HiQ Method

Traveling today to go work with a client in their tradeshow exhibit booth. Nothing like some face to face sales.

One thing I have learned is that no matter what you sell, and how you sell (phone or in person), sales is sales.

It's always the same fundamentals for success.

Speak less. Listen more.

Ask questions.

Solve problems.

Help people.

Assume the sale.

And make sure to follow the RETH.U process, in order:
Rapport
Empathy
Trust
Hope
Urgency

How can you apply this to what you sell?

"Are you busy or are you productive?"

That is the question to think about today (and every day).

So many times I see salespeople who want to be busy.

Maybe it’s with researching potential prospects.

Or looking through their CRM.

Or sending emails.

But are they being productive?

I once had a rep, John, who worked for me on the sales team. He was always busy. Yet he rarely hit his numbers and was constantly the focus of performance-related meetings. He was always ‘researching’, ‘make notes’ about leads, and ‘sending emails’.

But he wasn’t closing deals.

His goal was to be busy, figuring that would generate deals/commission.

Kim, on the other hand, was focused on her goal of closing deals and making money. Productivity was the name of the game for her, and she didn’t feel it was a successful day until she closed two deals.

For her it wasn’t about making 100 calls, it was about having the right conversations and moving people forward.

Productive = $$$

Busy = a form of procrastination, avoiding the important things that should be done.

On this Post-Super Bowl Monday, this week, and every week – your goal is to focus on being productive…those high income-generating tasks…not looking or acting busy.

One of the most common occurrences with salespeople is Call Reluctance.

We have all felt it, even if you aren’t in sales.

That feeling where you know you need or want to call someone, and your mind is telling you to not pick up the phone.

The reason I know we have all felt it is that at some point in our life we wanted to talk to that person we liked (maybe starting in middle school). But then our mind filled our head with thoughts of rejection and embarrassment.

Our brain’s primary focus is on survival. Not success.

It wants to avoid pain at all cost.

Making that call, and being told no, or getting yelled at or laughed at = pain.

That is where our brain does its best to scare us out of making the calls that would lead to achieving our success goals (that magical romantic relationship, that closed deal and giant commission check).

Thus the Call Reluctance!

I was speaking with a client and he told me a phrase I had never heard before…

Call Anticipation

And not a nervous, reluctant anticipation, but an excited, eager anticipation.

The kind of feeling you might have had waking up Christmas morning or your birthday as a kid (and hopefully still do 😉) – anticipation of surprises and awesomeness.

For him, when he is in the zone, he is LOOKING FORWARD to making calls. He is excited about someone answering that he could engage with and move towards being a new client. He CAN’T WAIT to dial more numbers.

What do you need to do to shift from call reluctance to CALL ANTICIPATION?

Happy Friday!

If you are in sales (and work M-F), then you know Friday's are the final day in the week to make things happen.

I have seen a lot of reps who "mail it in" on Fridays. They buy into the TGIF mentality.

If you have been pushing yourself hard all week, blew your target out of the water and crushed your week - then you deserve to take it down a notch on a Friday, regroup, reset for the next week.

No matter what - Fridays are always a great day for sales. You might have to make more calls or send more emails - because your prospects have checked out, TGIF mode themselves. So you will need to put in more effort, but when you connect with someone who is still dealing with their issue that you can solve and is interested in speaking - those are usually the easiest deals.

Go out there today and do amazing stuff!

It's never "too late" in the week to win.

If you are behind on your sales goals for the week, what more can you do the next 2 days to hit your $/ #?

What additional effort and/or focus do you want to put into it?

What will it mean if you achieve your goal?

If you are on track or have even hit your goal already, how can you continue to crush it these last 2 days, instead of lifting your foot off the gas to coast into the weekend?

Part of the reason that I created the HiQ Method is because of my own experiences in sales.

My first "real" sales job came when I was hired to work at a mortgage company in 2002.

No official training, just a phone and inbound lead sheet full of questions to ask a new lead.

It wasn't until 4 years later that I realized how much I hadn't been taught but had learned intuitively.

But that came at a cost - time, anguish, and missed opportunities.

I never play the "I wish I had known..." - you can't change the past.

But I can help others avoid the painful road I traveled on.

Happy Monday!

What are your sales goals for this week?

How will you get there? What actions are you going to take?

Might sound counter-intuitive, but always remember you cannot control your results, only your activity.

In sales, you cannot control how many people answer their phone, but you can control how many calls you make and if you will stop just because you aren't getting people to talk to, or if you will keep pushing through until there is no more people to call.

What are your intentions as 2020 is taking off?

Happy 2020! Hope this new decade is an amazing one in your life and career.

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