For Sales Managers: "You Can Always Sell More…By Asking Stronger Interviewing Questions”
 

For Sales Pros: “You Can Always Sell More…If You Have Strong Competitive Awareness”

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How high is your competitive awareness? On a scale of one to 10…with 10 being strongest…pick a number you feel most represents your current level of competitive awareness. Most experienced sales professionals identify their competitive awareness level as around a seven to nine…what’s your number?

Having a comprehensive understanding of your competition and how they sell against you is a critical foundation to successful strategic selling. How can you effectively communicate your competitive uniqueness and added value if you have no idea what your competition is already saying when your prospect asks them…and you…  "Why, based on all the competitive alternatives available to me, do I want to buy from you?” 

Product Knowledge Competitive Awareness 

There are three levels of competitive awareness necessary for success in selling. The first level is product knowledge competitive awareness.  

A strong level of product knowledge competitive awareness means you can explain in detail how and why your products or services outperform your competitors. About 90% of experienced sales professionals have a strong level of product knowledge competitive awareness. 

Pricing Knowledge Competitive Awareness

The second level centers on your awareness of your competitor’s pricing and discounting strategies. Strong pricing knowledge competitive awareness means you can accurately identify what a prospect is likely paying for their competitive products once you identify current usage levels. Competitive pricing awareness also means you can accurately predict how much discounting any of your competitors are likely to do at the end of the selling process to try and close the business. 

About 70% of all experienced sales pros have strong pricing competitive awareness. 

Message Knowledge Competitive Awareness 

Most sales pro’s have effective product and pricing competitive awareness levels. It’s the third and final level of competitive awareness….message competitive awareness….that causes the most challenges for the majority of selling professionals.

How strong is your message competitive awareness? 

Even the most experienced selling professionals don’t seem to understand what their competitors are really saying when selling against you. Most sales professionals have a strong awareness of their competitor’s products…and they can accurately predict their competitor’s pricing and discounting strategies. They just don’t know what their competitors are actually saying. 

Suggestions to increase your competitive awareness 

Do you want to help increase your team’s competitive awareness?  

The first suggestion to help increase your team’s competitive awareness is to discuss these competitive awareness ideas with your entire sales team. Evaluate how high your product, pricing and message competitive awareness levels really are and then decide this is a selling area that, when improved, can increase your team’s selling success and needs to become an integral part of all future sales meetings. 

Next increase your competitive information collection efforts. Information is power, the more information you and your team have the more power and competitive advantage you gain. 

Most sales organizations are already experts identifying and collecting competitive product information. Most are also skilled at capturing and understanding the pricing actions and strategies of their competitors…it’s the competitive messaging issues that are the most challenging for a sales team to understand. 

Where can you go to learn more about what your competition might be saying when they sell against you? Check out their brochures, web sites, trade show booths and articles written about them. This is the best place to start but usually generates little usable information. 

The single best source for this information is to ask newly acquired customers. Asking clients who have decided to buy from your competition instead of you is also a great source. Even though you lost the sale you hopefully have established enough effort and credibility that your prospect might share some information when asked. 

Being professional (and persuasive), you want to make sure to only ask positive questions about your competitors. This is not the time…or place…to go on a “search and destroy” mission to learn all the negative dirt. We want to learn as much as possible about what your competitors are doing right, how they sell their message of uniqueness and what makes them most attractive to your buyers. You need to ask questions such as “What did you like most about the company you selected?” “What do you wish we were doing more of that impressed you with what they do?” or “What could we have done that could have helped make us even more competitive in your final selection?” 

You can only communicate an effective message of uniqueness when you first know what everyone else is saying. With this competitive information you can now, with confidence, know that you’re actually saying something that is both unique and of value to your prospects. 

We know you’re good….now…are you good enough to invest the time and effort to increase all aspects of your competitive awareness?

For Sales Managers: "You Can Always Sell More…By Asking Stronger Interviewing Questions”

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All sales managers eventually wind up needing to invest time and effort interviewing, hiring and training new members of their sales team. How effective are your interviewing skills and efforts? 

The majority of sales managers don’t interview and hire new salespeople on a regular basis so their interviewing skills tend to be weak or “underdeveloped.” How strong are your interviewing skills? 

Most sales managers keep making the same four interviewing mistakes every time they interview new sales candidates. What can you do to avoid making these mistakes?

Sales Management Interviewing Mistake #1 - You do the majority of talking 

How much time do you spend talking vs. listening when you’re interviewing potential salespeople? As dumb as it sounds….the majority of sales managers tend to do most of the talking! 

Most sales managers have never been formally trained on effective interviewing skills so they tend to “wing it” when conducting interviews. Most spend so much time “selling” the candidate on the benefits of working there that they have no time left to hear from the candidate. 

