a business owner to manage your sales manager is to make sure they monitor, grade and coach their reps through the sales cycle and offer specific, effective sales skills and techniques for their reps to improve. And the best way for you to manage this is to add a section to your dashboard called "script grading adherence percentages." Remember, until you know how your sales team is performing during the sale, you won't be able to effectively change the other metrics that measure their performance after the sale.

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Mike is hired by business owners to develop and implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. He also offers customized sales training programs, works as a virtual V.P. of Sales and offers Executive Coaching programs to business owners around the world. For more information, visit his website: http://mrinsidesales.com/

Why Most Inside Sales Reps Fail - and What to Do About It

If you're in charge of hiring, training and developing inside sales reps, then what you're about to read may shock you a little bit, but it will also resonate with you and explain why many of the reps you hire ultimately fail.

In their book, "How to Hire and Develop Your Next Top Performer" by Herb Greenberg, Harold Weinstein and Patrick Sweeney, they compared results from hundreds of thousands of assessments that were conducted over several decades with actual sales performance measurements and concluded:

#1) 55 percent of the people earning their living in sales should be doing something else, and

#2) Another 20 to 25 percent (of salespeople) have what it takes to sell, but they should be selling something else.

Before you dismiss these results as far-fetched, think about your own inside sales team. If you're like most companies, you probably have the 80/20 rule where 80% of your sales and revenue are made by your top 20% producers. What that means is that the other 80% of your reps struggle to make quota (or rarely do), and I'll bet that over the course of a year or two, half of these reps have either quit, been fired, or you wish they would move on.

I've worked with hundreds of companies that have inside sales teams, and I can attest to the accuracy of the stats above. Every time I begin working with a new company, I assess the skill level, aptitude, desire and ability of each member of the team. What I find is that up to half of the reps employed shouldn't have been hired to begin with (or shouldn't still be working at the company), and most important thing we can do is to replace them with better qualified candidates.

If you're with me so far, then let me make a couple of caveats before you start thinking about replacing half your sales team…

First, in order to give each member of your existing team the full chance to succeed, you have to make sure that you have invested the proper time and energy in identifying and defining your sales process (I call it a DSP - Defined Sales Process). Next you need to design a sales training program - complete with specific scripts - that teach the best practices of your sales process and then properly train your existing team on them. And finally, you need to teach your managers how to coach and train your reps to adhere to those scripts and best practices. Assuming you take the time to do this first (I usually get companies through this process in anywhere from 45 to 90 days), then you are ready to begin recruiting and hiring more qualified candidates.

So, how do you begin to look for and eventually identify the other 45 percent of people who are actually cut out for the career of sales? Here are 3 important guidelines to follow:

1) Slow hiring, fast firing. If I were to ask you what activity college football coaches spend up to 70% of their time, what would you say? Watching game film? Coaching their players? Preparing game plans? The answer is none of those. College coaches spend up to 70% of their time recruiting talent to play on their team. Does that surprise you? If you hire sales reps like most companies do, then it probably did.

Most companies hire sales reps the wrong way. They hire reps quickly, and they hold on to underperforming reps far too long. The first guideline you want to follow is to do just the opposite. The best thing you can do is always be recruiting and have a constant flow of talent to evaluate and hire. Your goal should be to hire slowly - after a structured and careful evaluation process - and then to be ready to let reps go who have not shown the improvement or performance that you've identified in advance is necessary (you'll refer back to your DSP to arrive at this).

The key here is that if you have a steady flow of talent and candidates to choose from, then you'll be much less likely to make quick and ill advised hiring decisions.

2) Be more willing to consider and to hire candidates who either don't have your particular sales experience, or don't have any sales experience at all. If we go back to the results earlier in this article - that 55 percent of people in sales should be doing something else, and another 20 to 25 percent should be selling something else - then it means that the common practice of hiring experienced sales candidates will produce an unsatisfactory result as much as 80 percent of the time!

A much more effective way of hiring successful sales reps is to start with raw and motivated candidates and then train them properly right from the beginning. Teaching new candidates the right skills and techniques is a lot easier than first getting an experienced sales rep to unlearn all their bad habits first. Of course, you must have a solid sales training program that teaches effective sales skills and the best practices of your particular sale (these best practices will also come after you've defined your sales process - DSP).

The Easiest Way to Evaluate Your Inside Sales Reps

Do you know the name, Phil Emery? He is the G.M. of the Chicago Bears and his rise to this prized position - there have only been five G.M.'s in Bears history - is one of the fastest in all of the NFL. Emery started out as the strength and conditioning coach at the Naval Academy, and only 14 years later, he is running one of the NFL's flagship franchises. How'd he do it?

Much of Phil's success comes from his seemingly uncanny ability to judge talent and to be spot on in his evaluations. According to the NFL 2012 Edition of Sports Illustrated, when asked how he does it, he says that "almost everything you need to know about a player can be culled from tape. When it comes to receivers, for instance, he believes that you can glean something from how hard a player runs, whether he takes plays off, whether he's a willing blocker, whether he's competitive for the ball, etc."

I believe that Phil's right, and I believe that almost everything you need to know about an inside sales rep can be culled from listening to a tape recording of their calls. When cold calling, for instance, does the rep handle the gatekeeper's blow offs well and get through to the decision maker? When they get the DM on the phone, are they able to build relevant rapport and earn the right to present their value statement? Do they ask questions and actually listen to the DM? Do they properly qualify or do they just want to send emails and follow up (to unqualified leads)?

The same is true when listening to recordings of rep's closing attempts. How well do they open their calls? Do they earn the right to enter into a conversation with the prospect or do they ask closed ended questions that allow the prospect to put them off? Do they engage the prospect and allow them to ask questions or do they simply pitch at them? Do they try to handle objections or are they easily put off?

As a business owner or sales manager, everything you need to know about your sales reps is on the recording of their last call. Everything you'll need to do to help them succeed or evaluate if they are progressing once you give them the proper training is there on tape. If you're not recording or listening to these recordings, then you are missing the most important tool you have available to you. Just imagine an NFL team that didn't watch and use game tape!

Here are three suggestions to help you get the most out of the recordings you may have of your reps (and if you don't have any, then make it your priority to begin recording them ASAP!).

#1) Listen to all of your reps and grade them A - F on both their qualifying calls and their closing calls. An easy and objective way to grade them is to grade their adherence to your scripts. Ask yourself, "Are they using the tools you've provided them or aren't they?"

After you've graded them, ask yourself two things: One: What can you do to turn your B reps into A reps, and Two: How quickly can you replace your D and F reps?

