I’ve had the privilege as you probably have, too, to meet some very successful salespeople and business owners.  Those people that seem to have a magic touch and deliver consistently strong performance and value to their customers.  A key to their success was getting to the table in the first place to have the conversations that lead to these strong relationships with customers.  They somehow earn their way into the hearts and minds of these customers.  How do they do it?

As I have examined and interviewed these people, here are two things that I have found.

First, if you ask them how they do it, they think they know and often they don’t.  They very often say “I just build strong relationships” or “I’m not afraid to tell it like it is” or “I kept after them for years”, etc.  All things that certainly could contribute.

Now, when I observe these people over years what I really find is that they do something brilliant.  They often don’t even realize it’s brilliant and yet it seems to be the trigger for great relationships. 

Three examples:

I know one business owner who shares his Decision Grid with his customers and they fill it out together.  This one action makes his process transparent to the customer and in one meeting helps this business owner determine if there actually is a decision process and, therefore, a real opportunity.  This one 30 minute conversation with a customer early in the sales cycle helps him build trust and pursue real opportunities.  Brilliant! 

Another sales leader I observe was winning the big contracts left and right in his company.  What did he do differently?  He had the fastest turnaround time vs. his competitors.  Brilliant! He left the customer meeting with his action items and they were done that day.  He was a master at coordinating internal resources to meet the needs of the customer.  He made everyone work at his pact.  Brilliant!  He didn’t let time kill any of his deals.  His deals flew through the pipeline all because he set the pace for his team and the customer team.

One last example.  I know a sales leader whose team has consistently led the company in sales, innovation, top customers and many other categories for over 20 years.  What does he do?  No matter what the company is doing, he picks one solution to sell.  Brilliant!   They offer about 40 programs and he and his team put all their focus and efforts around one solution they feel is the most relevant and useful to their customer  and they spend all their resources there.  Risky? Maybe, but it’s been working.

So, observe the top performers you come in contact with and don’t simply ask them what they do differently, watch them. Figure out what they are doing differently.  It is often one brilliant thing that you could repeat in your territory.  Go be BRILLIANT!

Meeting to Win recently sent out the Best Practices of Top Performers sales team meeting agenda.  Sales teams around the world worked through an exercise to list the brilliant things top performers in their own companies are doing.  Right now, those brilliant actions are being replicated across organizations.  To experience similar momentum, subscribe to Meeting to Win sales team meeting agendas and elevate your teams to top performer status. 

I am getting ready to play my first tennis match in over a year and a half.  As I look forward to the match, I am reminded of something my father said to me during one of our matches years ago.  Something that I have thought about during every match since when I feel like I am on defense more than I’d like to be.  He looked frustrated and said “You’re not playing to win.  You’re playing to NOT lose.”  He described exactly what I was doing.  I was back running down shots, going right where he wanted me to go, just getting the ball in play to live for another point.  He was in charge, setting the pace and … having more fun than me.  During that match and countless others since then, I have had to change my mindset mid-match and play to win instead of play to NOT lose.  For me that means, charge the net, put some shots away, get on the offense, control the pace of the game and, in many of those cases (still not against my Dad…), win.  Even when I didn’t win, I walked away knowing I did everything I could and was proud of my game, effort and attitude.  There was no risk I hadn’t taken and, therefore, no “what ifs”. 

I took my Dad’s insightful observation into my sales life, too, and, man, did life get more fun.  Instead of sitting back following the process, chasing the RFP, settling for meeting with non-decision makers, wondering what the competitors were doing, giving discounts and sounding like 80% of other reps out there, I made a clear effort to “charge the net”. 

How do you know if you are playing to win or playing to not lose?

Are you:

• Following the buying process blindly without challenging steps that don’t help your cusotmers make good decisions?
• Meeting with people who can’t make decisions?
• More worried about your activity report volume than the quality of your activities?
• Spending time on RFPs that restrict your ability to sell by limiting your ability to diagnose and share solutions?
• Constantly running off to fetch the next thing your prospective customer needs with no commitments from them (”send me a proposal”, “do an assessment”, “send me a brochure”, “come do a demo”, etc)?
• Coming in second or third place?
• Getting surprised late in sales cycles?

Or are you:

• Creating opportunities by shining light on problems prospective customers didn’t know they had?
• Challenging dysfunctional buying processes that hinder your customer from getting the best possible solution?
• Sharing solutions your clients didn’t know existed to problems they didn’t know they had?
• Bringing new ideas, industry expertise and innovative solutions to the table?
• Getting full price for the value of service you provide?
• Getting creative on negotiations?
• Risking offending non-decision makers to get to the actual decision makers?
• Addressing sales cycle slow downs head-on and honestly?
• Not afraid to walk away?
• Not afraid to say and do the right thing no matter the outcome?

