Latest / Sales Pipeline Radio / How Mindset, Skillset and Human Connections Combine To Unlock Sales Performance

Transcript

How Mindset, Skillset and Human Connections Combine To Unlock Sales Performance · Sales Pipeline Radio

• 0:16
  All right.
• 0:17
  Welcome everybody to another episode of Sales Pipeline Radio.
• 0:20
  If you're watching, listening on demand.
• 0:22
  Thank you so much for subscribing, for downloading.
• 0:26
  And every episode past, present, and future is available at salespipelineradio.
• 0:29
  com.
• 0:29
  Really excited today to have our guests, Mike Estraday and Derek Roberts.
• 0:33
  They are the authors of the new book."Listen to Sell".
• 0:37
  I got a copy of this about a month ago and knew I wanted to
• 0:40
  get you guys on to the show.
• 0:42
  So first of all, thanks so much for joining.
• 0:44
  Yeah.
• 0:45
  Thank you for having me.
• 0:46
  Really excited to be here.
• 0:47
  A lot of sales training and a lot of sales books focus on what to say, right?
• 0:52
  The methodology of what to say, what questions to ask,
• 0:55
  how to position yourself, how to generate need and urgency.
• 0:59
  This book's focused on how to listen and so I want to get the backstory of
• 1:03
  where this came from, why this topic., It seems to me that there is a vacuum
• 1:07
  of content that is focused on the fact that we have two ears and one mouth
• 1:11
  and usually should act accordingly
• 1:12
  You'd expect that to be true, right?
• 1:14
  It's, it seems so simple and it seems that this is the kind of
• 1:18
  thing that you get taught by your parents how to interact with people.
• 1:20
  And then we forget that when we learn so much, we get smart, right?
• 1:24
  We want to tell people and convince people and persuade people.
• 1:29
  But I think you listen people into persuasion rather than
• 1:32
  necessarily talking them into it.
• 1:33
  And there's an art to it.
• 1:35
  We thought that there was an opportunity to speak to the market and share
• 1:39
  some things we've learned over Mike, what 50 plus years of doing this.
• 1:46
  Yeah, Mike, I saw you perk up and laugh when I mentioned two years in one mouth.
• 1:49
  But I think sometimes we feel like we're going to connect with people
• 1:52
  by sharing what we have to say.
• 1:54
  Oftentimes, if we just shut up and let the other person
• 1:56
  talk, hear what they want to...
• 1:58
  not only do we get smarter about them, but they feel like they're sharing,
• 2:01
  they feel like they're connecting.
• 2:03
  It becomes a win win.
• 2:05
  We just got to have the patience and discipline to do that, right?
• 2:09
  We do.
• 2:09
  When we get with the prospect, sometimes the more nervous, we are,
• 2:13
  or we fall into a default of talking.
• 2:16
  It's like, we can talk people into buying instead of listening to buy.
• 2:19
  A lot of that comes back to pre call planning.
• 2:21
  Are we planning out what kind of questions and trying to put ourselves in the
• 2:25
  customer's viewpoint, the customer's shoes, instead of just walking in,
• 2:28
  trying to sell stuff in the book we talk about not just the skill set of selling,
• 2:33
  but also the mindset and listening is a mindset too, that I'm going in,
• 2:37
  not just to talk, but I'm trying to listen, not just to the words, but to
• 2:41
  the body language, to the intent in between the words to figure out what's
• 2:46
  really going on in that customer's head.
• 2:49
  When we used to do in person sales calls more often, which
• 2:51
  obviously are back and still happen.
• 2:54
  And someone taught me once, you know, you look at the four walls of
• 2:56
  someone's office and you can learn a lot about what they care about.
• 2:59
  You've got a lot of evidence of things to ask questions about.
• 3:01
  We're not always in people's offices as much as we used to, to your point
• 3:05
  Mike, digitally, how do you do that?
