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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
How a new generation of outlaw salespeople are rewriting the rules Outlaw is a guide to what really works in the sales environment. Packed with fresh on-the-ground insights, powerful true stories, bold strategies, and unconventional approaches to selling, it explains how the best salespeople defy the conventional wisdom to achieve stunning success. But it's not just for salespeople. Since we all sell something in one form or another--even ideas--Outlaw is the sales guide for the salesperson in each of us. Outlaw explains that the world's best salespeople don't just sell; they fight for a worthy cause. They don't just pitch the customer; instead, they reframe the customer's and the market's expectations, delivering unique experiences that build value and inspire satisfaction, loyalty, and repeat business. In Outlaw, author and sales expert Trent Leyshan uses straightforward explanations and inspiring case studies to reveal the tools, traits, and skills used by the world's most dynamic and successful sales professionals. * Includes effective sales practices for salespeople, as well as account managers, business leaders, consultants, marketers, advertisers, and entrepreneurs * Features proven techniques for overcoming personal limitations, understanding what customers want, and becoming a more passionate, inspiring sales professional * Written by a sales expert and trainer whose clients include many of Australia's most successful sales-driven firms Perfect for anyone who works in sales or wants new ways to influence colleagues and customers, Outlaw offers effective strategies and a fresh approach to selling that really works.
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Seitenzahl: 243
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012
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About the author
Trent Leyshan is the founder and CEO of international sales training and development company BOOM! As the lead consultant and facilitator, he partners with some of the world’s most dynamic sales and service-driven companies. Clients include the National Australia Bank, Symbion Health, American Banknote, CSR and Crown Casino, to name a few.
Trent combines his unique experiences in business, rigorous research and new insights with fresh, interactive delivery methods that inspire action and lasting change in behaviour. He works with hundreds of salespeople across a broad range of industries every year. He designs and delivers sales seminars and in-house training programs across Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
Early in his career, Trent was the head spruiker and national sales manager at Big Kev’s. Under the guidance of mentor Kevin McQuay (Big Kev), Australia’s most flamboyant TV sales personality, he learned and developed his sales and presentation skills.
He has since led sales teams in award-winning advertising and online marketing agencies. He has transformed two companies from lounge-room operations into industry leaders. He is the author of The Naked Salesman (www.thenakedsalesman.com), and a sought-after speaker and contributor to various media on sales strategy and sales leadership.
For more information visit www.boomsales.com.au
Or connect with Trent here:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/trentleyshan
Twitter: @trentleyshan
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/trentleyshan
Introduction
The winds of change are howling more violently than ever. World money-making markets resemble the Wild West, with ethics being cast aside in the name of self-preservation and personal gain. The dotcom bubble at the turn of last century, and more recently the global financial crises and European debt crisis, provide a damning case in point. Our commercial world is now interconnected, forever changing, making it more volatile and unpredictable. Today, sales professionals are faced with novel and obscure demands on their skills, resources and time. Marketing is now considered a jargon term used by old-schoolers, as social media sweeps us all off our feet. Genuine customer loyalty appears to be a token gesture from a distant past, as amplified competition across industries ensures the customer’s bottom line is now constantly top-of-mind.
The internet has spectacularly changed the way we all conduct business. Customers can now find whatever they need with speed and precision. So much information and choice is readily available, and it’s only a click away. As our business world spins faster and faster, we are all showered with the debris of outdated beliefs and redundant modes of operating. Most of us are left dizzy and out of breath. For others, the incessant battle with rejection leaves them downright nauseated. The business landscape is now a cold and confusing place, with the dazed players not knowing how to act, which way to go, or what approach to trust.
Who can predict what will happen three months from now, let alone in three years? ‘Slash costs and discount!’ is bellowed from the lofty heights of senior management, or ‘How about we try this social media stuff?’ Both approaches will end in frustration (enter the eerie strings of a sad violin), especially when you apply them from a place of desperation instead of inspiration. In these challenging times you need to do more of what works, not less. Innovate? Hell yes! Just remember the worst time to try something untested is when you most need to try something new, as the stakes are higher, the pressures intensified and the risks greater. It’s time to get urgent now, before you really need to.
