Sales Ninja Killer Newsletter

Few weeks ago I spoke at Business Networking Club on Networking. Since there is another networking event coming up (which I’ll be there), why not share ‘other’ networking ideas with you? Do refer to files attached for more information on the SuperNetworking night where 10 different foreign chambers of commerce will be participating.

>> Improve On Your Networking Skills!

I’ve attended many networking functions in my life. The common scene I see is a group of people from the same company standing at the corner of the room talking to each other for the entire night. I was once at a function by the American chambers of commerce. With attendance of slightly over a 100, I walked away with 75 business cards, the rest didn’t have cards or ran out of cards. How do you network?

>> Purpose Of Networking!

What is your purpose of networking? Wine and dine? Get contacts? A Sales Ninja has 3 main purposes when he networks…

One – to network, meaning to know more people for strategic reasons, either for business or personal. Two – to prospect, meaning to see if the person you are talking to needs your product or service. Three – to generate a lead/referral, meaning if the person you are talking to does not need your product or service, see if he/she knows anyone who may.

If you don’t have an outcome when you network, have one, else your networking won’t be as effective.

>> Zero 0% Rejection Rate!

How many people have ever rejected me when I network to either get contacts or do prospecting? The answer is none. How many will reject me if I cold call? I think you know the answer to that. So why not invest more resources into cultivating a strong network?

>> The Fear Of The Approach!

Why people are afraid of approaching strangers? This is called the Approach Anxiety. My experience and research on evolutionary psychology taught me something interesting – we are programmed that way primitively for survival because in the cavemen days, approaching strangers triggers great danger and therefore we don’t unless we need to join that group. According to the experts that’s why we seldom talk to strangers.

Another reason is the “Parent Scare You” reason. Remember this saying when you were a kid? “Don’t talk to strangers ok! Else they might kidnap you and kill you!” That has definitely ingrained into us – into our belief system but remember, we are adults now, therefore it’s ok to talk to strangers!

>> Quantity or Quality Networking?

There are 2 schools of networking. One school says go for quantity, get as many contacts as possible and then see which one makes more sense to invest more time. The other says go for quality, really engage yourself in the conversation – talk talk talk. I belong to the quantity school. As many as possible. Why?

You can always follow up after the event with all the contacts you’ve gathered but say you spend all your time with just 4 or 5 people, won’t you miss the chance to contact the rest of the people who may be valuable contacts as well? Go for quantity!

Note: I wrote about mindset & strategy for selling in tough times in April & May issue of SME Magazine, grab a copy. I also wrote in Malaysian Business May 1-15 issue on selling to men vs women, grab a copy too.

Meantime to more sales … with less effort! Cheers!

UNCONVENTIONALLY,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

// how to be a SUPER networker (with the truth of why people don’t talk to strangers…)
// By Hanzo Ng, Sales Ninja Grandmaster

Hanzo Ng has been called the ‘most influential sales trainer’ by his participants and is highly demanded for his unconventional Sales Ninja training programmes. He is also the author of Secrets of the Sales Ninja, available in major bookstores in Malaysia and Singapore.

© 2009 All Rights Reserved – Reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from The Sales Ninja Group is strictly prohibited. But feel free to forward this or email it to all of your friends and associates. To Subscribe to this newsletter, please visit http://www.SalesNinja.com/blog and enter your name and email at the top right corner.

Need great content for your website, media or blog? Bloggers, editors, publishers, medias, marketers, authors may syndicate or republish any articles you see in Sales Ninja Killer’s Newsletter for free as long as you include the author and copyright paragraph as above intact and infull. Feel free to drop us an line when you do so too.

Times have changed and so must you. The marketplace has become tougher with competitors getting smarter and customers increasingly nastier. How do you survive in such brutal environment? Can the best practices of the past save you? Let’s explore …

>> Adapt or die

We must all adapt. Change is so rapid these days that if you are not adapting to change, you will be out of business faster than a blink of an eye. Darwin says it best, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Another saying by big time CEO, Jack Welch, “Change is occurring at a much faster pace than most organisations are reacting to it.”

The truth is the bigger you are, the less adaptable you are. History has numerous cases of small armies overthrowing their much bigger opponents because of their speed and unconventional tactics. They are quicker to adapt (have no choice). And a lot of times, it takes “no choice” situations to motivate us to change.

Sometimes it’s not like we don’t see it. Floppy disk manufacturers see the compact disks, but they don’t care. Kodak and Fuji are leaders in film that didn’t care about the digital camera technology. Google has literally killed many printed directories. Being in denial that things are great or things are would feed our ego fully but this comes with a heavy price.

You know what happens when we don’t adapt? Think of big, smelly, arrogant creatures… that once ruled the earth. Because dinosaurs didn’t adapt to their changing environment, they are now in museums.