• 3:07
  How do you listen with your eyes and be able to ask better questions
• 3:11
  and create better connections?
• 3:13
  I think a lot of it is the kind of questions you ask and the mindset I
• 3:16
  have going in what do you view selling as do I view selling as walking in
• 3:21
  and just talking, telling product knowledge, or am I really trying to
• 3:25
  get from this customer viewpoint, what are their problems?, where are there
• 3:28
  challenges?, what are their issues?
• 3:30
  And people can pick up whether it's truly a human to human interaction,
• 3:34
  or if I'm just there trying to try to talk you into buying something.
• 3:37
  Unfortunately, a lot of salespeople we find have a poor view of selling
• 3:42
  and you can hardly blame them because what do they see in movies?
• 3:45
  And everything's negative.
• 3:47
  I mean, it's hard to find a positive image of salespeople in movies.
• 3:52
  People get bad experiences and they think, okay, I've got to be
• 3:55
  a talker instead of a listener.
• 3:58
  But the real power is in that listening.
• 4:00
  It's in the pause in between what you say.
• 4:04
  That pause is so important.
• 4:06
  I'm glad you mentioned that because I think a lot of times the salespeople,
• 4:08
  really anyone in conversation that's anxious about making it go well, helping
• 4:12
  it go well, as the prospect or your customer is answering the question, or
• 4:16
  as they are sharing, we're not listening.
• 4:18
  Cause we're worried about what we're going to ask next, right?
• 4:21
  And what I have learned over time is that the pause is important.
• 4:25
  So that you can listen, the pause is important so that the person feels
• 4:29
  heard and the pause is important so you can take time to think
• 4:32
  about what you want to ask next.
• 4:34
  Derek, some of that is the art of active listening and the discipline doing that.
• 4:37
  Some of that is just knowing your strategy going in.
• 4:41
  And preparing yourself then mentally to say, here's how I want this call to go.
• 4:45
  Here's the progression I want to follow.
• 4:47
  It's kind of like an actor learning the script and being able to focus on acting
• 4:51
  on stage versus worrying about the lines.
• 4:52
  Right?
• 4:54
  Yeah.
• 4:55
  You know, we talk a lot about being entirely present.
• 4:57
  In fact, one of the first actions of, our sales methodology is Tune the world out.
• 5:02
  Tune people in.
• 5:03
  Right?
• 5:04
  It's a really simple idea, but what you do is in preparation, you give
• 5:09
  your mind freedom to be present.
• 5:12
  How many times in a conversation are we coming up with that next,
• 5:15
  not just the right response, but how do I keep this engaged?
• 5:19
  How do I ask the next question?
• 5:20
  How do I sound interesting?
• 5:23
  That is all a function of preparation.
• 5:25
  You put your notes there, even if you don't ever refer to them,
• 5:28
  what you've done is you've given your mind a track to run on.
• 5:32
  Now you can be entirely present, and that's where we really listen, and I
• 5:35
  think, part of what we wanted to speak to in today's environment is that human
• 5:40
  ears can hear things differently than an algorithm can, right, differently
• 5:45
  than some AI engine can, and this is a human interaction, and we really took a
• 5:51
  chance to double down on the salesperson.
• 5:54
  We really believe that there is value in selling human to human.
• 5:58
  It starts in being able to listen to all of those things that are being said.
• 6:04
  There may come a day when robots are selling to robots with complex solutions,
• 6:09
  but I don't think we're there yet.
• 6:10
  And I think we're not going to be there for a while.
• 6:11
  And look, if you want to let the robots do the dirty work and, help aid some
• 6:15
  of your prospecting of things that are necessary, but are, called necessary
• 6:19
  evils for a reason, all the more to you and just getting a focus on being
• 6:23
  better at the human element of selling.
• 6:25
  Love that.
• 6:26
  Joining us today on Sales Pipeline Radio we're listening to Mike Esterday and
• 6:30
  Derek Roberts, the authors of "Listen to Sell", which it just came out recently.