#2: Learn from your top producing reps. Listen for how they best handle the objections and stalls that the rest of your team struggles with and script out what they say. Then give these scripts to your other team members. If you want all your reps to sound and produce like top closers, then get them to say and do what your top producers are already doing! Then grade their adherence to these new scripts (see #1).

#3: Use your better recordings in your sales meetings to help teach and reinforce the best ways of qualifying and closing sales in your company. Again, just like in the NFL film rooms, players learn by watching themselves and others do what works. It's the same in inside sales. By constantly playing good recordings for your team members, they, too, will begin to get better.

So what's the easiest way to evaluate (and train and improve) your inside sales reps? Just ask Phil Emery. He'll tell you, "it's all on tape…"

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Mike is hired by business owners to develop and implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. He also offers customized sales training programs, works as a virtual V.P. of Sales and offers Executive Coaching programs to business owners around the world. For more information, visit his website: http://mrinsidesales.com

3 Keys to Transforming Your Sales Culture

Changing sales processes and procedures is relatively straight forward; changing attitudes and actions of experienced sales reps isn't. Anyone who has been involved in managing or directing a sales team knows first-hand the resistance of reps to change the way they sell, even if the current efforts aren't producing positive results.

Regardless of the change you are hoping to implement, one of the biggest challenges you are likely to face is getting buy in from your existing sales team to adopt and implement the skills, processes, and procedures needed to make the change successful.

There are three keys to ensuring you achieve that buy in. Careful and thoughtful implementation of these strategies will not only give you the best chance of bringing your team on board, but also help you to sustain the early momentum and success required to make transforming your sales culture possible.

1) Have a Clear Strategy for Rolling Out Your Initiative
It may seem straight forward to suggest devising a planned rollout strategy for something as complex and integral as a new sales platform, but you might be surprised by the lack of planning and cohesion often involved. A lack of clear strategy can not only sabotage many good intentioned and much needed changes, it can often introduce more problems than the change attempts to solve. The first key to giving your new sales initiative a fighting chance is to carefully plan out each step in its development and implementation.

Often, the best place to start is to find ways of enlisting the support, feedback, and ideas of the very sales people who will be asked to implement the new strategy. There is a fine line to walk here. The key is to solicit input from your sales reps by asking them to identify the sales situations they need help in most, thereby focusing and directing their feedback, proactively.

In order for sales reps to buy in to any change to your sales culture, they need to feel like they are a part of its design, and, more importantly, they need to see how they can benefit from it. Again, you'd be surprised just how many companies develop a sweeping new sales platform in the safety and comfort of the senior management think tank before mandating it down to the reps. It's no wonder reps think their best strategy is to hide out and outlast the new program. And they are right -- without their buy in, sooner or later, it will go away.

The next thing to consider is the development of your new sales playbook. As it's developed, it's easy to become caught up in the belief that new and improved scripts and sales procedures can have an immediate positive effect on sales right now! But once again, careful timing and the enlistment of your reps is key. Their input and revisions will be crucial to the playbook's acceptance and implementation. It's also important to resist the temptation of passing new scripts out before they have been thoroughly tested by your managers or top reps.

The last key to successfully rolling out your new sales platform is clearing addressing your goals and benchmarks during the initial rollout - usually the first 90 to 120 days.

The mistake many companies make is in expecting total buy in and adoption from the reps right away. Instead, measure and reward gradual adherence and adoption starting with the first call. Bring the reps along slowly, and reinforce each success as it comes.

2) Win Key Buy In and Get Champions Involved Early
By developing a clear rollout strategy for each stage of the new sales platform, you will be able to better identify and enlist potential champions early on. The following are key groups and tactics for securing their buy in:

Front line managers: The formula is the same as for the reps - enlist their feedback and input on the key areas of change you have identified and committed to. Manager feedback can be particularly useful in providing overviews of the entire sales process and sales cycle.

Top producers: Your top producers are intimately familiar with the best practices of closing your particular sale - let them know you realize that and incorporate their feedback accordingly. Securing their buy in is crucial to optimizing your initiative and will typically go a long way to getting the rest of the team on board, as well.

The rest of the team: Sales reps all want to know one thing: "What's in it for me?" If you can help them resolve the problem areas they run into - the objections they have trouble overcoming, the blow offs they can't get past, etc. - you will more easily win them over.

Other champions include support staff and team members who will be involved in compiling and updating the new metrics and design of the sales dashboards and reports. By identifying these key people in advance and having target areas for their involvement, you can ensure the steady development and implementation of your new sales platform.

3) During Implementation Focus on Progressive Success
After investing the time, energy, and money involved with developing a new sales platform you may understandably be in a hurry to get the team to buy in. Don't worry, they will, but it takes time and a plan.

The first key is to coach, measure, and reward the adoption of each part of the new sales process one step at a time. For the first week, have your managers focus on getting reps to apply the new opening to their first calls, then move on to building rapport, qualifying, and getting commitment. Once your team is scoring high -- using a script grading adherence form -- on the first call, turn your attention to the closing call and build momentum, and buy in, one step at a time.

Next, focus on the reps who have displayed the most buy in and emphasize their successes in team meetings. Record them using the scripts successfully; highlight their script grading adherence percentages, and reward them for their closed sales. Once the other reps see that the new playbook and techniques work, even the more senior or stubborn reps will follow suit.

By aligning new sales initiatives with a clear strategy and a defined process you will be able to establish an environment in which the new platform can truly take root and transform your sales culture.

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Mike is hired by business owners to develop and implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. He also offers customized sales training programs, works as a virtual V.P. of Sales and offers Executive Coaching programs to business owners around the world. For more information, visit his website: http://mrinsidesales.com

The Proper Way to Set a Call Back

Not all sales close on the first - or even second or third, etc. - closing call. Because of that, it's often necessary to set a call back to continue the conversation. Like most parts of a sale, the call back is one of those recurring situations that you, or your sales team, will find yourself in countless times a day or week.

Because of this, it's important that you develop and then script out a best practice approach to handle it effectively. Unfortunately, many sales reps have never given the call back (or very many other parts of their sale) much thought. Instead, they adlib it and so develop ineffective and bad habits.

Some of these include:

"Ah, when should I follow up with you?"

This is obviously a weak set up and gives all control of the call - and the ensuing sales cycle - over to the prospect. As strange as it may sound, this is how over 50% of sales reps handle the call back.

Another ineffective approach:

"When will you be speaking with ________? O.K., would it be alright if I followed up after that?"

Again, this is a weak approach and gives all control to the prospect.

While there are some instances when you need to find out what the next step is, (i.e. talking to a partner, meeting with a committee, etc.), what's important is that you, the sales rep, take control of the call back timeframe AND get commitment from your prospect.

