Executive Level Selling

Patricia Wentworth was an early 20th Century crime novelist, often compared with Agatha Christie who said this over half a century before the advent of the mobile phone and social media.

‘Too much information can be as disconcerting as too little’

It’s affecting our attitudes to business, client relationships and the activity and execution of our skills required to win deals.

Neanderthals are everywhere – sometimes in politics, often leading companies, on the sales floor, and thankfully, they’re now being carted off to court for harassment, abuse and assault.

Two decades ago, when #metoo was just a five year old screaming he wanted an ice cream, I reported a man of power who was clearly and horribly harassing women.

I was told to back off, of course, offered money, presumably to be quiet and told my career would be affected.

My career was affected. I left. But not until I created a shit –storm, and more importantly he had to go and he lost his status in the industry.

The right thing was done. The women involved moved on and I moved on, successfully and that is the key point here.

Do we move on as easily as we should or do we agonise, click on more bad news and cause ourselves harm?

Retail has lost Bardot, JeansWest, Harris Scarfe, Bose, McWilliams Wines and the list goes on.

Whilst there are many factors, including cost management and rents, I’ve always maintained that poor sales acumen and insufficient differentiation are key reasons.

In the corporate world, there are also still far too many companies that look at me like I’m an alien when I confront them with the question ‘Park your passion, why are you clearly and unequivocally different in the eyes of the client?’

Yet, there will be more companies and retailers who will not move on, or listen to the client and change rapidly. They’ll be tomorrow’s headlines and the holiday house suppliers to partners in insolvency firms.

Then, someone ate a bat apparently.

The coronavirus is creating havoc in business including my schedule, but it will pass. Orders may be delayed. Cash flow may be hit in the short term but China will recover and it will not be cut off from the world forever in a dungeon.

There are still clients to see and deals to be done. The wheels will turn.

Unless those wheels belong to a Holden who is bidding us farewell after 160 years.

Why? We didn’t buy what they were selling any more. There’s that pesky sales story again with the words ‘Liiiissttten, Liiisten’ being whispered into the universe like a ghost with laryngitis.

There are plenty of reasons to stay in bed, sit behind your screen and avoid activity. Just scroll down on your phone and you’ll find more stuff to put you in a bad or anxious mood.

There are plenty of reasons why you should just avoid the hard discussion on Differentiation, but none of them will ultimately work.

There are plenty of reasons to get out there, make the calls, listen to the client and differentiate yourself and not get hung up either on the result or the noise that surrounds you.

Please. Move On. It’s so much more fun.

(This article was written in a Holden Caprice – I bought one)

(With apologies to ‘Football, Meat Pies, Kangaroos and Holden Cars’)

Join me in my annual Ultimate Sales Influence Program, May 13 in Melbourne

Click here: https://www.salientcommunication.com.au/ultimate-sales-influence-may-13-2020

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.

September 12 is R U OK Day where we’re all encouraged to observe, listen and help people who might be struggling with life.

The very nature of Sales is filled with roller-coaster results, anxiety around performance, stress and uncertainty.

I preface the following thoughts with the disclosure that the closest I’ve ever come to being a medical professional is visiting a podiatrist once and buying a large pack of Band-Aids from the supermarket.

However, I have coached over 5,000 sales people in my time and there are some key ideas worth sharing so we can all look after each other a little better.

1. You are not your number. Whether you had a great year or a disappointing one, you are a wife, husband, brother, colleague, parent and probably a half decent person on days ending in a Y. Don’t let the target define who you are, either way. You’re not superior because you hit 100%, nor are you a lesser individual if you didn’t.

2. Be wary of seeking validation from clients. Many clients are great people and some are arseholes you never want to see again. Either way, they are most often not your best buddies despite the rapport you might’ve built. They have their own agendas – job security, ambition, bonuses and status to name a few. None of this is about you. Seeking validation from clients for you as a person may lead you to a huge rollercoaster of highs and lows depending on their moods, prejudices and biases.

3. Your company is not your Mum or Dad. Many companies invest positively and heavily in their people, which is great. They may pay well or provide great opportunities, but please don’t mistake this for love. One new CEO, merger or restructure can flip everything on its head. There is a trend towards selling the company as a ‘family’ or even purporting to love its people, which sounds more like a cult, because it’s simply not true. Good companies deserve our utmost respect and commitment. But be careful to not over-invest or confer your love on them – that’s reserved for your family, friends and dog.

