The Scrambled Egg - a blog every sales professional should wake up to.

Follow @KADscrambledegg on Twitter for wisdom about #sales #salesmanagement. 

Sales people only have so much time in a day and should utilize every moment. Rapport building goes far beyond “building relationships”, take the opportunity to gather more information about prospects beyond their kids’ names, the weather, etc. In order to be a top performer a rep must be methodical and calculated in every step, even rapport building. Here are other ways to use rapport building to elicit valuable information from prospects:

1) Lower the Tension – A rep should build rapport at the beginning of every call. This helps to lesion the tension the prospect might be feeling in addition to the anxiety the rep may be experiencing. If the prospect’s guard is down, they are more comfortable and more likely to share. Going straight into a call, without rapport building, can feel like a plane coming into the runaway fast and furious! Slow down….

2) Authority or Influence Level – Rapport building is an excellent way to learn how much power a prospect has internally.

Start By - The rep can make small talk. Ask how long the prospect has been with the company. Are they happy? What do they like/not like? The rep can share stories of their experience at their work place (always remain positive).

What is Actually Gained - Once the conversation is flowing, here’s what the rep can really gain from the chit chat. The rep may find the prospect was newly hired or promoted. If so, why did the company hire or promote for this position? Why was it a priority to do so? The rep can find out who hired the contact. Was it a person in the C-suite? How often do they meet with this person? In other words, while the rep is “building rapport” they are multitasking by lowering the tension, easing their way into the call in addition to finding out if their contact has access to power and how often.

3) Decision Making Process – There are opportunities in the rapport building stage to gather information about a prospect’s internal decision making process.

Start By - Opening the conversation by trying to learn more about their culture. The rep can share stories of their experiences (always positive). Is the prospect’s culture fast paced? Do they have red tape? Are things decided as a group or in silos? Is this a headache? Do they like the process? Why or why not?

What is Actually Gained - While this may seem like small talk, the rep can start to understand their internal process for getting things purchased. The rep is also discovering timeline for how long the deal might take to close.

4) The Slip – Sometimes a prospect will reveal information during rapport building which might be imperative to a sale and otherwise missed.

Start By - The rep can ask if the prospect received the information and what the prospect’s thoughts are. Discuss what they liked and ask for feedback. The rep should have sent product information in addition to information that is strategically helpful. Information offering strategy is more likely to get read and gains trust with a prospect. A sale should rarely be about product/service. 

What is Actually Gained- The prospect’s guard is down and they feel the discussion is more casual or “off the record”. The prospect will reveal information that might have otherwise not been shared in a more “formal” setting. Such information could include, other vendors being evaluated, who internally is for or against the purchase of the rep’s product/service, an impending acquisition which might slow the process down, etc.

A great example would be from when a prospect was 5 minutes late to a schedule call. They’d asked the rep to remain on hold as they were running late. When the prospect returned to the phone they apologized and explained the CEO had pulled him into a last minute meeting. The rep was smart and jumped on the opportunity to gather more information. The rep asked if everything was ok and was it a normal occurrence. The prospect revealed the CEO does this frequently and trusts him to assist in emergencies. Prior to this auspicious interaction the rep was unsure of the contact’s internal power. Now the rep knows the contact had direct access to CEO and the CEO trusts the contact. This is invaluable information to the sale that might have otherwise been difficult to get.

Sales people only have their time. They should be methodical and calculated at every step in order to ensure they’re being most efficient. Work hard and work smart. 

Next Article:

The First and Easiest Rule of Negotiations Learned From the Worst Manager

Liking these tips? Follow @KADscrambledegg on Twitter for wisdom about #sales #salesmanagement.

Replying to a prospect's email(s) is lazy and a sales rep should break the habit immediately. We’re all busy throughout the day and it can seem like the best way to communicate is to respond to emails. A rep might make the assumption that email is the preferred method of communication for the prospect and will follow suit in this manner. Instead of assuming this is their preferred method of communication, why not assume they’re in meetings and this is their only way to reach out. They are multitasking. Assume this is the case every time and do not reply. Instead view every email as an invitation to call.

