Why Some Sales People Succeed While Others Fail

by c.j. Ng

    A while ago, I was writing about how some hiring mistakes will lead to sales people performing well.  In fact, I quoted from HR Chally that:

     However, there has been a lot of inquiries lately that raise this question, "what if the same type of sales people are hired?  Will they ALL be winners, or will some lose as well?  At the very least, will some be performing better than others?"  And if so, why?.

     This really got me reflecting on my core business, which was to train sales people to perform better.  Part of our training also inculcates sales people to change one key bad habit, which is to complain too much and work too little.  This is especially so when the list of complaints (or bitching, depending how you phrase it) include:

• "The managers gave the best leads to the best sales people.  That's why they did better than me!"

• "The best sales people happen to enter an untapped market very early.  I came in late, and that's why I'm not performing as well."

• "I'm given a lousy territory.  I would be lucky if I can make any sale out of this desert!"

     While some of these complaints or feedback may have some truth in them, there will STILL be sales people who perform better than others when most things are equal.  The good news is that we have found some things that successful sales people do differently from the less successful ones.

The Winning Ways of Winning Sales People

     If you made a search on Google, you can actually find a number of research as to what do winning sales people do:

• Huthwaite spent over 12 years examining more than 35,000 sales calls in 23 countries conducted by the world’s leading sales organizations, found that excellent sales people ask questions regarding their customers problems, implications and "what will happen if those problems are solved".  The average sales person doesn't do that.

• HR Chally's innovative research with 80,000 customers conducted over 14 years concluded that the one thing that matters in today's competitive marketplace is the sales person (NOT price, NOT quality, and NOT even innovation).  Customers expect sales people to be personally accountable for customers' results and understand their businesses.  High performing sales people do just that, and are always within easy reach by their customers.

• Miller Heiman's  2009 Sales Best Practice Report states that "Reaching ALL people who have influence over the outcome of your sale is a key activity that should be practiced with discipline in difficult times" .  Winning sales people also understand their customers' issues BEFORE proposing solutions.

• Sales  Excellence's research shows that the probability of a prospective client deciding to buy (or not) is determined by conditions that exist within their organisation, NOT by the steps the sales person takes.  Hence, the successful sales person focus on the steps the client has already taken – as well as the steps still remaining – in their buying process.

• Ari Galper advocates that sales people will have a lot less rejections if they call prospects without expectations of any sale, but start the conversation centered around the prospects' world, so as to build a relationship with no agendas.

• Finally, the "Professor of Professional Selling"Neil Rackham recommends that winning sales people are value creators.  Rather than being mere "talking brochures", winning sales people deliver as much value as the product by providing creative ways to solve customers' problems

     In a nutshell, what all the above winning ways result in is:   Trust!  The more customers trust you, the more successful you will be.  And there are only 2 aspects of building trust:

1. Customers trust you because they know you have great integrity in recommending what's best for them;

2. Customers trust you because they know you have the skills and abilities to provide what's best for them

     Sounds simple?  Well, applying these ideas may be a little less simple as it seems, due to the following  customer challenges:

• Customers sometimes don't know what they want or their key challenges, let alone understanding the implications if their challenges are not overcome;

• Some customers simply refuse to refer the sales person to get in touch with their other colleagues in their organisation;

• Those customers who claim to be decision makers tend NOT to be the real final decision makers, and those real and final decision makers tend NOT to say that they are the decision makers. 

     Overcoming such obstacles and then build trust is exactly what some winning sales people have done.  Here are some real examples:

• My ex-colleague in Ringier Trade Publishing, Jessey, was our top sales person in Mainland China.  What she did differenty from everyone else is to advise customers how to synergise their advertisements with their other marketing activities such as trade shows and conventions for optimum effect.  Jessey built trust with her professional knowledge and delivering value to customers;

• The best sales people in the building materials industry, regardless if they hail from Philips Lighting, Häfeleor Aldes Ventilation, know that if they involve the architects and designers early in the designing stage, they can exert greater amounts of influence later in the sale with the key decision makers;

• Successful sales people also know how to provide great service, AFTER the sale.  Some of the best sales people in Sofitel China actively solicit feedback from their guests after their first-night's stay, and followed up with the booker after the guests have left.  In addition, their best sales people know how to make recommendations on how to enhance their guests' experience whether they come to the hotel for meetings, rooms or wedding packages.

Why Some Sales People Fail

Buyer:  That depends.

Seller:  On which areas, may I ask?

Buyer:  Depends if we really have the need to change.  You have good products and services, no doubt, but what you can do, my supplier is already doing.  We don't see the real need to switch here.

If we analyse what the seller wants to do, we can see that she wanted the buyer to recognise that the seller can deliver to the buyer's expectation.  She also half-expected the buyer to say that their current supplier is not as good, something which is unlikely to happen.  Instead of getting the buyer to say some negative things about their current supplier(s), here's what you can say:

Seller:  So tell me, what is the best thing you like about your current sales training supplier?

Buyer:  I like the videos which they use in their sales training.  They illustrate the principles behind the sales training easily.

Seller:  If there's any one area that they can improve on this best feature, what do you think it should be?

Buyer:  I find that the videos are very generic and not customised to our industry.  If they can customise it without charging too much, that will be fantastic!

Seller:  If we are able to customise some training videos that are relevant to your industry and culture, is that one way to improve the quality of your sales training?

Buyer:  Yes, we sure can explore that!

Moral of the story: while customers would like you to do a lot better than their current suppliers to switch to your products, they don't like to admit that their current suppliers are not doing a good job.  What you can do is to ask the customer if there's anything (besides price) that they would like their suppliers to improve upon.

Since almost everyone would like to get a better deal, so will your customers.  You just need to ask the opposite of what you want your customers to say.