How to sell outside of your 'ethnic silo'.

November 5, 2009
Toronto, ON
info@salesconsciousness.com

Introduction
I know that the term 'ethnic silo' can sound strange to people that live outside Canada. 'What's that?', you might say. I'm going to explain, among other things, the term few lines below. The purpose of this article is to describe one of the most important sales coaching conversations of the coaching process that a Sun Life adviser and I had. This helped her to start selling outside her 'ethnic silo'. She is originally from one Latin American country and arrived to Canada few years ago. What happened in this conversation and in the whole process brought her more money, a bigger, much more bigger market and a lot more opportunities to sell.

A Brief Note About the Format of this article.
I wrote this article trying to be precise in the details of the coaching conversation that we had. Also, I added comments, where I judged appropiate, about the reason why I asked the questions I asked.

What's an 'ethnic silo'?
Briefly, when immigrants arrive to Canada, some of them, ''tend to live in 'ethnic silos' and use their native language'' (Here I'm quoting Naeem Noorani: this is his web site).

Regarding sales, they tend to sell only to people that are at their own 'ethnic silo'. Why? Several factors but the most important are fear and assumptions (false, most of them) about what is outside of it. In this case, this Sun Life adviser, was only selling to Hispanics. She was selling only to Spanish speaking clients therefore, her market was very small compared with the size of the clients she could get outside her 'ethnic silo' in Toronto, ON.

The Coaching Conversation

When we started our coaching process, she told me that one of her main goals was:

-"To sell to Canadians, not only to Hispanics. They love me and they keep referring business almost all the time and I have built some important networks with them but I want to start selling to other cultures, particularly to native English speaking Canadians."

(She used that term, is not mine and I didn't start a conversation trying to explain to her that we are all Canadians, some are new, some are old and/or some are natural English speakers. I'm a sales coach, not an immigration expert. For me it was clear that what she was saying was that she wanted to sell to a bigger, much bigger market.)

Coach: - "And how do you plan to do that?"

(I always, as maybe you have read, ask this question. They come to me to ask a lots of 'hows' but almost always they know them and when they don't we design together and when we don't I tell them exactly what to do.)

Financial Adviser: -"Well, that's exactly why I'm talking to you, you are supposed to tell me how."
Coach: -"Right. We need to create a specific strategy that you can execute in order to start selling outside the Hispanic community, particularly to Canadians, as one of your main selling goal."
Financial Adviser: -"Yes"
Coach: -"Now, I must ask you this, lets say that you can start selling right now outside the Hispanic community, particularly to Canadians, do you know to whom exactly are you going to sell? Do you know where to start?"
Financial Adviser -"Yes. Our manager gave us several lists with qualified prospects. I can start calling them, you know, cold calling."

(In the moment after she said this, I noticed that she started to rub her hands, she crossed her arms and legs and started to breath faster.)

Coach: -"When does the manager gave you the list?"
Financial Adviser:-"He gave us the list more than three months ago."
Coach: -"And?"
Financial Adviser: -"Yes, I know but..."
Coach:-"What is your plan? How are you going to sell to this desired market?"

(I want you to notice two things. First, I repeat the question 'how' on purpose. My experience tells me that, frequently, the first time I ask, they want to keep their Ego protected and not to risk saying something useless and/or to be exposed: 'why, if I know how to do it, why I haven't started or done it?' Second: If I insist, they are going to tell me exactly what they are going to do and normally their plan is the one that's going to work. Third, it's a matter of appropriateness: if the solution comes from them, it belongs to them and them are going to use it.)

Financial Adviser:-"Let me tell you: I have the list so the thing is to start calling and that's it."
Coach: -''Now, what exactly is stopping you or has stopped you from doing it since you have those lists three months ago?''
Financial Adviser: -"I don't know. Could be fear. No, I don't know.

(All her non verbal communication tells me that she is experiencing the fear that stops her to call the prospects on those lists. She starts feeling exactly what she feels when she imagine herself doing the phone calls OR having sales meetings with her prospects. Are their assumptions and perceptions the ones that are scaring her not what she's going to do. Her interpretations about this new project are the ones that are keeping her from selling not what will happen in 'reality'. She's having a strong reaction. Also, she confessed later that one of her most scary thoughts was: 'What would happen if I discover that I can't sell but only in Spanish?' She didn't wanted to deal with that 'reality'. She was having a strong nonverbal reaction.)

