C-level Relationship Selling: Sales Managers Must Teach C-level Selling and Use Effective Listening to Cross-sell and Territory Sales Will Skyrocket

If sales managers taught their sales and support staffs to interview and listen, they would increase their territory sales tremendously.

I just read an interesting White Paper that said sales people are hindered cross-selling in existing accounts because they are out of their comfort zone. They are OK selling products / services they know well and avoid selling those they don’t know as well.

Now some of my clients argue that their sales people stick with one because they make more money vs. the other. I agree with both, but lean heavily towards this comfort zone observation.

Anyone who has been involved with my coaching knows that I strongly encourage prospecting extensively in existing accounts.  It is the easiest place to get more business and grow sales volume because you have contacts, credibility and access - if you choose to use them. 

However, sales management has to make this happen.  So if sales people are uncomfortable or don’t like the money they get from the cross-sell, what is an astute sales manager and profit-center leader to do?  I suggest “Effective Listening”.  Relieve the burden of promoting products / services and enforce the tasks of interviewing and listening for key words and phrases. 

If a sales person uses his or her contacts to get to the senior executives (C-Levels and profit-center leaders) and asks “Issues and Concerns” questions and listens for remarks that reflect challenges, problems and unmet opportunities, relative to the sales person’s total solution portfolio, they will learn a lot about other opportunities ripe for cross-sells. 

For example, one of my clients sells civil engineering and construction services.  Many of the people are very knowledgeable with environmental engineering and are connected to some powerful people in government agencies or corporations.  To get these people to sell roads, buildings or other engineering services would be a big mistake and a huge lost opportunity. 

Here’s why.  If they tried to sell these other services, they’d do such a poor job that they’d lose credibility with the executive relative to these other services.  As a result the company would lose a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.  However, if this person doesn’t use his or her credibility with the executive, the company will have to compete with all the other vendors. 

Now if this environmental person was conditioned (from training and role playing) to ask generalized questions, such as, “What are the issues and concerns you have with up-coming engineering projects” and be trained to listen for words, phases etc,  s/he could glean trouble spots from the executive where his/her company could possibly assist. The environmental person would then report the findings to a sales manager  who would assign someone to assist with expertise.

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The beauty of this is that the environmental person wouldn’t have to worry about promoting.  S/he just has to ask some questions and/or listen for remarks spoken either in casual conversations, in meetings or in a formal interview.  The onus of “selling” would be removed and the risk of botching the deal would also be removed.  Yet, the qualified lead would be at hand along with a senior contact to work it through.

This being said, however, sales management has two key responsibilities to make this “Effective Listening” process happen.  First, they have to set up training sessions with the cross-sell services to teach people the keywords and phrases to be listening for. Most training that other services of a company do is usually “How to Sell” rather than “What to Listen For.” 

Second, management has to have a process of assignment and follow-up.  The qualified lead must be attended to and the person with the relationship networks (transfers his/her credibility) to the expert with the powerful leader.  If this process is not managed diligently it will fall through the cracks because the expert and the person with the contact each have other things to do and/or their own agenda.

So what about the money piece?  Stated more accurately, what’s in it for the environmental person or any sales person to use his or her contacts for cross selling?  Keeping one’s job is a good WIFM.  Recognition and money are other obvious incentives.  However, I strongly believe that if sales management makes it easy for people i.e. shows them how to interview rather than promote i.e. push services, and gives them the back-up talent as needed, sales people and/or professionals will naturally deliver good leads that will enable the company to cross-sell more.  See one of the biggest motivators for sales people is the close - getting that order is a real rush.  It doesn’t matter the size or the what.  It’s the yes.  Conversely, the thought of the “no” is the biggest deterrent.

Sale managers have to get out of their routine and be the trainers and managers for the cross-sell process.  Telling sales people they have to do more, training them how to sell it, throwing monetary incentives are 20th Century tactics that didn’t work that well then.  Relationship selling - using the contact, Investigative selling - learning about the contact’s issues, and Network selling, - using ones contacts to enable another is the 21st Century strategy for successful cross-selling.

Bonus Tip:   FREE E-Book “Getting Past Gatekeepers and Handling Blockers”.  Just click this C-Level Relationship Selling Link http://www.takemetoyourleaders.com/Antion/Ebookfreesignup1.htm Sam Manfer makes it easy for any sales person to be effective and feel comfortable connecting with and relationship selling C-Level leaders