Sales Ninja Killer Newsletter

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.

After years of training in martial arts, I realize a lot of martial artist who are highly skilled in the art of fighting don’t look very dangerous. In fact, they may want you to look at them and perceive them to be of no threat. And that’s the danger…

We never know how dangerous or vicious someone else may be. Every enemy should be treated as a threat. We should never let out guards down even if the enemy seems weak and vulnerable.

A lot of players out there do not live the Sales Ninja Code of Honor. Realize that your enemies will play dirty. If you think you are in a fair world, you are living in la-la land. It’s a brutal world out there and a lot of people are out there and out to make a kill.

A sales manager selling office equipment who recently attended my training shared with me this situation. His company does not do much marketing and has lost some top of the mind position in the market. Whenever someone ask about his company, his competitor will always say, Company A is no longer in business. Though they don’t grow aggressively, and don’t do much marketing, they are in fact still in business. His competitor knows this and gives false information to the marketplace. That’s playing dirty!

Lesson one == Enemies play dirty, never let your guard down!

Wal-mart is the world’s largest public company by revenue. Started in the 60’s targeting small towns, other ‘giant’ retailers didn’t care that there is this small tiny retailer trying to make a mark in the retail world. They thought, “they are just some small player, we are big enough and untouchable, ignore them.” What happened? Some of these ‘giants’ died, some going bankrupt, some surviving, some woke up and went niche as a strategy.

Lesson two == Just because your opponent is small, doesn’t mean he’s not a good fighter. Be careful with small enemies.

FedEx was founded in the 70’s. UPS was founded in 1900’s. 70 years of experience more, but FedEx manage to emerge as a big player. Mongolia is a small country but went out and conquered half the world. Alexander the Great took 50,000 men and made a mark in history. History has proven again and again the small can out beat the big.

I don’t know who said this but it makes some sense, “the bigger they are – the dumber they get”.

Bigger players tend to be complacent. They tend to get arrogant and overconfident. When they wrapped themselves around this belief, they become prone to success blindness. They gave birth to a monster within them. They continue to feed this monster and eventually the monster outgrows them and kills them. This monster is known as our ego.

Our ego can protect us. When we are faced with difficult challenges, our ego can tell us we can overcome it. But when our ego is fed with arrogance, it gets stronger and destroys us.

Don’t think you are the best fighter in the world. I’m not saying confidence is bad. Just make sure we don’t get overwhelmed with our own success and abilities that it covers our eyes and stops us from strategically assessing our true strengths and weaknesses.

It is always better to live the Sales Ninja Code of (Improvement – Code #10 of the Sales Ninja Code), rather than living in the illusion of we are the al-mighty. We will never be able to improve ourselves if we don’t look for things to improve. Ego, complacency, procrastination, blaming, arrogance, excuses are all great enemies.

Lesson three == Keep an eye in our most dangerous enemies as they are sneaky and hides inside us. And always improve in all areas.

UNCONVENTIONALLY,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

// Never Underestimate Your Enemy!
// 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.

   Click here to subscribe to Sales Ninja Killer Newsletter

Just got back from Singapore yesterday night. As a frequent traveler, here are some ideas on what you can do at the airport while waiting for your plane. Before that, let me tell you a story…

I was in Starbucks Changi Airport yesterday, sitting down, sipping my coffee, listening to my personal development MP3 while people watching. I also had a notepad on the table while holding a pen. Next to my table are 2 guys – from their language, highly likely from Europe. Funny thing is, one guy was reading a book, the other guy was looking at his passport. I almost burst out laughing. And…

That is why i’m offering some MUST haves if you are travelling – mostly in the business context though applicable for holiday travellings too. The key is – use your time productively – don’t waste it!

1 – You must have a book with you. I typically bring smaller sized book when travelling because of weight. I’ve read numerous books while at the airport, on the plane and in the hotel.  Alternatively, you can go to the airport bookstores to either read the book there or buy them. I recommended either bringing your own book or buying one because you can sit down, have a drink and enjoy the book rather than standing in the bookstore. You say you don’t have the time at home to read a good book? Why not do it when travelling?

2 – Besides a book, i always have my mp3 player. In the player are my personal development series. I burn them into mp3 and load them into the player. That way i can listen to them when travelling. Turn your travelling time into learning time. Besides, sometimes airport can be pretty noisy and distracting, so listening to MP3s is definitely a better alternative. On top of that, i can people watch while listening. Few things i like to look at while listening to my MP3s are beautiful clothes for men and women, beautiful women, men’s shoes, luggage bag design… and kids (they are cute and lovely and do all sorts of funny stuff).  

3 – A note pad and a pen. Since i read and listen to good stuff when travelling, i don’t want my ideas to disappear so i write them down. Well, if you are hi-tech and have some technology gadget, you can replace pen and paper with it. What ever the medium, put down your thoughts and ideas. Where do you think i got the idea to write this post? In the next few post, you will also read about a few observations i had.

