SELLING TOMAJORACCOUNTS
SELF-DISCIPLINEThe Key to Success
Listening to CustomersEarning the Right to Sell
MAY 13Th 2009 / ISSuE 23
NZ’s e-magazine for sales leaders
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 2
MAY 13Th / ISSuE 23
4 ThIS WEEK’S MuST READ
SELLING TO MAJOR
ACCOUNTS
Richard Gee on the art of
selling to the big players
7 SELF-DISCIPLINE
John Shackleton explains
why you can’t achieve
success without self-
discipline
9 NZSM CALENDAR
11 TWO MINuTE TOP-uP
LISTENING TO
CUSTOMERS
Some tips on how to really
listen to your customer and
earn the right to sell
13 BOOK REVIEW
THE NEW PARADIGM
FOR FINANCIAL
MARKETS: THE CREDIT
CRISIS OF 2008 AND
WHAT IT MEANS
Legendary financier
George Soros explores
the origins of the crisis
and its implications for
the future
14 SALES TRAINING
DIRECTORY
15 THE CLOSE
8
4
7
11
13
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 3
I’ve always been a firm believer that the results
we’re getting in life are a result of what we’ve learnt and
have put into action. Not getting the results you want? In my experience there are only two reasons for this…you either haven’t learnt how to achieve those results, or, you’re not doing the things you know you should be doing.
So when I was fortunate enough to attend the two-day New Zealand Sales Managers Summit in Auckland two weeks ago, I was open and ready to take away some key lessons and distinctions that could help me improve my results.
Consequently, by 10.40am on the first morning, I found my mind overflowing with ideas to help improve my career and businesses. Needless to say, after two days of learning from and mixing with some of New Zealand’s best sales and business minds, my brain was fried for the rest of the week!
Interestingly enough, when I’ve attended training or learning sessions in the past, there are always people who come away learning nothing, thinking it was all a
waste of time. “What’s going on here?” I would wonder… “I
know more about this stuff
than they do, so how come they learnt less than me?” The truth is that good learners learn lots from everything, and bad learners learn nothing from anything. No wonder training is often wasted on the ones who need it most.
Alarmingly, this inability to learn is seriously affecting our performance as a nation, with New Zealand plunging from third in the OECD for GDP per capita in the 1950’s to something like 23rd today. In other words, Kiwi’s now produce less value per hour than workers from almost any other developed nation – hardly the recipe for a strong, vibrant and financially stable country. The question is, how can we, as sales and business leaders, and managers of our workers, improve this result? What do we do when we have run out of workers, can’t work any harder, and have no money to invest in capital and infrastructure? To me there seems one obvious answer and it’s an answer that doesn’t cost anything except a change in attitude – quite simply we all need to become better learners.
And speaking of learning, hopefully you’ll have learnt by now that one lucky NZ Sales Manager subscriber per issue will win two bottles of delicious New Zealand wine, courtesy of our friends at Wineplus. Find out if you’re this week’s Wineplus Winner below!
ABOuT /
Short and sharp,
NZ Sales Manager is a free
e-magazine delivering thought
provoking and enlightening
articles, and industry news and
information to forward-thinking
sales managers, business
owners and sales professionals.
EDITOR / Richard Liew
GROuP EDITOR / Trudi Caffell
ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson
ADVERTISING & CONTENT
ENQuIRIES /
Phone Richard on
09 523 4112 or email
ADDRESS / NZ Sales Manager
C/- Espire Media,
PO Box 137162, Parnell,
Auckland 1151,
New Zealand
WEBSITE /
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
nZ sales manager is a espire media Publication
Maria O’halloran
Richard
SELLING TOMAJORACCOUNTS
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 4
While the New Zealand business environment
consists of mainly small to medium businesses,
there is an important segment out there that can
be called Major Accounts and Major Corporates.
The art of selling to them requires a different set of thinking,
if you are going to be successful.