Why view every email as an invitation to call? Consider these 8 problems with the email reply: 

1) Loss of Control – when a rep sends a reply the prospect can take the information and do what they want with it. The rep won’t know if the answer was satisfactory or if it wasn’t what the prospect was looking for. No response from the prospect now leaves the rep with nothing but guesswork.

2) Lost Opportunity – every interaction with a prospect is the opportunity to find out more information. Assist in whatever it is the prospect needed and then a rep has the ability to ask such things as, updates on the sale, legal process, decision making process, who else is inquiring (perhaps the email had questions), why is the prospect looking for additional information, etc.  

3) No Accountability – having a prospect on the line makes them accountable to answer questions like those in #2. If these questions are asked in an email it is very rare they will be answered. However, if one has the prospect on the phone, it is hard for them to ignore.

4) No Ability to Sell – additional information might be discovered during the discussion which allows for the rep to take another angle with the sale.

5) Tone Deafness – it is very difficult to understand an email's actual tone. While the prospect’s email may seem innocent in nature, the a phone call and might uncover that there are major hurdles to overcome. On the other hand, the prospect could seem angry and snarky, yet a phone call would have revealed they are very interested and that their office has simply been swamped. Bear in min, this is a two-way street. A sales rep’s tone has just as great a chance of being misread and prospects are not as forgiving with misread tone.  

6) Lost in Translation – it is very easy for things to get lost in translation even over the phone. Email amplifies this chance as you don’t have the ability to quickly ask for clarification and make explanations.

7) Easy to Forward – a rep can hope or assume their answers are only being passed around internally. Don’t make this assumption. The last thing a rep would want is for their email to be forwarded to a competitor and educating them how to sell against themself.

8) Does Not Stand Out – every sales reps replies to email. Don’t be that rep. Pick up the phone and offer assistance.

Ok so you're sold on the idea of viewing all prospect's emails as an invitation to call.  So how does it work? Always call first. If they aren’t there, your voicemail will be the below script and your email will match which will be sent immediately afterwards. Always re-assure them you have answers to their questions or whatever it is they need. In order to get what they need, they’ll have to connect via phone. Make sure to end the voicemail and email with a call to action. Here is an example:

Bob, per my message

It’s nice to hear from you. I’d be glad to help with/answer your questions below. It’s best if we connect over the phone in order to make sure I give the details you need.

I’m open today at 3:00EST or 5:30EST. What works best with you?

Best,

Me

Always leave two suggested open times. A rep should not say they’re open for the rest of the day or available at any time. It’s too desperate and needy. A top performing sales person is busy with other calls and lots in the pipeline. Remember the prospect needs answers to their questions and if those times don’t work they will reply with times that do work. This is also a good indication of their level of interest.

Knowledge is power. Take every opportunity to gather information. View every email is an invitation to call a prospect. Never waste an opportunity, take the invitation, run with it and close some business!

Next Articles:

The Most Common Mistake in Pricing Negotiations

The Hidden Secrets of Rapport Building Beyond "Relationships"

There seems to be an unspoken law not to discuss if territory affects the performance of one rep or team versus another. The express goes “there is no such thing as a bad territory”. I’ll be the first to say it.  Unequivocally yes, territory matters.  As a sales leaders, you are doing your teams and reps a disservice by not acknowledging this fact.

While not all territories are created equal, I should clarify on the heels of my previous statement, a bad territory is not an excuse. In fact, I’d argue a rep with a good territory are at a disadvantage. They will not have to work as hard or be as strategic as the rep with the bad territory. They’re missing out on skills and techniques they will later need if territories change or they move companies. A rep with a bad territory has the opportunity and motivation to improve their skills and development. Opposed to the rep with NYC who might have less motivation to make improvements because they’re more easily producing numbers. A successful sales career is a long term game with short term wins that are not always dollars. 

As a sales leader, by denying all territories are not created equal, you are missing the opportunity to develop your team and teach your reps how to yield more revenue from an underperforming area.

Here are the steps a rep can take to successfully work a bad territory:

1) Reverse engineer wins by running a report in your CRM over the last year of all deals closed and look for patterns. You will usually find there are certain industries in that area doing well. Some databases have this by SIC code. If you don’t have access to match SIC code with industry, you can Google the codes.

