Real Secrets 037: How to Handle Incoming Leads
By Mike Brooks, www.MrInsideSales.com

I get many requests each week from readers who want to know how they should deal with incoming āwarmā leads.  āThese leads are more qualified because they are calling in," I hear over and over.  But we all know this isn't necessarily true is it?  In fact this attitude leads to the biggest mistake 80% of your competition is making when they receive warm leads --

āThey go into pitch mode rather than qualification mode."

80% of your competition mistake the āimplied interest" of a call in to mean they are already qualified, and all they need to do is explain their product or service.  Wrong!

The Top 20%, on the other hand, know that warm leads can be some of the biggest time wasters of all, so they do what they always do -- disqualify people who are ājust lookingā so that they can identify the real buyers, and they do this by asking questions rather than pitching.

Here are some great questions to ask the next time you get a warm lead:

āThank you for contacting us today, what was it about our ad/promotion/website that caused you to call us today?" [Listen for the buying motive]

āWho else are you looking into?ā [Listen for your competition]

āWhat do you like best so far?"

āHow long have you been thinking about (buying, investing, changing) something like this?"  Then,

āWhat has kept you from acting on this?ā [Listen for possible objections]

āWhen are you looking to make a decision on this?"
You see how this goes.  Just remember, to be a Top 20% producer, you have to begin finding buyers -- whatever the lead source.  So stop pitching and start qualifying!  Remember, it's still up to you to find and separate the buyers from the non-buyers.

If you found this article helpful, then you can get 10 more GREAT  TECHNIQUES for FREE by downloading my Special Report, ā10 Techniques to Instantly Make You a Better Closer.ā  You can read about this by clicking here: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/report.htm  and you can get it for FREE by signing up for my FREE weekly Ezine, āThe Secrets of the Top 20%ā by clicking here: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/ezine.htm

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, offers FREE Closing Scripts, and a FREE audio program designed to help you double your income selling over the phone. He works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance. If you want to Close Business like a Top Closer, then learn how at: http://www.MrInsideSales.com

Real Secrets 036: How To Handle the RFP Process

I was having lunch with a client last week and she was telling me about how frustrated she was with a prospect who wasn't calling her back.

"But our first meeting went so well," she told me.

I asked her what happened, and she told me that she visited with a prospect who currently has four other vendors and was initially resistant to using a fifth. My client persisted, however, developed good rapport, and the prospect said she could submit an RFP on their next job.

My client left feeling good about the lead and excited that she had been able to overcome the initial resistance.  She went back to her office, put together her proposal, emailed it to the prospect and began following up. Not surprising to me (and soon to her), she got no response from the prospect.

āI canāt understand it!ā She repeated.

I donāt know about you, but this whole transaction had Red Flags all over it. To begin with, whenever I hear āRFP Process,ā a host of questions jump out at me. Hereās what Iām thinking (and you should be, too):

1. How many RFPās are they getting?
2. Is their current supplier submitting one, too?
3. Did they review with their current supplier the last time they had an RFP?
4. Did they go with them at that time?
5. How likely are they to go with them again?
6. Why are they even going through the process of accepting RFPās?
7. Are they required to get at least 3-5 bids?
8. How many do they already have?
9. Have they essentially already decided on the winner and are only going through the process?
10. Is price (or what is??) the deciding factor?
11. Do I honestly have a chance at this deal?
12. Am I doing this (submitting my RFP) just to be busy hoping I might get it?

All these thoughts need to be scripted into qualifying/disqualifying questions and you need to ask them before you enter any RFP Process. If you donāt get this information, chances are youāll end up on the outside with no return call. And Iām sure you know how that feels!

If this makes sense to you, and if youāre having trouble coming up with your own scripted questions, then youāll love my Complete Book of Phone Scripts, a 110 page downloadable e-Book that you can have in the next 10 minutes for just $49.  Click Here to read more about it!

Enjoy, and from now on ā know when and when not to enter the RFP Process.

If you found this article helpful, then you will love Mikeās new book: āThe REAL Secrets of the Top 20% - How To Double Your Income Selling Over the Phone.ā  You can read about it by clicking here: http://www.mrinsidesales.com/bookmarketing.htm

Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance.