It is so much more exciting to play to win.  It takes more energy and guts, but it is so worth it.  Charge the net this week!

Sales team meeting idea:

• At your next sales team meeting, ask each team member to bring their current pipeline.
• Ask each person to examine their pipeline for opportunities to “charge the net”.
• Each rep should pick one deal and take a well-planned risk.  Get to decision makers, challenge a bad decision, ask about the competition, exit an RFP opportunity, etc.  As long as the risk will ultimately help you help your customer make a better decision (even if it’s not you), then take the risk.
• Each rep should walk away with one risk to take within the next week. 
• Plan to report back on the outcomes of the team’s risk-taking.  Not all will go well – that’s why we call it a “risk”.  So be it…

Play to win. Charge the net.  Have more fun.

(Post brought to you by Jill Myrick of Meeting to Win.  Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers who want to take their team to the next level.  Play to Win, Not to NOT Lose is the April 2, 2010 Agenda Topic.  To get a new sales team meeting topic each week, visit us at http://www.meetingtowin.com/ to subscribe.)

This is Part 3 in our Maximize Customer Meetings Series.  This Friday, March 19th, the third agenda in the series goes out to subscribers.  The 3 part series will soon be available on our store, also.  To get weekly sales team meeting exercises that cover this and many more selling topics, subscribe to Meeting to Win today. 

You’ve followed the steps to prepare and execute a productive customer meeting.  You’re not done yet!  To maximize the work done on this customer meeting so far, it is helpful to send comprehensive and organized Meeting Notes after the meeting.  This is where many sales professionals quit.  Following up thoroughly is a great way to gain a competitive edge in a sales cycle.

Get started the day of your customer meeting.

• Typically, sales representatives will send a quick thank you note via email to the customer. 
• In that short thank you e-mail, let the customer know you will send them more comprehensive Meeting Notes to outline everything discussed and agreed upon along with a timeline of next steps.

 This action gives the customer some ownership in this process immediately following the meeting and sets you both up to accomplish something, therefore, maximizing your meeting. 

Within 48 hours send your Meeting Notes.  Meeting Notes should include:

1. A bulleted list of the information the sales representative learned about the customer’s needs.
2. A list of action items for both the sales rep and the customer along with time lines.
3. A couple of bullets with high-level ideas on possible solutions you discussed while meeting.
4. Possible pricing scenarios (if discussed in meeting).
5. Call to action. At this point, let the customer know what to expect next.  For example, “we will contact your administrative assistant to set up a time for you to tour our plant”.

 Benefits of using Meeting Notes after a customer meeting:

• By outlining this in writing post-meeting the customer has the opportunity to correct any wrong or missing information. This is critically important for the sales representative who is formulating a solution.
• This demonstrates to the customer that the sales representative has a clear understanding of the needs which builds confidence and trust and ultimately rapport.
• Customer is agreeing to next steps and is sharing in the ownership of finding a solution.
• Often customers use these Meeting Notes internally to share progress on finding a solution or to report to senior leaders.  This builds your good reputation with more of your customer’s leadership, saves them work and demonstrates that you have their best interests in mind.
• Clear communication along the way is critically important when problems or misunderstandings arise in sales cycles.  The relationship built along the way can make or break a sales as it gets closer to closing.

Sales Team Meeting Idea:

• Ask the team to come prepared to discuss a recent customer meeting that resulted in next steps.
• As a team, write your Meeting Notes and share them with the group.
• Provide feedback for each other on appearance, communication style and ease of use.
• To get more in depth sales training exercises and practice on this topic, subscribe for Meeting to Win sales team meeting agendas here.

(To get this blog’s new posts emailed to you every Monday morning , Subscribe to our blog.)

We at Meeting to Win are big fans of Paul Castain and his work.  During our 3-week Sales Team Meeting Agenda series on Maximizing Customer Meetings we thought you may enjoy Paul’s thougths on starting your meetings with impact. 

Starting Your Meetings with Impact

by Paul Castain of Sales Playbook

OK, pop quiz. How long does it take to make an impression on someone? 30 seconds? 10? Less? …
Here’s something that you can do in your very next client/prospect meeting …

Read the rest here.

LinkedIn has become a very valuable tool for me.  I enjoy partnering with my connections for referrals, business opportunities, learning experiences and awareness of our industry and business climate.  In the few years I’ve been using LinkedIn I’ve reconnected with former colleagues, exchanged valuable referrals, developed deeper relationships with clients, kept track of clients when they’ve switched companies, connected employers and employees, created great peer networks and, not lastly, increased sales.  My point?  LinkedIn is a powerful tool in my business. 