Here are some examples of the proper way to set a call back:

"__________, in terms of talking to your partner, what time today can you do that?"

Sometimes it's better to assume they can and will be speaking with the other person that same day. This works best in a small company or in a business to consumer sale. If you know it's going to be later in the week or another time, then change the script accordingly. Try:

"__________, when is the soonest you'll be speaking with them?"

By doing it the first way, you'll either be setting or confirming the time frame and controlling the call back. If they can't do it that day, then they'll come back with a more definite day and time and that will keep you in tighter control of the sales cycle. After they let you know, say:

"O.K., great. I'm looking at my calendar for that day - what's better for you on that Tuesday - morning or afternoon?"

Now you're locking down not only the day, but also the time. You're getting them involved and having them check their schedule. Once again, YOU are controlling the call back, and by doing it this way you're not letting a lot of time pass between when they speak to their partner and when you next speak again.

If there are a lot of decision makers involved, or if it's going to be a longer process, then you should schedule a "progress call" to access their level of interest and to keep yourself in the loop.

Try:

"I understand you've got several people involved in this and that you're talking to other vendors. Here's what I'd suggest: since you're likely to have some questions come up between our next call, how about I reach out to you in (one week; two weeks, whatever is appropriate) just to see if there is anything I can answer for you.

"I've got my calendar in front of me - how does (suggest a day and time) look for you?"

Once again, you are driving the sales cycle and the call back. This is crucial to keep you top of mind and to allow you to head off any problems that might come up during the decision process.

And another:

"I'll go ahead and send you the information we just talked about, and then I'll schedule you for a call back next Tuesday. Do you have your calendar handy?"

Noticing a trend? Once again, I'm in control of the call back time frame. And don't worry - if that's not O.K. with them, they'll suggest another day/time that is. Setting a call back like this keeps the sale moving forward and keeps them from "falling through the cracks."

Now what happens if they want to call you back and won't allow you to set the call back? Two things: One is that this isn't a good sign. It means they want to control the sales cycle (which is never good), and, number two, it can also mean there is an objection that is standing in the way of the sale.

When this happens, you should try to move the call back date out just a little further and still try to control when you get to call back. Try:

"I understand. What's the timeline for this?"

Qualify for timeline first. Then:

"Tell you what: If I don't hear from you in the next (30 days - whatever is appropriate), then I'll get in touch with you to see if there are any questions. What do you prefer, mornings or afternoons?"

Once again, you're in control of the call back, and you've got a definite time frame and time of day to call back.

The bottom line with the call back call is to keep control of when it happens. Never leave it up to your prospect. Try to lock down the soonest date after any "event" that is going to happen, like them speaking to a partner, etc. Next, get them involved by having them check their calendar and identify a time of day. Try to get their buy in on that day.

By getting better at directing the sales cycle, you'll get closer to making deals happen. Make it a point to get good at this - and all other - parts of the sale. As you do, you'll move closer to becoming a top producer in your company and then in your industry.

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Mike is the go-to inside sales trainer and phone script writer in the industry. He is hired by business owners to implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. If you're looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

Top Characteristic Part Ten: Invest Daily in Your Attitude

Now that you have resigned from the company club, you can use that time and energy to do the one thing that will have the most impact on your performance and your life: Find ways to build up your attitude on daily basis.

Before we get in to some ways to do that, let me emphasize the importance of investing time and energy every day to improving, strengthening and elevating your attitude. The "every day" part is the key. Think about it:

How many times a day do you eat? If you're like most people, then you probably eat three times a day and have some snacks in between. Now let me ask you: If you skipped breakfast, how would you be feeling by, say, 11am? Cranky? Hungry? Unable to concentrate much?

How about if you also skipped lunch that day? How would you be feeling around, say, 3:30pm? Would you be ready for that big presentation? Or that meeting with your sales manager or boss?

O.K., now let's say you got home by 6pm and you didn't eat anything all day. How would you be around your wife and kids? (Or roommate or girl/boyfriend?) Would you want to be around you?

Now imagine going two days without food. Try three. I think we could all agree you'd be pretty much worthless by then (if not way before!).

The reason I bring this up is that your mind, your attitude, needs feeding just like your body does. If you don't make a concerted effort to feed it regularly, then it, too, will get sluggish and worthless. If you don't spend active time feeding your mind, feeding your attitude positive material, then you will be more susceptible to negativity, more susceptible to members of the club, and each time you have a bad outcome - client doesn't reload, new prospect doesn't buy, you don't make your lead numbers - you'll get more and more discouraged.

And if you let that happen, then you'll begin searching for reasons why you won't succeed. And if you let that continue, you'll find them or you'll make them up...

Top producers always spend time consciously feeding their minds positive stories and positive examples and cultivating a "can do," positive attitude. They spend time taking in other positive thinker's ideas and strategies, and they purposefully employ those strategies in their lives. They are constantly listening to audio books, or reading (or re-reading) books on how to get better and do better. Many top performers also spend time with affirmations and visualizations along linked to purposeful and motivating goal setting.

And all this pays off. Those producers who are in the habit of developing a vision, and who dedicate themselves to achieving it - no matter what - those are the top producers, the top athletes, and other top performers who always out perform their competition.

But it all starts by making a commitment to developing, feeding and cultivating a positive, can do attitude. And the key, again, is to do this daily (several times a day, actually).

So how do you get into the habit of doing this? A good start is to find the medium that works best for you. If you are a reader, then get some books that resonate with you and commit to reading a certain amount of pages each day.

If you prefer audio books, then get those books on MP3 and listen to them on the way to and from work or when you get home, or at the gym, or when you're walking the dog.

One resource I still work with today are subliminal recordings. Subliminal recordings are great because they speak right to your subconscious mind which runs just about everything in your life. I listen to recordings either during meditation or during relaxation sessions. I also use them to go to sleep with sometimes.

Another good thing to do is to pick up a few books or audio programs on setting goals. Just listing what it is you're going to accomplish this year (or what's left of it) can be highly motivating by itself. As soon as you define your vision, you'll find that you begin to automatically feel more positive and motivated. When setting goals, just remember:

Whatever you want to have or achieve is possible. Other people around the world are having and achieving the very thing that lives in your heart. If they can have it and do it, so can you! But you'll need to work for it first. You'll probably need to rearrange your consciousness so that it can fit a new expectation of what you believe is possible. And this is where affirmations are useful.

Affirmations are simply statements or images that you feed yourself, thoughts and emotions that you tend to dwell on all the time. Everybody uses affirmations - you're using them right now. The problem is that most people are using the wrong affirmations and getting the things they don't want as a result.