He offers a FREE audio program designed to help you double your income selling over the phone, as well as an internationally acclaimed FREE ezine. If youāre 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

Real Secrets 035: Change Your Self Talk ā Change Your Results

First of all, did you know that you are talking to yourself all day long? (Youāre thinking, āDo I talk to myself? What does he mean, talk to myself? I donāt talk to myself!ā) Psychologists estimate that you are talking to yourself at a rate of 1,200 to 1,500 words a minute (in contrast, when we speak aloud we can only go up to 250 words a minute and thatās if weāre talking REAL FAST).

The problem is that most of our self-talk is negative.  And even worse, we tend to believe our self-talk and that influences our performance ā in a big way.  For example, have you ever stopped to listen to your self-talk after you missed a sale?  Mine used to go something like this:

āThere I go again. Iām an idiot! Iām amazed Iāve ever made a sale. This product sucks, nobody is ever going to buy and I even knew he wouldnāt buy.  I wonder when lunch is ā do I have enough money for lunch today? I wonder if Iāll make a sale this week ā how am I going to pay the rent if I donāt close at least X amount of business. I wonder how long theyāll keep me, shoot, why didnāt I stay in college. I hate salesā.ā

Sound familiar? This is the self-talk (or some variation of it) of 80% of your competition. Not very empowering, is it? And the biggest problem with this is that it leads to even poorer performance. With self-talk like this, you automatically stop using effective sales techniques, you donāt qualify properly, you begin using negative, closed ended questions, etc., and you anticipate being blown out (and then give up).  In other words, poor self-talk leads to and creates poor sales performance.

Hereās the good news: The opposite is also true. When I committed to becoming a Top 20% producer, the first thing I did was begin to monitor and change my self-talk. When if missed a sale, I began to say:

āGee, that wasnāt like me. Let me think about what didnāt go right with that and hereās what Iām going to do to change it. OK, Iāll use this line or Iāll ask this qualifying question next time, and hereās how Iām going to improve on my next sales call.ā

Then Iād pick up the phone to prospect and say to myself, āOK, watch this, this will be much better!ā

And it really worked! Suddenly, it was ālike meā to use proper qualifying questions and to qualify red flags. Suddenly āI regularlyā used my scripts and was āin the habitā of practicing perfection on each call.  And my performance and production reflected it. Within 90 days I was the top closer in the office.  And monitoring and changing my self-talk was a HUGE part of it.

I challenge you this week to begin getting accountable for what you say to yourself, and begin taking responsibility for your attitude. When you find something you donāt think is positive or helpful, donāt beat yourself up, but rather, change it to something more empowering. Iāve been using and teaching this (and other) attitude adjustment techniques for years and THEY WORK! 

The bottom line is that your attitude determines how much of your ability, knowledge and desire you have. The question is, āWhat are you doing to improve yours?ā
If you want to Double Your Income Selling Over the Phone, then check out Mike's Award Winning 5-CD Series and learn the techniques and strategies of Top 20% producers.  Visit:  http://www.mrinsidesales.com/cd_page.htm  Order now and receive a FREE copy of Mike's āThe Complete Book of Phone Scripts,ā which is packed with word for word scripts and techniques that you can begin using today to make more appointments and more sales - a $49 Value FREE!
 
Mike Brooks, Mr. Inside Sales, works with business owners and inside sales reps nationwide teaching them the skills, strategies and techniques of top 20% performance.  If youāre 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

Real Secrets 034: How To Successfully Handle Objections

If you're like most sales reps, you hate to get objections.  Your stomach aches, your palms start to sweat, and you can literally see your commissions fly out the window. 

And, if you're like most sales reps, when you begin dealing with objections one of two things happen:

1)  After you answer them, your prospect gives you another, then another objection and you go on the defensive...or

2)  In answering the objection you tend to talk past the close, and you actually INTRODUCE more questions or objections!  Now that's a sick feeling, isn't it?

Want an easier way to deal with the objections you get over and over again?  Here's how to do it:

First, learn to listen.  Donāt be so quick to interrupt your prospect because often times the way to overcome their objection is actually in the objection itselfā 

Second, if you donāt know how to respond to their objection, or donāt even understand what the objection is (which is the case for 80% of sales reps), ask for clarification.  An effective technique is:

āHumā  Iām not sure I follow you, what exactly do you mean?ā

This is a great technique because in restating their objection, many times prospects will either give you the answers you need, or sometimes theyāll even explain away their objection.