The traditional method of selling, which is highly successful,
involves the use of communicating features and benefits
about your product or service so that the buyer understands
the benefits and will therefore invest in the price to purchase.
But when you are selling and marketing your products
and services to a major account or corporate, this sort of
approach doesn’t work and is too basic.
Instead you require an intimate understanding of the major
account/corporate’s business, and the key elements that they
are interested in, plus a good relationship with the people
who are involved in the major account.
For the major account there are three levels of purchase
decision making.
Normal repurchasing is done by the repurchasing
buyer, major management decisions are made by the
management committee, and top level decisions are made
understand My Business!By richard gee//
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 5
by the board of directors.
With these levels in mind, understanding who the
people are within the business becomes very important.
The key element is to help the person on the level you
are dealing with look good to the person they report to,
who is interested
in understanding
why the purchase
decision was made.
If you are dealing
at the repurchase
level, then you
need to make the
repurchasing buyer
look good to the
management level,
who in turn want
to look good to the
board of directors
with the efficient
way in which they
are recommending new product or service purchasing.
usually the major account/corporate will have developed
some key performance indicators that they want from
suppliers relative to their own particular interests in such
areas as profit, return on investment, revenue gains, market
share, cashflow, and
various efficiency
levels to do with cost
savings.
It is the understanding
of these within
your major account
that becomes
important. Once
you’ve understood
the measurement
performance of the
corporate, then
you can tailor your
presentation about
your new product
Make your contact look good, and your proposal is more likely to be
successful.
or service to show
how it will meet
the cost savings,
return on investment, profit, market share, revenue
gains, or particular areas of interest that major account
or corporate has.
Rather than features and
benefits, ‘understand my
business’ becomes more
important. Any proposals
that are put to major
accounts for solutions to
specific problems need to
show how you will meet
the organisation’s goals,
but most importantly
need to show how much
cooperation there has been
with various levels within
the organisation, for example with the repurchasing
buyer and with the management team, in evaluating the
problem and the solution being proposed.
Senior management
committees and
boards of directors primarily ask, “have our people
examined this, what is their recommendation, and how
well has the supplier been working in with our people?”
before making major investment commitments.
Make your contact look
good, and your proposal is
more likely to be successful.
During these presentations
and consultation, you
will very quickly learn
about the many types of
people who exist within
the organisation. These
can be broken down into
two major categories –
influencers and decision makers.
Influencers ask lots of questions, do the research, find out
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 6
This article contributed by Richard P. Gee, marketing consultant, sales trainer, interactive author.
More details can be found on his website www.geewiz.co.nz.
what is going on, and make recommendations to look
good to the decision makers they report to.
Decision makers ask fewer questions, but focus on the
organisation’s key performance indicators, and want
to make sure that any decision they make has been
thoroughly researched, and that the information that has
been gathered is accurate.
In short, the person who asks the most questions is the
influencer and the person who asks the key pertinent
questions is the decision maker. Make sure that you deal
with both, particularly in a lot of New Zealand companies
where there is a family structure or a related structure
between the people who participate in the organisation.
In the New Zealand business market of approximately
248,000 businesses, around 200,000 businesses employ
less than 10 people, 1,500 businesses employ more than
50 people, and the remaining balance employ between
10 and 50 people, giving a substantial major account
customer base of around 47,000 for your representatives
to use to upskill their selling methodology when calling
on these major accounts and corporates.
As an exercise, have a look at your top five accounts
and see how much you understand about their
business, and identify where the gaps are so that you
can make a better presentation to help them make a
decision next time.
The person who asks the most questions is the
influencer and the person who asks the key pertinent
questions is the decision maker. Make sure that you
deal with both.
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 7
SELF-DISCIPLINEthe Key to success!By John Shackleton
If there’s one thing that my coaching and my own
participation in sport has taught me, it is this: You will
never achieve any modicum of success without being
self-disciplined. It would be ridiculous to think that
you could go to the pool once and suddenly become a
world-class swimmer. The acquisition of the skills and
the development of the necessary fitness require a high
level of consistent commitment over a long period of
time. In sport, champions often start before they are 10
years old, train most days of their lives and don’t achieve
their success until they reach their twenties or thirties,
by which time they have dedicated most of their life to
the attainment of their goal.
