Selling Effectively Without Sleaze (Guest Nikki Rausch aka The Sales Maven): Sales Series Pt1
SHOW NOTES:
Contact Nikki Rausch: Linkedin - Twitter - Instagram
Sales Maven: Website - Facebook - Sales Maven Society - YouTube - Podcast
Nikki Rausch FREE e-book for podcast listeners: Closing the Sale stop fumbling on sales calls
Nikki's Books: The Selling Staircase - Buying Signals
Upcoming FREE summit with Nikki Rausch: Profitable Membership Summit
Movie Mentions: The Salesmen (1969) Wikipedia - Trailer, Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) Wikipedia - Trailer - Always Be Closing ABC)
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) - Website
Nikki’s NLP Book Recommendations:
Heart Of The Mind
CONTACT HEATHER:
Zeitzwolfe Accounting: https://www.zeitzwolfeaccounting.com - Facebook
Follow Heather on Instagram: @zeitzwolfe
Heather Zeitzwolfe - LinkedIn
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On this episode of Get the Balance Right podcast my guest is Nikki Rausch. She is a sales expert and coach who is certified in NLP. Nikki is the host of the Sales Maven podcast, which has a devoted fan base, which includes members of her supportive community, The Sales Maven Society. Besides writing books about sales, she offers coaching programs where she trains entrepreneurs and others to sell without the sleaze. She developed a sales framework called the Selling Staircase, which is the title of one of her books. Through her professional background and her extensive education in neuro linguistic programming (NLP), Nikki has developed a sales superpower, which is built on relationships, rapport and a place of service.
This episode is the first half of a two-part series on sales. In this show, host Heather Zeitzwolfe explains the need for sales metrics and tracking. She shares performance measures to gauge the effectiveness of your selling process. We dive deep into Nikki Rausch's signature sales techniques. If you were ever intimidated by sales because you thought it was icky, you won't anymore. This show will provide you with the tips you need to sell without sleaze.
In sales, besides the act of selling, there’s another important element to consider, tracking and metrics.
How are you tracking and measuring sales in your business? Do you have a good handle on your sales funnel? How are you tracking prospects, do you have a client relationship management system, also known as a CRM?
If you said, “don’t know” to any of these questions, then now is a great time to start getting a handle on your sales. Without tracking and metrics, your sales funnel can become a guessing game and your cash flow a shot in the dark. Without knowing this information your decisions as an owner is impaired and can easily put you in a dangerous place where you’re over-staffed with not enough money in the bank to run payroll.
A few important sales metrics that you can put into place, if you haven’t already, are these:
First: Tracking where your prospects are coming in from and your conversion rate from prospect to buyer. For instance, if you have a much higher conversion rate with prospects that come from referrals rather than Facebook ads, then you should put more effort into your referral process and spend less on Facebook ads.
Second: Win rate. Not all prospects will convert to sales. To calculate your win rate, that’s number of sales divided by prospects. If you have a 100%-win rate, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a great sales person, it could mean your prices are too low. Based on your industry, this number will fluctuate. For instance, the average for advertising agencies is around 25% to 30%. If you win rate is really low, it doesn’t mean you’re lousy at sales, it could mean a number of other things, such as too much competition, the wrong prospects, or being seen as a commodity rather than differentiating yourself from the pack. But you’ll never know unless you ask…which leads me to number three
WIN RATE = NUMBER OF SALES/TOTAL PROSPECTS
Third: Tracking why you lost the sale. Now this one can get tricky because prospects may not want to tell you up front, but if you dare to probe, they’ll usually tell you. If that seems uncomfortable, then send them a follow up email with a few choices and allow them to pick or write in their own answer. Some of these options might be too expensive, not a good fit, doesn’t meet my needs, not ready to commit, etc., you get the idea. By tracking this information, you can see if there are trends. The data doesn’t give you the whole story, but you can start taking actions on your findings. For instance, if you have a high percentage of Not Ready to Commit, then you’re probably trying to sell to folks who aren’t at the right stage in the sales process. If you’re ranking high with Not meeting their needs, then examine what services you can reasonably add to gain more sales.
There are many other sales metrics you can use to give you more insight. The best way to organize this information is in a dashboard, so you can avoid digging through data to get the answers that you need. If you need help setting up these metrics in your business, please schedule a discovery meeting with me to discuss.
