Sales Frameworks Ain't It
Sales Frameworks Ain't It!
Sales is made much more complex than it really is.
Maybe it is because consultants and coaches get paid to make things complex in order explain it to people.
Extensive "sales frameworks", acronyms to memorize and an exhaustive list of qualifying questions that are THE right questions every time, etc.
It struck me as I was combing through posts in our industry (IT services), where it is said that there is apparently tons of things to know about how to sell IT services to someone (or any product for that matter). You need to be asking about cyber risk, AI, compliance, strategic business questions - all in a certain way and if you mess it up you blow the deal up.
Something in me was disagreeable about this, and being a sales consultant myself in this space I was trying to understand why I felt this way.
So - in this blog I will talk about the things you need to have in place as a seller and the things you frankly can do without.
You need to be a real person
There is nothing, nothing, nothing that will substitute for you being a real person.
Someone who's experienced things, who has a story to tell, who lives on this Earth just like everyone else and so isn't a robot on a screen.
I can not stress this enough, the place to start to for many salespeople is to work on their ability to foster real connection with someone else.
And the only way they are going to do that is to be real themselves, and by asking the other person things that they are genuinely interested in.
Now if you are a real person and don't have issues with creating real connections with others, definitely keep reading.
You do not need weeks of formal sales training.
Sales training has become one of those things that imo few have actually cracked but many have tried. And it is an industry filled with false information, based in psychological textbooks on things that don't actually work.
I should be able to give you many examples of crappy sales training, but I've never had formal sales training. I simply spent years working with others trying to help them in their personal lives with a system of self-help processes that I had learned from continued study.
But, some examples of things I've seen from sales training that I don't agree with or aren't true in every case:
-You need to focus "on your tone" to others, and purely by your "tone" can you dictate behavior or subconscious buying decisions.
-You should mainly be the one asking all the questions - aka doing all the listening and barely any talking.
-You should be worried about your authority and status and how to raise it.
You don't have to worry about all this nonsense if you are a) genuine, b) be curious in the other person and c) be competent or knowledgeable enough in your industry.
Your attention should be on the other person, not how you sound.
You do need processes and playbooks.
Having salesplays, pitch decks, proposal review committees and a buying process are very important. Because without structure, things in this world just cease to flow in a single direction and they flow off onto other things.
You want your sales cycle to keep flowing on through to the close.
Thus, known playbooks that the whole team practices and you believe in provide tremendous value.
A wonderful book that taught me many different types of sales plays was "Big League Sales" by Les Dane. In this he introduces the commonly used "Authority Tag", but also have lesser used but very effective ones like the "Accidental Tag" and the "Shopper Stopper" (how to get someone to stop shopping around).
If you want to learn more on this book a call with me.
Final Word
Call me weird, but I think sales is entirely too complicated by people who don't actually understand what is going on.
And what is going on is simple - communication between two people, one trying to help the other solve a problem.
If you have a hard time or are uncomfortable holding a conversation or guiding someone towards something - you need to improve this first.
And I have some ideas on this....so let me know if you want help.