Third, after your prospect has clarified their objection and you fully understand what it is, you should always isolate it before answering it!  Again, you must be patient and give your prospect every opportunity to help you deal with their objection. 

Letās use āThe Price is too highā objection since itās the most common.  Most sales reps have been taught to build value to justify their price, or drop close to a lesser amount, or try to negotiate in some other way.  While these techniques are valuable tools, they should only be used after you isolate the objection.  Hereās what you say:

āI understand __________, and letās put the price aside for a moment and make sure this (product or service) is something that will work for you.  Let me ask you, if price werenāt an issue here, in other words, if this fit in with what you were willing to pay, would you go ahead and put me and my company to work for you?ā

This one technique is the most powerful closing tool youāll ever use in dealing with objections.  Sadly, itās used less than 10% of the time, and thatās the reason I keep getting emails asking me what the best way of dealing with objections is. 

My suggestion to you today is to incorporate these two techniques and to see for yourself how much easier objection handling becomes for you.  If youād like more techniques like this that actually work, then invest $29 in yourself or your team and purchase and then use the other proven scripts and techniques in my āComplete Book of Phone Scripts.ā  Save 40% by using the coupon code, SCRIPTS.  You donāt have to keep struggling ā invest in yourself today! 

Real Secrets 033: How To Hire Top Sales Reps

Ask any manager, V.P. or business owner what one of the biggest challenges they face in making their revenue numbers and theyāll tell you itās identifying, hiring and retaining good sales reps.  If you are familiar with my management philosophy, then youāve heard me talk about the 80/20 rule in sales, and all you have to do is look at your own company or industry to know itās still true ā 80% of the sales and revenue is made by the Top 20%. 

So how do you identify who the Top 20% are BEFORE you spend all that time and money on hiring, training and then hoping they perform?  There are many ways to try to identify the characteristics in advance, and in fact a whole industry of profiling and assessment testing has sprouted up to help you make the right choice.  I have used some of these tests and have found them to be quite accurate and valuable. 

I have also found an easier way to identify who the potential top producers are, and Iāve boiled it down into three āReal Secrets.ā  If you are responsible for identifying and hiring sales reps in your company, then I recommend you use these techniques to help you find the right sales reps before you spend all that time and energy training, managing and hoping youāve made the right choiceā

Real Secret #1) The best predictor of future behavior and performance is past behavior and performance.   This is a well known fact in psychology, and itās one you can use to predict how a new sales rep is likely to perform for you.  The bottom line is that however much your candidate earned in income in their last job, and the job before that, is mostly likely the amount they are going to earn working for you as well.

What you must determine is exactly how much money that was.  Ask your candidate to provide you with pay stubs or verification of income for the last 6 months, and, in addition, ask them what they earned in income each of the last three years.  Find a way to verify this. 

Finally, determine how much of your product or service your candidate would have to sell to generate that kind of income again, and ask yourself if you would be happy with that level of performance ā because thatās most likely what youāre going to get.

Real Secret #2) Determine what is really motivating your candidate.   What we were exposing in the first real secret was your candidateās comfort zone.  We all have comfort zones, and sales reps in particular will always live up to ā and most likely down to ā their comfort zone, especially in terms of income.

So if your candidate is really looking to your company and opportunity to better themselves and earn more money, find out what is driving this need and desire for more money.  Have their life circumstances changed?  For example, have they recently gotten married, had a child, purchased a home?  If so, then they may have a real motivation to work harder, make more money and enlarge their comfort zone.

If their situation hasnāt changed, then you can be pretty sure that they will not be motivated to work harder, learn more skills, and make more sales.  In essence, they will continue to live down to their current comfort level and you may once again be hiring another 80% producer.

Real Secret #3) Access their sales skills and previous training.  This is one of my favorites.  During the interview, I ask my candidates how they think they would do selling my product.  They all say, āIād do great!ā  I then do two things:

1) I ask them to sell me on the product.  What Iām looking for is for them to ask me qualifying questions rather than just start pitching.  Those who just dive right in and start pitching reveal themselves as middle to low 80% producers.  Top 20% producers, on the other hand, start asking me questions and gathering information.  They are the ones Iām interested in.
2) Next I give them a couple of objections and watch and listen to how they handle them.  You can immediately tell how much training someone has had, and how successful they were, by listening to them handle age old objections like āThe price is too high,ā and āIāll have to talk toāā 

These techniques have saved me hundreds of hours of poor hires, and they have often revealed who the real top producers were.  Use them ā youāll love how they will work for you as well.