>> Sleep and eat well

Of course this is not too sophisticated… but it’s important . In tough times, most people are unduly worried so much so they are filled with anxiety. They open up the newspapers and are fed with countless possibilities of a prolonged economic crisis on a global scale. As a result, many business people tend to lose. In Canada, sales of two product sales actually went up – alcohol and chocolates. This is not surprising as people are resorting to alcohol to lower their stress and chocolates – which stimulates serotonin – to remain cheerful.

But the truth is if we sleep well, we would wake up filled with energy and zest to fight any battle ahead of us.

>> Invest in personal development

During great times, you don’t have the time, I understand. You were busy counting money. There is no need to improve on both the mindset and ‘skillset’. But now is the best time. I did a seminar for about 100 sales people from a very large company. They were complaining about difficulties in securing prospects, closing the sale or simply feeling motivated. While I’m on stage, I asked them… “Yes, times are tough but they would never last so long as you are tougher. So how many of you for the past 30 days have read a book on sales or motivation?”

How many of the participants raised their hand? Only one did – the boss himself. When times are tough, people read the newspaper for more bankrupt cases, scandals and bailouts … and they expect to feed the mind with nutrition? If we feed ourselves with junk food every single day, we would only jeopardise our health. Likewise, in the case of feeding our mind with too much bad news – mental junk food – we may begin to start believing that we, too, may sooner or later be affected by the economic gloom.
 
I’m not suggesting you should cease to get yourself updated with the latest developments on the economic front but do so with an open mind. In between, help yourself to good books, attend a good seminar/training or get an audio CD on motivation.

>> Strategy

Launch new products for current customers. If you have loyal customers whom you enjoy cordial relationship with, I suggest you offer them new products. You can also target new markets. Maybe the current market is saturated. Maybe they are dead, so create a new market. Penetrate a different market segment.

>> Finance

If your current customers are facing cash flow issues and your company is cash rich, why not offer them payment plans to ease their money issues? As for your vendors, they may be struggling to stay afloat (and maybe so are you). So why not re-negotiate your terms with them – see if you can work out a win/win deal with them so they still get your business and in return, you can expect a better deal.

>> Relationships

Think of new value and ideas for your current customers. I’ve been talking about this for years – retailers don’t collect and utilise their database effectively. And right now, I’m saying, create new value for your customers by helping them grow their business if you are a B-2-B (business to business) seller or help them in their lives if you are B-2-C (business to consumer) seller. It’s like a friend helping us by giving us useful ideas.

>> Selling

Spend more time with prospects. Ideally, spend more time with your competitor’s best customers. This is the best time to convert them to yours because your competitor may not be able to serve them at the highest level. People will only switch if there is a perceived problem. But don’t forget to guard your best customers. Your competitors may be eyeing them, too.

>> Mindset

A lot of people have forgotten the art and science of selling. During good times, you are surrounded by buyers that you don’t really need a lot of skill to convert prospects into customers. But now, it takes great salesmanship to seal a deal, not forgetting the tones of rejections and objections you are likely to come across. You must be tough to take it. Your mind needs to be strong and your skills need to be sharpened. Adapt or die. You choose.

Until then, to more sales… with less effort!

UNCONVENTIONALLY,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

// Adapt or Die – You Choose!
// By Hanzo Ng, Sales Ninja Grandmaster

Hanzo Ng has been called the ‘most influential sales trainer’ by his participants and is highly demanded for his unconventional Sales Ninja training programmes. He is also the author of Secrets of the Sales Ninja, available in major bookstores in Malaysia and Singapore.

© 2009 All Rights Reserved – Reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from The Sales Ninja Group is strictly prohibited. But feel free to forward this or email it to all of your friends and associates. To Subscribe to this newsletter, please visit http://www.SalesNinja.com/blog and enter your name and email at the top right corner.

Need great content for your website, media or blog? Bloggers, editors, publishers, medias, marketers, authors may syndicate or republish any articles you see in Sales Ninja Killer’s Newsletter for free as long as you include the author and copyright paragraph as above intact and infull. Feel free to drop us an line when you do so too.

Last issue, i talked about winning the tough times war is first won in the mind. (last issue)
Now that the mind war is won, it’s time to win the war in the battlefield.

Let’s start with some things I don’t recommend:

>> Do nothing – This simply means you wait and see. Or live in a state of denial where things will get better. It may be too late when you start doing something. Take measures to reduce unnecessary expenses and doing non productive things.

>> Price cut – Price cutting may increase sales in the short-term for low ticket items but it does not work with more complex products where the sales cycle is longer. Organisations don’t want to buy cheap products, in tough times – the psychology changes to buying something safe. Work on assuring customers on the reliability and quality of the product. History has proven that most organisations go bust for reducing price and hoping to make up from sales increase but realise it can’t be sustained with the margins they live on.