2) Call the customers who have purchased over the last year.

a. Explain you’re trying to understand their industry better and you’re not trying to sell additional services. People love to talk about themselves.

b. Ask why they purchased.

c. What pain does your product/service solve?

d. How has the current economy affected their industry?

e. Where do they see opportunities to grow?

f. If they are growing it means they have customers purchasing. Ask who their local (or whatever your territory is) customers are and if there is a particular industry they see the most success with. 

g. Ask for the most popular blogs, publications or thought leaders in their space.

h. Ask for a referral and do not call, yet.

i. Tell them you’ll be in the area sometime soon (even if this is not true) and ask their favorite lunch place that deliveries. Ask what’s good on the menu. Call and have that item delivered to the contact that day. Do not ask if they want it, just do it. Also send a handwritten thank you note. Do not email, take the time to write the note on nice stationary. A little goes a long way and the contact might be an additional resource of referrals for you.

3) Top 5 - figure out the top 5 industries between the list of customers who’ve purchased in addition to who’s buying from them.

4) Become a subject matter expert of the top 5. You should become a subscriber to those blogs, publications and follow the thought leaders on Twitter or if they have their own blogs. You should also understand what pain you solve for these companies and what opportunities there is to grow. This positions you as a trusted advisor and will yield more sales.

5) Start Calling. 

a. Call the referrals the current customers gave you.

b. Run another report in your CRM of companies in the top 5 industries who haven’t yet purchased. Provide them with up to date industry topics and offer free advice and strategy.

c. Pay attention for companies mentioned as you read articles and publications and add them to your call list.

While no one is excited to be handed a bad territory, there is only one NYC or LA to go around. Don’t let a territory be an excuse. Take the opportunity to work smart, it’s much more rewarding. Remember this is a long term career and the landscape of sales changes many times. At some point it will be your turn to have a good territory and you can apply the skills you’ve learned to be an unstoppable powerhouse.

Next Article:

4 Critical Techniques To Win The "Internal" Sale

 How many of you have noticed the increase in advertisements in your Facebook news feeds?  How many of you like the increased advertisements? I’m going to venture to say not many of us. 

As many of you may recall, Facebook was not the first big social networking site. MySpace was the market share holder prior to Facebook. However many users made the switch to Facebook from MySpace when their user experience became cluttered with banners and pop ups. Facebook needs to be careful not to fall into the same trap.

While our Facebook experience has more advertisements, I believe Zuckerberg is walking a fine line and he’s careful not to cross it. Facebook is generating revenue by selling space on your newsfeed and profile. The ads delivered to you are highly customized banners based on our personal data. We are not yet bombarded with banners which become as annoying as neon signs and I don’t believe we will be.

I’m hoping Facebook will take advantage of the massive and unique opportunity to take over another market leader and create a user experience larger than the sum of its parts. I’m talking about Facebook taking over Google’s market share by becoming the next search engine.

In order to understand how this would work, let’s first do a quick summary of how Google delivers results to you. There are 2 ways Google’s algorithm works to deliver the free/organic search results.

1) Keywords and Phrases. Websites have words and phrases in each page and each page of a website is the opportunity to rank for a new and different keyword/phrase.  Google looks in specific places on each page for those words or phrase to determine if that page should come up in the free/organic search results for that word or phrase. 

2) Inbound Links.  An inbound link is another website linking to the website in question. Let’s say two different websites had the same exact words/phrase in all the right places, Google then prioritizes by which of those websites has more inbound links. 

Now let’s think about the data Facebook knows about you. They know who you are, where you went to school, where you work, who your friends are, where your friends have eaten for dinner and heck even what they ordered sometimes. Every time someone from your network “likes” a business page, “shares” something or “checks in” somewhere, consider this a recommendation or a referral. Word of mouth if you will.

So where is the opportunity for Facebook to take over Google? This means Facebook can deliver results that are exponentially more relevant and personal than Google ever can deliver.  Instead of delivering results based on keywords and inbound links, Facebook can deliver results based keywords in addition to:

1) Who you are (your personal data).

2) Word of mouth recommendations (likes, shares, etc).