• 6:34
  You can find it on Amazon, all the online bookstores.
• 6:36
  One of the things I love about this book is that it's easy to read.
• 6:39
  It's easy to read through and I love the coaching corner sections
• 6:43
  at the end of each chapter.
• 6:44
  And I want to get to sort of coaching on this in a second.
• 6:47
  But Mike, I really liked the AID INC.
• 6:50
  sales process that's towards the front of the book.
• 6:52
  Can you talk about that and why that's so powerful?
• 6:55
  Yeah.
• 6:55
  We've been in business over 50 years, our founder, Ron Willingham was so
• 6:59
  frustrated years ago that so many people were trying to sell things to him.
• 7:03
  And he said, let's flip this around to a customer focused process.
• 7:08
  So aid Inc is simply a six step pathway, a track to run on about to have a human
• 7:13
  to human communication, interactions.
• 7:16
  A stands for the Approach.
• 7:17
  How to gain rapport with someone, but it's the 1st time or the
• 7:20
  10th time you talk to him.
• 7:21
  I, as the Interview, asking questions, find out problems,
• 7:24
  wants, needs, challenges.
• 7:26
  The D is where you Demonstrate solutions for the needs that you've uncovered.
• 7:31
  The I, we're doing a little literary license.
• 7:34
  There's a second I stands for a val-I-date.
• 7:37
  And that's how you validate and build trust around your company
• 7:40
  product you're selling and yourself.
• 7:42
  N is Negotiate and C is Close.
• 7:45
  So, when you put those together, it's a simple track people can run on to
• 7:48
  have a conversation to help uncover needs, and if there is a need, present
• 7:53
  a solution and ask for the next step.
• 7:57
  I like that approach a lot.
• 7:58
  The part that stands out to me that I think is missing in an awful lot of
• 8:01
  sales processes is the validate section.
• 8:04
  We think that once we get a commitment to change up front and an interest
• 8:07
  in pursuing a solution, that there's already a commitment to do it.
• 8:11
  And I sometimes liken it to the saying, well, I'm committed to
• 8:13
  buying a new car, but as soon as I have to sign the paperwork, I
• 8:16
  start to question everything again.
• 8:18
  And I start to want to make sure every I is dotted, every T is dotted.
• 8:20
  And all of a sudden you've got a bunch of yeses, but a soft
• 8:23
  no can gum up the process.
• 8:25
  Sometimes in buying journeys, we think of that as the confirm the decision, right?
• 8:28
  So talk about Derek, that validation part.
• 8:31
  Matt Dixon wrote about this in his book, The Jolt Effect,
• 8:33
  the fear of messing up, right?
• 8:35
  And it's an important part of the process to make sure you have what
• 8:38
  he calls the double thank you.
• 8:40
  why is this missing in a lot of sales processes?
• 8:42
  And how do you put a better focus on it?
• 8:44
  Well, I think it's missing because quite frankly, we can't validate for someone.
• 8:49
  We can provide things that align with what they value.
• 8:53
  Just trying to convince them and say, well, this is
• 8:54
  important or this is worth it.
• 8:57
  You can't do that on behalf of somebody else.
• 9:00
  I run into this with salespeople all the time.
• 9:01
  They say, teach me to be a better negotiator.
• 9:03
  Teach me how to get people that to say "yes" Well, that starts all the
• 9:07
  way back in the interview, right?
• 9:09
  Let's go find out what's important to them.
• 9:11
  If you really get to the reasons that they have to even consider
• 9:16
  making a decision then those are the things that become valid to them.
• 9:21
  The validate step later on is just affirming Did we address the things that
• 9:26
  were interesting and important to you?
• 9:28
  And if so, then then they make the decisions themselves.
• 9:32
  They say, yeah, it's worth it.
• 9:34
  And the validate step to me is kind of a tipping point.