In the past year, I have gotten more active on LinkedIn Groups.    I wanted to share my experience and some of my best pratices for using these groups to build business acumen, share and gather best practices and grow as a sales professional. 

1. First of all, you need to find a group that is well-managed.  This means that the group manager is actively involved in the discussions and ensures that spam or selling is not tolerated.  The groups that add value are made up of a community of peers that value sharing ideas and best practices for the benefit of the group – and ultimately the customers they serve.  Here are three groups I am active in and would highly recommend:  Sales Blogcast, Sales Gravy, Sales Playbook  (If you know of other good groups, please post a comment and share them with our readers.)  Visit one or more of these groups and request to join.
2. Once you are a member, you should share your ideas and opinions on discussion questions already posted. 
3. If you are facing a sales challenge such as getting a prospect to take your call, overcoming a price objection or dealing with customer service issues, you can post your dilemma for the group.  These groups are made up of professionals from the sales industry and are great about sharing their experiences, ideas and suggestions.  You will have a great list of perspectives to consider as you decide how to tackle your sales challenge.
4. Be respectful of your network.  You can disagree -it is actually interesting and valuable to get differing opinions.  Just do it politely and with respect.
5. Make an effort to share news that might be useful to the group.  Most groups have a place to post news.   If you find something helpful, share it with the group. 
6. Follow up on discussions you post.  Thank group members for their input and continue to facilitate the discussion until it runs its course.
7. Be abundant.  In the The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, Dr. Stephen Covey defined this abundance mentality as “a paradigm that there is plenty out there for everyone.”    The Abundance Mentality is in contrast to the Scarcity Mentality.  (The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Dr. Stephen R. Covey)
8. Invite colleagues to join and participate in groups you find useful. 
9. Stay positive.  The groups I’ve recommended manage to stay realistic and positive. They are solution oriented no matter the challenge.
10. Remember the Golden Rule always.

These groups are a great enhancement to your life and career when you participate appropriately.  Please feel free to share your own best practices by leaving a comment for our readers.

Get active in LinkedIn Groups and reap the benefits immediately.

Sales Team Meeting Idea:

Ask your sales team to

• all join the same group or
• each join a different group.

At your sales team meetings, bring one of the discussion questions from your LI group to your own team.  Share the LinkedIn Group’s responses and then build on those.

Or, determine a sales challenge that exists on your team and post it to the group(s) you belong to. The next time you get together, share the answers from the LinkedIn group(s).  Be sure to let your LinkedIn Group(s) know how they helped your team by leaving a comment in the discussion thread, also.

(Meeting to Win offers subscribers sales team meeting agendas every week.  Join us by subscribing at https://www.meetingtowin.com/subscribe.)

(This winning tip brought to you by Meeting to Win, LLC – www.meetingtowin.com)

Many sales teams are taking a break from investing in new tools – CRMs, on-line sales training, lead sources, Hoovers, etc. Most spending now is on customers, not on ourselves. That may not be such a bad thing. I see it over and over again. The corporate office is looking at the latest bells & whistles for their sales teams. The lastest presentation technology, the latest CRM upgrade, the latest on-line collaboration tool, the latest _________, the latest ________, the latest _________ (you can probably fill in the blanks). They put out an RFP maybe and salespeople come in and share all the great things their _____ can do. All great and probably all very true. It seems the problem comes at the implementation and adoption phase of the project. As new tool is only great when it is used. Too often the latest _______ is rolled out and before it is being maximized, the buyers are off to the next latest ________.

As a sales leader, do a quick inventory of the tools available to you. Do this with your team. Figure out how you can create more efficiencies, drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, eliminate unnecessary work using the tools you already have.

Here is one that applies to a lot of us. Outlook is a tool most of us have. Set up “rules” in Outlook to categorize e-mails that come in. You can color code e-mails based on who they are from, if you are the sole recipient or if you are part of a distribution and so on. You would be amazed at how much less your e-mail controls you once you have these “rules” in place to help you prioritize how you read and respond to e-mails.

Your CRM is a big one, also. Most salespeople don’t use a large percentage of the capabilities of their CRM. What is one way you can use your CRM to help you run more efficiently? Can you mine leads, create a better communication plan with an existing customer, what else?

There are many more ways to maximize the tools available to you. I’d love to hear your ideas, also. Sell more efficiently during a tough economy by maximizing the capabilities of existing tools for you and your team.

Thank you,
The Meeting to Win Team