As an example, let's say you Google and look for "restaurants in London". Your first result will be the restaurant that has either paid an SEO firm a lot of money to get to the top or has been around a long time. Now compare that to getting results based upon restaurants in London your friends, colleagues or family have been to. The more “likes” or “checks in” a restaurant receives, the more search results it will appear in.

Take a look at the screenshot below I was able to grab from Facebook's graph search. Look at the blue bar above the picture on the left which reads “restuarants in London my friends have been to”.

Wondering how this will affect sales? First, your prospects are online doing research even if you’re a B2B company. If you don’t believe they do their research online – stop reading this article. I’ve already confused you and you’re so far behind you need to go figure out how to turn your computer on. 

Your prospects are using Google to research services and how to solve their challenges. Use the screen shot below and replace the word “restaurant” let’s say with something like “warehouse management services”. Also think about how many times you've received a word of mouth recommendation or referral from an existing customer. 

If Facebook becomes the next search engine, delivering results based upon keywords and word of mouth, you better hope your company has a good social media presence.

Next Article:

Do Territories Matter?

 You’ve all had the accounts you tried relentlessly to get into. You call multiple people in the company and try month after month. Many sales people do this as tenacity has great pay offs in sales. Sometimes the technique works and other times it works to no avail. There is a smarter way to work – dump your prospects. Yes, dump them. It’s over. Kaput. It’s not you, it’s me. Done. Adios.

Breaking up is hard to do. It’s even harder when you think of breaking up with a potential customer. Let’s think about it from a different perspective as it might actually yield the opposite result. In other words, breaking up with your prospects is a great strategy to solicit a response.

First, understand your prospects are busy. They have multiple meetings and many things on their plate. They receive many calls throughout the day and while they may plan to call you back, you’re pushed to the bottom of the list. The prospect knows you’re in sales and relies on you to be tenacious and to do your job by continuing to call and email. This allows you to fall further on their “to do” list.

At some point a sales rep will move on and stop calling the prospect without knowing if the prospect might have wanted to connect. So to make matters worse, the sales rep doesn’t communicate to the prospect you’re no longer going to be calling. Don’t make this mistake. This leads us to the first and most basic rule of breaking up.

Here are the rules to a successful breakup:

1) Communicate to the prospect you are giving up. This way they know they can’t rely on you to continue calling and emailing. If they had any interest in speaking you have now forced yourself to the top of the “to do” list because you’ve told you’re breaking up.

2) Do not breakup too soon. If you pull the plug on a prospect without legitimately first putting in effort the tactic seems, well, like a tactic. You should attempt to connect with your prospects at least 8 times (voicemail or email) before breaking up.

3) Include a tease in regards to strategic advice (not about your product or service) you would like to discuss. This will remind them what value they’ll get if they connect with you.

4) Make it short and sweet, but not too sweet. It should be to the point and don’t be abrupt or offensive. This will defeat the purpose and it will again seem like just a tactic.

5) This is the most import of all rules. You’re previous emails should include increasingly valuable information not about your product, service or company (it’s too soon to pitch). In other words, make sure they care you’re breaking up with them. If you’ve provided value in your previous emails they will care that they’re no longer going to receive them. The valuable information also peaked their interest enough to get you onto their “to do” list in the first place. Voicemail and email attempts solely about your products and service will never even get you to the bottom of a “to do” list. This article discusses how to increasingly add value in each effort to reach a prospect.

Here is an example of a breakup voicemail and email script:

Bob,

I wanted to reach out to you one last time. I have suggestions on how your facebook page and website can work harder in terms of generating new business. If I don’t hear back from you, I’ll assume the timing isn’t right.

My information is below should you have any questions.

Best,

Me

The response rate to a breakup is close to 33%. While most responses are positive and they’ll tell you they’ve been meaning to get back to you, sometimes you’ll also get a response from those letting you know they are not interested. A negative response is still as successful breakup. You now have an answer and can move on; it wasn’t meant to be as they were never going to buy anyway. Breaking up isn’t hard to do once the technique proves itself.  Happy selling and breaking up!

Upcoming Articles:

Facebook is Close to Missing the Boat. Why This Will Affect Your Sales. 

Do Territories Matter?

On average, it usually takes a minimum of 6 attempts (voicemail or email) to get a response from a prospect. This means the leads you’ve already worked are closer to responding versus new leads. However after about 10 attempts, the chance they’ll reply is extremely low. It is no longer worth your time to purse, move on.