The reason for this is that most peoples' random self-talk is incredibly negative. That's where affirmations come in. Affirmations are nothing more than carefully constructed words, phrases and stories that you design in advance that support the goals you've identified are important for you.

There are many books on this subject, and you can easily do a search and find the one(s) that speak to you.

But affirmations are key to you feeling positive about yourself and your career, and for helping you maintain the positive attitude that will enable you to persevere and succeed.

With all of the resources above: books, CD's/MP3's, subliminal recordings, goal setting, affirmations, etc., you'll be able to put together a varied and full course of "food for your attitude" that you'll be able to munch on throughout your day.

If you're not doing this now, or have stopped, then start today. It is amazing how just a little bit of positive energy can turn around a day, a week, month and a whole life. Remember, all top producers have a positive, can do attitude. If you don't believe me, then get around one of them - their attitude is contagious. Yours needs to be, too.

In ending this series on the Top Ten Characteristics of Top Performers, I hope you've seen some ideas that resonate and that you feel will work for you. Just adopting a few of these habits will have a dramatic effect on your career in sales, and on your life in general. Hopefully you're already using some of the characteristics, and you already know how valuable they are.

Make a commitment today to put even more of them to work for yourself. I guarantee the more you use, the better you'll feel and the better you'll perform.

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Mike is the go-to inside sales trainer and phone script writer in the industry. He is hired by business owners to implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. If you're looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

Top Ten Characteristics of Top Sales Producers (Part Nine)

These last two parts will focus on the one characteristic that is perhaps the most important of all. You'll find this characteristic in ALL top performers, not just in top sales producers. You'll see it in top athletes, actors, musicians, dancers, top business people, academics, etc.

All top producers have this quality in abundant amounts, and parts nine and ten will focus on how to develop, grow, protect, and maintain it within the sales arena. And here's what it is:

"All top producers develop and maintain a positive, can and will do, attitude."

Top Characteristic Part Nine: In order to develop and protect your positive attitude, the first thing you need to do is resign from the company club.

What I mean by this is that you have to stay away from the group of sales people in your office who do nothing but grumble about how bad or unfair things are in your company or about how bad the economy or industry is.

You know what and who I'm talking about. You usually find them congregating in the break room or hallway or warehouse, or they are outside smoking cigarettes or waiting for the food truck. Every company has them, and they are poison for your career and your life.

This "company club" can be made up of average sales people or a mix of under producers and unhappy managers who feel they deserve more, or even above average sales people who think they should be treated better.

They grumble and talk negatively about any and everything: The leads are bad or marketing is doing a crappy job, or the good leads are being given to the top producers only. They grumble about the product, or the pricing of the product, or the warranty or durability. They grumble about their office environment, the phone system, the computers or their desks and noise level. They grumble about the commission structure or the salary or benefits, or the bonuses they did or didn't get.

They are lazy and set a low standard and drag everyone who will let them down to their level. Instead of focusing on solutions or on making things work, they look for reasons why a new sales campaign or lead source won't work. They are a cancer to all companies, and they are especially deadly to you and your sales attitude.

The answer? Resign from their club.

When I was a bottom 80% producer, I used to love the club. Every morning the club would meet in the kitchen to eat the free donuts or bagels the company provided. Were we grateful and thankful for the free food and coffee? No. If they gave us bagels, where was the salmon? If they brought donuts, where were the bagels?

And once we poured our coffee and started in on the free food, we'd start in on the leads, or the industry, or the company or on how the top producers always got preferential treatment. We grumbled our way through the food, grumbled our way back to our desks, and grumbled our way through lunch.

If we missed a sale, we'd reconvene in the break room to talk about how we could never sell this stuff with all the things that were wrong with it. How in the world did they expect us to be competitive if they were going to put out such trash? And the leads! On and on we would go until it was finally time to go home. And then we'd grumble to our wives or husbands...

Everything changed, though, when I made a commitment to become a top producer. Once I had, the first thing I did was resign from the company club.

Instead of commiserating with the club, I'd arrive at the office an hour early and start cold calling or closing leads I had set up the night before. When the club finally wandered in, I usually already had a deal on the board and was going for another one. I declined invitations to go to lunch with them, and instead I ate at my desk.

When the club members came over to my desk during work hours, I didn't stop calling to talk with them. Instead, I went right on calling and working. They soon got the hint. When they tried to engage me in the breakroom, I was pleasant but told them I had to meet my call quota and wanted to get back to work. After a while, they left me alone.

What was interesting is that I noticed that the other top producers acted the same way I now did. They were the ones who also came in early and left late. They were the ones who were more focused on working than they were chatting, and if they did want to talk, it was usually to strategize a better way of closing a deal. I almost never heard them grumble or talk bad about the company or the industry or the market.

The top producers (of which group I began a part) were more interested in finding ways to succeed and exceed quota. They didn't mind working harder, or getting help or leveraging management's or each other's experience. When we spoke with each other, it was usually to challenge one another to do better. We competed in a positive way to up each other's game. We shared resources and closing techniques.

What I found is that we had our own club, but it was lightly attended because we had work to do. On those occasions when we did get together, it was to talk about better things like what neighborhood we were moving into, or whether we liked Mercedes or BMW better, or how we were setting up our retirement accounts. These were not the kinds of subjects that were ever discussed in the company club.

What I find even now as a consultant is that all the companies I work with have a company club. When I'm onsite, I can see them gathering and chit chatting. I also see the top producers at their desks working away. I've found that top producers are usually loners who are always working, always looking for ways to improve. At the end of my training, the company club members thank me politely and then head off to the break room to talk about what a waste of time the training was.

The top producers, however, are in the training room picking my brain for a new technique or to discuss one of the scripts or closes I've developed for them. They are thirsty for information and you can see the commitment on their faces. They are top producers who are always looking for a way to up their game.

So the question for you is: Are you a part of the company club in your office? If so, then resign today and start finding ways to build your attitude rather than spending your time ripping it down. And you can begin building it up by following Top Characteristic Number Ten.

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Mike is the go-to inside sales trainer and phone script writer in the industry. He is hired by business owners to implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. If you're looking to catapult your sales, or create a sales team that actually makes their monthly revenues, then learn how by visiting: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

Three Simple Rules for Success in Sales

If you want to know what truly separates top performers in sales, then look no further than these three simple characteristics below. Each and every top professional I know practices these habitually, and when I focused on these early in my career, I, too, became the top producer in my office of 25 sales reps.

