13 Execution: The True Art of the Sale

Just do it.

—Nike Footwear slogan

Anyone can come up with all kinds of strategies to make a

sale. It is the salesperson who makes the leap, the one who actually

tries to execute the ideas, who wins the day. There are

four Knock Your Socks Off secrets to execution.

1. Have a positive passion about them.

Very few things are as infectious as a positive passion. But

it’s not believing in your company or the strength of its products

that’s important. Your passion has to be for the value your

product or service can provide for the prospect.

The difference sounds small, but it is huge. A lot of salespeople

believe strongly that their companies and products are

terrific. Only a few reserve their passion for what makes a deal

terrific from the prospect’s point of view, not their own. Those

few are the winners. They knock people’s socks off.

Consider a guy we’ll call Joe. He sells ceiling fans. He has

sold fans for the same company for twenty two years. He is

very passionate about his fans. He loves the quality of the materials

used. He loves the precision machining. He loves the

selection of styles he has to sell. He loves his fans’ ability to

blow more air than rival fans and the excellent reputation his company and its fans have enjoyed for as long as they have

been in business. He knows all the features and benefits of

each of his fans, and he can answer any question put before

him. Joe truly believes that he sells the best fans money can

buy.

All of that is wonderful. But if Joe really wants to knock

their socks off, he needs to get past his own reasons to love

these fans and direct his passion to the reasons why prospects

might love them. Why does a prospect want a fan in the first

place? (It’s probably not because of precision machining.)

What particular need will the fan serve? What is important to

them about the qualities of one fan versus another? How will

having a fan in a room allow them to enjoy their home more?

Joe believes he sells great fans? Swell. Now he needs to get

passionately curious about how prospects might feel if they

had a great fan. For positive passion to be contagious, it has to

be all about them.

2. Be prepared.

Naturally salespeople need a thorough understanding of

the features and benefits their company and their products

have to offer. But the real trick is to be prepared from the

prospect’s perspective. What’s on their mind? What worries

them, takes most of their attention, makes their ears perk up

when the subject is brought to the table?

Whenever possible, great salespeople do their homework

about the issues the person they are going to be calling on faces

on a daily basis. That way, the salesperson walks into the call

prepared to discuss options in a conversation where both parties

bring something to the table. The alternative is a conversation

in which one party tries to talk about his needs (having

been encouraged to), while the other tries to pitch a product.

TIP: How can you prepare yourself to discuss a

prospect’s needs on a cold call? If you are calling

on a public company, the last two or three quarterly

reports, available on its Web site, usually are

good indicators of where time and effort are being

spent. If it is a private company, insiders like ad-

ministrators, marketing people, and current salespeople

are good contacts. Outside the company,

customers and competitors are always talking as

well. The question is, are you listening?

3. Ask.

A key element in execution is to take the offensive. Ask.

Ask questions, ask for help, ask for understanding. If you are

really passionate about them and their needs, and if you’ve

done your homework, prospects want to talk to you.

But don’t just ask questions for the sake of asking. “So,

Ms. Smith, what keeps you awake at night” is just as stupid as,

“So, Mr. Jones, what are your current pain points?” You have

to earn a seat at the asking table. That’s where homework

comes in.

_ “Mr. Smith, based on your last quarterly report, it

seems you are looking to increase your inventory

turns, is that right?”

_ “Ms. Jones, I talked to some of your people, and it

seems that your company could really use a solution

that would measure the success of new product

launches. Is that right?”

_ “Ms. Apple, you said that cutting time to market is

your number one goal. What are you doing now to

achieve that?”

4. Start from the next step.

Time and time again, salespeople begin a cold call only to

have the prospect say something like, “Well that sounds good,

why don’t you call me back in a few weeks when I have time

to talk?” A lot of salespeople feel good about this. They pull

out their calendars and mark a date in a few weeks when they

will call the prospect again. Hey, the guy invited them to,

right? Obviously he’ll take the call.

Wrong. What you just heard was a stall. Stalls can go on

forever.

To prevent stalls and avoid dropping the execution ball,

try to get prospects involved in a “next step” of some sort.

Execution: The True Art of the Sale 71

There are three great ways to do this. Give them homework,

get a date, and call around.

_ Give them homework. Give prospects something to

do. Ask them to fill out a form, send an e-mail, or

gather some information. Warning: We are NOT talking

about the gambit where you send them a mountain

of marketing literature and ask them to read it: “Mr.

Smith, I’ll send you all the information I have. If you

can just review it . . . . “ Who has time to review anything?

Give them a simple assignment. Ask them to

call someone, do something, answer a three-question

e-mail to help you get better prepared. Get them involved

in the start of the process.

_ Get a date. Get a specific date of action. A good next

step is not, “real soon” or “as soon as possible.” Set a

real date, one that shows up on your calendar. Then

you’ll be moving this sale along.

_ Ask if you can call around. Before the cold call ends,

tell the prospect that as a next step you want to do a

little more homework. Ask who they would recommend

you speak to in order to get some more information

before your next conversation.

This gains involvement in a roundabout way, but you will

have a concrete reason to call back in two weeks (you talked

to some of the people the prospect recommended) and the

prospect will have a reason to take your call (you were diligent

in doing the homework that they gave you).

There is no one “right” way to execute a cold call. But

prospectors who follow the advice discussed in this chapter

may find, to their surprise, that cold calling is not as hard as

they’ve always thought.