Real Secrets 032:  The Two Things You Can and Must Control To Succeed

So here's the scene: Large corporate sales convention in the company's training center in Washington State; over 250 sales reps flown in from all over the country; Sales directors, V.P.s, sales managers all running around stressing over the schedule, quotas, current sales, etc.

I'm speaking to the entire group (owners, board members in the audience, too), and after the training portion of my presentation, I ask the question that gets the managers and directors to shift uneasily in their seats: "What are the two most important determining factors in making sales and exceeding quotas?"

The reps raise their hands and start firing away, "Leads," "The economy," "The price of the product," "Territory," they yell out. The managers and directors are now sweating, and the owners and board members look irritated and even a little angry.

"While those things all play a part, the problem with them is that you have no control over them. So for that reason alone, they don't qualify as being the most important things." I tell them.

"There are only two things you CAN control and those happen to be the most important factors affecting your success. And they always will be," I say.

"And what are those two things? Your attitude and your actions. Everything else flows from those two things. And the good news is that both of those things are directly under your control and when you learn to develop and maintain an expectant and enthusiastic attitude, and you take smart, consistent actions, you will always get the results you plan for."

After I delivered this (and the rest of my talk), the managers and directors, V.P.'s and owners were all smiles. And so were the Top 20%. And that's because they know the truth.

Ask any top performer this question, and you will get the same answer, albeit, in a different way.  Some will say it's their training regiment; others will say it's their mental preparation, and still others will attribute their success to visualizing a win.  But it all comes down to the same thing. 

A winner will always take 100% responsibility for their results, while the other 80% will blame it on things outside their control.  And that's why winners will always eventually win, and the rest of the players will lose and make excuses.

It's like my friend Jeffrey Gitomer once said, "Your boss can't stop you; your co-workers can't stop you; your territory can't stop you; the economy can't stop you.  Only YOU can permanently stop you."  (I'm paraphrasing, but that's the gist of it.)

In today's economy especially, it's crucially important that you feed, develop, and maintain a positive, expectant attitude.  Things will change, and they WILL get better.  What are you doing right now to set that up and succeed then as well as NOW?

What extra actions are you taking right now to ensure your success?  Are you working harder AND smarter?  Are you coming in early and leaving late?  Are you going that extra mile every day including Fridays? 

The bottom line is that if you focus on and take care of your attitude and your actions, you will not only be fine, but you'll do even better than last year. 

That was a message all 250 sales reps in Washington needed to hear, and I know that 20% of them already knew it and were already practicing it. 

How about you?

Real Secrets 031:  The Only Qualifying Question You Really Need

I always tell sales reps that your client or prospect has all the answers as to why they will or why they wonāt buy, and that itās your job to find that information out. You do this by asking the right qualifying questions, by layering those questions, by qualifying any red flags you get and by actually listening to the answers you're given.

While this may sound basic and simple enough, you'd be amazed by how many sales reps still donāt do this correctly. There are a ton of reasons why, but in order to simplify the entire process, I'm going to give you the one question that will get your prospect to tell you exactly what they are looking for (and what they're not looking for as well). And here it is:

During the course of your qualifying, simply ask your prospect, "_________, if you could wave a magic wand right now and fix (or get) three things that would help your (sales process, bottom line, productivity - whatever is appropriate for your prospect), what would you wish for?"

Now shut up and listen. You will be amazed by what comes next. My experience is that my prospect immediately begins telling me exactly what they are looking for. As I listen carefully, I'm asking myself if my services can actually help them, or if they have issues that are outside of my range of services - like more procedural or accounting/process based.

If they are telling me something that I know I can't help them with, then I know they are not going to be a buyer. If this is the case, I try to find them a resource and move on.

If, however, they tell me things that I know I can help them with, then, after waiting until they are completely done, I will then give them the good news:

"__________ I'm glad you shared that with me, and I've got some great news for you. The Top 20% customized training program we're talking about addresses those wishes perfectly and let me tell you why.  First of all...."

I then go over, point by point, exactly how my training matches up with their expressed needs/desires, and I specifically use their exact wording back to them as much as I can (I was taking notes as they spoke!).