• 9:38
  It's the difference between saying, hey, this solution is viable, right?
• 9:42
  Yeah, it could work, but there's no commitment to that, right?
• 9:45
  You can get a lot of head nods, but you said a lot of "yeses" in fact.
• 9:49
  It's viable.
• 9:50
  The tipping point is when they go, and it's valuable, meaning I'm willing
• 9:55
  to put some skin in the game for it.
• 9:57
  That's only because they see that it's worth it to them.
• 10:00
  It gets missed a lot of times and it goes all the way back to the interview step.
• 10:05
  And that's the heart for us, really.
• 10:07
  You do that right, you listen well, then the sale kind of takes care of itself.
• 10:14
  That's right.
• 10:14
  We have a great question here from someone who's listening, watching live.
• 10:17
  Nicholas, thanks so much for submitting this.
• 10:19
  With an average of five meetings a day for account executives, how can they
• 10:22
  remember what to say and what not to say?
• 10:25
  And this reminds me of one of the chapters you have towards the book around
• 10:28
  techniques for outstanding preparation.
• 10:31
  Mike, how would you answer Nicholas And can you talk a little bit about the
• 10:33
  preparation required to be successful?
• 10:37
  Well, a couple of things.
• 10:37
  First of all, Matt, the question, what do you need to say?
• 10:40
  That's important, but probably more important is what do I need to ask?
• 10:45
  If I can think in AID INC, we talked about the first part of the
• 10:47
  process should be about 80 percent listening and 20 percent talking.
• 10:52
  Now, the only way you do that is for better preparation.
• 10:55
  So what's your pre call plan walking into this?
• 10:59
  Now, sometimes if you're on an inbound, you know, calls that may not
• 11:02
  be as possible, but for most sales situations-- who am I calling on?
• 11:06
  What do I know about that person?
• 11:07
  and today tech is so helpful in finding out about organizations, about people.
• 11:12
  So is there some way I can have a personal connection and a business
• 11:16
  connection with this person to get things started to gain rapport?
• 11:20
  What kind of questions do I need to ask?
• 11:22
  What am I really trying to present to them?
• 11:24
  What's the next step?
• 11:25
  Am I clear on what I want the objective to be for this call?
• 11:28
  So being clear what you say is important, but even more important is the
• 11:33
  preparation and what you're going to ask.
• 11:37
  Yeah, I love that.
• 11:37
  Thank you.
• 11:38
  And Nicholas, hopefully that answers your question.
• 11:39
  And thanks again for, for chiming in with a great question.
• 11:42
  This book is full of best practices for how to be better at listening.
• 11:46
  The better preparation, having a progression of the
• 11:49
  questions you're going to ask.
• 11:50
  And at the end, it talks a little bit about coaching.
• 11:53
  So if I'm no longer on the front lines, if I'm a sales manager, sales coach, sales
• 11:58
  VP, other than buying everyone a copy of this book, what are some of the best ways
• 12:02
  to coach people to be better listeners?
• 12:04
  And Derek, maybe we'll start with you.
• 12:07
  Well, I think part of it is being present.
• 12:10
  Too often, sales leaders don't spend enough time with their sales
• 12:15
  producers in real conversations.
• 12:17
  So, listening to what's happening and being able to identify
• 12:20
  and then, and then coach.
• 12:21
  I think that's a big piece of it, right?
• 12:23
  Being attentive and being present.
• 12:24
  I think the second thing is understanding sales is, is not mechanical, right?
• 12:32
  It's a dynamic conversation.
• 12:33
  And so knowing how to do a sales process is important, but more importantly,
• 12:38
  I think sales leaders need to listen to what are some of the obstacles?
• 12:43
  I'm seeing patterns, how do I dial in?
• 12:45
  We actually spend the first third of the book talking about
• 12:48
  selling happens between the years before it happens between people.
• 12:52
  So, so much of the sales success is what's going on in that producer's head.