Coach: -"I don't know, could be. Now, answer this, if that's the case, to what exactly are you fearful? What exactly do you fear?"
Financial Adviser: -"I don't know... (sighs)... no, I know: one is to froze in the middle of the phone call... to arrive to a point where I don't know what to say."
Coach: -'But a lot of other things could happen, besides frozen yourself, like positive ones, right?'
Financial Adviser: -'Yeah... sure...' (As if she hasn't ever consider the possibility of something different, besides freezing in that moment, could happen.)
Coach: -What other fear do yo have or has you? Yes, you don't have fears, fears have you, if not what's the whole point? Right now they have a grip on you that's why I have to keep asking: what other do you have?
Financial Adviser: -To freeze in the sales call, to freeze in front of my client during the interview because I don't know what to say next or because I can't find the right words in English.
Coach: -"Aand, how do you plan to solve them?
Financial Adviser: -"Mee?! OK, me. The freezing during the phone call can be solved with a telephone script specially designed for those phone calls... and (like an AJA moment) our manager gave us one when he gave us the lists. He said, 'don't improvise, only Beethoven improvise. (She feels relieved after she says this.) But, I have almost never used a telephone script, almost all my clients come from referrals, networking events. I have never or in very rare occasions used one. But well, it seems like I'm going to use one.

(These questions are designed to provoke precisely the answer that she gave me: to detach her to the only one possible outcome she thinks is going to happen. As she answers, she acknowledges that there are several other different outcomes that could happen and will happen. The other question, about the telephone script, belong to the domain of selling tools and skills. Later, she proved in action that using a telephone script helped her to get the positive results that she got.)

Coach: -"Now you are aware that it's possible that instead of something negative, a lot of positive things could happen if you start selling to this list, don't you? I can bet that you felt nervous when you started selling so now you will going to have a new beginning so it's normal that you are there before you start. Just wait and see... I want to go back to your fear: can you find another reason behind it? How is your English? I know that 90% of your portfolio are Hispanic clients and most of your friends are Hispanics, do you think that your English level could limit you while you do your phone calls and handle your sales meetings?"
Financial Adviser: -"No, I don't think so. I speak English very well. When we meet with my manager and in other places I speak English and remember that I have been here for more than 8 years so I don't think the language could be a problem and I know that if at any moment I have problems with words they will help me. When I spoke to native English speakers and I can't find the word or the expression that I want to use, I explain to them what I want to say and they help me and no, I can't think in other reason rather to explore a new territory."
Coach: -"And you think you can do that while you are at the sales meeting? Because we have solved the problem, at least part, with the cold calling, now, do you know exactly what to do during the sales meeting to close the deal?"
Financial Adviser: -"No, but I don't think that it would be too different from the ones that I do in Spanish. I do my presentation, I ask the client several questions, I make rapport and at the end, I ask them for the business or they decide by themselves to sign."
Coach: -"...too different..." well no, you will find that too. (I smile.) That they are not 'too different' and I think that that's one of the causes of your fear. I don't know why you are making them "... too different..." from your Hispanic clients... they are just clients and you will find that they are alike, too alike I must add, with their differences but not too many."
Financial Adviser: -"Yeah, you are right! Just clients. I feel like it's going to be tested, like if I am going in search of their approval, not their business. Sometimes I see them too big and not, as you said, they are just clients (sighes and smiles).

(This part of the conversation reminded me a movie with Gene Hackman: "Hoosiers". This is the story of an always losing basketball team of a rural town in the US. Gene Hackman does the role of a coach that has had problems in other towns and cities and is hired to coach this team. To make the long story short, with his coaching, the team arrives to the State Finals but the players, as soon they enter the Indianapolis Arena, where the final is going to be played, the became panicked of the size of the place. Then, the coach started, with the help of his players, to measure the size of the basketball play zone, just to help them to understand that it's exactly the same size that the one in which they play at home. Just this exercise reduces a lot the fear in the players and finally they win this State Championship.)