>> Focusing on the wrong activity – I mentioned earlier on that sales people tend to reduce their sales activities during tough times. During good times, we can fill out pipelines with non qualified prospects because we may have a chance of converting; even if we can’t, we have created an awareness for our products. But in tough times, we need to really find the right buyers and focus our energy on them. People are still buying in tough times; we just need to find them.

>> Sell more aggressively – While you need to survive and pay the bills, there are other alternatives you can do that don’t push your prospects over the wall with your desperation to achieve sale.

Here are some things to do at the battlefield:

== Better prospecting – Fill your pipeline with really qualified prospects. We call this customer ideal profile (CIP). Find them. Create criteria and when you do prospecting activities, match them against your CIP so you know whether to focus your energy on them or not.

== Questioning skills – Participants in my workshop tend to regard closing sales and handling rejection as the toughest selling skills. And I don’t agree. The toughest selling skill is actually the technique of questioning. Questioning allows you to find out the true needs of the buyers, the hidden psychology, get buy-ins, obtain information that is critical. If one’s questioning skill is perfect, closing the sale is like “Will you marry me?” where the generally expected response is “Yes, I do.” Most sales people do ask questions, but not enough, not right and not skillful enough. Questioning skill is the most important skill, improve on it.

== Deliver what you promise – This activity is of utmost important as we cannot afford to have dissatisfied customers at all times. You may also want to exceed their expectations to create a “Wow!” factor as this is the secret to building a sustainable relationship.

== Misery loves company. While your prospects and customers will always bring up the economy or market is bad. You can empathize with them, but don’t sympathize them. Sell them hope. Remember to sell yourself hope first. Don’t get sucked into buying their bad news and let them affect your sales process. You may also want to avoid friends who are always bitching, whining, complaining and making excuses. Unless they are sitting down to discuss the situation and brainstorming for solutions, avoid them at all cost because humans are creatures of environment and we will be affected by our surroundings.

== GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage out) – I learned this during my computer science college days. Instead of lamenting how bad the economy is, read motivation books. The more you programme your mind with positive thoughts, the better it is. Get audio CDs of personal development nature. Invest in educational seminars. I for one have read over 400 books and completed more than 70 programmes of sorts. And this are numbers of 2007 as I’ve stopped counting. This allows me to always have nutrition to the mind instead of fat, dangerous and poisonous news. Never let a poison drop into the water well of your village.

== Help your prospects – In my Sales Ninja workshop, I clearly define the three roles of selling – helping people solve problems, prevent problems or improving their situation. When attending to sales call, ask tough questions, listen and really find out what challenges your prospect is having so you can help them find a solution through your products or services.

== Teamwork – When companies fail, people tend to blame the sales force. While the sales force is important, a it cannot function alone. Everybody in an organisation has a role to play just as the interdependence of every organ in our body. If your colleague is an accountant, teach him how to sell the easy way. At least when they are out there, they can help solicit business. The motto is to succeed as a team.

Some will fail in tough times, some will survive, some will thrive. Which one do you choose to be?

Unconventionally,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

// Selling In Tough, Uncertain, Recession Or Downturn Times 2
// By Hanzo Ng, Sales Ninja Grandmaster

Hanzo Ng has been called the ‘most influential sales trainer’ by his participants and is highly demanded for his unconventional Sales Ninja training programmes. He is also the author of Secrets of the Sales Ninja, available in major bookstores in Malaysia and Singapore.

© 2009 All Rights Reserved – Reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from The Sales Ninja Group is strictly prohibited. But feel free to forward this or email it to all of your friends and associates. To Subscribe to this newsletter, please visit http://www.SalesNinja.com/blog and enter your name and email at the top right corner.

Need great content for your website, media or blog? Bloggers, editors, publishers, medias, marketers, authors may syndicate or republish any articles you see in Sales Ninja Killer’s Newsletter for free as long as you include the author and copyright paragraph as above intact and infull. Feel free to drop us an line when you do so too.

This comes from my recent coaching session with a group of sales managers of a sizeable company.

My client was preparing for their presentation to their prospect’s senior management team. As the deal size is significant, they hired me for a coaching session to provide my insight to see if there are anything else that can be improved.

Their lead presenter is a 17 years sales veteran, let’s call him John (not his real name). I sat down and started taking notes. John started his presentation and i’m impressed. They crafted a great presentation based on the model i shared with them at Sales Ninja Hypnotic Presentation (a group ‘sales’ presentation training).