If you haven’t read the blog article on the 6 simple rules for increasing emails and voicemails, it's helpful as it’s a prelude to the below technique. 

I should also disclose I find it best to leave a voicemail first and immediately after an email matching (almost verbatim) to your voicemail. A voicemail would be 1st attempt and the email is the 2^nd attempt. The combination of the two is one round.

If any of you have taken the Basho training, you’ll recognize the format of the emails discussed. I researched the meaning of basho and it’s a tournament for sumo wrestling. One of the techniques in sumo is an opponent will shift their weight to gain control of their challenger. So how does this apply to increasing your response rates? By increasingly adding more and more value in each round. This is not a sumo wrestling tournament but it’s time to get fat!

Round 1: You’ll recall I discuss the give/get in the first article to increase response rates. This is where one will tease with an offer of strategic advice (without disclosing) to give then there is a call to action for the prospect to respond in order to get the advice. If you don’t get a response from the prospect, your next voicemail and email round will increase in the value. 

Round 2: Actually give the piece of advice. It can be somewhat generic or basic but should be helpful. The rep should then tease by stating they have several more ideas (more giving) for the prospect and finish with the call to action. The prospect will need to call the sales rep in order to get the additional ideas. 

Bob,

You recently downloaded the whitepaper “Using Facebook for Business”. I've been to your website and your business Facebook page and noticed you’re creating some interesting content through a blog. While a blog is the most natural way to gain more business via social media, it’s currently set up incorrectly to give your website search engine optimization credit. It’s an easy fix I’d be glad to explain.

I have several other ideas for you to gain more business through social media.

Would you be able to connect Monday at 1:00 EST or Tuesday at 11:00 EST?

Best,

Me

Round 3: Still don’t have a response yet? This time include something tangible. This could be a whitepaper or something educational and make sure the content helps the prospect solve an issue and is not about your product, service or company. It’s not about you! For example, we include a marketing grader report which gives a score of how well their website performs as a marketing tool and includes free suggestion on how they can improve it. Always remember the teaser and the call to action at the end.

Round 4: Offer some highly customized piece of advice. Look on their news page, blog, LinkedIn etc. and try to find something they are doing that you could offer help with. Complete it with the teaser and call to action.

What next if there is still nothing from the prospect?  After the 4^th round you are now at 8 attempts (4 voicemails and 4 emails), it’s time for the break up. “The Break Up” has a 33% response rate, it’s uncanny. Stay tuned. It’s the next blog article…..

I was shoveling my driveway this evening and I realized a strange coincidence. Then it occurred to me it might not be a coincidence after all. So now I’m worried my house might be cursed. So here are the facts….

In 2006 I looked at a house in Hingham which was an absolute dump, uninhabitable, a tear down, a complete junkyard. In fact, the words of some of the others at the open house were “this place is (expletive) disgusting”. There were jars filled with formaldehyde that were so old they’d fogged over and you couldn’t tell what was in them. Grease was dripping down the bedrooms walls where the headboards once were (Soul Glow anyone?). There was an old bank safe (a very large one) in the garage the previous owners had turned into a sauna. Yes, a sauna, steam bath, Turkish bath, whatever you want to call it. Complete with extension cord running from the house, across the back yard and into the garage. My personal favorite was the garden hose coming up through the 2^nd floor window, into the bathroom, hanging over the shower curtain rod as the shower head.

So what does one do with such a house? Run? No! I thought it was perfect and by 2007 it was the place I called home. It was not before a major rehab with a lot of blood sweat and tears. The house was completely updated from roof, electric, plumbing and the back of the house had to be torn down and rebuilt. It was 6 months of construction, a team of about 15 men from the general contractor, the fence guy, the roofing company, the company who did the driveway, etc. By no means was it a small undertaking.  So here’s where the story gets weird…..

As I’m shoveling my driveway, I finally reached the bottom of the snow and the shovel hit the cobblestones. It made me think of the man who put the cobblestones in and recently passed away. This is when the facts hit me like a ton of bricks.

