Bryan Neale, Brooke Green,
and Bill Caskey
Excerpt from post on:
December 14th, 2007
This episode reveals the secret behind elite performers and good performers and examines the one core difference Bill and Bryan's process has over all others ...READ MORE
This episode reveals the secret behind elite performers and good performers and examines the one core difference Bill and Bryan’s process has over all others out there. The good news is - it doesn’t matter what process you use: Miller Heiman, SPIN, PSS, Sandler - Bill and Bryan’s philosophies shared in this episode can dramatically change your results.
Lead generation continues to come up as one of the most important issues facing sales people today. There just never seems to be enough in ...READ MORE
Lead generation continues to come up as one of the most important issues facing sales people today. There just never seems to be enough in the funnel. Today, Bryan Neale and Bill Caskey talk about a new strategy that you can use to help bolster leads—and help you generate marketing content from your intellectual capital. One of the perspectives here is you must stop acting like a sales person—and start acting like a business owner/marketer. Begin thinking of yourself as a “go to resource” for solutions. If you can get there mentally, this podcast will make tons of sense.
[Editors Note: I'm guilty of this next topic. So, before it starts to sound like a sermon, I want you to know that I struggle ...READ MORE
[Editors Note: I'm guilty of this next topic. So, before it starts to sound like a sermon, I want you to know that I struggle with this very issue.]Last week, a neighbor came over and was lamenting that his daughter was having trouble getting in to the college of her choice. He said, “All her friends got in, but her letter hasn’t come yet.” Next, I asked him the question that showed me the real problem. “What does she want to study?”
“Well,” he said, “she really doesn’t know yet. She just wants to go to XX University.” What? Doesn’t know yet? No inclination of what juices her?So she’s upset that she can’t spend $160,000 of your money going somewhere where all her friends are going.
Makes no sense. Yet it happens everyday. In fact it happens in another phase of adolescence - when there is temptation to take the wrong path (drugs/alcohol/deviant behavior).
I’m going to give it a name - and an explanation why it happens to all of us - adults, too. There is NO BRIGHT LIGHT.
The concept of NO BRIGHT LIGHT means there is no long term vision for what one wants their life to look like/feel like. When you have no long range goal - or vision - you get quite distracted by life’s choices. And when you make a wrong choice, it can screw you up (especially in the case of a young person in a tempting world).
A BRIGHT LIGHT is a vision for the future - a way you’d like your life to be - a place you’d like to live - a cause/profession that brings meaning to your days.
In business (sales), a BRIGHT LIGHT is what you’d like your customer base to look like. What you’d like your income to look like. What you’d like to accomplish in your business.
Brian Tracy talks about this when he says 80% of companies he sees have no long range vision. How can you get the troops behind a goal if it’s not clearly defined? You can’t. And when you’re tempted to sell to someone that doesn’t quite match what you expect your client vision to look like, then ask yourself why you’re doing it.
I was watching the Navy-Notre Dame football game last week and heard an unbelievable story about the Navy running back, Zerbin Singleton. His story brought ...READ MORE
I was wat
ching the Navy-Notre Dame football game last week and heard an unbelievable story about the Navy running back, Zerbin Singleton. His story brought tears to my eyes - tears of grace and hopefulness.
The short version is that his mom was incarcerated for drug abuse and other things when he was young. After making the rounds of being raised by Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents, his father came back into his life.
But shortly thereafter, his dad committed suicide. He was in high school at the time.
Pretty severe hand he was dealt, huh? So how does a young man turn that turbulence and heartache into success? Well, he did. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in his high school class. After being turned down at Navy, he attended college in GA - but he never lost his dream of playing football at the Naval Academy.
Somewhere along the way, I’m sure he had counsel who said, “Hey, consider yourself lucky. Think of where you are - versus where you could be. Think of the odds you’ve beaten to even be in college.”
But that wasn’t enough for him.
After his freshman year, he went back at Navy again. This time he got in. And now he’s majoring in Aerospace Engineering at the Academy - and playing college football.
So the next time you complain a little because things didn’t go your way - or you begin to feel sorry for yourself at the hand you were dealt, think about PVT Singleton. I know I will. He had no options. He HAD to make it happen. He didn’t have parents to nurture him - to coddle him - or to bail him out.
He is the poster boy for PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. Like Nietsche says, “That which doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger.”
