How to Eliminate Passivity from Your Professional Selling

By Larry Happiday

In the article entitled: How to be sales Hero, I argued that passivity is a sine qua non for failure in salesmanship. Today, I want to contrast the heroism of the actor-salesmen with his opposite twin: the spectator-salesman, a docile bystander, who wants the world to stand still and wait for it to discover his brilliance. Perhaps in this mirror contrast, we would be able to show the habits and character traits that must be avoided like the plague.

A word of caution from the start: professional sales docility has nothing to do with introversion. As the expression is used here, it only refers a tendency towards dithering and postponing of action as a result of fear. It comes with the realisation that fear is the bedrock of the professional's actions and responses to situations. Fear of failure, fear of mockery, fear of error. It is the emotional baggage that delays actions until too late or too little. The best way to see this is to say that it is ruled by the operative principle: CAUTION. The result that though the actions may be right in the long run, they come too late to make any impact on the bottom line.

The followings are the key elements of the passive-salesman that should be avoided:

• · Fear of rejection. Experienced salesmen know that there are no sales without objection, resistance or rejection. In fact, experience shows that sales objection is an integral part of any successful sale. Learn to discover the source of your fear and deal with it. Left unattended to, fear is a crippler of initiative and the tomb of good ideas.
• · The second thing that leads to passivity in professional sales life is lack of planning. Nothing inspires and gives confidence like knowing that you have made enough preparation for a sales encounter. The passive sales person either relies on his gift of the garb or eloquence but the actor-sales man sees every sales effort as a battle that has to be won. He works hard to ensure that he wins by seeking information rather than knowledge.
• · That brings us to the third step. the passive sales representative seeks knowledge. He wants to be seen as the guy who predicted right (often negative prediction of doom).So, when he reads, he does so with an eye on the thousands of reasons why the sale effort would not work. A sport writer once said that in Nigeria, there are 140million coaches. He meant that it is easier for the spectators to speculate about who and what should have been done to win matches than to go into the field to play. The passive sales man belongs rightly to the spectator side of the game.
• · The result of being a spectator is that this kind often loses the opportunity to make it big. The dictum: NO VENTURE NO SUCCESS aptly captures the lot of this type of sales person. They see chance, luck or mere coincidence in any achievement recorded by the actor-sales man.
• · Another feature of this type is that they are always cynical. Being cynics, they shun news and innovation rather they seek solace in history (again of failures). Hence, they often behind the times in terms of changes in government policies, trends and business directions. A writer said of them that they prefer to be on the side of antiquity.

·

· WHAT TO DO

· If the above characterization fits you, you need to take change. The three best cures for fear is: [1] take action, [1]take action and [3] take action

· On the problem of pessimistic view of things, the sales man needs to address his self hatred. Usually, the view arises from a condition of not liking one's self enough to trust one's to make the right decision. He may have lived all his life being told how the world is a hopeless place. To change the view, he needs to begin by seeking information about himself and about his area of business. He needs to start asking questions and reading literature that help build up his sense of self worth. That way he would not be guided by jealousy but would applaud when someone else gets it right.

· Consistently done, he himself would become a sales hero admired by the boss and fear by the laggard sales colleagues who refuse to change.