4. The 110% Expectation Factor. Read emails at midnight, skip breakfast and the gym, miss your kid’s school play, jump on a plane to Singapore, go straight to a meeting, fly straight back, go to another three meetings, re-write the corporate presentation on the plane, and then run a national sales training program for 120 people before going home to crash three months later. Is that really the expectation, the balance and the life you want? Nobody has their title on their gravestone. Besides you can outsource the sales training to me. (see Cheap Plug).

5. Sales is a Win/Loss business and always will be. We can still improve without being ridiculously self-critical and we can all continue to grow without falling victim to hubris.

Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem ‘If’ includes:

‘If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same

…Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.’

Sales is a wonderful profession with many great rewards, but I’m just asking:

R U OK?

Please share this article.

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.

He is OK. Thanks for asking.

The two blondy tumbleweeds of weird hair, Pres. Donald J Trump and newly installed UK PM Boris Johnson are renowned for mistruths, dubious facts and that other thing – downright lying.

There are enough fact checkers out there to highlight this. They’re also the same people who tell you that you have a big zit on your chin, spinach in your teeth and bad breath.

Despite the facts, many people vote for the dynamic duo of FibMan and RobYou (of the truth)

If we supposedly abhor being lied to, why do these fine exponents of the fib seem to thrive and what does it mean for our client engagements?

One of the key psychological paradoxes of buyer behaviour is that beneath the risk aversion, the analysis and the caution, we desperately want to Believe.

Buyers are keen on acquiring that new piece of shiny software, new equipment, new handbag or new car because it’s attractive to them and they project all manner of wonders will occur if they have it.

It’s a form of sexual attraction and don’t tell me you haven’t forgiven a few fibs because s/he was hot, at some point in your life.

Executive level selling is obviously different because there is a contract filled with deliverables BUT…your clients want to believe too.

There is never a place for lying in professional selling. Period.

Aside from the integrity issue, the sales profession has spent years shaking off snake oil, vaporware behaviour in order to create trusted advisors. As it should. And there is more work to do.

However, do we douse the buyer’s passion with unnecessary, anxiety laden comments which destroy the inner tingle of excitement they feel about your shiny, new widget?

Comments like:

‘Look, we can’t guarantee that in 6 months’ time the figures will be exactly the same, because it depends on usage blah, blah, blah. (Client thinks: Does your solution deliver results or not?)

‘We sort of do it, in a different way, and we may have an update due in September next year, especially if we partner with a US company that seems to do a lot of this. (Client thinks: So you don’t do it then)

‘We could potentially meet that timeframe if we subcontracted a part of it to supplement our existing staff’ (Client hears: “Whoosh – the sound of a deadline whizzing by at the speed of light)

The client wants more definitive answers – remember, they want to believe in you.

So, if your widget literally can’t handle A3 or the software isn’t compatible with their CRM, tell the truth, don’t skirt around it or fib – just say ‘No, it doesn’t’ and explore how important that feature set is.

Equally, just say yes to the things that you can do, even if it requires a bit of a re-jig of how you would normally do it. Clients don’t want to know all your backroom dramas.

They just want a result and something that works and they want to believe you can do it.

So, there’s no need to go to the fancy dress shop, buy blonde wigs and start stretching the truth.

You could however get a Pirates of the Caribbean outfit and in your best Jack Sparrow voice shout:

‘The problem is not the problem, the problem is your attitude to the problem’

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.

Millions have been watching a reality show sweeping the nation involving people openly displaying their weird and wonderful behaviour. It’s called the Sales | Client hook-up.

They are supposed to meet very briefly to determine if they are a match for each other and the anxiety is palpable, giving way to a string of insecure behaviours.

Some sales people come on too strong, lack empathy and basically won’t shut up due to their fear of rejection.

Some clients, having experienced some previous relationships that were absolute shockers, are deeply worried that this new, seemingly attractive mate might turn out to be just another crap artist.

The sales person is equally concerned that the Client, weighed down by emotional baggage, will either not move from their past love or will prove to be unfaithful.

They’re also worried that they will only be used for sex, to make the Client’s current lover jealous and pay more attention to them with no real hope of them ever leaving.