Those are the 3 must haves. If you have your laptop, take it out and do some work. Other things you can do – why not call and follow-up on your leads? At the boarding lounge, why not practice your prospecting or conversaton skills? Just try to strike up a conversation with the people around you. You may not do business together or the other person may not be a good prospect, but i think it’s a perfect practice ground.

If you are new to the airport, i recommend walking around and getting yourself familiarize with the airport just to gain some general knowledge. Shopping, drinking, eating, that’s all up to you. Also, some airport offers internet access. You can connect to it if you have your laptop or blackberry or your hi-tech phone. Some airports also have some computers to access. Time passes very fast while you surf the internet. I suggest reading some good stuff on the internet rather than blind surfs. If you have a blog, you can blog at the airport. One think i seldom (if not never) do is take pictures and upload to my blog. Guess i have to get a good phone camera because that will be convenient to snap photos anytime anywhere.

The ONE thing i think you should NOT do is – stare blankly into space. Total waste of time. I just don’t understand why would someone sit there with their arms crossed and just wait for time to pass so they can get on the plane? Time is our most valuable asset, use it wisely not waste it.

Unconventionally,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

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On my way to the gym I have to u-turn and a t junction to get to the building where my gym is at. While waiting for the lights to turn green, I saw a bunch of office workers, four guys to be specific, running across the street with one hand covering their head from the rain and the other holding their bags. I thought to myself, what can I learn from this?

1 – If they prepared their umbrella, they won’t be drenched by the rain.

2 – Because they are running towards the bus (which was leaving), their sense of urgency was great.

3 – If this was their normal routine, they could have done their work earlier, manage their time better, so they can be at the bus stop on time.

Lesson 1: Preparation.

What can you prepare before seeing a potential customer so you will look like a professional? Has there been a time where you show up and ask questions that could be easily found on their web site? Have you ever walked into your buyer’s office with some research that they were stunned by those pre call planning?

In Sales Ninja MASTER selling model, the first part is called M:eet People. In M:eeting People, there are 3 areas to master. 1: Preparation 2: Prospecting 3: Positioning.

The more you prepare – the more you will be successful in prospecting.
If you don’t… you will drenched by the selling rain. Not a good situation to be in.

Lesson 2: Sense of urgency.

Some say people like to procrastinate or they enjoy the last minute syndrome. When the month starts, sales people don’t feel the sense of urgency to maximize their sales activities because it’s still early, lots of time, plenty of opportunities. When the days passes, weeks passes, looking at their calendar, “Oh My God!” It’s the 15th and their sales scoreboard says 1 sale, they suddenly feel the power to mobilize.

In the Sales Ninja Philosophy, we live by the 10 Sales Ninja Codes: Abundance, Courage, Commitment, Contribution, Duty, Focus, Honor, Honesty, Trust and Improvement.

In the code Commitment, we say, make everything Urgent and Important! I’m sure you’ve heard or seen the 4 time management quadrant made famous by Steven Covey, he says categorize your things into 4 quadrants: 1: not urgent not important 2: urgency but important 3: important but not urgent 4: urgent and important.

I have reservations for this system because of the massive things we need to accomplish on the day to day basis, i rather live by Commitment, getting things done, make everything urgent and important, that way we won’t procrastinate, we will do it. So start the month with a great sense of urgency, make every follow up a sense of urgency, and make every proposal sending a sense of urgency. Little by little you will develop and live Commitment.

Lesson 3: Routines.

Do you have routines? Do you do certain things repeatedly? In business, we believe if you are to do something repeatedly, it should be systemized or automated. That way it will be organized. It’s like getting up in the morning; we set the alarm because that’s the reminder system. Do you prospect every day? The answer should be yes, and if it’s yes, you need to make it a routine. Filling the pipeline with qualified prospects is a very important indicator of success.

By the way, there are also bad routines. Say… you get up and you say to yourself, ‘damn, I’m so tired’. That’s could be your daily routine. Not too empowering yes?

Read: Wake Up With Power & Motivation blog post I wrote for some positive routines in the morning.

Here’s your task, list all out your routines, and then see if they are good or not so good. Use technology to help you out if necessary. If you are sales leader, guess what? Training & coaching your sales team MUST be your routine as well – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly. Don’t expect your sales force to perform if you don’t make training and coaching a routine! Back to lesson 1: prepare for your routines and have a sense of urgency to get it done!

Unconventionally,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

© 2009 Sales Ninja Training. All Rights Reserved.

Hanzo Ng is Sales Ninja Grandmaster, lingo for Chief Trainer of Sales Ninja Training, Asia’s #1 Unconventional Sales Training. Sales Ninja Training specializes in helping small-medium, listed and global companies transform their sales people into the ultimate sales professional known as Sales Ninja. For more information on our sales, motivation and leadership trainings, visit http://www.SalesNinja.com

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