I believe the same is true for success in any activity,
however many people in business baulk at the idea of
repeating an activity that they aren’t very good at, over and
over again in order to perfect it. I’ve heard many people say
after a couple of small failures in their job, that they don’t
have what it takes to be successful. I wish I had a dollar
for every sales person who has said to me that they don’t
like cold calling or for every manager who says they hate
presenting to large groups.
Do you think a top athlete likes getting up at 5am on a
cold winter’s morning and putting their body through a
couple of hours of painful training? Do you think they
like going to bed early most nights and having little or
no social life? Do you think they like having to regulate
what they eat and drink so as to keep their body fat
levels as low as possible? What they know is that if they
want to win then they have to be disciplined in all the
areas of their life that affect their performance.
If you want to be the top salesperson in your company,
a world-class communicator or a great manager you
will need the same levels of self-discipline. You’ll need
to have a commitment to learning the necessary skills
and an extremely high level of consistent repetition of
those skills. You will need to experience many failures
in order to get good at something and then many more
to become excellent at it. You will need to perform the
things that you feel are painful until you perfect them
and then raise the activity level so that the new task
becomes painful.
An individual who has learnt self-discipline and applies the
skills to the attainment of their business goals is the type of
person that every company is seeking to have on their staff.
Now, let’s face it, everyone knows what self-discipline
is and how it can be achieved but as usual just knowing
something doesn’t ensure we can do it. Keeping ourselves
focused and disciplined often takes massive effort but this
ability is not restricted to the talented few; anyone can
achieve these levels of discipline. Perhaps the reason we
don’t stay focused is that we don’t understand what mental
habits top sports people are constantly striving to achieve.
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 8
1. COMMITMENT
An athlete will often decide on a 3- or 4-year training plan
to achieve a relatively small increase in performance. The
key to their success is the discipline to stick to that plan.
Commitment is doing what we said we would do, when
we said we would do it, long after the mood in which we
said it has passed.
2. A ‘DO IT NOW’ MENTALITY
A sportsperson knows that they cannot make up for lost
time. If they don’t go training, compete in the race or take
the action NOW, that opportunity is lost to them forever.
3. A BELIEF IN ‘PAYING THE PRICE’
Because of their commitment to training all athletes know
that there is no such thing as something for nothing.
Anything that is worth achieving will require hard
sustained effort. Instant success with no effort is either
cheating or it does not exist.
4. CONSISTENCY
A sportsperson keeps a training diary that logs every action
they take, no matter how small, and what result that action
produced. how else can they discover which of their
actions are working and which ones are not and therefore
what to modify in the plan?
5. CONTROLLING FEAR
You will rarely hear a sportsperson say something like
“That goal is too hard” or “I’m not good enough to
achieve it”. You will usually hear “What do I need to do
in order to get to my goal?” To an athlete there can be no
such thing as failure, only learning. If they have a poor
performance or lose a race then they MuST learn from
the event or they will never correct the mistake.
6. FAITH IN THEIR COACH
Every sportsperson will decide whose comments and
advice they will be using and whose words he will
ignore. There are many people in this world who seem
to enjoy finding fault in others’ efforts and achievements.
An athlete has to develop total faith in their coach and
in the coach’s training plan. Only then will they be able
to give 100 per cent effort.
7. CONTROLLING NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
how stupid would it be to stand on the start line and be
thinking “This is going to hurt” or “I’m not going to win
this race”!
8. FOCUS
how much mental focus does an athlete need in order to
perform at their best? What happens to their performance if
they get distracted and are not concentrating?
9. DECLARING GOALS
All sportspeople have stretching, well-defined, accurate
goals that are constantly discussed and modified with
their coach.