These "rules" as I call them are essential for your success, and you should make it a point to incorporate and work on them every day of your professional career. If you do, you will easily rise to the top of your company and your industry. Read them over now and commit to incorporating them into your daily routine:

1) Invest in your attitude every day. You absolutely must do everything you can do to develop, protect, and nurture a contagiously enthusiastic attitude. Now more than ever, your attitude will be the biggest determining factor affecting your success in your profession of sales. Think about all the negative people you're going to run into today, this week and this month. Are you going to infect them with your positive, can do attitude, or are you going to get more and more negative with each phone call? IT IS UP TO YOU!!

Starting this week, get into the habit of feeding your mind and attitude daily with affirmations, by listening to motivational CD's, by reading two pages a day in a positive book, and by goal setting. If you haven't read books like, "The Success Principles" by Jack Canfield, or "Beyond Positive Thinking" by Dr. Robert Anthony, then go to Amazon and order them today.

An all time favorite of mine is an 8 minute DVD I've watched over and over on my lap top called: "Finish Strong" by Dan Green and can be found at their website called "simpletruths." That book/DVD alone will be a great investment in your attitude.

2) Sharpen Your Sales Skills. Let's face it - there is no room for error in today's competitive sales environment. Sloppy sales presentations, poorly qualified leads, and just plain lazy and bad habits are going to make you miserable in your job. You must, and I mean must, learn, practice and use effective sales techniques that will allow you to identify buyers and then deliver effective presentations to close business.

The Top 20% will do well because they already use effective skills and spend time getting better, but the bottom 80% are going to sink like a stone. I'd say that up to one quarter of all sales reps will lose their jobs in the next 12 months because they won't improve enough to make it in this environment.

What are YOU doing now to improve your skills each day?

3) Start Listening To Your Prospects. Now more than ever, it's crucially important that you learn how to connect with your prospects and show them you really care about what they're going through and what their needs are. 80% of your competition is going to pitch and pitch and pitch, and this turns off the people they are trying to sell. The Top 20% take the time to understand the difficulties their prospects and clients are going through and they find ways to help them. And it all begins with listening.

People are going to buy from people they like, know or trust, and the best way to build this rapport is by asking questions and actually listening to their answers.

Trust me when I tell you that these three simple rules are the bedrock of success in sales. Eighty percent of your competition won't do these things, but if you will, you will smoke them in sales. In fact, you can become a Top 5% or even a Top 1% producer if you will just take the time to make these rules daily habits.

Remember - first we form habits and then they form us.

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Mike is hired by business owners to develop and implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. He also offers customized sales training programs, works as a virtual V.P. of Sales and offers Executive Coaching programs to business owners around the world. For more information, visit his website: http://mrinsidesales.com

Experienced Sales Reps - Should You Hire Them?

Who would you rather hire for your inside sales team - an experienced inside sales rep with experience selling different products or services across several companies, or someone new to sales, say a college graduate, or how about a waiter or bar tender or someone one else new to sales? The proper answer here, of course, is it depends on the individual circumstance. But as we'll see, if the proper systems are in place, it's usually a wiser choice to go with someone new to sales. Let's find out why.

While conventional wisdom would lean towards hiring someone with specific inside sales experience, what common experience tells us is that that choice is rarely a guarantee of good performance. In fact, after hiring or being involved in the hiring of thousands of experienced inside sales reps, I can tell you from personal experience that it is very rare to hire an experienced sales rep who turns into someone truly exceptional. It's more common to find mediocre sales reps who continue to produce down to their level of past production. There are many reasons for this.

To start with, most sales reps have never received the kind of sales training that leads to consistently good results. Sales training, and its constant reinforcement, is an area that is either under developed or an effective extension of product training. After initial orientation and training, most inside sales reps are left to either figure it out on their own, or to sink or swim. This leads to a lot of sales reps who develop poor sales skills that they repeat over and over again as they ad lib their way through their jobs. It's these very same unsuccessful reps that are looking for work when they answer your job posting.

This has been my experience, and I'm not alone. In fact, in their book, "How to Hire and Develop Your Next Top Performer" by Greenberg, Weinstein and Sweeney, the authors compared results from hundreds of thousands of assessments that were conducted over several decades with actual sales performance measurements and found:

55 percent of the people earning their living in sales should be doing something else.

Another 20 to 25 percent (of salespeople) have what it takes to sell, but they should be selling something else.

They concluded that based on these statistics, the practice of hiring experienced sales candidates will produce an unsatisfactory result as much as 80 percent of the time! That may seem a pretty dire pronouncement, but it once again rings true in my experience and, I'm willing to bet, in the experience of many of you reading this article as well.

Now before you throw your hands up in the air and decide to abandon your sales efforts completely, the good news is that there is a solution. The solution is to invest the time, money and effort in defining your sales process, developing a solid training program that teaches the best practices of your sales process, and then to give your front line managers the tools to manage your rep's adherence to these defined sales processes.

Once you build these processes, you will be in the unique position of being able to hire and successfully on board new talent into your sales team. The great thing about hiring someone new to sales is that they are a blank slate without any poor sales skills and habits. Rather than trying to undo years of poor performance and attitude, you can spend your time actually training someone the right way from the beginning. After that, your time can be spent reinforcing and measuring adherence to your best practices. The major benefit here is that you can shorten the time it takes to evaluate whether or not the person you've just hired has the ability and desire to succeed in your sales environment.

Another benefit of using this method is that since you are hiring people who are new to sales, you can now recruit from almost anywhere. Rather than being handcuffed to running the same old ads and attracting the same old suspects, suddenly you will be free to find and recruit new talent anywhere you go. When I was actively managing and growing a financial service team, I would carry my business cards with me everywhere and would constantly be on the lookout for people who were bright and had winning personalities. I'd chat up people working in department stores, waiters, bar tenders, and anywhere else I found engaging and motivated people. In fact, some of my top producers where found in this way.

Now, let's get back to the question at the beginning of this article. Is it better to hire an experienced inside sales rep or someone new to sales? Again, it depends on the circumstance because you obviously don't want to hire someone new who doesn't have the temperament or desire, and you don't want to not hire an experienced sales rep who might do well in your environment. The way to be successful with both of these hires is to have a solid training program and follow up mentoring and measuring system to evaluate them. Only in this way will you be able to successfully hire and develop the right candidate.

