Sales organizations want to deliver a fantastic sales experience for all of their customers. But what does that mean, exactly? Being sold to doesn’t always have the best connotation, but we instinctively know a good salesperson versus a bad one, even if we can’t quite grasp what the extra something they have is.
But we want to know what that extra something is. In our series, we’re going to experts around the world who we think have that extra something and asking all about that crucial last mile with a prospect: the in-person meeting.
This Month’s Expert
We got a chance to ask David Hoffeld, CEO and Chief Sales Trainer of Hoffeld Group, about how he approaches sales. David has worked with small and medium businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Because of the results his insights generate, David is a sales and leadership contributor to Fast Company, and has been featured in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report,The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, CBS Radio, Fox News Radio, and more.
David has pioneered a revolutionary sales approach based on neuroscience and behavioral science that radically increases sales, which he’s written about in his new book, The Science of Selling: Proven Strategies to Make Your Pitch, Influence Decisions, and Close the Deal. He has a truly unique perspective, backed by science, on the sales experience. In his own words, here’s what makes a great one.
How would you describe your meeting style and approach?
David: My sales approach is based entirely on what science has revealed regarding how the brain is influenced and constructs a buying decision. When I say science, I mean it. I study social psychology, cognitive psychology, social neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience and behavioral economics, and apply this proven science to sales. It is the foundation of everything I do and teach.
Why does this science matter and why does it significantly increase sales? The closer your sales approach is to how the brain is wired to be positively influenced and create a buying decision, the more effective you will be. This may seem obvious, until you realize that salespeople struggle with defining how the buying decision occurs – what has to happen in buyers’ brains before they will decide to say “yes” to the sale. Yet, how can salespeople guide buyers through the buying decision when they are not sure how it occurs? The answer is they can’t or at least not as effectively as they could if they knew how to sell the way the brain makes a buying decision.
The good news is that there is now decades of research in this area. Over 10 years ago, I saw its application to selling; I spent a ridiculous amount of time and money learning this science and also conducting some original sales-specific research based on it. Now, because of science, salespeople don’t have to guess their way through the sale, follow the conjecture-based ideas about selling, or use anecdotal evidence. Today, salespeople can base the way they sell on hard, scientific evidence that will allow them to be far more effective, improve sales results, and better serve buyers.
How does in-person sales differ from other types?
David: When salespeople are sitting in front of buyers, the main difference is that the influence of peripheral factors (dress, nonverbal communication, presentation style, use of pictures when presenting, etc.) are amplified and shape the perception of the salesperson’s message. Also, a salesperson can use these peripheral cues to more quickly build and deepen rapport, trust and engagement, if they know how. Unfortunately, these opportunities are often lost because salespeople do not know how to effectively leverage them.
What’s the biggest challenge of in-person sales?
David: The #1 reason sales people underperform is they inadvertently deploy selling behaviors that conflict with how the brain is wired to be influenced and formulate a buying decision. One study published in the Harvard Business Review found that 63 percent of the salespeople analyzed in the experiment regularly behaved in ways that drove down the likelihood of the sale. However, once salespeople understand the basics of how the brain is influenced and makes a buying decision they can modify their behaviors and truly make the way they sell focused on buyers and helping them make positive buying choices.
That is what my firm specializes in, and my upcoming book, The Science of Selling, shows salespeople how to practically and quickly apply the science to improve their results immediately.
How should you respond to customer objections in a meeting?
David: Two thoughts on this: The research shows the best way—by far—to deal with objections is to neutralize them before they are ever verbalized by the buyer. Once a buyer verbalizes an objection, it is much harder to overcome in comparison to negating it preemptively. How do you do this? There is some groundbreaking research that conclusively shows that objections are the result of the breakdown of the mental process that prospects go through when constructing a buying decision. Once you know what those mental steps are you can often knock out objections before they begin to plague your prospects’ minds with doubt.
That said, this is not always possible and there are times when you must handle objections after they are verbalized. As a rule, earlier is usually better. The later in the sale they arise the more challenging they usually are to overcome. Also, a key to dealing with objections it to follow a process and always present new evidence or reframe the situation so that your prospects don’t have to reject their previous choice, but can instead make a new decision.
How much should you talk compared to a prospect in a face-to-face meeting?
David: Obviously, listening to your prospects is paramount. It is hard to productively influence someone and sell to them if you don’t understand them, their situation and needs. However, most sales training on listening is overly simplistic motivational speeches that extoll the virtues of listening, remind salespeople that they have two ears and only one mouth and implore them to listen more than they speak. Not only are these ideas unhelpful, but they trivialize the important task of listening.
Instead, the key to effective listening is to focus salespeople not on listening more, but on what they should be listening for. Until you understand some important things about your prospects and their situation such as: problems they want to solve, scope and cause of the problems, who is involved in the decision, how their buy-in is achieved, needed product or service parameters, time frame, budgets and other factors—presenting your product or service is irresponsible since you don’t yet know enough about your prospects to show them how you, your company, and product or service can truly meet their needs.
I don’t believe, nor is there any evidence to suggest a magical ratio of talking to listening that salespeople should follow. Instead, they should focus on gaining an in-depth perspective of the mission critical factors that will influence the sale, which involves listening a lot, and then present how they can truly help their prospects, which involves presenting and listening. I have found that helping salespeople understand what they should listen for often solves any problems with listening.
You can follow David on Twitter at @DavidHoffeld. The Science of Selling is now available on amazon for pre-order.
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