Coach: -"So? What are you going to do?"
Financial Adviser-"Start calling to the prospects that I have on my list tomorrow and rehearse mentally the sales interview but now in English and write an agenda, in English too. Lets say, I'm going to build a template in English. I'm going to ask my manager if he doesn't have one. He gave us the telephone script but nothing for the interview. Also, I will use the telephone script, at least at the beginning. After some phone calls I think that I will be able to go on my own. (smiles)"
Coach -"Sounds good. Another question: I know that you have a long selling career and you have sold insurance for sometime ago (she nods) and I know that your portfolio is mainly 90% Hispanic and we know that there is nothing wrong with that but my question is: have you ever sold to an native English speaking prospect? And if yes, what happened?"

(I made this question just with the purpose to help her to see that she has been there before and that she closed those sales. I was searching a resource reservoir: experience, skills and emotions. She sighed and smiled.)

Financial Adviser: -"(Smiling) Yes, I have. I have some clients that are native English speakers and the sales meetings went well, they are still my clients and if I remember well, I was nervous BUT I closed them. I remember feeling relieved after I left their homes but almost all of them bought from me. You are right. It doesn't have to be a problem. (Sigh)"
Coach: -"So, what are you going to do?"
Financial Adviser: -"Again? OK, prepare the telephone script, take out the list, rehearse a sales meeting in English, take some notes and start calling. Other thing that I should do is to ask one of my colleagues to go with him and watch him selling, ask my manager if he has some tool or guide to handle the meetings and like you said (I never said this but it doesn't matter.) I just need to start. Thank you. Thanks a lot. I feel a lighter and excited!"
Coach: -"That's great!! See you next week."

Final Comments:
Immediately after that session, she made several cold calls. She was surprised when two of her clients went to her office to buy the insurance. After several false starts she is now selling to new markets, earning much more money than before and finding more interesting markets for her selling career.

November 5th, 2009
Toronto, ON
info@salesconsciousness.com

Silence and questions as coaching techniques...

Well, I think that that's what experience is all about.

Last week I was coaching, as I have done in the last year, a sales rep. He works in the manufacturing industry. He sells for a Sweden company, which I can't in this moment mention here. But, I can share our conversation dynamics and what happened on it.

He told me that his boss, the company CEO gave him a new strategy to follow. He is now going to approach clients that are already clients in other parts of the world for this company but still aren't his clients.

Then he said: "What should I do? How do you think we can approach this?"

(This question is brilliant and they are always going to ask it. The sales rep is always going to ask what to do to solve any situation but, I always apply the same principle... before telling them anything, ask... and ask... and ask and listen... you will be surprised that they already know what to do in order to get more clients. Not all the time but most of the time. And when they don't know, guess what, they discover the next step doing the previous one OR checking his own sales process.)

And I said: "-OK Do you mind telling me more?"

He said: "Yes of course. My boss told me that he and his sales team has observed that it takes less time to close a sales process when we are selling to those companies that are already our clients in other parts of the world except here. So what I'm going to do is to update the list that I have..."

I interrupted: "The list that you have is not updated?"

He said: "No, it isn't. I have to call the central office and ask the manager for the updated list."

I said: "And after that, what are you going to do?"

He said: "We have done this in the past but it didn't work."

I said: "Why?"

He said: "Because when I tried to ask the other sales reps for leads they didn't answered my calls."

I said: "Right, how many times did you ask for the info and for how many companies?"

He said: "Two... but, (bla, bla, bla, bla)."

(I didn't pursued more the why he didn't do more about this list in the past. Why? Because I noticed that he made consciousness about it and I'm going to be there to help him to complete successfully this job. What the CEO asked him to do.)

I interrupted: "Fine, then, what are you going to do?"

He answered: "Yeah, fine... In the moment that I have that list I'm going to contact the sales reps that have each account globally so they can help me with relevant information about a client: what we are selling to them, what is their relationship with ABC, Inc., if they are still our clients and if they have or can obtain for me the name of a contact here, in my country. Well, before that, I will review the list to find out if any of these clients are our clients here. Yes, that´s first. And then, well start calling them."