• 12:56
  Can the sales coach tap into that?
• 12:59
  Can they remove some of those barriers?
• 13:01
  Can they turn on some of the enablers that make them successful?
• 13:04
  So we've, we've tried to address a lot of that in the book.
• 13:06
  And actually at the end of every chapter of these little coaching
• 13:08
  corners; give some questions.
• 13:10
  Mike, I'm sure you probably agree, but have other thoughts?
• 13:15
  Yeah, it's interesting a lot of managers have been promoted because they're
• 13:17
  successful at sales and too often they turned it into a super rep and
• 13:21
  do it for their people instead of it.
• 13:23
  Or they tell them what to do instead of teaching them and coaching them.
• 13:27
  So there's a difference between managing, leading and coaching people.
• 13:31
  Too often they're coaching only to the skill, which is important, but they
• 13:35
  also need to coach to that mindset.
• 13:38
  You understand why that rep is working there.
• 13:40
  What do they want to make money for?
• 13:42
  What's their purpose?
• 13:43
  What's their level of belief in the product they're selling?
• 13:45
  Is there a sense of passion there?
• 13:47
  We're just trying to make a buck?
• 13:48
  What's the deal?
• 13:49
  Because that mindset customers will pick up whether they're for
• 13:53
  them, authentically, or they're just, they're selling stuff.
• 13:57
  As we wrap up here, the one last thing I want to touch on is this
• 14:00
  concept of emotional intelligence.
• 14:02
  I think that some people have more inherent, natural, emotional
• 14:05
  intelligence than others.
• 14:07
  But I think this is something that you can practice.
• 14:09
  I think this is something you can learn.
• 14:10
  I think this is something you can get better at.
• 14:12
  Derek, can you talk about the relationship between high EQ and successful salespeople
• 14:17
  and what everyone can do, no matter what natural ability they bring to the table,
• 14:21
  what they can do to improve that important element of not just being successful
• 14:26
  at selling, but successful being human.
• 14:28
  I think I have to first point towards Dr.
• 14:30
  Travis Bradbury and in his book, Emotional H abits, developing emotional
• 14:35
  intelligence habits and working on that.
• 14:37
  It's the practice of not just recognizing these are the actions that I have to
• 14:42
  take, but it's the self evaluation that comes back to it and says "okay.
• 14:46
  am I aware of what's going on?
• 14:48
  Am I willing to take critical look at my behaviors?
• 14:51
  Am I willing to ask somebody to look at what I'm doing and then give me guidance?
• 14:57
  I think truly emotionally intelligent people are willing to have someone sort
• 15:02
  of look at their swing, so to speak, and give them some counsel and some coaching.
• 15:07
  I think that's a big factor in that success.
• 15:10
  It is, absolutely.
• 15:12
  Well, guys, we're out of time for this episode.
• 15:13
  This has been fantastic.
• 15:14
  Thank you so much for being part of this.
• 15:16
  Highly encourage folks to get a copy of this book "Listen to Sell".
• 15:19
  You can pre order it now, I believe it is coming out early next week.
• 15:23
  So you order it now you'll get it in your inbox or in your mailbox early next week,
• 15:28
  Amazon, Barnes and Noble, et cetera.
• 15:30
  Want to learn more about the book www.integritysolutions.com/listen-to-sell.com.
• 15:36
  We'll put links in the show notes as well.
• 15:38
  Derek and Mike, thanks so much for being part of this today.
• 15:40
  I Really appreciate it.
• 15:41
  Thank you.
• 15:41
  We appreciate it.
• 15:43
  Thanks everyone for listening.
• 15:44
  Thanks, Nicholas, for the great questions.
• 15:45
  Masha, good to see you.
• 15:47
  Thanks for being here as well.
• 15:48
  Appreciate everyone listening, downloading, subscribing.
• 15:51
  We will see you next week on another episode of Sales Pipeline Radio.
• 15:54
  Take care.