SELLING SKILLS – By Sean McCormack
The simple things can make a big difference
Over the years I have seen a multitude of definitions of the word “selling,” but my favorite by far is two simple words –creating change. When you think about it, if you haven’t created change, you simply have not sold anything.
I also have learned that the most effective professionals, no matter what their position, have a knack for keeping things simple. This applies to leadership and sales professionals as well.
Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Airlines, said, “complexity is your enemy … any fool can make something complicated … it takes real genius to keep things simple.”
Like great leaders, great salespeople can focus on the top priorities and what is relevant to each customer to deliver extraordinary results. They also understand the power and the impact of the “little things” that keep them at the top.
As we know as sales trainers, all sales representatives get trained on the big foundational items, such as product and disease state knowledge, selling models, etc. However, sales champions construct their skill set by building on the foundation, and flawlessly executing the “little things” that allow them to build a structure of excellence on top of the foundational items.
It’s like building a house: The slab is the foundation but it’s things like the lumber, the nails and the fasteners that allow a beautiful structure to be completed.
It’s the Little Things
A sales champion’s journey starts with one of these “keep it simple” realities – do they want to be viewed by customers as an asset or a liability?
It’s a stark reality that when a sales representative leaves an office, on many occasions the staff will make comments. Whenever I speak in sales training on this subject, I ask the new hires, “How do you want that conversation in the office to sound about you when you’re not there?”
Sales champions have an unquenchable desire to be seen as an asset. To be viewed as a liability is unacceptable. In my opinion it’s nonsensical and completely demotivating to get up every morning and go to work where your customers don’t want to see you.
And so, let’s focus on the “little things” that total up to the overarching reality of being viewed as an asset or liability.
Possessing Superior Knowledge
Sales champions make it their business to know their product, disease state, market dynamics and the competition better than everyone else. They realize that’s what professionals do. Too many pharmaceutical representatives limit their knowledge to the content of their sales aid or presentation.
Sales champions subscribe to peer-reviewed journals that are relevant to their products. They are hungry to learn. They realize that knowledge builds confidence, and they carry themselves, and are viewed by their customers, differently. As trainers, we all understand that what a representative can communicate is regulated in life sciences. Sales champions know what they can and can’t speak to, but that doesn’t stop them in their pursuit of superior competence and confidence.
In addition, they ask questions of their customers to fortify their knowledge, understanding and inner confidence. You may forget what you read in a training manual, but you never forget the answer to a question you ask. Thus, they earn the respect of their customers because they have made the effort to be a true professional and a resource.
Knowing Why vs. What
Sales champions understand that to be consistently successful, you must understand why your customer is doing what they are doing. Almost all pharma reps have the resources handed to them on day one to understand “what” the customer is currently doing.
Certainly, that is helpful information to develop an initial call objective, but after a finite number of calls, if you have not begun to explore your customer’s beliefs, insights and motivations, and continue to deliver the same scripted message as a pre-programmed robot, you quickly get lumped into the “liability” column.
Life sciences sales are generally a business of incremental gains, and by finding out the “why,” your call objective gets closer to the target interest and concern of your customer. Whenever I speak to a training class, I say how terrific it would be if each customer had a “why” button you could press to reveal their thoughts, insights, beliefs and motivations.
Sales champions completely understand that they, in fact, are the “why” button.
Asking Questions With Genuine Curiosity
Asking good questions is another example of a skill that many sales managers and trainers frequently over-complicate. In my experience there are only two golden rules of asking questions: The first is simply asking yourself, “What is it that I want or need to know about this customer that I don’t know now?” Then, form questions in your own words that address this premise.
It’s no more complicated than that! If this rule is followed, all resulting questions will be asked with genuine curiosity, and those questions will most often be answered by your customer because they sense you really want to know.
Too often we try and come up with a list of scripted “rock star” questions that are going to magically move our customer to our product. Quite frequently, these questions will not be perceived as genuinely curious, which will turn the customer off. This is a valuable skill-building workshop you can implement.
They Hear the Customer Out Completely
The second and final golden rule of effective questioning is to have the discipline to hear your customer out without interruption. Sales champions understand that when the customer is talking, they are listening, and when they are listening, they are learning, and when you are learning you are uncovering more of the “why” alluded to earlier. This skill gets the representative closer to the “bull’s-eye” of what is driving the customer behavior.