(Please notice that here, he is telling me what he is going to do. He asked me to help him with that but the one that is describing the first stage of his plan, is him. Not me. How? I only asked some questions.)

I said: -"Perfect... so you have a lot of work to do..."

He said: -"Yes, indeed! But I want to know how I'm going to approach them."

I said: -"Why don't we have the list updated first and then we act according to each case?"

(Sales reps always ask for the silver bullet. The one technique, strategy or tactic that is going to work in every sales situation or case. But sales coaching, at least the one that I do, doesn't work that way and experience have proved that to me. My client and I design each strategy, technique and tactic according the situation/client he is dealing with. It's a situational approach not a cookie cutter approach.)

He said: "Yes, you are right. I'll do that and we work with the list in our next call."

Me: "Yes, we work with the prospects that you are ready to call in our next call. Have a great week!"


Comments
Sometimes, when I asked them to describe more about their situation, they find the solution. One of the most important characteristics in my coaching process is not to arrive to conclusions too fast and say it. I prefer to go deeper and I have found that when I do that, in depth, there is the answer, the solution, the approach, the strategy and/or the technique that they are searching for.
Another point here is that this call lasted only 25 minutes. The more they work the less time is required.
The last comment is that besides depth, I prefer them to arrive to their own answers just because, yes they know them, even if they don't know that they know them but, if they arrive to their own answers, they are going to be the owners of them and they will keep the power, their power with them and the responsibility it comes with.

Toronto, ON

A TD Canada Trust Mortgage Broker Enlightened.

Nice expression isn't it?

Sorry, I can't tell you the name of this mortgage broker but the other day we had a coaching session.
She was a little nervous about her financial future. Of course, for almost everybody the global financial crisis is a big concern. But that's the wonder of coaching.

She started saying that she was very concerned about the financial crisis, her business AND by two personal situations.
I told her, "so your mind is occupied by thoughts that are not going to produce you any money."

She said that yes and that her main concern was that she wasn't seeing any people because she didn't know where to get them. Then, I asked her what were her financial goals for this year. She said, "I'll be happy with $3,500.00 a month."

Then my coaching question: "And from where is this money going to come?"

I love their faces. They put a face like saying: "That's why I hired you!"

I replied:

• "OK, yes, so tell me, what are you going to do?"

And in that moment she was enlightened.
She said, with light in her eyes:

1. "I can visit the business at my neighborhood. I have lived here in the last 18 years. They know me so I can approach them. I will do a plan. Yes, yes."

But it was too easy and when the sales representative discovers that she/he has the solution(s) for their problem(s) she says to herself: "UUPPSS, that was too easy!!!" and suddenly resistance appears so I immediately asked the following:

• "Do you mind telling me another two places where you can get clients for you?:"

Resistance: "Well I don't know, it's difficult... is going to be hard... bla, bla, bla..."
Suddenly her eyes lightened up, her face turned red, stopped breathing, put her hand in her mouth and said:

-"I run an office that has 30 Realtors and there are some regulars but there are a lot that I don't know or they don't go to the office so, maybe ... if I talk to them... maybe..."

This was solution number 2. And then, she was enlightened with solution number 3:

"-I have worked for the bank for the last 18 years. Since then I have made a lot of clients. In fact, I started my career as a Mortgage Broker calling them and telling them that I was leaving my position and starting my career as a mortgage broker and that I was going to sell for the bank. They gave me a lot of referrals which I translated into clients. So... I can do the same now...!"
And her face, selling career and life were enlightened. Why? Because she found what to do in order to get the deals she need in order to have an income of $3,500.00.

And she was enlightened by herself. She crafted the solutions for their own selling situation.
I just asked questions.

What else? The emotions expressed in her body language were congruent with the selling strategies that she created for her business. They came from deep inside, her experience and her own knowledge.

Normally, they know what to do.

A Sales Coaching Conversation... with a Financial Advisor 2

Well, it happened.

And it happens with a lot of sales people that think they are their own bosses??, like this financial adviser.

What I wanted to write about was that she finally followed her sales consciousness... and that she was getting a lot of results and that I transformed her.... but not, not in this case.

