Data-Driven Selling By Sales Insights Lab

Modern selling isn't actually about selling per se, at least, not in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, the focus is really on determining fit, and once we know there's a fit, then we can start to create value in that conversation. In this video, I'm going to show you how to stop selling and start closing sales. 

Number one, know your ideal prospect. This is really a mistake that so many salespeople make which is trying to do business with a broad group of people, when in fact, their ideal prospects are actually out there, and they're not in front of them because they're so focused on selling to a bigger audience as opposed to really narrowing down the ideal prospect. 

Number two, only focus on ideal prospects. I need to drive this point home because it's so key. This means that if you are dealing with someone who isn't an ideal prospect, stop dealing with them. Move on, refer them to someone else. Focus your time on only ideal prospects. 

Number three, get rid of the rabble. Now, this again builds on the earlier point, but getting rid of the rabble may sound kind of mean, but it is so true and so critical. As a top-performing salesperson, what we want to do is determine whether someone's a fit up front and if we determine that they're not, move on. Get rid of the rabble. Don be distracted by all of these different potential opportunities, most of which are junk. Get rid of the rabble and focus on those people that are truly ideal prospects that are going to be that good fit. 

Number four, disqualify prospects. Now if you've been in my world for some time, you've heard this term of disqualifying prospects. And what's amazing to me is even some of my best clients still come back to me and say, "Well, you know what Marc? "I used the disqualification process of trying to get rid "of those people that aren't a fit, but I'm still coming "across some of these people, and I'm keeping them along "in my process that may or may not be a fit." What we want to do is spend the early part of the sale disqualifying people that are not a good fit! 

Number five, the doctor's mindset. The doctor's mindset is so key and what this means is that when a prospect gets in front of us, we need to think like a doctor. We've got to stop thinking like a salesperson or a consultant. Instead, we want to think like a doctor. Think about going to the doctor's office. 

Number six, only present to their challenges. Have you ever been in a selling situation where it was going pretty well, and you're in this presentation, and they're like, "Oh yeah, "that makes a lot of sense." And "Oh, I can see how we could use that." And it just feels good and then you get excited, and you say, oh, and by the way, let me show you one other thing that we can do. 

Number seven, get tons of feedback. Feedback, feedback, feedback throughout the sale. From the beginning to the end. There is a tendency, especially by the way, for more seasoned salespeople to get on a roll. And we're like, oh yeah, I'm feelin' good. I'm killin' this one, and we start talkin' and talkin' and talkin', and we're not getting feedback from the prospect throughout this process. And so, even when we're presenting a solution, we're just talking for 10 minutes straight. What we want to be doing instead, is continually getting feedback throughout, anytime that we're talking.  

Number eight, drop the hard close. We need to drop that hard close. Selling is not about selling, and it's not about closing. Selling is about using a process by which we determine whether there's a fit and we're asking really powerful questions to create value, to engage them in that conversation, to understand exactly what's going on.

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