The Driveway Guy – he’d owned his own company for years and done a lot of stone work in the area. He passed away of cancer in 2012.  Even more eerie, as I’m writing this, I googled to check on the date of his death and found it was almost a year ago to today. I have goose pumps.

The Fence Guy – a gentleman from Kingston, who'd put his life back together and had been sober for over a year. In 2009 he went out for a bachelor party and had offered to be the designated driver. After dropping off his friends safely, he was driving home at the wee hours of the night, fell asleep at the wheel, went straight when the road turned and was killed.

I can’t remember his last name as I wanted to google and find the date of his obituary. I looked in my phone to see if his last name might be there, however I have his name saved as “Kevin Fence”. I looked at his cell number it started with (617) 571 which is the same first 6 digits of my cell number. I no longer have goose bumps, now I’m feeling uneasy.

The General Contractor - Jason was a young contractor who practically had a monopoly on my street. He’d renovated 5 houses on the street within a year and a half. His business was thriving and he made the mistake of dabbling in prescription pills. He quickly went into a downward spiral and passed away 2008.

I went to find his obituary and his passing is almost exactly 5 years and 1 month from today. Goose bumps are gone, uneasy feeling is gone, I’m now - scared.

Is my house cursed??

Notice the Soul Glo? Bottom right hand corner of the below picture.

The garden hose is coming up from behind the shower curtain.....

The stairs.

The front of the house before construction and after (with cobblestones shown).

How can you be sure there is a 30% increase? I tested it and measured the results. I took 5 reps as the experimental group. They used the below technique with subsequent emails (which will be a blog post to follow). The control group was the rest of the sales team (about 45 other reps) who continued to use the same templates used in the past. I ran the experiment for 5 weeks and tracked the lead attempt to connect rates in Salesforce. The experimental group made 30% more connects than the control group. In data we trust, even in sales.  So here it goes....

In an early blog post I discuss the #1 rule to consultative selling. The below techniques follow the consultative approach by removing the focus from yourself, your product, company and/or service. 

1) The Subject Line should be about the prospect, not about you. The first step is to get the prospect to open the email. If it’s about them, it’ll be more interesting. If it’s an inbound lead, the subject line should be whatever they downloaded. If it’s an outbound or cold attempt, find something about the prospect. Look to see if they were recently in the news, updated or posted something on LinkedIn or Twitter. Make sure the recent news or status updated is related to business. Then make this the subject line.

2) The Length of the email should be short. Most of us are checking our emails via cell phones and mobile devices can make short emails look long. Send the email to yourself first and make sure it’s not overwhelm in length.

3) The 2 to 1 Ratio. In other words, you should reference their company and/or the word “you” at least twice as many times as you see the word “I” or your company name. Most importantly, start the email with the word “You”. This grabs their attention and it makes it about them. Starting an email with “I” is about you and quite frankly, who cares about you at this point.

4) The Give - you should also offer some type of tease alluding to strategic advice. It's best not criticize; add value by offering strategy and not about your product/service. Each subsequent attempt you’ll offer additional value by giving more strategies. I’ll talk about this more in my next coming blog article. Stay tuned.

5) The Get – the email should end with a call to action that stands alone. In other words, they’ll need to respond in order to get the strategic advice. This does not mean to end the email with “Let me know if you’d like to talk”. It's fine to use this with your friends and they get back to you because they like you. Prospects don’t like sales reps, they are not your friend and this is a waste of time. Instead, be very clear and end the email with a question “What time works best with you” or give suggested times (give a couple options as people are busy).

Here is an example of an email/voicemail template:

Bob,

You recently downloaded the whitepaper “Using Facebook for Business”. I've been to your website and your business Facebook page and noticed a few areas where you can increase the amount of business you’re generating from social media.

Would you be able to connect Monday at 1:00 EST or Tuesday at 11:00 EST?

Best,

Me

Your voicemail will match the same format, except you’d add at the end “This is (your name) calling from (company name) and my number is ____“. Yes, at the end not the beginning. As soon as you start a voicemail with “Hi this is so and so from…..” the voicemail is deleted before you can say the company name. If you have to introduce yourself, they know it’s a sales call and they won’t listen. Delete. Starting the voicemail without an introduction will seem very awkward at first. Practice until a it’s habit.

