My personal experiment with Pre-Suasion

About a month ago I published this article on how watching images of runners winning races can improve sales results by 60%. The research was outlined in Robert Cialdini’s latest book, Pre-Suasion. 

Always wanting to be the guinea pig I gave it a try... To be honest at first I found it a bit weird looking a this slide deck of runners while calling customers... I was not convinced it would work! 

This is the result of giving the pre-suasion experiment a try: 

• I feel more relaxed and at ease when calling prospects and customers.

• When I am relaxed my mind is more capable of solving complex challenges and can be more articulate when speaking.

• There has been a measurable increase in my success over the phone!

If you can get past the weirdness and give it a try you might be surprised.  

More Practical Help (Online Training)

I recently published the following 2 training videos to help startups with selling: 

 https://www.startupsalescoach.net/sales-training/

It’s been in the works for a long time. The experience and feedback so far has encouraged me to produce more content. Stay tuned!

When the sales drought ends

Today I hit a purple patch in sales after several weeks of disappointment. The feeling of closing deals is amazing! 

However intoxicating the good feelings are, you need to keep a stoic perspective with the following:

• Aside from my efforts, what other factors have contributed to this windfall? As humans we are hardwired to internalise success and externalise failure. 
• Write down how you are feeling right now.  Use that description during the tough days or weeks. Success breeds confidence and this willkeep your confidence high when times are tough.  
• Immediately look around for another sale to make. While you are on a roll it’s easier to close new deals. 

I will now go and follow my own advice!

Becoming a greater influence on yourself

When we learn about the topic of influence, we are first drawn to the benefit of influencing others. However since learning more about the subject, I believe the most valuable application of influence is on ourselves. 

Robert Cialini from his book, Pre-Suasion gives an example of a Canadian study of a call centre that displayed athletes winning running races achieved a 60% improvement in their sales results. 

Wanting to test that result, I have created the following slide deck to be a greater influence on myself and improve my sales performance.

Please feel free to try viewing these slides each day with me and see if you can discover an improvement in your sales performance. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/19vd3vIsYr6QuzODvLjtO0LKUFivZRWUVxEeA_DO5wYY/edit?usp=sharing

Try to limit your false-positive sales opportunities

Don’t be in a passive state with your sales opportunities. 

Sales opportunities are either real or they are not.  

Founders and sales people are generally positively biased.  You need to have that bias in order to get past the many rejections. 

False-Positive opportunities are bad for sales people. They soak up attention and energy you could be spending opening new opportunities.  

I would much rather have 2 real and validated opportunities instead of 20 soft ones. 

Practical Help (sales templates)

I have recently added a new section of sales templates to help startups with sales. 

 https://www.startupsalescoach.net/templates/

If you have very little sales experience there should be a few things here to help you get started! 

I will keep adding more content and structure if startup founders see it as useful. 

Are you listening?

One of the best ways to be persuasive and influential in sales is to listen. 

Listing is not when you stay quiet while your partner speaks.

Listening is active, seeking to really break down what their challenges or opportunities are from their perspective. 

Everybody appreciates when they are understood. They are more likely to pay attention to you and seek to understand your message.

Even great prospects will never get back to you

Many startup founders, particularly the technical ones get furious when a perfectly qualified sales opportunity return their calls.

How annoying!

The reality is that most of the selling process is in the follow-up:

• Did you receive my message about "X"?
• Can we organise a meeting?
• Did you have any question about the proposal I sent? 
• As discussed can you set that appointment with the CEO please?
• Are you ready to finalise the agreement? 
• Can we organise the implementation meeting next Tuesday? 

It is your responsibility to breathe energy into the sales process!

You need to make all the calls, suggest the next steps and help them through these steps. Generally your prospects will not “get around” to doing what they said they will do. You will need to coach them through every step. When they tell you they will call you back, they generally don’t!

Try to apply this thinking when you are running sales for your start-up. It should save some frustration and help you be more successful.

Competition

Do you know who your competitors are?

How do you feel about them?

Traditionally we view our competitors from a defensive position as they are often chasing the same deals as you. 

However at the very least you should learn from them. If you don’t know them, try to introduce yourself. Be brave. Learn what makes them tick and what their challenges are. 

At times I have collaborated with my competitors. For example a couple of years ago I worked with one competitor to help clean up the industry of mercenary contractors that were bringing our industry down. 

In the future you might seek to acquire these competitor or visa versa. So it helps to know them beforehand! 

Keep an open mind and you may find more benefits of collaboration than competing!

Be the better man or woman!

As a sales leader within your startup you should take responsibility for the failures and share the credit for your wins. 

Why?

When you are not successful, you, as a startup founder are best placed to make corrective changes.

You should have the best understanding of your startup. Employees are not as well positioned to know what changes need to occur.

Even if the person hired has failed, you should also take responsibility as you hired them, and/or neglected to train them properly.  

In management 101, you should always assume that most employee problems are a result of the environment they work under. Take responsibility for when things don’t go to plan.

On the flip side giving credit to all involved when you achieve a win is a unifying activity. I once worked for a CEO founder who tried to claim credit for the sales he had helped me with. This was a poor move for him and his company. 

Be the better man or woman!