The sheriff is dead
The skills, strategies and behaviours required to succeed in sales many decades ago are noticeably different from those needed today. For the most part, customers were ill-informed, if not utterly ignorant, about the conniving ways of manipulative salespeople who directed their attention towards the unsophisticated. Sleazy cold-calling, ruthless closing techniques and slithering snake-oil salesmen thrived in this era. Towards the seventies and into the eighties competition had intensified and markets had begun to expand exponentially as mass media took hold. Sales professionals needed to evolve and invent new tactics to win customers. They soon realised that to be successful they had to embellish their relationships. Customers loved this treatment, and so they were easily seduced. Long lunches, promotions, discounts and free holidays were met with delight. Added to this, customers got a new sense of how they wanted to be treated, even though they were ultimately paying for it.
Just before the turn of this century — kaboom! The technology revolution and information age exploded into our lives. The internet propelled a distinct shift in consumer behaviour. Customers began to emerge from the dark ages. Buyers began to educate themselves, as a myriad of web and e-commerce sites sprouted up, and over time steadily began to change the way we all consume and buy things. Customers could now research and compare offers, and in many ways take back control of the buying process. They were also no longer willing to suffer fools or be treated like fools. The internet empowered and informed: the customer struck back and was no longer solely influenced by the salesperson.
We chart forward to today as the tempo of changes continues to accelerate. Business is even more complicated than it was a decade ago. True differentiation (to really stand out) is becoming increasingly challenging, if not impossible to assert. Markets such as property and real estate are stagnating on a global scale. The financial services space is morphing drastically while, sadly, industries like traditional retail that were too slow to adapt are now disintegrating.
A new force of influence is born
Despite these trying times and shifts in buyer behaviour, a specific type of sales professional is thriving. We are seeing a new force of influence emerge. These people are noticeably different from other sales professionals. They don’t just sell a product or service: what they stand for, communicate and demonstrate transcends buying and selling, and influences their customers as if they were fighting for a worthy cause. They defy the rules and adopt a distinctive selling approach and apply it to forge ahead of their contemporaries. These extraordinarily influential sales leaders are called Outlaws.
Deeply passionate, and at times evangelistic, Outlaws know how to inspire and develop customer relationships, but they also recognise that’s not nearly enough in the modern economy. Outlaws work by a set of insight-driven operating principles, seven to be exact, all neatly set out in this book. These principles enable sales professionals to promote outwardly instead of being self-directed. The benefits of this approach are measured by customers no longer seeing the Outlaw as a salesperson: the Outlaw becomes instead a trusted ally — a person of influence they call on for critical advice to lead them through challenges and uncertainty. Think of some of the most trusted advisers you currently surround yourself with, such as doctors, mentors or accountants. None of these advisers need to sell you anything — instead, they inform and empower you with critical information that enhances your situation or wellbeing.
Outlaws put their customers first. They resist the urge to be the centre of attention. When you meet an Outlaw, it becomes clear that the engagement is all about you, not them. They will probe and ask meaningful questions that drill deep into your challenges and connect with your higher goals, desires and aspirations. They don’t labour to be all things to all people: they are focused on and deeply committed to their field of endeavour, and willing to burrow underground to regroup, find and develop fresh impactful strategies. They are comfortable dwelling among real people, the crowd, to get a clear sense of what their customers really need. They are always listening, forever seeking an advantage to help their customers. Never content with what is, they search for what can and ultimately should be.
Outlaws don’t possess endless budgets; they are forced to innovate, invent and try new things; and they don’t just harness change — they drive it! Sure they take risks, and of course they get it wrong sometimes, but that never deters them from achieving their goals. They are not shy of calling in favours either, putting their ego aside to be vulnerable. They understand the power in collaborating with like-minded people, explicitly other Outlaws who are just as prepared to fight for their customers and deliver more! More choice, more service and more value are just some of the menu changes inspired by Outlaws.
