Hey everybody, I’m Nhat Pham. I am a public speaker, author, and Chief Strategist from Successwerks. This is our first business edition of Success Secrets.
I know that many of you business owners want to do better with your business. That’s why I have invited a special friend of mine named Patrick Morin. He is one of the top sales trainers in the world. He is a serial entrepreneur and the author of the book “Just Sell It”. I have known Patrick for years. I always go to him for different sales questions. So I thought I would tap into all the knowledge that Patrick has.
Patrick Morin started off in finance at General Electric in the finance department. He then went to New York to start looking into investment banking after leaving General Electric. Patrick came back to Richmond and worked at a global training business. He became certified in sales and sales training. Patrick has a passion for sales as he has been working for 25 years in the field.
Selling more is always a goal in a business. Having a clear plan is key to gaining more sales. A sales person needs to know what the plan is for the quarters of the year. Many of them are not looking at the starting point though. There needs to be an understanding of where you are now and where you want to be down the road.
There are sales people who are doing those things. But, they still are not getting the sales they hoped. They end up losing confidence. Patrick compared confidence to a sound wave. Sometimes we feel strong and other times we feel weak. Confidence comes from having a solid plan or taking the results of one plan and realizing it can be applied somewhere new. Take lessons that have been learned in the past and apply them to present situations. This can increase confidence.
Of course, Patrick has seen mistakes being made by both owners and individuals. Owners look at the broad market and think they can sell to everyone. Plans are so broad that the sales people are not sure where they should be focusing their energy. Having a focused market makes things much easier on the company. Patrick’s example of this is a light bulb and a laser beam. Both are useful forms of light. A light bulb lights up the world around it. A laser beam cuts through a focused point. The light bulb would be the broad plan. The laser beam would be the focused plan. In sales, the more focused the better.
The second mistake is a lack of a well trained team. Sales people have to know that their company believes in them. This can be done by having a company constantly training sales people on what needs to be done. A person feels obligated to do something if they feel like their company is invested in them. That is when results pick up.
The sales person needs to look at their entire market. There should be a market that they completely own. Customers in this core should be targeted the most. The next ring is where you compete with other companies. The third outer ring is the market were you should try to get some opportunities. Most sales people start immediately grabbing for that outer ring. It just doesn’t work out. “Focus in on the core, then move out to that bigger market.”
It can be hard for small businesses to separate sales from account management. The sales guys tend to end up as the account managers in a small business. Patrick looks at the problem from the customer’s eyes to figure out the problem. Does the customer want to feel as though it is one individual who handling them all the way down. Do they want to feel as though there’s a team around them?
Patrick also factors in how difficult it may be to get a customer. The two sectors should be split if it is hard to draw in customers. There should be someone who can focus on those relationships.
Switching from a sales person to an account manager has to be smooth. The sales team should be trained in how to introduce clients to other parts of the team. Introduce the new team when handing off a customer. Tell the customer why the team is helping, their responsibilities, and so forth. This helps pass the good relationship on from the sales person to the new team.
Another problem in a company can be between Sales and Marketing. Sales and Marketing don’t tend to mesh well. Both entities need to work together instead of compete. The end goal for Sales and Marketing is the same. Both need to support one another in order for their goal to be met. Marketing supports Sales by getting information out to the market. Sales comes back and tells Marketing what is and is not working. Both need to sit down and understand each others roles.
Patrick actually saw an example of how Sales and Marketing could work together during a rugby practice. He watched as the players were running in a line shouting “With you!”. The ball can only be tossed backward or run forward in rugby. All of the supports are behind the player who has the ball, and they can’t be seen. So by shouting “With you!”, the player with the ball can hear where they are and can toss the ball in that direction. This is how Sales and Marketing should work together.
We were very happy to have Patrick Morin on this episode of SuccessSecrets. Patrick’s website is www.patrickbmorin.com if you want to learn more about Patrick Morin. Thank you all so much for joining us. My name is Nhat Pham and remember: Be successful and be the best you you can be.