While many of these methods were derived from Jeff Hoffman's Basho Strategies, they've been augmented over time to stay relevant with the changing landscape of sales.   

You remember Fight Club starring Brad Pitt. What was the 1^st rule of Fight Club? You don't talk about Fight Club! This is also true in sales. The first rule to consultative selling and increasing sales is to stop selling.  Don't talk about your company or the products and/or services you offer.

You’ve probably heard the expression “it’s not about you, it’s about them”. For many in sales, this is easy to understand but it’s not clear how to execute. What the heck does one talk about if you can’t talk about the product/service you’re selling? Here’s the secret to not breaking the first rule of Fight Club.

1) What pain does your product/service solve?

If your answer is along the lines of streamlining this or that, more effectively does this or increases productivity, etc. Keep digging. Why would another company need that?  There are typically 3 areas in which a sale falls into: 

Makes money

Saves money

Reduces risk

Keep asking yourself why until you get down to one of the three listed above.

2) Become a subject matter expert in your industry. You’ll need to rely on this expertise so you can talk with your prospects about strategy. When you offer strategic advice and not about your product/service, you’ll gain trust and credibility. When they trust you they will tell you more about their problems and the REAL issues (which fall into one of the above 3 buckets). 

3) Stop selling. Put your product/service and quota to the side and genuinely try to help the prospect solve a problem through your expertise. Keep trying to solve their issues without breaking the 2^nd rule of Fight Club. While you offer a product/service that solves their problem, you will not need to bring it up. The prospect will ask on their ownif you’ve sincerely tried to help them.

This can be used in any example. Let's take an extreme example and say you're selling cake batter to a catering company. Why does a company need new cake batter? Perhaps wedding bookings have been down or their competition has a reputation for beautiful and tasty wedding cakes. Give advice on improving their current cakes and give ideas on how to increase bookings in other ways. You will gain trust with the prospect and they will be open with information about how one wedding cake collapsed an hour before a reception and several bookings were cancelled because of it. They might eventually disclose revenue is down 20%.

If you don't break the first 2 rules of Fight Club, the sale will naturally happen on its own. You may find the prospect doesn’t have a problem you can solve. While not the outcome you wanted, there was never a sale to be made in the first place. At least in this case the lost prospect is a great source of referrals. 

In subsequent posts I'll discuss how the rule of Fight Club is applicable in all stages of a sales process. 

It’s the age old problem; how does one diet and lose weight yet still be able to enjoy some beverages for those who are over 21?  The definition of “some beverages” may vary greatly for some people.  I digress. While the Skinny Girl Margarita have gained a lot of fans, I never really caught on. First, tequila turns some of us into the Exorcist. For those of you who need a reminder click here.....  As far as the Skinny Girl wine, it makes a bathroom with the door closed for days complete with a kitty litter box, in the summer, with no A/C seem more appealing. So here are some alternatives to keep you sane while dieting:

The Wannabe Creamsicle- 

Whipped cream vodka (Pinnacle vodka usually does the trick)

Diet Orange Canadian Dry (if you can’t find this you can go with diet orange soda or diet crush)

Add Ice and go.

*Caution these taste unreal, you’ll drink them fast!

Desperate for Chocolate Martini -

Chocolate flavored vodka (I've only tried UV chocolate vodka)

Skim Milk

Just a touch of Hershey's chocolate syrup 

Shake well and serve.

As an alternative you can drink the chocolate vodka on the rocks, add water to increase volume. It tastes like you're drinking Godiva liqueur.

*Caution these are also really taste and you’ll drink them as fast as you'd eat a piece of chocolate cake!

The "Ugh I Have to Get In a Bathing Suit" -

Malibu rum

Fresca

A splash of pineapple juice

Add an orange on the top of the glass and serve.  Don't forget the umbrella.

*Caution not only will these go down fast, but you might actually think you're on vacation from your diet.

The Lululemonade -

Cake vodka (ThreeOlives, Pinnacle or UV have all worked in the past)

Crystal Light pink lemonade mix

Add ice and serve at your favorate BBQ

*Caution limit yourself to 2.

These are the best I've heard of and discovered as of yet. I'm hopeful with all the new flavored vodkas there will be more recipes to share.