As brazen and disruptive as Outlaws can be at times, they are equally conscious of how they impact others. They honour the little things, the simple stuff that is easy to do — yet easier to forget. Things that aren’t at all strenuous to attain: all it takes is a genuine effort to make other people feel important and included. Oddly enough, it’s these relatively easy things in life and business that are most challenging to master, like a smile for a stranger, a ‘leave it to me’ when something goes wrong, or a thoughtful ear when the time is right. Of course, we know all this stuff, but there’s a proverbial grand canyon between knowing and demonstrating. This book aims to bridge this chasm.
Why you should keep reading
This book sets out in clear terms, in seven chapters, practical advice, tested strategies and activities to help harness the most critical skills, tools and behaviours to help you become a real person of influence in a manic-paced, ever-morphing commercial world. Whether you’re a dogged sales veteran, a manager leading a team, an entrepreneur, a corporate high-flyer or simply a person who wants to be heard and taken seriously, this book speaks to the salesperson in you — a person that seeks to influence and make a difference. The insights and tools contained in this book, if applied correctly, will dramatically improve your individual and team performance. They are drawn from personal experiences and a career in selling at the coalface in some of the world’s most dynamic and demanding industries. They come from collaborating with thousands of high-performing sales professionals over my career and hundreds of salespeople every year. They come from interviewing industry leaders and game changers. All these strategies are tested. All these methods are practical. Ready for you to learn, aim and fire! Make no mistake: when you finish reading this book you will be armed and dangerous — Most Wanted by your competitors and your peers, and, most importantly, by your customers.
To truly influence your customers you will need to know them more intimately, more deeply, than your competitors do. This type of personal engagement can only come about by genuinely caring about your customer and their best interests. It will mean defying rules to set fresh standards of excellence that guide your customers into new markets and possibilities. The Outlaw spirit is especially inspired when you transform key business functions and accelerate growth to create additional revenue streams and profit pathways. Outlaws understand that being chased by ‘the popular opinion’ and flying in the face of industry standards comes with the territory and is indeed part of the thrill.
Businesspeople often take their customer relationships for granted — to be precise, they don’t always make the effort to evolve their customer relationships and move forward. Yet in a world that is now spinning faster than ever, they absolutely must. The relationship was once a sacred cow — now it’s a given. Customers want more than just a shoulder to cry on; they also crave a trusted ally to help them successfully navigate the murky fog and burst through! This book contains powerful insights and case studies of the habits of some of today’s most daring and successful businesspeople. These people are different, in fact, wonderfully so. It’s their story and willingness to fight for what they truly believe in that makes them so influential and such inspiring role models.
An Outlaw is a person who refuses to be governed by the established rules, practices or traditions.
An Outlaw changes the way the game is played, forever.
First published in 2013 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064
Office also in Melbourne
Typeset in 11.5/13 pt Bembo Std
© Wisdom Pearl Publishing Pty Ltd 2013
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Author: Leyshan, Trent.
Title: Outlaw : fight for your customers and sell without fear/Trent Leyshan.
ISBN: 9781118524060 (pbk.)
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Selling.
Sales personnel — Attitudes.
Success in business.
Dewey Number: 658.85
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher at the address above.
Cover design by Paul McCarthy
Cover image by © iStockphoto/Sankai
Author photograph © Timothy Herbert
Printed in China by Printplus Limited
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Disclaimer
The material in this publication is of the nature of general comment only, and does not represent professional advice. It is not intended to provide specific guidance for particular circumstances and it should not be relied on as the basis for any decision to take action or not take action on any matter which it covers. Readers should obtain professional advice where appropriate, before making any such decision. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the author and publisher disclaim all responsibility and liability to any person, arising directly or indirectly from any person taking or not taking action based on the information in this publication.
This book is dedicated to my little Outlaws, Tristan, Skye and Trinity
Outlaw: Fight For Your Customers
Table of Contents
Dare to prepare
Chance favours the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur, 18th century French scientist
This timeless maxim is just as relevant today, perhaps even more so, given our busy lifestyles. When you are stressed, under constant pressure to meet deadlines and running late to meetings, chances are you’re failing to prepare effectively, and in this state, your results will always correlate with your lack of preparation.
If it’s not worth preparing for, why do it at all?
