Consult Carson 6/6: “My team tries to sell the cheapest plan – how do I increase average buy?”

From today’s mailbag: “My average buy is struggling and I’m not hitting goal. I’ve got reps who go for the cheapest plan right out of the gates. I’m trying to convince them to sell on value, but they just don’t listen and say they are afraid of losing the sale. Help!”

Carson: It is imperative I start most of these off by saying “sales is a process.” For starters, you cannot be afraid of losing something you never had. Your team, often when they are slumping or worried or anxious about potential loss, will allow themselves to deviate from process. They will use the excuse that they are afraid to lose the sale or that they are slumping and just needed to get on the board. They will start pitching out of their own pocketbook, second-guessing themselves, and assuming a customer will not pay what your program is worth – solely because they have lost faith in either themselves or in their product or in their process.

When coaching, it is important to get the employee’s agreement that they are not satisfied with their current results. If they have had prior success, it can also help to remind them of what their process was like when they were closing. Like a baseball hitting coach assisting a slumping player in finding his previous, successful stance and swing, like a golf instructor watching for where the mechanics of the follow-through have gotten out of whack, we as sales coaches must diagnose the destructive changes to sales process.

1. Find the reason why your team member is deviating from process. Is something on their mind, and distracting them from what they should know is the right process?

2. Re-visit the why and how of process. We make an impactful intro so we grab our customer’s attention and earn the right to have a conversation. We ask insightful questions to learn the customer’s motivation, gather enough of their words and passions and perspective to utilize their own philosophies in not only constructing the pitch but also overcoming their objections. We build value in our complete solution, and based on the return on investment, we make it make sense to our customer. Immediately going in and pitching the lowest common denominator does literally nothing but scoff in the face of process and if we actually do get a “sale” it will be the result with the least probability of benefiting our customer. The long-term relationship we should be striving for is destroyed before it begins.

3. Establish a commitment between your team member and you that they actually do fully understand why a change is necessary, that you will provide the help and coaching they need to implement the change, and that you will (and you actually do!) follow up to ensure it is carried out. Often, people won’t change because they don’t fear the potential down side worse than they fear changing. They settle for comfortable ways of failing or mediocrity. They may also buy in to the process change, but they go out in a job that’s 1 for 10 or 1 for 20 or 1 for 100 as a good close rate, they fail the first few times out of the chute, and they go back to comfortable ways of failing. They don’t give it enough of an opportunity to work, but they mentally tell themselves it’s the process that failed, not them.

4. Finally, truly re-visit your commitment. Like renewing your vows, like re-visiting a promise or contract, you must hark back to this conversation in future ones. Always use coaching conversations to visit where you are now, look back at where you were, look at what you committed to do and if it panned out. You applaud the wins and coach the opportunities and make a plan to either continue upward trajectory or to address the fact they refused to change.

In the end, this one all boils down to ensuring your salesperson knows the process, knows why process is paramount and is actually following it in the field. Your part in this play is to determine any obstacles or objections they have and eradicate them… so that nothing stands in the way on the road toward successful sales that truly benefit the holy sales trinity: customer, company and you.

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Carson V. Heady posts for “Consult Carson” serving as the “Dear Abby” of sales and sales leadership. You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving. You will also be directly contributing to his third book, “A Salesman Forever.”

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at cvheady007@yahoo.com or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page: https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/

Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled “Birth of a Salesman” that has a unique spin that shows you proven sales principles designed to birth in you the top producer you were born to be.

If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G28TWF