Ann Arbor Real Estate Missy Caulk’s Posterous Blog

Posted: Aug 26, 2010 at 5:30 AM [Today]

Business school and Master of Business programs do a fairly comprehensive job of teaching students economics, finance, business management, business models, marketing, public relations, and even a lot about product placement and pricing strategy.

But when it comes to the essential point of transaction, where a business actually meets face to face with a prospective buyer, the sales interaction is mostly ignored. This is the most important activity for any business, in any industry, and the conventional learning institutions ignore it completely.

Ever stop to wonder why there’s no strong academic curriculum for learning how to sell? Students never enroll in college to become a salesperson and like most people, academics consider the sales profession or salespeople a little unsavory, so they avoid developing it as a curriculum.

Accidental salesperson
Most salespeople get into sales totally by accident. I don’t know anyone who would say that when they were 4 years old they ran around the house yelling: “I want to be a salesperson." It’s also safe to say that few moms or dads tuck in their kids whispering: “You’re going to be the best salesperson in the world when you grow up.”

No, most of us set out to do a technical or a professional career, like engineering, architecture or marketing, and found ourselves in the sales role by necessity (for example all entrepreneurs are salespeople), or because a sales position opened up and we preferred this post over the profession we trained for.

But there is a stigma about sales. In fact years ago I went off to school to learn to write and be a columnist—now my whole life is sales—. My mom still feels like she must reassure me because she doesn’t really “get” the whole sales thing, and she occasionally says things like: “Don’t worry honey, you’ll be a writer some day.” Yeah, we get here by accident.

Our own worst enemy
Salespeople have a stigma to deal with that is so deeply ingrained in our culture, that it determines buyer and seller behavior. When someone receives a call from a telemarketer, what is their first inclination? Instead of opening up and answering every question so the salesperson can figure out whether they are a prospect, they are careful to reveal nothing for fear that the salesperson will take advantage of them.

The same situation exists on the floor of any department store; a salesperson approaches a customer and says: “May I help you?” And even if they have come on a mission to pick out a specific item the customer says: “I’m just looking.”

Similarly, when a salesperson from one company approaches someone from another company, presumably a prospect that would buy their product or service, the prospect has the same defensive programming about salespeople, is reluctant to share information, and so a struggle for the salesperson to find out if they even have a prospect ensues.

Salespeople then attempt to convince a new prospect by making elaborate presentations and providing detailed information, hoping they will hit the right hot button” and get the prospect to act. But most often the prospect responds by giving some kind of “I want to think it over” answer, when they really mean no, and the salesperson goes into “the chase mode”. This mode consists of making “follow-up” calls daily or weekly until the prospect changes their number or files a restraining order.

It’s about building trust
There are finesse ways to short-circuit the cultural models that shape sales relationships, and it’s all about building trust.

Smart salespeople understand that the conventional model is broken, and spend a lot of time learning to do the opposite of what prospects expect. Wise salespeople learn they can break the pattern by not looking or acting like a salesperson, starting soft and not presuming that anyone is qualified to be a prospect, telling prospects they can say “no” at the end, and by taking the time to find out if they need something before blathering on about anything.

Most prospects feel like they aren’t “allowed” to say “no”, so they give a “maybe” to get the salesperson out of their office.

Business schools are a long way from face to face
Business schools do a good job of teaching students business concepts and strategy. But learning how to effectively interact face to face with a prospective buyer comes from trial and error, or working with someone who understands the patterns of human behavior at work, and how to systematically exploit them.

Sales success in most business models has more to do with effectively interacting with prospects than any strategy used to go to market, so it pays to develop these interpersonal skills in a company.

©Copyright 2010 Marr Professional Development Corporation

Joe Marr is a public speaker, sales and management consultant and trainer, and runs the Sandler Sales Institute at 501 Avis Drive in Ann Arbor. To reach him call 734-821-4830 or visit his website at: www.sandlerannarbor.com

Tags: joe marr, mike wynn, sandler, sandler training, sandlerannarbor

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