The old saying, perfect preparation is paramount for perfect performance, is accurate. How you prepare for each project or pitch will largely determine the goals you and your team set out to achieve. Let’s be frank, admitting that your business is really not too dissimilar to most of your competitors is confronting. One, often overlooked, area in which you can differentiate yourself and move ahead of the other players, is how much time and thought you invest into what you do. Through well thought-out and habitual preparation, you can edge ahead of the pack by showing your customers just how much you care about creating the right outcomes for them. You also demonstrate that you take your time and theirs seriously.
The ancient Greek saying ‘know thyself’ has had a variety of meanings attributed to it in literature. The Suda, a 10th century AD dictionary of the ancient Greek lexicon, says: ‘the proverb is applied to those whose boasts exceed what they are, and that “know thyself” is a warning to pay no attention to the opinion of the multitude’. Knowing your strengths and limitations is a key step in your preparation process. How you prepare yourself for each new business pitch, particularly when you are up against a worthy foe, will come down to how successfully you position your strengths in the mind of your client, and in a way that counteracts and overcomes your competitors.
Outlaws prepare diligently because they have to — they know just how strenuous it is to carry a sack loaded full with rejection over mountainous terrain every day. In many cases less is more, but when it comes to preparation more is more. Businesspeople often prepare ineffectively because they are time poor. In doing so they are erroneously judging their preparation time to be a luxury, preferring instead to hope for the best and wing it. A lack of preparation will breed incompetence. Similarly, a lack of preparation diminishes your credibility with peers and customers, and reduces your ability to execute at the highest level.
If you’re stuck in a creative rut because you have been in the same role for too long, the best way forward is to keep pushing the boundaries for ways to improve, challenge and change things. This is where preparation comes in. You need to rethink what you’re doing and come up with ways of seeing things from a fresh perspective and reframing old views into new and compelling strategies for your customers. You can only achieve this by taking time out habitually and working on how your business or the entire industry can change and adapt or improve.
Save yourself first
Every time I take a domestic or international flight I am mildly entertained by the pre-flight safely spiel, which contains a statement that I believe transcends the aviation industry: ‘In the event of an emergency, first place the oxygen mask over your own face, and only then over your child’s.’ To do so may initially appear as a selfish act, but it expresses the need to save yourself first in order to stay conscious and alert to save your most cherished. There is no shortage of people out there striving to save the world, and that’s an admirable ambition — just make sure you put food on your own table first. You will need your strength if you are going to truly fight for your customers and create a business you are proud of. Over the years, I have met plenty of business professionals who are competent in their craft, yet they fail to demonstrate their own unique skills for their own commercial purposes. Think of a landscape gardener with a house surrounded with feral foliage, a dentist with pungent breath, or a search engine marketer who is not first page on Google. If these people fail to demonstrate their skills for themselves, what does that say about their commitment to their customers?
Where preparation meets opportunity
You are more influential and vastly more potent when you can successfully demonstrate how you personally benefit from the product or services you promote. You need to understand implicitly the value and benefits of those products or services. You may not be the most skilled and experienced at your company, or in your industry for that matter, but you can be the most prepared. If you develop a reputation for being prepared — that your ability to prepare for each opportunity exceeds that of your peers — it will only be a matter of time before success follows.
Here’s an example of what not to do. I met with a web company that claimed to specialise in social media marketing, but a quick review of the strategy they had implemented for their own business revealed they were barely qualified to even talk about the subject. Cash flow aside, it is often a lack of credibility that cripples a business. No proven track record and limited relevant experience in a supplier are all risks for a potential customer — investing money in your product or service is too risky. To help combat this, you must demonstrate your competence at every opportunity. Dare to prepare! If you’re a realtor, own your own properties — start as small as you need to. If this suburb really is the next boom town, why aren’t you in this market already? Dare to prepare and speak from experience. If you’re a web developer, show me a world class website and strategy — all that should cost is your own creativity, resources and some time. Mr Financial Planner, I want to know about your asset portfolio and the risks you took and overcame to achieve personal wealth. If you can’t save yourself, don’t expect others to pay you to save them.
Unlocking your inner game
Preparation is an activity but, more importantly, it’s also a mindset. When you find yourself preparing for your next big pitch or planning a meeting with your manager for your performance review, ask yourself, ‘Why should the person I am talking with trust and buy from me and believe in what I’m saying?’ You then connect that response in your head to what you want to achieve.