In fact, it happened the other way around. She was asked to lead a project for another insurance company and this project has nothing to do with selling (she says that yes, that it has to do with selling... of course... but she has to sell hard to herself the project so she can quiet her own sales consciousness and be comfortably uncomfortable) so she will be "distracted" during the whole year from her main selling activities.

Besides being distracted by not selling and not working with discipline, she will be distracted doing a project that has nothing to do with her nature and her business.

Is that too bad?

Well, she complained about it. She told me that she has been an underachiever, this meaning that she knows can produce a lot more compared with what she was selling right now and/or the year before. Also she told me that during the last year she was distracted by a lot of 'things' including those that sometimes 'appeared' in her office and by people that 'drained her energy'.

And that she was "fed up" so she was willing to do whatever it was necessary to 'change' BUT we understood later, that in 'necessary' weren't included the basic things that an insurance sales person must (if she wants the results she says she wants) do:

• find the hundreds of opportunities that she has in her own portfolio (remember that she has been selling for the last 8-9 years) by reselling to them or asking them for referrals (really, is that very hard action to take, really?)
  
• make appointments, have interviews

Instead of doing these 'easy and practical things' she choose to do a completely different thing, so maybe she and I are going to be talking in a year.

And about sharing an unsuccessful case?

Well, almost every coach that I have met has more that one stories of failures (more than one, are you kidding?). So, sometimes it is better to share some of them to help the readers (hoping that these are sales professionals AND coaches) to mirror themselves in them.

A Sales Coaching Conversation... with a Financial Advisor

(I'm grateful with Laura McCann, lauramccann@sympatico.ca . She helped to make this article readable.)

Two days ago I met with a client. It was our first coaching conversation. Her own diagnosis of her situation was:

"I know I can do a lot more but I can get easily distracted with a lot of unproductive activities and despite the fact that I'm a very well known and respected person in the community, I know that I'm barely making my monthly quotas. I want to make the money that I know I can. Please tell me what I need to do."

First, some background. She has been selling financial products for at least 9 years. She is very well known in the Hispanic community in Toronto. She has a lot of clients in her own portfolio.

Here, I will try to reproduce the most important part of our conversation as closely as possible:

Coach: -"OK. So you know that you can produce a lot more, you know that you can sell a lot more and earn a lot more money, don't you?"

Financial Advisor: -"Yes, but I don't know what happens. For example (and this is important): I arrive at the office with a selling plan. I tell myself that it's time to produce more so I list some of the things that I should do in order to produce more, OK? That's easy, BUT, when I arrive at the office, I suddenly start doing other things, or even go out with my friend from another office to an event that has nothing to do with my business nor is the event in keeping or with what I've planned."

Coach: -"So you know what to do to sell more?"

Financial Advisor: -"Yes of course but I almost always end up doing a lot of other unrelated things."

Coach: -"OK. Let me talk to your intuition."

Financial Advisor: -"With my what?"

Coach: -"With your intuition. The little, soft voice that talks to you every morning and tells you exactly what you can do to get better results, because she talks to you everyday, doesn't she?

Financial Advisor: -"Yes, but as I told you, I end up doing things that go contrary to what my intuition tells me to do."

Coach: -"Perfect, so you have it! Now, what happens when, lets say that your intuition tells you: 'Sarah (not her real name) you need to clean up your list of clients and you need to do it today' and suddenly "something" distracts you from that and you end up in, lets say, at an event that does not lead to being productive. Does this intuition make claims to you about that?"

Financial Advisor: -"Yes, she tells me: 'What are you doing here? We are not going to get anything from here.'"

Coach: -"And?"

Financial Advisor: -"Well, I tell her that probably we might meet people that may eventually become clients and/or that could lead to future clients."

Coach: -"But you know that this isn't the case and when you say that to yourself you're sending to sleep, among other mechanisms and tricks that you use for that, this selling consciousness so she will stop bothering you with her questions about why you aren't doing what do you need to do to get the results you want."

Financial Advisor: -"What?"

Coach: -"Yes. Everyday, you know, because you listen to it from your sales consciousness, with precision, what to do so you can get the results that you want, don't you? (she nods) BUT (and it's a very BIG one), you almost always get distracted and end up doing something that has nothing to do with your selling plans. Am I correct?"

Financial Advisor: -"Yes..."