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Mike is hired by business owners to develop and implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. He also offers customized sales training programs, works as a virtual V.P. of Sales and offers Executive Coaching programs to business owners around the world. For more information, visit his website: http://mrinsidesales.com

One Crucial Lesson My Manager Taught Me

If I asked you what the most important tip, technique or strategy is that you learned in your sales career, what would you say? I easily remember the one that I learned early on because I'm reminded of it nearly every day. In fact just last week I read a story about Gary Emanuel, the defensive line coach for the Indianapolis Colts, and I was reminded of the first lesson my sales manager taught me which was, "No matter how discouraged you get when cold calling or prospecting, never give up - because the very next phone call you make can change your day, or your career." Here's what happened to Gary:

Earlier this year, Gary wasn't working in the NFL. In the last 31 autumns, he had been the typical football journeyman, working on 10 college staffs (including the likes of Plymouth State and Purdue) and only one pro staff (49ers, 2005-06). Gary's dream was to return to the NFL but there were no teams banging down his door to interview him. So what did he do? He took action and began cold calling…

Call after call resulted in nothing but the typical, "You can send us your resume," but he kept calling. Finally he reached the General Manager of the Colts, Ryan Grigson. Grigson told Peter King of Sports Illustrated:

"He cold-called me." Grigson texted me (Peter) after the 17-14 win over Cleveland. "Getting (Emanuel) was like finding money in the street. We had all kinds of big-time recommendations, and after Chuck (Pagano - the head coach) and I met with Gary, we didn't even want to talk with another DL coach."

How's that for a successful cold call? Now I'm sure that Gary, like you or me, got discouraged from all the other calls he made to teams that gave him the brush off. I'm sure he got tired of sending out his resume and calling back only to hear the same old brush off, "Oh, we'll get back to you if we're interested." I'm sure the phone was heavy to pick up after a while, and I'll bet there were times when he thought about giving up. But he persisted and he made that next call. And look what that persistence resulted in for him.

I can't tell you how many times I've been calling and calling (both as a sales rep and as a sales consultant), and how much I've wanted to just give up. But I always remember what my manager taught me about how you never know what that next call can bring. And because I've made that next call, I have many stories of my own, and I can tell you now that many of my biggest clients came because I was willing to keep calling. In fact, here's one of my favorite results:

Years ago I decided that I wanted to try and get a 30-year Tampa Bay Buccaneers anniversary patch for a new authentic jersey I had purchased. I didn't know anyone at the Buccaneers so I did what I had been taught to do - I started cold calling. First I looked on the official team website and found out who the head trainer was. Using the techniques I teach and write about - being polite to gatekeepers by using 'please,' being assumptive and using instructional statements - I got through to the training room and was told that the trainers and team were in their final preseason work outs offsite and that I needed to call back in a few weeks. After several more calls to the department, I finally got the head trainer on the phone but he told me that he was too busy now preparing for the season, and that I could try him again in a few weeks. I did. When I got him on the phone again, I explained what I wanted and he said he would see what he could do. He took my name and address down and I waited.

After a couple of weeks, I still hadn't received anything. Now, many people might have given up by then and thought that just getting through was victory enough. Not me. I kept remembering what my manager had taught me and kept remembering all the good results I had achieved from being persistent and from continuing to cold call. So I called again.

By this time the season had begun and the Buccaneers were winning. By now the trainer knew my name and was getting used to my call. By this time there were some things to talk about besides the patch. This time he took my name and address again and seemed to be paying more attention as he did it. A week later I got a package from the Buccaneer training room and when I opened it I found two jersey patches - one home and one away - and a complete decal set with helmet sized Buccaneer flags. It was a pretty cool package. So what did I do? I kept calling…

After a few more weeks and a few more victories, the trainer and I developed a friendly relationship. When I explained to him that I would be flying to the 49er game in a few weeks, he said something that has changed my experience as an NFL fan. He asked me if I'd like to work as part of the training staff and assist one of the coaches on the side line of that game. I can tell you now that experience was one of the highlights of my life!

I arrived in San Francisco the same day as the team, and that evening I went to the team hotel and met the trainer and he introduced me to other coaches and team members as they went through the lobby. He gave me an official coaching shirt and cap (that I still have), and a coach's pass and parking pass for game day. The next day I arrived at the stadium at 9:30 am as the first bus of players and coaches arrived. I went through the player's entrance and into the locker room and spent the whole day as a member of the Tampa Bay coaching staff! I don't have time to relate all the memorable experiences I had - like patting Chris Sims on the shoulder pad after his first NFL touchdown pass or the memorable after game speech by a fiery Jon Gruden - but trust me, it was an amazing experience. And all because I was willing to keep calling.

I remember that experience and many other successful, unexpected calls and results even today when I have to make cold calls. I remember my first sales manager teaching me the importance of being persistent no matter what and of the value of making that next call - or next 100 calls. I remember this lesson when I read stories like Gary Emanuel's, and I'm constantly on the look out for similar stories of the pay off of persistence and of never giving up. And I always find them.

Today as you face a day of cold calling or prospecting, I hope that you, too, remember the crucial lesson I learned all those years ago. That no matter how discouraged you get when cold calling or prospecting, never give up - because the very next phone call you make can change your day, or your career.

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Mike is hired by business owners to develop and implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. He also offers customized sales training programs, works as a virtual V.P. of Sales and offers Executive Coaching programs to business owners around the world. For more information, visit his website: http://mrinsidesales.com

Your 4-Step Plan for Prospects Who Aren't Calling You Back

We've all got a pipeline full of them: prospects who sounded good in the beginning, but now there's no news from them. Are they still interested? Have they found another solution? Was it something we said or is the price too high or have they changed their mind? Who knows - they simply aren't responsive. So what should you do?

The first thing you should do is relax. Take a deep breath. Just because they haven't gotten back to you doesn't necessarily mean they aren't still interested, nor does it mean they aren't going to still be a deal. Some won't, but some still will. It's frustrating, I know, but there are a couple of things to understand and to do so let's take it from the top:

#1: The first thing you need to remember is that prospects buy according to their schedule - not yours. As a sales rep, I know you want, no, you need the deal today. We all do. But your prospect usually isn't under the same urgency as you are to get the deal done. There are many other initiatives, activities, people, processes, etc, they are dealing with and your product or service is just one of many things they have on their plate. So again, don't take it personally, just relax and plan your next move.

#2: Your next move should be the one you both agreed on during your last conversation. You did make a firm appointment for your next conversation, didn't you? This is rule of engagement number one, so if you're not in the habit of doing that, please begin today. If you did make a firm appointment and they missed it, then send a gentle email acknowledging that they must be as busy as you are and you understand. Do not be accusatory, don't assign blame and don't under any circumstance sound hurt or make them feel guilty. Instead, be professional and use something like the following:

Subject Line: Our meeting

John,

So sorry we missed each other today - I know how time can get by us. When you have a moment, please shoot me an email back suggesting some better times later this week or next that would be better for us to connect.

You can either respond to this email or leave me a quick message here (your number).