Mastering this skill results in a sales champion listening illustratively 90% of the time while speaking only 10% of the time. Most sales representatives never graduate to this status because they are still driven to educate rather than be educated. These “quasi-engagers” have graduated from being “tellers” who do 90% of the speaking with no regard to what the customer is interested in.
The classic telltale sign a representative remains in this stage is when the customer begins to answer a question, when they hear part of an answer that triggers an “I’ve got the answer to that one” response, they stop listening and frequently can’t wait to interrupt the customer and jump in to interject a point. The champion files away the customer response and keeps listening intently to completion.
They Speak the Language of the Customer
Every profession has its own language, and this obviously includes healthcare practitioners (HCPs). Sales champions make it their business to adopt this vernacular in their interactions.
For example, when I was a representative, I would never ask a provider to “use” my drug, but rather “evaluate in the appropriate patient.” There are “treatment plans or approaches,” “differential diagnoses,” data that’s “statistically significant” and a “logical or reasonable” action.
When you speak the language of your customer, you are viewed as a professional and an asset. One of my greatest pet peeves as a trainer or sales leader is when a representative introduces clinical data with “doctor, we did a study.” All that does is belittle the quality of the data, especially if it is a well-designed study or level I data.
A sales champion practices introducing data like a professional by giving the top-line basics of the study design. For example, “doctor, this study was a multi-center, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, including approximately 1,500 patients over52 weeks. The primary endpoint researched by the clinical investigators was X and the results were Y.”
It’s blatantly obvious which approach is going to earn the respect of the customer, isn’t it?
They Embrace the ‘Authentic’ Total Office Call
I have seen so many representatives who treat a total office call like a “check the box.” They think that my superficially saying “hello” to the staff while their only goal is to see the provider qualifies as executing a total office call. However, the staff sees and feels the obvious disingenuousness of the intent.
The sales champion views it otherwise. They treat everyone, no matter who they are in the account, as a valued customer. They make it their business to get to know everyone on a deeply personal and real level. Birthdays, anniversaries, hobbies, interests, children’s names and so forth.
By taking this authentic approach, the staff feels just as valued as the provider. These are the representatives who do get time with the HCP because of their genuine interest and concern for all.
One of my favorite quotes is from Mary Kay Ash, who said the key reason she was able to build a successful cosmetic juggernaut was simply, “No matter who I came in contact with, I pretended that they had a sign around their neck that said make me feel important.”
They Create a Consistent Selling Climate by Recognizing the Window of Opportunity
Sales champions have a knack for recognizing the window of opportunity that allows them to seamlessly transition from icebreaker dialogue into a selling situation. In pharmaceutical sales this is a critically important skill as mastering this earns you more time with a customer. And we all know how valuable time spent with a customer truly is.
More time leads to more impact which leads to more sales. This window of opportunity only exists briefly, and it is usually recognized as a momentary pause between talking about some non-business-related subject, such as the weather or sports, and the ability to effortlessly move to a product or business discussion.
Sales champions have the self-awareness to recognize this usually nonverbal signal and move to business with transitions such as “by the way” or “last time we spoke…”. And now they are into a presentation in a very comfortable way.
Many representatives fail to recognize the opportunity and may keep speaking non-business. Then, unfortunately, many times the customer does have to move along, and the opportunity is lost. This situation became very evident to me as a sales leader and often a third-party observer on a sales call. This may on the surface appear to be a trifling skill, but when you really consider how many times in a single day this situation arises, you begin to appreciate its importance.
Remember, it’s the “little things” that truly matter.
Wrapping Up the Call
Finally, sales champions summarize a sales engagement in a very effective, honest and once again simple way. They ask themselves only three simple questions:
- What did I accomplish?
- What did I learn?
- Based on No. 1 and No. 2, what will I do next?
This honest and simple approach allows them to consistently refine their call objective to zero in on the bull’s-eye to address the customer’s beliefs, motivations and resulting behaviors. And this is the formula to create change.
Sean McCormack is director, deployment & engagement excellence, for Syneos Health. Email Sean at sean.mccormack@syneoshealth.com or connect with him through www.linkedin.com/in/sean-mccormack904/.