Coach: -"So, what we are going to do in this coaching conversations is to help you to simply obey your selling consciousness."

Financial Advisor: -"..."

Coach: -"Yes, you have two thoughts. One tells you to sell. The other destroys that intention and send you to do anything related with sales production. And while you are listening to both, you end obeying to the one that destroys your intentionality, your constructive efforts. The purpose of my coaching is going to help you to obey your sales consciousness and to do what she tells you to do so you can do what you know you must do to get the results that you want. Am I clear now?"

Financial Advisor: -"Am I destroying my career?"

Coach: -"Are you?"

Financial Advisor: -"OK, maybe, the thing is that I'm not getting results. So now, how can I change?"

Coach: -"Let me talk to you sales consciousness and let us hear what she wants to tell us..."

From here, her selling intuition or consciousness gave her exactly the same instructions. These strategies are neither magic nor motivational. They are simple and very common sense selling tactics and strategies that when applied, produce the desired results.

And my point is to help her in obeying it and applying them.

Argyris, Coaching, Power and Results

Since I started my private practice as a coach, I have been aware of the present debate between the coaches that give advice (including myself, a lot of times) and the coaches that help the client to come with his own answers and solutions.
My friend Abiel, from Mexico, sent me, some weeks ago, two articles that were published by the Harvard Business Review written by Chris Argyris. He is a "hidden genius" about management, leadership, learning in organizations and communication.
I knew something about Argyris because some of his theories were used by Fernando Flores in the complete design of his model called Ontological Design and by Peter Senge, but I never explored in depth his ideas and theories.
Reading these articles and some other that I found by myself, I started to realize the importance of natural coaching: this means, the client creating, within the space created in the conversation with his coach, his own solutions, possibilities and answers in order, not only to solve his current situation, but, to create a new future.
I will leave you with a paragraph that I took from one of his articles.
In the next post, I will write an example of "natural coaching" of course, in the domain of sales.

To other coaches
Also, a lot of coaches that I know, can use the following text, if they read it, to argue in favor of "natural coaching". Because sometimes there is a debate about the type of coaching but they don't know how to support their assertions.

About my practice
And for me, this doesn't mean that I will quit the practice of giving advice to my clients. What they need to know sometimes, is not 'there' period. But, I will make them to think more and more before I tell them what to do.

Chris Argyris is the James Bryant Conant Professor Emeritus of Education and Organizational Behavior at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the author of "Good Communication That Blocks Learning" (HBR July-August 1994), a McKinsey Award winner. He is also a director at Monitor Company in Cambridge.

Two Kinds of Commitment

"To understand why there has been no transformation (in the work force), we need to begin with commitment. Commitment is not simply a human relations concept. It is an idea that is fundamental to our thinking about economics, strategy, financial governance, information technology, and operations. Commitment is about generating human energy and activating the human mind. Without it, the implementation of any new initiative or idea would be seriously compromised. Human beings can commit themselves in two fundamentally different ways: externally and internally. Both are valuable in the workplace, but only internal commitment reinforces empowerment. (See the exhibit "How Commitment Differs.")

Compare the following

External Commitment

-Tasks are defined by others.

-The behavior required to perform tasks is defined by others.

-Performance goals are defined by management.

-The importance of the goal is defined by others.

compared with:

Internal Commitment

-Individuals define tasks.

-Individuals define the behavior required to perform tasks.

-Management and individuals jointly define performance goals that are challenging for the individuals.

-Individuals define the importance of the goals.

External commitment -- think of it as contractual compliance -- is what an organization gets when workers have little control over their destinies. It is a fundamental truth of human nature and psychology that the less power people have to shape their lives, the less commitment they will have. When, for example, management single-handedly defines work conditions for employees, the employees will almost certainly be externally committed. That commitment is external because all that is left for employees is to do what is expected of them. The employees will not feel responsible for the way the situation itself is defined. How can they? They did not do the defining.

If management wants employees to take more responsibility for their own destiny, it must encourage the development of internal commitment. As the name implies, internal commitment comes largely from within. Individuals are committed to a particular project, person, or program based on their own reasons or motivations. By definition, internal commitment is participatory and very closely allied with empowerment. The more that top management wants internal commitment from its employees, the more it must try to involve employees in defining work objectives, specifying how to achieve them, and setting stretch targets."

