Sales Ninja Killer Newsletter

Been selling for 10, 20, 30 years? That’s great. Or was it 1 years experience repeated 10 times? In Sales Ninja world: Experience ≠ Results. Experience gives you a higher confident level because you are familiar with the product or the process. The key question here is, are you producing more sales and making more money every single year? If yes, i congratulate you, keep practicing what you are doing because results matter. If your performance is not going UP, then here are 2 suggestions for you:

1 >> Keep pushing yourself. Remember when you got started? How blazing your fire was? How much time you spend hitting the floors and punching the numbers on the phone to get appointments? The more years you are in selling, the more it turns you into an order-taker, mostly doing visitings and servicings and taking orders from your customers. That’s not selling.

I have a public listed client who dominates the market with more than 50% market share. With over 20 years in the business the relationship with the clients are solidly strong. The CEO launched a new product and wants the team to sell it to the clients. The results were miserable. Experience field reps with strong relationships with their existing customers unable to cross sell other products. Why? Very experienced sales people, but they forgot how to sell, they were servicing. Which leads me to point number 2…

2 >> Go back to the basics. Selling is all about mastering all the basics and practicing all the basics. It does not matter how experienced you are, you must use the basic skills of selling at all times. The more i conduct sales trainings in Malaysia or for that matter any other countries across the world, the more i realize how important mastering the basics are. Most sales people know the basics, but they have not mastered all of them. They just do a few of this and a few of that. That’s not Sales Best Practices. It’s called Sales Best Practices because it must always be… Practiced!

No skilled athlete or fighter is going to say, i’ve swinged a few times, i’m the master, i don’t need to swing anymore, let’s do something else. Michael Jordan is famous for a story of him shooting 1000 baskets in his practices before he stops. That’s practicing the basics. A fighter before a battle practices straight punches, the most basic of all punches, but he/she keeps practicing that, why?? Because that’s Best Practices – it must always be practiced!

My view is this, it does not matter what you know or how much you know or how long you’ve been selling. It’s results – period!

Unconventionally,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

© 2009 onwards 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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Passed by Starbucks during my trip to HSBC. Went in there to get a cup of coffee. Walked in and heard a loud… “Welcome to Starbucks” greeting from the barista, a young smiling girl eagerly standing in front of the counter awaiting my order. I asked, “what’s new?”. She pointed me to the Vanilla latte with coffee jelly. Not too new apparently but what the heck. Ordered the Tall (small) and then she asked me whether i wanted the Grande (medium) for just an additional $1? I didn’t take the offer but good up-selling attempt. Since it’s lunch time, she then asked me whether i wanted to do lunch? Since i just had my lunch i had to pass, but good cross-selling attempt. Is that all? Nope, she came back with, why not you get a cookie together with your drink? Since i am very full from lunch i also had to pass, nonetheless, 3 attempts to increase the size of transaction, she is indeed very well trained.

There are basically 3 ways to increase sales:
1 – get more customers.
2 – get the customers to buy more.
3 - get the customers to buy more often.

Since i walked into Starbucks to buy coffee, it would be a wasted attempt not to do strategy 2 & 3.

2 – get the customers to buy more.
The barista upsold me from small to medium.
The barista cross sold me lunch.
The barista cross sold me cookies.

3 - get the customers to buy more often.
The barista gave me a redeption card, buy 7th drink and get a free one. Which means it builts loyalty and i have to go back. Pretty typical strategy used by retailers. They also have an option to fill up the details to receive updates, good practice as well because collecting customer’s database and mailing them often makes them remember you and get to customers ‘top of mind’. Besides that, she also gave me the receipt and on the back of the receipt says, get 50% any beverage when you present this receipt on the same day after 3pm at Starbucks. I thought, hm… Interesting, they want me to come back after 3pm to get another drink but rewarding me for loyalty at 50% off. Wow!

How are you getting your customers to buy more and buy more often?

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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Last issue, I’ve shared 6 sales closing ideas.
Here’s part 1: 3 Sales Closing Ideas
Here’s part 2: 3 (more) Sales Closing Ideas

Here are other thoughts and ideas on how to close the sale and closing the sale:

07. Closing starts at the beginning.

You can’t close a non qualified buyer. In the good old good times days, we just want to fill out pipeline with massive prospects. You go see who ever who grants you an appointment. Right now i wouldn’t recommend that, in fact i would never recommend simply filling up the pipeline. We must always work with qualified buyers only. That means when your prospect – qualify. When there is incoming enquiries – qualify. Set the criterias of doing business with you.

You have power when you qualify and you get to work with good prospects. If you failed at closing, analyze your prospecting process and see how well you did at qualifying. Seeing a lot of people plays the numbers game of selling and that’s working hard. Creating a customer ideal profile (CIP) and finding prospects that fit those criterias is working smart. The more you work hard on working smart – success is definite.

08. Closing starts with you.

Are you committed enough to be a Sales Ninja?
Do you have goals?
If the fire burning inside you?
Do you believe in yourself?
Your products?
Your services?
Your company?
Your future?

In my first sales job there was this great sales closer and top performer called Jennifer. New to the business i went and talk to her and learn from her. The more i know her, i more i realize how lousy her selling skills are. Truly amazing! Her questioning skills suck. Her objection handling skills faulty. Closing? It was ok. You see i was a sales technician, i read lots of sales books and disgested many of the sales gurus’ mindset, strategy and tactics. I was able to analyze any closer’s techniques or find best practices i can use. Jennifer has very little of this and yet this is a 5 figure earner.

On the other side of her, there are lots of strengths. For a start she looks pretty decent, which obviously helped her in charming her way to lots of referrals. But that’s not her core weapon. She was a great closer because of her DESIRE. When you talk to Jennifer you can feel her energy vibrating. When you ask her what her goals are, she can list them out and tell you when she will achieve them. She has the fighting spirit. She always want to win.

We have this big sales board in the company. Everyone can see the hundred plus sales people’s achievement. When ever someone overtakes Jennifer by one sale, she jumps around, pissed, and ready to go for war. If you are the one who overtook her and you walk pass her, she would look at you and subconsciously sends you a message ‘you there, just wait, i’m burning and i’ll chase.’

Jennifer, myself and another malay lady whose name slipped my name was inducted into the Hall of Fame, the highest award ever given to any sales person of the industry.

Sales Ninja works arond 3 things:
1: Philosophy – your mindset, values, goals, etc…
2: Strategy – the big picture, the plan, etc…
3: Tactics - the selling skills and approaches utilizing the MASTER selling model.

I excelled at all three areas. I had a strong mindset, i strategize before launching my attacks, and my tactical selling approaches was good. And i recommend excelling at all 3 areas. A fighter without fighting skills can easily be killed. However in her case…

Jennifer excelled at only one area – Sales Ninja Philosophy and yet rises to the top.
Jennifer today is married with 4 kids and drives a Mercedes Benz and is one of the best insurance sales agents.

If you are committed.
If you have the desire to be the best.
If you truly want success.

Then remember – Closing begins with you.

More Closing Sales and How To Close Sales next issue…

Unconventionally,
HANZO NG
Sales Ninja Grandmaster

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// Sales Closing Ideas (part 3)
// 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.

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