How to Eliminate Passivity from your Selling

By Larry Happiday

In the article entitled: How to be a sales Hero on eHow.com, I argued that passivity is a sine qua non for failure in salesmanship. Today, I want to contrast the heroism of the actor-salesmen with his opposite twin: the spectator-salesman, a docile bystander, who wants the world to stand still and wait for it to discover his brilliance. Perhaps in this mirror contrast, we would be able to show the habits and character traits that must be avoided like the plague.
A word of caution from the start: professional sales docility has nothing to do with introversion. As the expression is used her, it only refers a tendency towards dithering and postponing of action as a result of fear. It comes with the realisation that fear is the bedrock of the professional's actions and responses to situations. Fear of failure, fear of mockery, fear of error. It is the emotional baggage that delays actions until too late or too little. The best way to see this is to say that it is ruled by the operative principle: CAUTION. The result that though the actions may be right in the long run, they come too late to make any impact on the bottom line.
The followings are the key elements of the passive-salesman that should be avoided:
• Fear of rejection. Experienced salesmen know that there are no sales without objection, resistance or rejection. In fact, experience shows that sales objection is an integral part of any successful sale. Learn to discover the source of your fear and deal with it. Left unattended to, fear is a crippler of initiative and the tomb of good ideas.
• The second thing that leads to passivity in professional sales life is lack of planning. Nothing inspires and gives confidence like knowing that you have made enough preparation for a sales encounter. The passive sales person either relies on his gift of the garb or eloquence but the actor-sales man sees every sales effort as a battle that has to be won. He works hard to ensure that he wins by seeking information rather than knowledge.
• That brings us to the third step. the passive sales representative seeks knowledge. He wants to be seen as the guy who predicted right (often negative prediction of doom).So, when he reads, he does so with an eye on the thousands of reasons why the sale effort would not work. A sport writer once said that in Nigeria, there are 140million coaches. He meant that it is easier for the spectators to speculate about who and what should have been done to win matches than to go into the field to play. The passive sales man belongs rightly to the spectator side of the game.
• The result of being a spectator is that this kind often loses the opportunity to make it big. He abhors risk-taking and ends up being a mediocre. The dictum: NO VENTURE NO SUCCESS aptly captures the lot of this type of sales person. They see chance, luck or mere coincidence in any achievement recorded by the actor-sales man.
• Another feature of this type is that they are always cynical. Being cynics, they shun news and innovation rather they seek solace in history (again of failures). Hence, they often behind the times in terms of changes in government policies, trends and business directions. A writer said of them that they prefer to be on the side of antiquity.
•
• WHAT TO DO
• If the above characterization fits you, you need to change urgently. The three best cures for fear is: [1] take action, [2]take action and [3] take action
• On the problem of pessimistic view of things, the sales man needs to address his self hatred. Usually, the view arises from a condition of not liking one's self enough to trust one's self to make the right decision. He may have lived all his life being told how the world is a hopeless place. To change the view, he needs to begin by seeking information about himself and about his area of business. Information gives confidence. He needs to start asking questions and reading literature that help build up his sense of self worth. That way he would not be guided by jealousy but would applaud when someone else gets it right.
• Consistently done, he himself would become a sales hero admired by the boss and feared by the laggard sales colleagues who refuse to change.

CUSTOMER RESISTANCE INDEX II

By Larry Happiday
Does the need exist? Is the salesman shooting in the dark? Are customers just plain difficult people? Should customers not make this work easier? Unfortunately, customers have a business they are running and are constantly looking for ways to perform better. That should be your guide when you are trying to deal with customer objection. They are duty bound to verify that the solutions you are offering provide the best answer to their expectations. The salesman therefore is the one to make the job easier for the customer. Does not make the Mr. Atlas, but just makes it easier in the long run for the salesman to make more repeat sales, once confidence has been established.

SALES OBJECTION RESOLUTION
So, the resolution of sales objection is tied closely to the apron-springs of a well organized problem identification process. We can liken this process to a clinical examination of a patient. Assume that the sales objection being experienced is a headache. A doctor knows that there are several possible causes of headache. He would therefore embark on a clinical examination which involves oral interviews. In the process, he is able to locate cause-suspects. In the same manner, the experienced salesman knows that a customers’ objection may have multiple causes. The resolution process is designed to locate the TRUE cause of objection. Remember the reason for objection varies from one client to the other.

HANDLING SALES RESISTANCE
• I have a grievance: A customer may have a legitimate grievance that needs to e sorted out first. So, sort it out. Such grievance may be related to after sales disappointments, failure to fulfill previous promises or any other legitimate complaint. Sales situation is life situation and customers buy from people they can rely on. The more the customer sees your disposition as friendly not exploitative, the better for future business.
How to Identify this Problem?
1. customer is personalizing his attack
2. he feels acts violently and in a threatening manner
3. may not want to talk to you
4. may be crossed with the secretary for allowing you in
(EXERCISE: See if you can identify which behaviour in Part I of this article fits here)

• Price: Price objections are often centered on comparison to other products. But as we noted in Part I, the TRUE CONCERN may be different. A good salesman is not intimidated by price because pricing is related to quality. Another company may have a cheaper variant but the salesman needs to be certain about the products differentiation in order to convince on the claim of superiority.

• No need: Clearly, where the company does not run or operate with the product offered, it is a waste of time to continue to press. Close the the encounter in a friendly and easily recall-able manner as an entree for future sales effort. But do not repeat such mistake; otherwise, you may go down as a fool who does not deserve the attention of a busy executive. Do your home work well before the pitch.

• Fear of commitment: Apart from pricing, this is one of the least understood problems with selling. Every manager has responsibility to his employer. His duty is therefore to buy products or services that help to reduce costs. Clearly, buying products that are not required is a waste of scarce resources. But apart from wastage, the customer has a reputation to maintain. When he buys under pressure, he may discover that he has made any of the following mistakes:
• high price or
• salesman has taken advantage of his lack of adequate information to sell what he does not need
• he can not eventually explain the features and usability of the product to subordinates and colleagues
These and many others may explain why they often prefer to delay action as long as possible rather than make costly mistakes.