Argyris, Chris. "Empowerment: the emperor's new clothes. " Harvard Business Review. 76.n3 (May-June 1998): 98(8). General Reference Center Gold. Gale. Toronto Reference Library. 6 Sept. 2007

Selling Trucks With Outdated Selling Techniques

To this business owner, the question that was troubling to him was:

Why is this seller not selling?
He was supposed to sell trucks for this company. But he was not getting results.

What was happening to him?
He was applying ready to hand, very basic and common selling techniques that were unfit to sell trucks. It was like trying to sell airplanes with cosmetics selling techniques.
Let me explain.

Background
This salesman was hired to sell trucks but in the last six months his production was zero. Indeed, he was trying but he wasn't producing any results. His manager, the owner of the business, asked me to see what was happening and to help, if it was possible, him to sell.

A visit to his territory
I asked the seller to schedule at least 5 meetings with his clients so we can visit together and have a look and a close comprehension about what he was doing so he was getting no results.
He picked me up at the airport and immediately started our sales visits.

What was happening?
Our first sales meeting was with the owner of a truck company. He received us in a very friendly mood. In the moment that my client was allowed to talk he started to sell talking only about all the features of his product. He talked and talked and talked. His client, of course, while he was talking (or selling, he called it) was thinking and not very positive things (his body language was speaking louder than his words) about the presentation. My client used a beautiful brochure in this presentation (to cover the inefficiency of his presentation and praying for the brochure do the selling). The buyer, almost at the end of the conversation asked my client about the price, he immediately said it and obviously the buyer told my client that he need time to think about it. It was then when my client, like begging, told the buyer:

• "Please, why don't we start with one (truck)? Only one, please."
  

The buyer told him that he was going to think the offer an he was going to call back in two weeks. (We all know what does that means.) Then we left the office of the buyer. While we were in the car heading to the next interview he, the seller, my client, asked a question I was afraid he was going to ask: "How it was?" I told him that I was going to answer that question after we finish all his scheduled meetings with his clients.

The Next Sales Meetings
The next sales meetings went almost the same. They change their own dynamics because the clients asked several things, but the kind of presentations that my client was doing was essentially the same. The pattern was the same. What were his problems selling? I'm going to list several, but all of them have their roots in the overall selling structure that this salesman had about selling, which I'm going to explain later.

His Mistakes
He:

• never asked any questions and was blind about the client's precise situation of its fleet
  
• relied always in the brochure
• thought that he could close a sale this big (the price of his product was $23,000 USD average) in one meeting
• in three meetings he was selling to the person that has no power to decide
• was almost always talking about features ("the Pearson suspension is the best of all", "the size of the box is better than the others")
• didn't know what to do when the client told him that "...it was too expensive..."

...among others

Causes?
But what was the cause, if any, of this type of selling? He sold, in the last 10 years, truck parts. You can sell a truck part in 2 minutes. Well of course, it depends on the price of the part, but it's closed sale. The salesman is inside the store, the buyer comes in and asks for a specific part, the seller gives him his part, he pays it, and that's it. On the contrary, if 's selling trucks, and visiting potential buyers for that, he needs another type of sales method. He was unable to sell a truck with his "selling truck part techniques".

The Automatic Selling
Other problem was that this "truck parts selling techniques" automatic "used him" in almost every presentation with a potential client AND he didn't noticed that. He wasn't unaware about this and he was visiting potential buyers doing exactly the same thing with each one of them: he was used by the same sales structure he used when he was a parts seller.

The Next Step: the Design of a New Selling Structure
The problem with this kind of situation, and it's very common, is that the seller is unaware that he is being used by a selling structure, with life of his own that doesn't matches the product/service nor with the potential buyer. So the first step is to provoke awareness in the salesman. For a moment, he was in shock with the revelation that he is selling trucks with techniques that are fit more in selling cheap products. Then, the second step is the designing of a new sales process that matches precisely with the product/service he is trying to sell with the potential buyer and/or potential buyers.

The Results?
After several weeks of designing, he started to use the new sales process and also started to close sales.