What can you do to insure you do more listening than talking the next time you interview someone? 

Sales Management Interviewing Mistake #2 - You are the only one interviewing potential sales candidates. 

Being the only one to interview potential sales candidates is the second major interviewing mistake made by sales managers. The goal of your interviewing process is to learn as much as possible about potential candidates as well as assess how they’ll integrate and work within your selling culture. 

The best way to fully assess a candidate’s strengths as well as their weaknesses is to conduct an extensive interviewing process that exposes the candidate finalists to a variety of issues and challenges. The easiest way to gain this insight is to make sure multiple people from your company (or team) individually interview each potential candidate before making your final selection. 

You also want to be sure and vary the tone and focus of each interview. Look at the insights you’ll gain if a candidate has to demonstrate their persuasiveness and ability to handle pressure interviews that are rushed, hassled or outright challenging. Selling is not an easy job and any sales person hired will face challenging and stressful sales calls working for you and your company. Why not find out how they’ll likely handle these stressful situations before you make them a job offer? 

Sales Management Interviewing Mistake #3 - You don’t check resumes and backgrounds before making a job offer. 

The third interviewing mistake made by managers is to not check resumes and backgrounds before making a job offer. 

We’re in a tough job market where candidates are fighting for the opportunity to interview….and be hired by solid companies such as yours. Today’s hyper-competitive and aggressive market has caused a lot of otherwise honest candidates to exaggerate…or to outright lie about their education, military experience or prior job timeframes and responsibilities. Various studies have identified as many as three out of every four business resumes include some kind of fabricated listing or false achievement. 

Lying on resumes has become so prevalent that a number of corporations as standard policy double-check all major claims made on candidate’s resumes and conduct a police background check before any candidate is called back for a final interview. 

What do you and your company need to do to insure you’re hiring an honest member of your team?

Sales Management Interviewing Mistake #4 - You don’t ask challenging enough questions during your interviews. 

The fourth interviewing mistake made by managers is to not ask challenging enough questions during your interviews. 

Selling is a tough job. How will you learn if a sales candidate can handle the challenges of selling if you don’t push them during their interviews by asking the tougher questions?

What kinds of questions do you ask during an interview? Do you have any of your questions organized and thought out in advance? 

Try asking some of the 20 questions from the 20 question sales evaluation on www.GreatSalesSkills.com. A way to word these questions is to say…”Give me an example of how you have demonstrated success with…”  

Understanding The Technical Side Of Your Business 

#1 - Your technical knowledge of your products/services and how they relate to your industry is…?   

#2 - Knowledge of your competitor's products and their customer success stories are..? 

Understanding the Fundamentals Of Selling

#3 - Your knowledge and daily usage of the steps of a sales call is…?   

#4 - Your understanding of personalities and ability to identify, and then mirror your customer’s communications style is…? 

Understanding How to Manage Your Time and Information 

#5 - Your personal “time and territory” organizational skills are…?   

#6 - Ability to utilize technology to increase your productivity and effectiveness is…? 

Maintaining and Growing Your Business 

#7 - Your ability to proactively manage, control, and resolve customer’s problems…?  

#8 - Your ability to keep your existing accounts stable and under control is…?  

#9 - Your ongoing new business prospecting
process is...?   

Managing Your Selling Process 

#10 - Your ability to think and plan multiple moves ahead with each of your customers and prospects are…? 
#11 - Your knowledge/understanding of competitor’s pricing practices are…?  

#12 - Your ability to utilize company support resources in your territory is…?  

Maintaining and Controlling Your Customer

#13 - Your ability to communicate what your customers want to buy instead of just what you have to sell is…? 

#14 - Your understanding of the political environment and decision process of each of your accounts are…? 

Ability to Manage the Strategic Aspects of Your Selling Process

#15 - Your ability to communicate your competitive uniqueness and value is…? 

#16 - Your knowledge of your competitor’s strongest "value points" they use to sell against you is…? 

#17 - Your ability to win business at a higher price/margin by communicating your stronger
value is…?   

Your Philosophy Toward Ongoing Personal Development and Improvement 

#18 - Ability to represent yourself in a professional, truthful and ethical manner is…?   

#19 - Your ongoing commitment and efforts to grow and improve your selling skills and awareness is…? 

#20 - Your ongoing use of one or more coaches or mentors to help you get better is…? 

By asking the tougher questions during a sales interview you’ll increase your success attracting the best, and most qualified candidates…and you’ll reduce the number of surprises hitting you once they are in their territory. 

We know you’re good….now…are you good enough to invest the extra time and effort to increase the strength of your sales interviewing process?