Introduction
One of the most crucial steps in transforming a sales team from expected to extraordinary is to break through the Brand Excuse.

The Brand Excuse
The Brand Excuse works the following way: You have branded product/service and hire a sales team. The average salesperson goes out, dutifully presents your brochure, an exhaustive list of features your product/service will provide to the prospect and expects to close a sale.

More often than not the prospect will have a few questions and ask for a cheaper price, telling the salesperson the old story about how the competitors can provide a similar product/service for less…

The salesperson has just created a situation wherein:

a) The brand is suspected of not being strong enough to sell the product
b) The pricing of the brand is suspected of being ‘unreasonably’ high
c) The only viable strategy is to start offering the product at a ‘competitive’ price, thus starting a profit eroding race to the bottom with the competition based on the cheapest price
d) The sales management is being suspected of being out of touch with current ‘market realities’, hence the unrealistically high pricing

Who Is Selling? The Brand or You?
The first pivotal step we take in creating cutting edge sales team is to create a clear differentiation between the individual salesperson and the brand.

Being invited to represent and sell a recognized brand is a privilege!

The company has invested money, time and resources to create a specific brand promise, an image that will help the individual salesperson to establish credibility. The salesperson has the privilege of going into a market armed with a brand that will allow him to present himself as someone representing a large professional organization able to supply an excellent product/service.

The act of selling is the whole responsibility of the salesperson!

Breaking Through Responsibility Deflection Factors
It is not unusual for salespeople to exhibit symptoms of the ‘infallibility syndrome’: they assess themselves as excellent salespeople, their presentation is convincing and really gets the prospect rolling (aka: the salesperson is infallible)…. In their assessment the main source for their inability to close at a higher rate is mainly to be found with the company they represent, such Responsibility Deflection Factors as:

1. Incorrect pricing
2. The product/service itself
3. The management
4. The company’s strategy, systems, etc

To break through these Responsibility Deflection Factors sales teams are taken through a powerful set of de-brief sessions which allow them to clearly assess their real current sales ability.

Creating Outstanding Sales Results: An Excellent Salesperson Sells An Excellent Brand
Having assessed their real current sales ability without the support of the brand each salesperson will now establish a personal sales growth plan, allowing them to learn the specific skills that will propel each one of them to become outstanding salespeople.

This will allow your company to unleash the full sales potential of your team:

A team of excellent salespeople representing an excellent brand who create geometric sales growth!

Objective Truth TM can only be created by the use of specific, neutral language patterns. A classic example for this is:

Am I right? vs Is IT true?

Many people have gotten used to an insidious language pattern that goes like this:

“So, if you would have called the client 30 minutes before the meeting we would have found out that they needed 20 more units of our widgets… am I right?”

Am I right is mostly used in situations where we have a powerful opinion and want to express the truth of this opinion… and we want to create buy-in!

What we have achieved is the polar opposite.

For me to be right someone else must be wrong… maybe you!

By proving to you that I am right and you are wrong I have created instant resistance to my plans. Consciously or unconsciously your ego will have a moment of: “Gosh… I look like a fool now, he IS right and I wish he’d not put me on a spot like that!… Now I will HAVE to do what he says…”

Create Buy-In Is IT true?

Replace “am I right?” by “is IT true” and observe the magic difference you have created: “IT” is a neutral word, this neutral word allows your conversation partner to agree that, indeed, IT is true that such and such would work better. You have just submitted a powerful new idea to another person without forcing them to admit that YOU are right.

Anything else? vs What else? 1 Question To Boost Your Productivity

A classic idea- and feedback-killer in any meeting is the “anything else” question. Many a meeting has died a silent death, never reaching it’s full potential because a participant asked this question looking to elicit more information, new ideas or crucial feedback from the people present.

Would you like a chocolate?

Lets test the power of anything against what with a simple example:

You are a dinner guest at my house. We have enjoyed a great dinner and it is time for desserts. I have a special treat for you and all fellow guests: handmade Belgian chocolate fresh from Brussels! I go from guest to guest with an assortment of gorgeous confectionery and each guest chooses a chocolate.

After 15 minutes I come back with the tray loaded with a few more of the precious delicacies… I approach you and ask “Any more chocolate?”

or

After 15 minutes I come back with the tray loaded with a few more of the precious delicacies… I approach you and ask “What other chocolate would you like?”

Which of both questions will get you to refrain from choosing a chocolate and which question will guide you to take another chocolate?

The answer is quite simple: ‘any’ is a closing question that expects a negative answer… ‘what’ is a specific question that directs you to take a specific positive action: in this case choose another chocolate.

The same applies for meetings at your company: if you are looking to elicit the full power of your team’s know how always ask “what else do we need to do…?”, “what other ideas do we have so we can crack into account X…?”, and watch the really fruitful ideas tumble right into your lap!

Using ‘what’ increases the average results in brainstorms, problem solving and fact finding sessions by an average of 50%!

For more powerful transformational language patterns to boost your productivity just get in touch with us….