10. SELF BELIEF
how well does an athlete perform when their self belief
is low? how hard do the athlete and their coach work
on that self belief?
AS YOU READ THE LIST BELOW, SCORE YOURSELF OUT OF 10 ON EACH OF THE ATTRIBUTES.
Now add up your score and see what figure you get out of 100. Not only will this tell you how well you’d perform as
an international athlete, it will also tell you which attributes you’ll need to work on to become indispensable to your
employers or clients.
John Shackleton is an international speaker, coach, author and performance expert.
Visit his website at www.johnshack.com for more information.
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 9
FRI 12 JuNEThu 11 JuNEWED 10 JuNETuE 9 JuNE
MON 8 JuNEThu 4 JuNEWED 3 JuNE
TuE 2 JuNEMON 1 JuNE
WED 27 MAYTuE 26 MAYMON 25 MAYFRI 22 MAY
Thu 21 MAYWED 20 MAYTuE 19 MAYMON 18 MAY
FRI 5 JuNE
SuN 7 JuNE
SAT 6 JuNE
SuN 31 MAY
SAT 30 MAYFRI 29 MAYThu 28 MAY
SuN 24 MAY
SAT 23 MAY
SuN 17 MAY
SAT 16 MAY
FRI 15 MAYWED 13 MAY Thu 14 MAY
SuN 14 JuNE
SAT 13 JuNE
NZSMCALENDAR
Managing Difficult CustomersZealmarkAuckland
RSN Seminar # 3Rev Sales NetworkAuckland
Key Account ManagementDavid FormanWellington
Advanced Sales DevelopmentDavid FormanAuckland
Key Account ManagementDavid FormanWellingtonAdvanced Sales DevelopmentDavid FormanAucklandCustomer ServiceZealmarkAucklandColdcalling WorkshopTop Achievers Sales TrainingAuckland
Sales Skills Level 3EMA NorthernAucklandProspecting David FormanWellingtonAdvanced Serious SellingGeewizChristchurch
Sales Skills 1ZealmarkAucklandSales Basics SeminarGeewizChristchurchhit The Road Running Sales SeminarTop Achievers Sales TrainingAuckland
Professional Sales CoachingAchieveGlobalAucklandSales ManagementDavid FormanChristchurchSales DevelopmentDavid FormanAucklandLeadership With ResultsGeewizAuckland
Professional Sales CoachingAchieveGlobalAuckland
Sales ManagementDavid FormanChristchurchSales DevelopmentDavid FormanAucklandSales ManagementDavid FormanAuckland (25-28 May)
Sales ManagementDavid FormanChristchurchSales DevelopmentDavid FormanAucklandPresentation SkillsDavid FormanAuckland (26-28 May)
Sales ManagementDavid FormanChristchurchSales DevelopmentDavid FormanAucklandAdvanced Serious SellingGeewizAuckland
Professional Selling Skills CoreAchieveGlobalAuckland
Advanced Serious SellingGeewizWellington
Professional Selling Skills CoreAchieveGlobalAucklandKey Account ManagementDavid FormanChristchurchhit The Road Running Sales SeminarTop Achievers Sales Traininghamilton
Professional Selling Skills CoreAchieveGlobalAuckland
Key Account ManagementDavid FormanChristchurch
Sales PlanningDavid FormanAucklandNegotiationDavid FormanChristchurch (18-20 May)Sales Skills Level 3EMA Northernhamilton
Sales PlanningDavid FormanAucklandSales BasicsGeewizAucklandCold Calling & ProspectingTop Achievers Sales TrainingAuckland
Exceeding customerExpectationsGeewizAucklandWorkplace Coaching &MentoringZealmark GroupAucklandSales Skills Level 2EMA NorthernAuckland
Territory ManagementGeewizAucklandhit The Road Running SalesSeminarTop Achievers Sales TrainingWellingtonTelephone SalesZealmark GroupAuckland
Prospecting & NewBusiness DevelopmentDavid FormanAuckland
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 10
Toyota found a way of cost-cutting without compromising operational excellence. Since 1954 Toyota has been
committed to ‘continuous improvement in small steps’ - the KAIZEN (lean) way. Would you like to escape the
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Inspired by this success we have carefully adapted Toyota’s winning lean formula for SME’s! It’s called EZI-KAIZEN which we’re showcasing in a new, 40-minute presentation for you and your key
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This original presentation is for SME’s with 5 - 100 employees. It’s straight- forward, practical and illustrated. It details
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Can your business
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NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 11
Don’t get caught not listening to your potential
customer. This is critical to your sales
success.
