Creative Selling on Huffington Post
Sep 17
posted by AMZ in Opportunity Development, Creative Selling 
Hope you also enjoy my blog on Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-zink/are-we-too-picky_b_1890443.html
In my forthcoming book, Creative Selling, I discuss the process a group of Elite Sellers use to create and close multimillion dollar opportunities. The process is important, but it is equally important to know that Elite Sellers understand something many sellers do not. Sales, particular sales to new customers and markets, requires the customer to change.
Why is this important? Because change is hard. In fact, change can be terrifying. Understanding that selling is about helping the customer change creates a completely different sales paradigm.
According to Alan Deutschman in his awesome book, Change or Die, the odds are nine to one that an individual, business, institution, city or country can successfully change. Sounds like cold calling odds. Deutschman set out to figure out how to beat those odds. His research is fascinating. I highly recommend you read the book. The research boils down to you can successfully change if you follow three steps: relate, repeat and reframe.
How do you apply that to sales, in particular, selling to a new prospect who doesn't know he needs you yet? Through the Creative Selling process of course :-) I'll be getting into the process more over the next several posts. Here I want to show how Deutschman's steps create the framework for Creative Selling.
The following is an excerpt from my forthcoming book Creative Selling!
The best of the best, our elite group, approach qualifying prospects with a fundamentally different mindset from most. They don't walk through the standard pre-qualification litany of questions. Instead, they may target a prospect because they see huge potential for the prospect to improve some aspect of its business performance using the value they bring to the table. They may know someone who just took a very senior position in the company. They may see the win as a game changer for their career or their company. They always think it would be fun.
Picture your most recent early in the sales cycle meeting. Was it with an existing customer or with a new prospect in an existing market? Were you there because you heard her company was considering upgrading or overhauling a particular process which would involve your goods and services? In other words, did you know she might need your stuff? Did the customer already have a pretty good idea of the total budget and what percentage would be allocated toward products or services you could supply? Did your conversation focus on improvements your company had made that would benefit your customer? Did your next steps include preparing a formal presentation to other stakeholders or perhaps submitting a proposal?
If you answered yes to many of the questions above you are in good company. The vast majority of successful salespeople have the same experience. But the there is a group of sales people that have an entirely different experience. Who? The ones consistently closing the multi-million dollar sales.
I am pleased to announce Creative Selling: Create & Close More Opportunities Using a Model Proven by a Billion Dollars of Sales will be published soon! The book is a distillation of the methods used by sales professionals across several industries to create and close a billion dollars of sales over the past five years.
I'll begin to preview chapters on this blog shortly! Although those of you who regularly read my blog will already have a good idea of some of the methods used!
Thanks to everyone who pushed me to do this!
Sitting in an airport lounge last week I couldn’t help overhearing three people lamenting over the state of their business. Their complaint was not lack of opportunity, but of customer’s unwillingness to pay fees for their services. Almost all their prospects wanted them to work for success fees only.
I hear the same thing when working with clients to add outside experts to a sales team. Clients always first ask if the expert will work on a success fee only. It’s important sales experts not get insulted and understand why clients start there. More often than not clients have been badly burned in the past because they did not align the type of sales expert they were hiring with the opportunity or market they were pursuing. I have found, with almost no exceptions, that once clients understand the different types of sales experts and their contribution to the sale they are willing to compensate accordingly.
I’ve written quite a bit about the importance of relationships in business development and sales. I thought it was worth spending some time discussing the different types of business relationships and how a salesperson or business development executive can nurture and grow each type.
Most business relationships fall into one of three categories: facilitation, counselor or mentoring.
In the last post I wrote mostly about the politics. In this post, I want to address the people and the culture.
Haitians Appreciate Persistence: Doing business in Haiti IS a marathon. It’s frustrating and can be exhausting. It often feels like two steps forward is followed by one step back. Haitians live this reality on a daily basis. They appreciate foreigners who accept this and continually inch forward. Once Haitians see you are willing to stay the course they commitment themselves to helping you succeed.
It’s all about Commerce. Haiti is a very entrepreneurial culture. Everyone understands the concept of commerce and the free market! The good news is a society that embraces the profit motive. The challenge is that you must always demonstrate how your project can profit each Haitian stakeholder group.
It's often said that doing business in Haiti is a marathon. It takes creativity, tenacity and endurance. I've pointed out in past posts, there are many correlations between doing business in Haiti and selling large strategic projects. There are also many aspects of doing business in Haiti that are unique.
Most companies hoping to build a business in Haiti arrive not understanding what they know and what they don’t know. This post and the next will discuss a few realities not readily grasped, even by the most astute and experienced individual, in the hopes of helping you navigate the challenging Haitian environment:
- Everything is Multilateral. The Martelly-Lamothe government is in overdrive working to change the paradigms in Haiti. Their stated intent is for Haiti to become self-sustaining. For now though, every major project must be evaluated through a multilateral prism. The top 8 donors are major investors in Haiti. They are each heavily vested in its success. They also have competing political objectives that must be clearly understood. Success requires aligning the rationale and benefits of your project with the entire political spectrum. Even if you aren’t looking for donor financial support, you must secure their political support.
We've all lived the sales cycle that, seemingly without reason or warning, goes to $hit. In Haiti, it happens often. But Haiti isn't the only place it happens. Most high-stakes business development opportunities hit a major snag along the way that leaves the entire sales team feeling discouraged and hopeless. How do you get back on track? Here are four important steps:
- Check your attitude - it sounds silly, but when things start to go wrong, it's critical to stay positive. We attract what we focus on. If all we're thinking is this deal is %$#!ed up, it's almost impossible to get it back on track. This applies to everyone who touches the deal. Good sales leaders recognize this and are particularly adept at keeping the team positive and focused on moving forward and getting back on track.
- Assess the chemistry – I've said it before, people buy from people they like. When things seem to be falling apart, check to make sure the chemistry is still good between the buyer and the sales team. In long sales cycles the buyer and seller are going to have ups and downs. Or the seller may not click with a new decision maker. Or maybe the seller's frustration is starting to taint the relationship. Here again, a good sale leader can pinch hit or provide some relief to help the seller and buyer get back on track.