Clients use words like Partnership, Reliability and Tender, but sales people often feel there’s nothing tender in their liaisons at all. In fact, it often feels brutal.

So these two people, thrown together by chance or a LinkedIn connection, try desperately to join as one, seeking harmony, togetherness and a three year contract.

Inevitably, breakdowns occur very quickly. Sales discover Clients have been in the spa with multiple would-be suitors and feel aggrieved. Clients feel that Sales don’t really ‘get what turns me on’ and are very easily irritated by the smallest of faux pas.

Are they always made for each other? Often not.

Do they yearn though, for a connection deeper than that of an upper lip and Botox?

Absolutely.

Stay tuned for the next episode when I share the loving story of the Errals, one of the happy couples who have just given birth to their first child: Riff Erral.

He’s such an easy child.

Last few places available in my Ultimate Sales Influence Program, May 21.

Click here: https://www.salientcommunication.com.au/event/ultimate-sales-influence-with-elliot-epstein/

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.

This sales business is filled with data so high and cluttered, Marie Kondo (of Tidying Up fame) would not only be unable to spark joy, she would lose the will to live.

Data sheets. PDF brochures, forecast sheets, spec sheets, CRM systems, blue, green and other pretty coloured account planning sheets, internal negotiation planners, sales planners, territory maps, prospect lists, LinkedIn connection lists, email lists, call planners, proposal templates, tender response templates….are you still breathing?

Something, or actually, someone gets lost in all of this. The living, breathing, flawed human being who ultimately makes the decision on buying your pride and joy or not.

Sure, many of those ‘sheets’ are supposed to inexorably lead you to convince your client with a magical fireworks display of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) , Return on Investment (ROI) , and Cost/Benefit analysis.

Well, they do and they don’t.

They provide a good case to be considered.

They don’t really focus on the individual.

Here are some examples of the flawed individuals who say yes or no.

The incompetent, over budget manager trying to look vaguely competent to his peers because this is his third job in three years and he’s just had twins.

The technocrat who has the commercial business acumen of a first year pre-school teacher.

The procurement genius negotiator on the autism spectrum.

The power junkie with more political nous than a posse of Canberra journalists.

The little boy who wasn’t reprimanded for lying when he was little, which he then continued into his corporate career.

The female executive who learned to survive and thrive despite misogyny in her industry.

The frightened, meek, risk averse and fearful middle manager who’s just watched 30 of his colleagues hand in their security passes on the way to spend more time with their families.

I don’t often see this information when coaching sales strategies, sales planners, pitch presentations amidst all the myriad data sheets

Sometimes the person you need to address is staring right in front of you …and you’re blocked from seeing them by the blinding blizzard of data.

They are flawed, like us, but interesting, and if you help them achieve their purpose, achieving yours will simply be a formality.

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.

There is a scary dystopian world being conjured by those that see Sales as some sort of reactionary movement, apparently hell-bent on creating destruction and chaos throughout the land.

We need to reclaim ‘Sales’ as an honourable, beneficial and indeed, critical set of skills for success in business.

The dystopians and ‘self haters’ some of whom actually call themselves business coaches, want to obliterate the word ‘sales’ to be replaced with ‘buyer enablement’ or ‘relationship management’ or some other Orwellian euphemism.

It’s important to distinguish between ‘Old School Selling’ filled with self-interest and talking too much and ‘Professional Selling’ with its inherent skills of listening and advising, but let’s not dismiss that this is unashamedly about influence.

Old School Selling has been on the front pages primarily via the Banking Royal Commission (BRC), the thousands of pages of which can be summed up as:

BRC: So, are you aware that you put your own personal and business interests ahead of clients in unconscionable ways?

Banks: ‘Well, now that you mention it, we didn’t’ realise that the legitimate goal of maximising shareholder returns also had to be done ethically, morally and legally’.

I, for one, am certainly happy to donate to the ‘Build a Prison Fund’ for some of these dastardly acts.

But, let’s not confuse headline grabbing, abominable behaviour with the vast majority of people in the world of professional selling. The Sales Directors, Business Development Managers, Pre-Sales Consultants, Sales Managers who get up every day to do the right thing by their clients and their company.

How do I know?

This is my 20th year of consulting, speaking, coaching and training thousands of people around winning business. In addition, working live advising on hundreds of multi-million dollar pitches across all industries, gives me unique insights into the mindsets and behaviours of professional sales people.