PARAPhRASE YOuR CuSTOMER’S WORDS
The customer is only sure that you have been listening
when you paraphrase what they have said and feed
it back in your own words. This is where the rubber
meets the road in effective listening. This is where you
demonstrate in no uncertain terms to the prospect that
your listening has been real and sincere. This is where
you show the prospect that you were paying complete
attention to what he or she was saying. Paraphrasing is
how you prove it.
Listening to Customersearning the right to sellBy Brian tracy
QuESTION FOR CLARIFICATION
When the prospect has finished explaining his or
her situation to you, and you have paused, and then
questioned for clarification, you paraphrase the prospect’s
primary thoughts and concerns, and feed them back to him
or her in your own words.
uSE ThE RIGhT WORDS
For example, you might say, “Let me make sure I
understand exactly what you are saying. It sounds to
me like you are concerned about two things more than
anything else, and that in the past you have had a couple
of experiences that have made you very careful in
approaching a decision of this kind.”
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 12
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leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy.
FEED IT BACK ACCuRATELY
You then go on to feed back to the prospect exactly
what he or she has told you, pausing and questioning for
clarification as you go, until the customer says words to the
effect of, “Yes, that’s it! You’ve got it exactly.”
EARN ThE RIGhT TO SELL
Only when you and the customer have completed a
thorough ‘examination’ and have mutually agreed on the
‘diagnosis’ are you in a position to begin talking to the
customer about your product or service.
In general terms, this means that you can’t pull out your
brochures and price lists and begin telling the customer
how your product or service can solve their problems or
achieve their goals until about seventy percent of the way
through the sales conversation.
until then, you have not yet earned the right. until then,
you don’t even know enough to begin an intelligent
presentation without embarrassing yourself.
BE A GOOD LISTENER
The more skilled you become at listening, the better people
will like you, trust you and want to do business with you. The
more they will want to get involved with you as a person and
the more popular you will be with them. Excellent listeners
are welcome everywhere, in every walk of life, and they
eventually and ultimately arrive at the top of their fields.
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 13
B O O K R E V I E W
In the midst of the most serious financial upheaval
since the Great Depression, legendary financier
George Soros explores the origins of the crisis and
its implications for the future.
Soros, whose breadth of experience in financial
markets is unrivalled, places the current crisis in
the context of decades of study on how individuals
and institutions handle the boom and bust cycles
that now dominate global economic activity.
“This is the worst financial crisis since the 1930s,”
writes Soros in characterising the scale of financial
distress spreading across Wall Street and other
financial centres around the world.
In a concise work that combines practical insight
with philosophical depth, Soros makes an
invaluable contribution to our understanding of
the great credit crisis and its implications for the
uS and the world.
the new Paradigm for Financial markets: the Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it meansBy George SorosScribe Publications
$27.43 from Fishpond.co.nz
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 14
NZSM / MAY 13Th 2009 / 16
“HelIt is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.
Sir Edmund Hillary
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IN ThE NExT ISSuE OF NZ SALES MANAGER…
Why do PeoPLe say yes? the 6 PrinCiPLes oF inFLuenCe
reWriting the diCtionary - Why is “seLLing” stiLL a dirty Word?
saLes ForeCasting Part one: Where to start?
PLus: WiLL you Be the next nZ saLes manager WinePLus Winner?
Find out in the next issue of NZ Sales Manager - Wednesday 3 June 2009!