Ever had a huge account you were pursuing (or are pursuing)? And you get so wrapped up in the pursuit that you forget the fundamentals ...READ MORE
Ever had a huge account you were pursuing (or are pursuing)? And you get so wrapped up in the pursuit that you forget the fundamentals of selling? Well, it may not happen to you, but it does happen often. This week’s sales training podcast is an interview with Brooke Green, one of our consultants who recently coached one of her clients helping them win a multi-million dollar deal. Brooke talks about what went into the coaching and how it might help listeners who have large accounts they are pursuing.
We often hear that our “way” of training and coaching is "great, as long as you’re not going after big deals." We’ve never bought into ...READ MORE
We often hear that our “way” of training and coaching is “great, as long as you’re not going after big deals.” We’ve never bought into that. Yes, it’s harder to detach from the outcome of bigger deals, but changing the way that you think is effective on any deal—$1 or $1,000,000.
We recently had a client land a $50,000,000 deal!
If you’re reading this, you know who you are. For the rest of you, it wouldn’t be cool to “out” our client, so you’ll have to keep guessing!
I wanted to share with you 3 of the fundamental principles that we’ve worked on with them. Please don’t get me wrong, we are not taking credit for the deal – they get that all to themselves. However, I do think they would agree that our work with them helped lay the foundation for a win.
Principle #1: Identifying and Communicating Your Value
• What is value? It is the relief that your prospect feels when you can find and solve a pain they have. Or, the excitement they feel when they recognize the possibility you can help them create with your product/service.
• What it is not. Value is never platitudes, claims or opinions. The more you claim and opine in your statement, the less believable it will be, and the more your prospect will tune out everything else you say.
• It is as if there is a conversation going on inside the prospect’s mind and your expression of your value meets him where he is.
• In creating your value statement, you should make two lists—one of the conscious pains that you help people solve. And the second of the unconscious pains you fix. The secret in this is that the true differential value you bring is in the discovery and solving of the unconscious pains.
Principle #2: Detachment
• What is detachment? The ability to emotionally divest yourself from an outcome that you can’t fully control anyway. We learned from an early age that there was a WIN and a LOSS—a winner and a loser. And we didn’t want to be the loser, so we became attached to the outcome of winning.
• What it is not. There is a difference between detached and “disengaged.” Disengaged is when you don’t care or your mind is distracted. Sometimes people use disengaged as a way to hide their true attachment. They will say things like “do what you want to do,” or “I don’t really care what you do.” Don’t be disengaged. You are attached to the process and detached from the outcomes. But if you become disengaged, you cross the line.
• What happens when you become attached to the outcome?
1. You are unable to take risks
2. You are unable to do the right thing for your prospect or client
3. You sell yourself short, trivializing your value in the process
4. You default to using someone else’s process even though yours has been proven effective• How do you get out of it? Simple. Change thought. Thinking must change from “how will this effect me?” to “how can I contribute to the well being of another (prospect/client)?” Have you heard the saying, “when you’re depressed, go help someone else”? It’s true. So one way to “get out of yourself” is to help someone else. In sales, that usually means the prospect.
Principle #3: Clear Future / Presentation of Solution
• What is a “clear future”? You need to understand the decision making process of your prospect. How does the decision get made? Who makes the decision in their company? Are you talking to them? Can you live with that process of getting to them? When you get really good at managing your process, you will be the only one laying down the decision process – not them.
• Presentation. Present to the pain. If it’s a written presentation, then a review of the pain is in order at the top of the document. If it’s a spoken, delivered presentation, then a review of the pain should happen first. This is not the time to talk to them (your prospect) about all of the other great things you can do for them. DO NOT take your eye off of the ball, and by all means, don’t force them to take THEIR eye off of it either.
We have been thinking about what the future sales force will look like lately. Why? Well, there are a ton of trends that are beginning ...READ MORE
We have been thinking about what the future sales force will look like lately. Why? Well, there are a ton of trends that are beginning to impact sales forces and sales people – globalization – googlization – commodity pricing – readily available information on the web - etc. So we went out and looked for someone who had studied this from the perspective of: what do customers want from the seller? We found Ben Ball (Senior VIce President, Dechert-Hampe & Co.). So in this interview, you’ll hear what his study told us about what the sales person of the future might look like – act like. Sales managers/leaders: listen carefully.
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