Looking forward to hearing back,

Joe Smith

#3: Talk to secretaries, assistants or others in their department. If possible, always form a relationship with anyone else answering the phone or working in the same department as your prospect. When you next attempt to reach them, ask that other person what your prospect's schedule is like and what's going on with the department or company. Using this method, I've found out that some of my prospects were travelling for two weeks, or they were at company conferences, or on vacation, etc. Once I learn this, I reference this in my next email attempts to reach them.

The best rule of thumb is to acknowledge what your prospect is going through and to never pressure them. Always let them set the best time/days to reconnect. If you are persistent and respectful in this way, real prospects will always get back with you and let you know.

#4: If you have been patient in the ways described above and a month or so has gone by and you've still not heard from your prospect, then it is time to use the "Should I Stay or Should I Go" email I've written about before. Remember, the power of this email is that you are giving your prospect a way out with option number two and this will almost always get them to respond to you. It may not be the response you want, but believe me, if your prospect has found another solution or won't be a deal, it's always better to know it and move on. Here's the email for you in case you missed it:

Subject line is: "Should I stay or should I go?"

"_________ I haven't heard back from you and that tells me one of three things:

1) You've already chosen another company for this and if that's the case please let me know so can I stop bothering you,

2) You're still interested but haven't had the time to get back to me yet.

3) You've fallen and can't get up and in that case please let me know and I'll call 911 for you...

Please let me know which one it is because I'm starting to worry... Thanks in advance, and I look forward to hearing back from you."

Following these four steps should restore you to sanity in regards to your sales cycle. Remember, closing a sale is a process and you must let it unfold in the way that best suits the buying habits of your prospect or client. Don't be desperate, don't pressure, and don't let your prospect see you sweat. Instead, use the four steps above to deal with the process professionally and confidently. That attitude will come across to your buyer and they will respond accordingly.

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Mike works as an executive coach with business owners and sales managers, and does complete phone script development. To learn more about how Mike can help you and your team succeed, visit: http://www.mrinsidesales.com

5 Qualifying Questions You Must Ask Every Time

Would you like a way to become instantly better at closing more sales over the phone? If so, then simply incorporate these "must know" questions into your first qualifying call and you will immediately have better results when you call back to close.

How can I be so certain knowing the answers to these 5 questions will make you a better closer? It's because of the indisputable rule in sales: "You can't close an unqualified lead." And that's exactly what 80% of your competition is doing.

I listen to hundreds of actual calls from my clients each month, and I hear it over and over again - sales reps struggling to present their products and services to prospects who are not qualified in fundamental ways. Here's are the questions you can ask to avoid this and to qualify your prospects better:

1) "What role do you play in the decision process?" You'd be amazed by how many sales reps simply never ask this question and, instead, assume they are dealing with a decision maker. In fact, have you ever gotten to the end of your close and been told, "Well, I have to send this to corporate and see what they think..."

That's because you never asked question #1.

2) "How does this decision process work? Walk me through it." If you have a pipeline full of prospects who didn't buy after your demo or presentation, then you probably didn't ask this question either. And I'll bet your closing rate is less than 2 out of 10.....

3) "How many times in the last couple of months did you present something like this to (the board, corporate, the owner) and what happened?" If you want to know what the likelihood of getting your product or service through the decision process they described to you and what the likelihood of them actually closing is, just ask this question. The answer they give you will be the same as the one you're going to get back next week...

4) " __________ based on what you've heard so far, how much of a fit do you think this is for what you're looking to accomplish?" What, a trial close on the first call?! Absolutely! If you're dealing with a real buyer for your product or service, there is no better question than that one to uncover what any potential objections might be waiting for you when you call back to close. AND, there is no better question to reveal how close you may be to getting the deal when you call back...

5) " ___________, is there anything you can think of that might stand in the way of us doing business in the next few weeks if you like what you see?" This question is for Top 20% closers only and it's the question that will move you into the Top 1%. Try it and start re-qualifying or start writing up your order for the next call...

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Mike is hired by business owners to implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. For more information, visit his website: http://mrinsidesales.com/

5 Tips On How Not to Sound Like a Salesperson

First, let's start with the real problem which is that most sales reps just don't know how to really engage and talk to people. That's really the bottom line. Most sales reps are more interested in pitching their products or services and don't treat the people they are speaking with like people. A long time ago, my first sales manager gave me a great lesson in how to talk to and treat people. He said, "People are just people. They are just like you. They want to be respected, they want to be listened to, and they don't want to be sold to. Show a real interest in them and treat them with kindness and you'll go a long way…"

What's so interesting, however, is that although this sounds so easy to do, for some reason, sales reps seem afraid to engage and ask questions of prospects because they think that as soon as they give them an opening they are going to get the door shut in their face. Most aren't going to be interested - as we know - but many are. The way to deal with both of them is to learn how to engage and just talk to them.

Here are five tips and scripts that will help you get better at the crucial skill of relating to people so you don't sound like a sales rep. Use these and you'll soon find yourself way ahead of your competition. Here are some tips for working with gatekeepers:

1) Tip number one is to always, always use please and thank you - especially with gatekeepers. In fact, the more times you use the word please in your opening, "Hi, could I please speak with _________, please?" the more successful you'll become. The more polite you are with the gatekeeper, the more polite and helpful they will be with you…

2) The second way to work with gatekeepers is to use the "I need a little bit of help please," technique. The key to using this is that you have to stop here and wait for the other person to respond. You'd be surprised by how many people use this technique but combine it with, "I need to speak with the person who…"

This doesn't work. This doesn't engage the person on the other end of the phone. You absolutely must give the other person a chance to respond to you before you continue.

3) When you do get the decision maker on the phone, please, do not use that tired old phrase, "How are you today?" Nothing identifies you as a disinterested salesperson more than that worn out line. Instead, use this:

"Hi is that ________? Hi _________, this is _______ _______ with ___________, how's your Monday (or day of the week) going so far?"

Now I know it sounds like the same thing but it is not. First, no one is saying it, and because you're talking about the current day they are in, you can almost hear them think about their day and answer honestly. If they ask you how your Monday is going as well, always thank them for asking first before you move into your script.

Again, this may seem like a small technique, but it makes a BIG impact.

4) Introduce the reason you're calling in as short of a time as possible and then ask them an engaging question. Most sales reps start their calls with a paragraph or two description and this is where the "speaking at" people comes in. Instead, mix your opening up with something like:

"__________, briefly, the reason I'm calling you is that I see on LinkedIn that you run an inside sales department and I was just wondering how often you work with outside trainers or consultants to help you improve your results?"