If you’re really honest, a sincere response to this question is often a slight pause, followed by a blank stare. Okay, I will ask this question in a slightly different way.
‘Other than making money, why are you in business?’ That question will invariably be greeted with another ponderous look, or it might trigger a passionate reply, such as, ‘I just love helping people!’ or ‘I really enjoy the culture here, just look around us: you can almost smell the passion in the air!’ Eureka! These insights, and others like them, are clues to help you to understand the ‘why’ for doing what you do, or desire to do. It also helps you to start to clarify why someone will ultimately buy from you. From here you can start to form your ‘why frame’, which shapes the initial step of your customer engagement process. This is the moment and place where all relevant communication should start or finish.
At my sales development company, BOOM!, we use an intelligent method for breaking down how salespeople communicate word by word and then aligning their communication to their customer’s emotional drivers, that is, the things that really turn their customers on and influence their behaviour. If a word or statement doesn’t support the customer’s ‘why’, it’s swiftly removed from their vocabulary or reframed in a more meaningful way and acutely aligned to the customer’s needs or desires. Omit needless words, of course. Next is taking some time out to see things from the client perspective.
Activity: developing your ‘why frame’
First, round up your teammates, especially those who have a role engaging and influencing customers. Fetch a whiteboard or an easel with butcher’s paper and marker pens. If you don’t have a board, then simply pin the paper to the wall. Next, elect a team leader to lead and facilitate the group discussion. The facilitator’s objective is to write down all the key emotional drivers that relate to your most valuable customers. Namely, what are they fearful about when buying from your company or others in your industry? What frustrates the pants off them when it comes to your product, service or industry (this is always the longest list). And what do they really want and need from you, and why?
Think practically and think broadly. But most of all, be brutally honest. The output of this activity is to then drill down to the most critical insights and then craft and design your communication around the customer, not you. You will also need to cut out certain areas of focus to free up your time to zero in on communicating the right message to the right customers, more often. And remember, have fun with it!
It’s also important to remember that if a potential customer contacts you, consider ‘why’ they have gone to the effort of seeking you out? Don’t disregard this information. And don’t make the error of assuming that every customer that initiates contact with you already has a compelling and resolved ‘why’ in their mind. It’s always up to you to help them unlock and emphasise their ‘why’ in your initial sales conversation as you set the tone, build rapport and establish fit with the customer. Likewise, if you conduct outbound marketing activities, your success rates will dramatically improve when you demonstrate you have taken time to really think about your ‘why’ for calling by communicating your insight-driven and critical piece of information that moves the customer to a place of safe and purposeful action. Failure to do so will typically result in a swift and cold ‘Goodbye!’.We will explore this concept more in Chapter 2 when we discuss the Red Phone principle.
To see things in the seed, that is genius.
Lao Tzu, author of Tao Te Ching
What can we learn from a bushranger?
Ned Kelly was a shameless horse thief and bank robber, who admitted to gunning down policemen. The son of an Irish convict, Kelly became Australia’s most infamous leader of a gang of Outlaws. There’s much to learn from Outlaws and the lengths they go to prepare for battle and fight for their cause. Getting things wrong could result in their paying the ultimate price or spending the rest of their life behind bars. Outlaws like Kelly communicate and survive through underground networks made up of like-minded people. They rely on trusted sources for their intelligence and information to aid them in their mission or project. What was most intriguing about Ned Kelly was his penchant for innovation, not just his iron will but also the iron armour he wore, concealed under his coat, in his last stand against police.
Kelly may not be a poster boy for moral purity, but he defied the rules, he became an innovator and game changer, and folk hero. The armour Kelly wore was half his body weight. During the siege at Glenrowan, in June 1880, all four members of the Kelly gang (Ned and Dan Kelly, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart) wore suits of armour made of plate metal. Kelly was an inventor. Body armour in Australia is not only outrageous given the rugged conditions, in this case it was absurdly heavy, making the energy required to wear it immense. But it was real genius. Kelly showed a capacity to think creatively and a willingness and resilience to fight for what he believed in, that is, the unjust and corrupt way the police operated and enforced the law of the land.
