Episode 116-Five tips that have the client saying yes to you!

Simplify Your Sales meetings. Lisa Thal is an Author, Speaker, and Business Coach. She wrote the book "Three Word Meetings."  Lisa coaches leaders on simplifying sales and business meetings with fun and interesting 3-word  topics to get your sales team motivated and inspired.  She has over 34 years of marketing, sales, and leadership experience.

 

Episode 116, Five tips that have the client saying yes to you!

 

This past weekend I played in our Country Clubs - Club Championship. This event is towards the end of the season to see which Male and Female member is the best. 

You play over two days, and the player with the lowest score wins. Sounds easy, right? I was competing against Marianne, a former University of Cincinnati College golfer about 20 years younger. Yes, I am a member of AARP! Ha! 

 

I love competing! Your energy is high, a bit nervous, or, as I call it, excited to play. I understood that I would need to play 36 perfect holes to have a chance to beat her. So after my first nine holes, she had a lead of nine strokes - not my best performance. She was playing lights out!

 

I knew I needed to turn things around for the next nine to compete, and I did. I was one-under-par coming into the 18th hole. Playing the best nine holes, only to triple-bogey the last hole. For those of you that don't play golf, that's not good. Day two begins, and I am only off six strokes behind, so I am still in it. We both start birding the first hole, and then we approach par 3; I hit my ball in the water, chunk the chip, and give her four more strokes. But I keep telling myself to keep competing until we play all 18. By the way, she is having the round of the summer, as she shared with me. So what do I do? I keep focused on what I can control, which is my next shot. She ends up shooting a 74, her best round of the year and wins the Club Championship.  

 

But what I learned more than anything is that I enjoy competing at a higher level. Why? Because when you compete against the best, you get better! In the end, you're competing against your personal best! You learn and grow from every situation you put yourself in. 

 

You may have heard the phrase, "Golf is a game of inches." Just like the Club Championship, only one person is holding the trophy. In business, one person wins over their competitors. The value you create and deliver is how you will be measured. The salesperson and sales organization who can solve the client's problem wins the business! If you can solve the problem before it's a problem, that is even better.  

 

Think about this. Right now, your competitors are calling on your clients. Some of these competitors pose a threat to the future of your relationship and income. Your competition intends to take the business for themselves and their company. Sometimes they achieve their goal, and you lose business. Do you know how I know this is true? Because you are calling on companies that belong to your competition. 

 

The question is, When and how do you Compete to win? I read an interesting sales blog from Anthony Iannarino.

 

The first question you need to ask yourself is, are you committed? What I mean by that is that you are all in!

 

• Commit to being all In: Are you playing it safe, playing small, or are you all in to win? Become someone worth buying and doing business with! Here is when you know you're all in. You do what needs to get done when no one is watching! To win in sales, you have to believe you are competing. It isn't enough to show up. 

 

• Focus on Creating Greater Value: There is no reason to focus on your competitor. You cannot do anything about them or their approach, even if they always win by lowering their price. The way that you compete for a client's business is, in large part is creating more significant value than your competitor. You win by being more valuable to your client than your competitor. 

 

• Create a Preference to Work With You: We need to spend more time on this concept to win the business. Clients decide that they want to work with someone more than they want to work with someone else. When you lose, they decided they want to work with your competitor. Your approach to selling is a difference-maker. So what it's like to work with you. Would you do business with you? Your business acumen and situational knowledge also help position you as the right partner, as your competency creates trust. 

 

• Make Every Interaction Count: If you believe you are making another sale call, you are not playing the Game as well as you could. When you think you are engaged in the sale, a situation where you win or lose, you treat each interaction as if it is critical to the outcome—because it is critical.

 

• Leverage Every Resource Available: Engage with the people on your team who might help you win a deal. If you can, bring your leadership into the process, do it. If you can do things like visiting their site and meeting with their teams to understand their world better, you do it. If you can invite them to your location for a brainstorming meeting to share ideas, make it worth their while to join you. Use every resource available to you to win.

 

Sales is a competition, and you are a competitor.

 

Competing is a game, and there's a big difference between Playing the Game and Winning the Game. 

 

It's not simply about wanting to win; it's about your commitment, conviction, and confidence in yourself to be successful.

 

So back to the original question: When should you Compete? The answer is Every Day!

 

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Learn more about how to Simply Your sales meetings using 3-word topics at http://www.threewordmeetings.com .