1.      I can count on one hand (with three missing fingers) how many companies were willing to blatantly lie or do something unethical in order to win.

2.      Professional sales people think about improving their client’s world every day, knowing that it will mostly likely be reciprocated.

3.      The vast majority of companies spend inordinate amounts of time and money proving to themselves that their products and solutions work before recommending them.

4.      Clients can Google all they want. Procurement can look myopically at the minutiae of a contract but only a professional sales person can guide and advise on a best fit solution. (note: would you hire an architect or corporate law firm just from Googling?)

5.      The level of skill and acumen in creating value for clients has risen exponentially in the past decade.

The shonky, Glengarry Glen Ross, Slick Willie sales person is gone or going. We hear about the remaining few because it’s good clickbait or fodder for TV shows.

Let’s celebrate the professional enterprise sales person because they are the majority – ethical, hardworking, knowledgeable and committed to both their own success and especially, those of their clients.

This is not a dystopian world filled with rank opportunists who connive in dark rooms to cheat people.

It’s a world replete with successful outcomes because, yes, someone sold them something pretty bloody good.

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.

Bullying is not restricted to the shenanigans in Canberra and Dummy Spits are not confined to the tennis court.

Clients – yes, the lovely people who buy your amazing products and services are also susceptible to unconscionable behaviour including:

Yelling abuse at account managers who are unable to break the laws of physics to fast track an order.

Threatening to ‘never, ever buying from you again’ if you don’t give them what they want – yesterday.

Playing power games as in ‘I had lunch with your boss last week. She would not take kindly to your handling of this – don’t make me call her to approve one lousy additional discount’

Playing the sales person off against the technical guru. ‘I don’t care what he’s claiming he said – Damn straight he told me that we would have the updated software for free’

Internal Politics ‘There are three other departments in here who all buy from you – it would be much simpler if I didn’t have to tell Procurement of your intransigence’

Let’s be clear. If you have genuinely made a mistake or demonstrably failed to deliver a well-documented promise, then you’d best get the coffee out to stay back till 2am to fix it.

However, many of these behaviours are considered by clients as simply robust negotiation or are designed to make themselves feel good because of their own shortcomings. (see Insecurity)

It is perfectly acceptable to ‘take one for the team’ but with the emphasis on One.

It is also reasonable to help a client out, especially when it’s unforeseen or when it will be genuinely appreciated.

But there is no reason for you, your colleagues or your manager to be subjected to the toys being violently and unprofessionally thrown out of the cot.

It’s a racket that should be broken.

Appeasement wasn’t a great strategy in 1938 and it’s not an appropriate response in 2018.

Does your leadership say ‘Just give them what they want’ regardless of the circumstances or how unprofessionally you’ve been treated?

Do your leaders say ‘Look, I know he’s a pig, but he spends a lot of his budget with us?’ or do they pick up the phone with one of the following:

1.      Bob, we really value our relationship but our account management team don’t deserve to be yelled at regarding a standard delivery issue.

2.      Bob, we negotiated the price based fairly on the volume you’re purchasing. Why are you giving our Account Director such a hard time?

3.      Bob, our engineers were up till midnight configuring your system. I don’t appreciate threats to cancel the contract, simply because there’s pressure to upgrade the system. We both know we’ll meet the deadline.

The client persona is often depicted as a serene benefactor bestowing their gifts, but we shouldn’t be afraid to call out behaviours that are demonstrably unprofessional.

Leaders, you are elevated in the chair overseeing the court of account management.

There’s only one reason why client code violations need to be called out.

Your people are worth it.

Game, Set. Match.

Elliot Epstein is a leading Pitch Consultant, Keynote Speaker, Corporate Sales, Negotiation and Presentation trainer who gets sales results rapidly. He has coached and trained high profile corporates globally in presenting, selling, negotiating and pitching. He has spoken at over 1500 conferences and workshops for leading companies such as HP, SEEK, Avaya, Hitachi , Asciano, Samsung and Lend Lease

He is the author of # 1 International Best Seller ‘ Confessions of a Pitch Consultant‘ and Sales Vs Procurement – The Secrets Unveiled at the Negotiation Table and is internationally renowned for ensuring sessions are engaging, interactive and relevant to winning business in competitive markets.

Elliot is based in Melbourne where he lives with his wife and two negotiators.