The key here is to get them involved in the conversation early - even if you fear a negative response. And ALWAYS hit your mute button and let them talk…

5) The last tip for today is to always be prepared for the objections you get with a scripted response that doesn't challenge your prospect, but rather, that allows them to feel heard and respected. Here's how you can handle the, "I'm not interested," objection:

"No problem _________. Please realize that I'm not calling to sell you anything today, rather, I'm just calling to see if what we have might be a good fit for you and if I can help you down the line. Let me ask you…."

Do you see how this doesn't push back on them? Using a response like this will get you much further than challenging them as so many sales reps still tend to do.

By using the above techniques (and developing many more), you'll begin to actually have conversations with the people you speak with and you'll differentiate yourself from the hundreds of other sales reps who are pitching and annoying them. This will make their day, and yours, much more enjoyable and profitable.

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Do you have an underperforming inside sales team? Talk to Mike to see how he can help you and your team reach your revenue goals. To learn more about Mike, visit his website: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

5 Elements of a "Best In Class" Inside Sales Team

Recently I was asked by a client what a best in class inside sales organization looks like. This got me thinking about all the companies I've worked with, and after a while I picked a client company in Canada that I believe is practicing the 5 crucial elements that define it as "Best in Class." Before we get into these elements, here is what they do and how we started working together.

A little over a year ago, I met the C.O.O of a young company in Canada that sells HR Solutions over the phone to businesses across Canada. This company was already doing well and had been designated one of the fastest growing companies in 2010. They had a team of about 35 inside sales reps and in each of their first two years they had broken new sales records. When we met over the phone, the C.O.O. told me that they had accomplished this without any official sales structure or training and he was anxious to see what kind of growth he could accomplish by implementing proper systems and sales processes.

After an initial evaluation, we identified several key areas that we could improve and after working together for several months, we implemented the following 5 elements that would ensure his company's continued growth and their "Best in Class" status. Here they are:

Number One: The first thing we worked on was defining his sales process. As is the case in most sales rooms, of the 35 sales reps prospecting and closing accounts, there were about 35 different ways this was being done. It took some reps 2 calls to close a deal, while other reps needed to make 4, 5 and even as many as 8 calls to close deals.

In addition, while interviewing the reps I found that there were vastly different opinions on what was needed to close a sale. Some felt that extensive emails and information was important for gaining trust and closing the sale, while others used a demo of the website to sell a prospect. Still others relied on referrals from others within the prospect company, while others couldn't tell me what the deciding factor was. They said they just sent out information to whomever appeared to be the decision maker and then hoped for the best.

So the first thing we needed to do was to look at how the top 20% of their sales reps were prospecting and closing sales and then standardize those successful techniques into a best practice structure. We started by indentifying the bench marks in each step and then used these to define the most effective sales process. I call this building the DSP (for Defined Sales Process), and once we had that in place, we could then develop a scripted sales approach that their entire team could use to be more effective.

Number Two: Once we had the DSP constructed, we then needed to take these best practice steps and benchmarks and turn them into a useable, repeatable scripted playbook. In other words, we took each step of their best practice sales process - starting with dealing with the gatekeeper, to identifying he decision maker, building rapport, qualifying, etc. - and we scripted, word for word, each part of the sales process out.

Taking the time to comprehensively script out each part of the sales process - including best practice voice mails, emails and complete objection handling - allowed them to equip each sales rep with the most effective way of handling the sales situations they were in 80 to 90% of their day. By developing and subsequently practicing a uniform and proven sales approach, the reps were able to qualify better prospects which allowed them to close more deals in a shorter period of time.

Number Three: Once a Defined Sales Process and a scripted playbook were in place, the company was now able to better empower their front line managers and supervisors because now they had a uniform way mentoring and coaching their sales reps. Prior to this process, when the reps were adlibbing and unstructured, the style of management was reactive and inefficient. Without a standard to grade, coach and evaluate by, the managers made inconsistent progress and were generally ineffective.

This all changed, however, once both sales reps and managers were following a proven, objective sales process and scripted sales approach. During this process we developed actual script grading adherence forms so managers could regularly grade adherence to the best practice sales approach. In addition, script grading also allowed the managers to target problem areas for each rep and design very specific development plans for improvement. Because each step of the process was defined and objective, evaluating and changing performance and measuring and tracking progress of these changes was now possible.

Number Four: Once these processes were in place, the company saw the need and benefit in rearranging personnel and redefining job descriptions to better manage and train their growing sales team. Some of these changes included reducing the sales quotas of their team leads/supervisors so they could spend more time in helping their reps improve their sales skills and close deals, and in tasking their sales director with more involvement in hiring and recruiting talent. In addition, they promoted one of their human resource members into a full time sales training position - something they had never had before.

A crucial change was the creation of a qualify control person whose sole job it was to listen to and grade recordings of the sales team. Because an important component in this process was to record and grade rep's adherence to the new sales playbook (and so analyze their sales skills and measure their improvement), it immediately became apparent that listening to 35 sales rep's calls was a full time job. The innovative change this company made was recognizing this need and creating a position to fill it. Having a full time quality control person allowed the front line managers to spend more time on the floor working with reps and it also provided the 'real time' feedback on how each rep performed during the actual sale and how they were tracking in terms of improvement.

Number Five: Motivating a sales team is an important component of sustained and improved sales performance, and in this area the company deviated from the daily cash bonus and spiff model of short term motivation and instead took a longer term approach. Recognizing the need to grow the sales team and the benefit of offering its employees a more sustained career model, the company created a career advancement program that rewarded long term sales performance by promoting sales reps into different levels of responsibility and increased pay.

The company created new team lead positions, new supervisory positions and even new customer reorder departments that created new growth opportunities for performing reps. Each of these new positions became linked to bi-annual performance goals and replaced the short term bonus plans previously in place. The result was a more engaged and motivated sales force who's focus was more on the long term goals of the company rather than the short term goals of daily production.

While a lot changed in this company's sales structure, focus and execution, the amazing thing was they were able to make these changes in a four to six month time frame. The results in terms increased sales production were exceptional. Not only did they grow sales by over 34% in their existing department of new business, but they were able to expand their current accounts business by penetrating deeper and cross selling departments and products.

The bottom line is that when this company took the time to improve and implement these 5 elements, they were able to leverage their existing sales personnel and create a scalable model for across the board sales improvement. And that is what I call a "Best in Class" sales company.

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Mike is hired by business owners to develop and implement proven sales processes that help them immediately scale and grow Multi-Million Dollar Inside Sales Teams. He also offers customized sales training programs, works as a virtual V.P. of Sales and offers Executive Coaching programs to business owners around the world. For more information, visit his website: http://mrinsidesales.com