Just do it.

—Nike Footwear slogan

Anyone can come up with all kinds of strategies to make a

sale. It is the salesperson who makes the leap, the one who actually

tries to execute the ideas, who wins the day. There are

four Knock Your Socks Off secrets to execution.

1. Have a positive passion about them.

Very few things are as infectious as a positive passion. But

it’s not believing in your company or the strength of its products

that’s important. Your passion has to be for the value your

product or service can provide for the prospect.

The difference sounds small, but it is huge. A lot of salespeople

believe strongly that their companies and products are

terrific. Only a few reserve their passion for what makes a deal

terrific from the prospect’s point of view, not their own. Those

few are the winners. They knock people’s socks off.

Consider a guy we’ll call Joe. He sells ceiling fans. He has

sold fans for the same company for twenty two years. He is

very passionate about his fans. He loves the quality of the materials

used. He loves the precision machining. He loves the

selection of styles he has to sell. He loves his fans’ ability to

blow more air than rival fans and the excellent reputation his company and its fans have enjoyed for as long as they have

been in business. He knows all the features and benefits of

each of his fans, and he can answer any question put before

him. Joe truly believes that he sells the best fans money can

buy.

All of that is wonderful. But if Joe really wants to knock

their socks off, he needs to get past his own reasons to love

these fans and direct his passion to the reasons why prospects

might love them. Why does a prospect want a fan in the first

place? (It’s probably not because of precision machining.)

What particular need will the fan serve? What is important to

them about the qualities of one fan versus another? How will

having a fan in a room allow them to enjoy their home more?

Joe believes he sells great fans? Swell. Now he needs to get

passionately curious about how prospects might feel if they

had a great fan. For positive passion to be contagious, it has to

be all about them.

2. Be prepared.

Naturally salespeople need a thorough understanding of

the features and benefits their company and their products

have to offer. But the real trick is to be prepared from the

prospect’s perspective. What’s on their mind? What worries

them, takes most of their attention, makes their ears perk up

when the subject is brought to the table?

Whenever possible, great salespeople do their homework

about the issues the person they are going to be calling on faces

on a daily basis. That way, the salesperson walks into the call

prepared to discuss options in a conversation where both parties

bring something to the table. The alternative is a conversation

in which one party tries to talk about his needs (having

been encouraged to), while the other tries to pitch a product.

TIP: How can you prepare yourself to discuss a

prospect’s needs on a cold call? If you are calling

on a public company, the last two or three quarterly

reports, available on its Web site, usually are

good indicators of where time and effort are being

spent. If it is a private company, insiders like ad-

ministrators, marketing people, and current salespeople

are good contacts. Outside the company,

customers and competitors are always talking as

well. The question is, are you listening?

3. Ask.

A key element in execution is to take the offensive. Ask.

Ask questions, ask for help, ask for understanding. If you are

really passionate about them and their needs, and if you’ve

done your homework, prospects want to talk to you.

But don’t just ask questions for the sake of asking. “So,

Ms. Smith, what keeps you awake at night” is just as stupid as,

“So, Mr. Jones, what are your current pain points?” You have

to earn a seat at the asking table. That’s where homework

comes in.

_ “Mr. Smith, based on your last quarterly report, it

seems you are looking to increase your inventory

turns, is that right?”

_ “Ms. Jones, I talked to some of your people, and it

seems that your company could really use a solution

that would measure the success of new product

launches. Is that right?”

_ “Ms. Apple, you said that cutting time to market is

your number one goal. What are you doing now to

achieve that?”

4. Start from the next step.

Time and time again, salespeople begin a cold call only to

have the prospect say something like, “Well that sounds good,

why don’t you call me back in a few weeks when I have time

to talk?” A lot of salespeople feel good about this. They pull

out their calendars and mark a date in a few weeks when they

will call the prospect again. Hey, the guy invited them to,

right? Obviously he’ll take the call.

Wrong. What you just heard was a stall. Stalls can go on

forever.

To prevent stalls and avoid dropping the execution ball,

try to get prospects involved in a “next step” of some sort.

Execution: The True Art of the Sale 71

There are three great ways to do this. Give them homework,

get a date, and call around.

_ Give them homework. Give prospects something to

do. Ask them to fill out a form, send an e-mail, or

gather some information. Warning: We are NOT talking

about the gambit where you send them a mountain

of marketing literature and ask them to read it: “Mr.

Smith, I’ll send you all the information I have. If you

can just review it . . . . “ Who has time to review anything?

Give them a simple assignment. Ask them to

call someone, do something, answer a three-question

e-mail to help you get better prepared. Get them involved

in the start of the process.

_ Get a date. Get a specific date of action. A good next

step is not, “real soon” or “as soon as possible.” Set a

real date, one that shows up on your calendar. Then

you’ll be moving this sale along.

_ Ask if you can call around. Before the cold call ends,

tell the prospect that as a next step you want to do a

little more homework. Ask who they would recommend

you speak to in order to get some more information

before your next conversation.

This gains involvement in a roundabout way, but you will

have a concrete reason to call back in two weeks (you talked

to some of the people the prospect recommended) and the

prospect will have a reason to take your call (you were diligent

in doing the homework that they gave you).

There is no one “right” way to execute a cold call. But

prospectors who follow the advice discussed in this chapter

may find, to their surprise, that cold calling is not as hard as

they’ve always thought.