Each week as Smallbizlady, I conduct interviews with small business experts on my weekly Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. This is excerpted from my #SmallBizChat interview with Jill Konrath @JillKonrath. Jill is defined by her relentless search for fresh sales strategies that actually work in today’s business environment. She’s the author of two bestselling sales books Selling to Big Companies and Snap Selling and is a popular speaker who helps sellers crack into new accounts, speed up their sales cycles and win more business. Check out her resource website at http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com
SmallBizlady: What are the characteristics of successful sellers?
Jill Konrath: The best sellers that I encounter have these qualities:
- Learners: They’re curious about learning new things. They read and ask lots of questions. They never get stale.
- Thinkers: They analyze what they know about a prospect’s situation, plan out the best way to approach customers, pull together long-term strategies, and change things when they uncover new information.
- Customer-Focused: They know that they’ll be successful if they can help their customers achieve their goals and objectives. This also means they work to acquire business savvy.
- Resilient: When they encounter problems, they don’t fold. Instead, they treat them as challenges that they haven’t figured out yet.
SmallBizlady: Are salespeople born or made?
Jill Konrath: Many people are under the mistaken belief that salespeople are born, not made. I wholeheartedly disagree – and I speak from personal experience. I’m an introvert who initially detested salespeople and their manipulative techniques.
- Plus, people who make that claim do NOT understand what it takes to be successful at sales. They think it’s about being pushy, having the gift of gab and being able to handle tons of rejection. It’s not.
- The best sellers I know are smart, savvy people who have committed themselves to learning what it takes to be successful in this profession. It’s a challenging job, but it is something that can be learned – as long as you don’t define your mistakes as ‘failures.”
SmallBizlady: Why are customers so much more “frazzled” these days?
Jill Konrath: Public companies are obsessed with maximizing shareholder value and quarterly earnings. They will do anything to keep costs down. Lean-and-mean is the name of the game. To remain competitive, private companies do the same things.
Their employees are simply expected to do more, with fewer resources and in less time. Is it any wonder that they’re burnt out and overwhelmed. I recently read that 78% of the workforce would gladly switch jobs if an opportunity arouse.
The bad economy has contributed to the problem. But, even if it recovers, companies will not go back to staffing up. People are working at a breakneck speed and expected to keep it up if they want a job.
Finally, there’s just so information and new stuff out there. People are bombarded with emails, advertising, data, statistics, reports, ebooks, manuals, webinars, seminars, new technology. It’s endless. You can never learn enough.
SmallBizlady: What is “SNAP Selling”?
Jill Konrath: SNAP is an acronym that stands for 4 key sales success strategies that sellers need to use today. Briefly, they are:
- Rule 1: Keep It Simple. Because crazy-busy prospects cannot handle complexity of any sort, savvy sellers will do whatever it takes to make it easy for make a change from the status quo.
- Rule 2: Be invaluable. Overwhelmed buyers want to work with experts who continually bring them fresh ideas. You, the seller, are now the primary differentiator – not your products or services.
- Rule 3: Always Align. This is all about relevance and risk. When you’re aligned with their critical business objectives and core beliefs, people will want to work with you.
- Rule 4: Raise Priorities. It’s an absolute imperative to work with frazzled prospects on their priority projects. With their limited capacity, that’s all they can currently focus on.
In my book SNAP Selling, I focus on numerous strategies that sellers can use to implement these new rules. Being aware of them is simply not enough. And, most people aren’t even aware of how they’re adding to the complexity or that they sound just like every other salesperson when they approach new prospects.
SmallBizlady: What common mistakes are sellers making that hurt their efforts to close more business?
Jill Konrath: Sellers who still think that sales is a numbers game are dead wrong. Quality trumps quantity all the time. If you’re making a bunch of irrelevant calls and sound like a product-pushing peddler or a gracious, helpful seller, you’ll never get in—no matter how many call you make. Continue Reading →