Here are some of his best practices:

• Shorten company introduction and focused on client’s issues.
• Brought up serious issues client is experiencing.
• Intensified affected areas if issue persisted and not resolved.
• Recommmeded solutions to tackle issues.
• Good use of storytelling and metaphors to explain their technical details.
• Voice, tonaility and gestures were great. 
• Plus a few more…

But when John reaches the Closing stage, he made a terrible… horrible… mistake. I told him that, he listened and he was *shocked* at his mistake.

There are 2 parts to Hypnotic Presentation:
1 – Structure.
2 – Delivery.

In Structure there are 8 parts:

1. Opening
2. Agenda
3. Needs Check
4. Body
5. Summary
6. Q&A
7. Closing
8. Follow-up

In the closing stage, John said this “Well thank you for having us here, we can definitely help you Y (benefit). I hope you give us a chance and do call us after you’ve made a decision.”

I recommended John to close it this way… “Well thank you for having us here, we can definitely help you Y (benefit). After looking at our recommendations, do you see a possibility of us working together?”

Bang! John was stunned. In his own words… “I can’t believe i didn’t ask for the order. We spent so much time designing the pitch we totally missed out on the selling process. Luckily you saw that.”

Do you see the difference between version 1 and version 2?

What is closing? My saying…

“Closing is asking for the order.
 If you didn’t ask for the order, you didn’t close.”
~ Hanzo Ng, Sales Ninja Grandmaster

So remember to Close the sale and ask for the order. John also made 2 other presentation mistakes. I may or may not share them in the future. Afterall, they did pay me $1500 for the 2 hour coaching.

Wishing you more sales… with less effort!

Unconventionally,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

// 17 Years Sales Veteran SHOCKED At His 3 Presentation Mistakes!
// Hanzo Ng, Sales Ninja Grandmaster

Hanzo Ng has been called the ‘most influential sales trainer’ by his participants and is highly demanded for his unconventional Sales Ninja training programmes. He is also the author of Secrets of the Sales Ninja, available in major bookstores in Malaysia and Singapore.

© 2009 All Rights Reserved – Reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from The Sales Ninja Group is strictly prohibited. But feel free to forward this or email it to all of your friends and associates. To Subscribe to this newsletter, please visit http://www.SalesNinja.com/blog and enter your name and email at the top right corner.

Need great content for your website, media or blog? Bloggers, editors, publishers, medias, marketers, authors may syndicate or republish any articles you see in Sales Ninja Killer’s Newsletter for free as long as you include the author and copyright paragraph as above intact and infull. Feel free to drop us a line when you do so too.

   Click here to subscribe to Sales Ninja Killer Newsletter

“Put that coffee down. Coffee is for closers only.”
Quote from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross

Other thoughts and ideas on how to close the sale and closing the sale:

01. Coffee is for closers only.

==> Only closers get the reward, the title, the incentives, the commissions, the lifestyles. The difference between a Loser and a Closer is the word C. Closers close, losers lose. If you want to make it big in sales, you have to close the sale.

02. Closing is part of the sales process – do it.

==> Sales people fear rejection, that’s why they don’t close. They are scared, they are timid. Know that if you have and know your sales process, closing is part of the process. Sales Ninja uses the MASTER selling model.

M:eet People
A:sk Questions
S:ell Benefits
T:ackle Objections
E:ncourage To Buy <- closing!
R:elationship Building

Doesn’t matter if you sell 7 digits complex sales solutions or at retail selling a $10 underwear. Follow the sales process and close!

03. Closing is the easiest part of the sales process.

==> It’s like “will you marry me?”, typically there are no objections. It’s the easiest part provided everything you do before closing is done correctly. If you talk too much, present too much features, you get objections. If you didn’t create the need and strenghten the need, closing is harder.

Training sales people closing tactics won’t do them much if everything they do before they close is done wrongly. Make sense?

More Closing Sales and How To Close Sales next issue…

Unconventionally,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

// 3 Sales Closing Ideas!
// By Hanzo Ng, Sales Ninja Grandmaster

Hanzo Ng has been called the ‘most influential sales trainer’ by his participants and is highly demanded for his unconventional Sales Ninja training programmes. He is also the author of Secrets of the Sales Ninja, available in major bookstores in Malaysia and Singapore.

© 2009 All Rights Reserved – Reproducing this document or its contents without written permission from The Sales Ninja Group is strictly prohibited. But feel free to forward this or email it to all of your friends and associates. To Subscribe to this newsletter, please visit http://www.SalesNinja.com/blog and enter your name and email at the top right corner.

Need great content for your website, media or blog? Bloggers, editors, publishers, medias, marketers, authors may syndicate or republish any articles you see in Sales Ninja Killer’s Newsletter for free as long as you include the author and copyright paragraph as above intact and infull. Feel free to drop us a line when you do so too.

   Click here to subscribe to Sales Ninja Killer Newsletter