This technique works especially well in today's economy because it gets your prospect to open up and start talking.  And, of course, it gets them to reveal why they will or won't be a deal for your product or service. 

Real Secrets 030:  The Most Important Word in Sales

I was talking to a real estate agent the other day about the importance of disqualifying leads, and he told me an interesting story about their officeās top producer.  He was talking to her one day and asking her what she did that made her so successful.  She said her secret could be summed up with one word.  When he asked what it was she said:

NEXT.

The moment I heard him tell me that I was in total agreement.  I told him that was what I was trying to teach him with my disqualifying method.  The majority of people you speak with, I told him, are never going to be a deal.  The problem 80% of sales reps make is they spend time with them anyway, sending information, making multiple appointments, and begging and chasing the deal.

The Top 20%?  Their attitude is -- NEXT.  And that's when he said something interesting.  He said he was afraid to let go because he didn't want to chance losing a sale. 

"If you don't know after fully qualifying and listening to your prospect what it's going to take to get the sale, and who isn't a real buyer, then you've got problems -- big problems." I told him.

āI guess I kind of know but you can never be sure" he said. 

I'm here to tell you that it's that attitude that separates 80% of sales reps from the Top 20%!  The Top 20% know when to say, and arenāt afraid of say, NEXT.

Real Secrets 029:  How to Save a Sale

Last week I was speaking with a new prospect who had called in to inquire about one of my inside sales training programs.  I went over her needs, matched up my training to fit those needs, gave her the price options and then closed on dates.

And thatās when I got the old stall, āWell, let me run this by my boss, and I still have to hear back from, blah, blah, blah.ā  Sound familiar? 

What was worse was that a few days later she stopped returning my calls and didnāt respond to my emails.  Now I can take a hint, and I know that she probably wasnāt going to be a deal.  Iām sure you can relate, and so I want to give you a proven technique that will allow you to:

1) Open up the dialogue again.
2) Find out why your prospect isnāt going with you.
3) Get them to tell you what you can do to save the sale.

Itās called the āI love to learnā technique and hereās what you do:

First, youāre going to have to be persistent and keep calling your prospect until you catch them and they pick up.  Donāt leave any more voice mails.  Once you get them, say the following:

āHi __________, Iām glad I reached you ā how have you been?ā  They will likely try to brush you off here, so you say:

āThatās perfectly OK.  Iāve been in sales long enough to know when we might not be a match for a company.  Just a quick question, though.  You know, I love to learn and Iām always trying to improve, what specifically about our (offer, quote, product or service) didnāt seem right for you?ā

Now shut up and listen!  If you do this right, your prospect will tell you what was wrong with your proposal, and this will give you a chance to adjust or adapt it to fit their needs.  Will it always work?  Of course not, but if there is still a chance to get a deal, this technique will show you how.

If worked with my prospect, and now her team is in my Inside Sales Training Boot Camp!  Try it for yourself and start saving and closing more deals!

Real Secrets 028:  Practice Doesnāt Make Perfect

You know that saying, āpractice make perfect?"  Do you think that's true?  ITāS NOT.  Practice only makes permanent.  Only practice of perfection makes perfect.

This is why 80% of sales reps struggle so much.  They have never learned the proper sales skills, or, if they have, they aren't using them and so day after a day they practice poor techniques and develop habits of selling that don't work.

And after weeks or months or years of selling, they automatically and consistently do and say all the wrong things -- and get poor results because of it.

The Top 20%, on the other hand, are in the habit of learning, using and practicing techniques and skills that work.  They're constantly adjusting, adapting and improving on each call, and they practice proven techniques, skills and methods that keep making them better.

The bottom line is that practice creates habits.  And first we form habits and then they form us.  My question to you is what kind of sales skills are you or your sales team practicing everyday?

My tip for you today is to take one proven sales technique -- either using a script, questioning the red flags, or recording yourself - and commit to practicing it everyday on every call this week.  If you do that, it will become a habit for you and you will quickly see the benefit.

Then do the same thing next week.  Take another Top 20% skill or technique and make it yours and get in the habit of practicing perfection.

If you do this consistently, you'll soon be performing like a Top 20% producer.

I know because this was how I became a Top 20% producer, and I can tell you that it builds on itself -- your closing percentage goes up, your confidence goes up, and soon youāre in the habit of closing like a Top 20% producer.

And it all starts by practicing perfection.  What technique or skill can you incorporate starting today?