Customers buy when they perceive that the value outweighs the cost of the investment. There are three components of value; economic, business and personal that all have an impact on the customer's view of the investment.

Economic value is the financial impact of the investment. What will be your return on investment? What will it do for the company financially? Will it cut operational costs, increase inventory turns, increase revenues or cash flow? Economic value is of most importance to the economic buyer - someone who makes decisions based solely on the financial elements of the solution.

Business value is the primary consideration to the user of the solution. What can the investment do for the organization and how can it increase productivity, efficiencies and effectiveness for those that use the solution. Even those sold on this value can meet obstacles when they try to convey the value to the C-suite. In other words the business value needs to be conveyed in economic terms to other involved decisions makers.

Personal value is the third type to be considered. This is more of an intangible value, which answers the question, what will the decision do for me personally? Will I get a promotion, a bonus, peace of mind, or improve my influence with other organizations? Personal value is equally as important as the business and economic, and sometimes can be the determining factor in the decision. Why? We need to understand that in the brain emotions always trump logic. We make decisions based on emotion and then back them up logically. Personal value can only be uncovered when there is trust and a strong relationship with the decision maker. We also need to realize that personal value will be different for each person involved in the decision making process since personality styles influence what is valued.

As sales professionals we need to understand all aspects of value and how they impact each of the decision makers. There is not a "one size fits all" for value. Asking the right questions will help you understand what's most important to the customer.

Here are some example questions that address each type of value:

• What do you consider being the most important benefit of this solution?
• What is the most important financial consideration for this investment?
• What are the benefits of this solution for you personally?

Understanding the importance of customer value is just one element of the Sales Intelligence System. As you master it, you'll want to consider the elements of relationships and how to build trust.

Customers also buy for both business and personal reasons. The business reason is tangible and objective, the "Result." It's to increase productivity, decrease operation expenses, improve market share or their competitive position. The personal reason is the "Win." This is the intangible and subjective result which says what it will do for the decision maker. Will it give them peace of mind, a promotion or a bonus? Both business and personal reasons drive the decision, but understanding which reason might move the customer to decide is key.

In Rick Page's book "Hope Is Not A Strategy" it says this about pain. "Pain doesn't come from the business problem; pain comes from the political embarrassment of the business problem." I believe this is so true. Customers don't make decisions until the pain hurts to a point that it must be alleviated, which includes their own embarrassment for not taking action. Pain needs to be heightened from both the business and personal perspective. We need to explore with the customer which need is hurting the most. Pain is a present existing condition, which is easier to address than exploring potential gains, which is a promise in the future. Rick also says that to create a sense of urgency to close business, we must creatively take the invisible costs and make them visible and politically painful. In other words we must put a price on the customer's procrastination. Giving out more price cuts or discounts doesn't create a sense of urgency to buy unless it's for a stereo system on sale just for the day! With complex sales situations emotional issues usually override cost justifications.

I agree with Rick Page that emotional and political problems drive buying activity more than logical ones. That's why we scratch our heads when our pipeline forecasts look like a cloudy weather report. Customers make decisions emotionally and back them up with logic to justify their decisions. Our goal then is to ask the key questions that get to the heart of the decision maker and build trust and confidence leading to a long term consultative relationship. We need to be a partner to the customer and not a vendor. Vendors sell hot dogs. When we become a trusted partner the promise of the "gain" in our solution becomes a reality to the customer based on their confidence and our track record to deliver.

We should always prepare questions prior to our meeting with a customer which can gain us credibility and earn us the right to continue down the path to winning the sale. Most sales people don't ask the tough questions since it will ruin a perfectly good forecast. Some example questions that I like to use to engage the customer are:

• How have these issues impacted your business?
• What are the critical success factors you expect from the solution?
• What is most important to you for this project?
• What other impacts might this problem have on your business?
• What do you see as the benefits in solving the problem?
• For you personally what's most important?

These are some examples of some pain and gain questions that can help us to dig deeper into the real issues the customer is facing from both a business and personal perspective. Asking our customers better questions gives us better answers and a leg up on our competition.
Good selling!

Whether we are looking to win new business with new companies or build our existing customer base there are three musts for sales success in the future. The first one is to have a mindset of building long term business relations. In other words if we want to develop a customer for the future we must be strategic based on their long term needs and not for the immediate sale. The first sale should be the start to gaining credibility, trust and respect as we move forward and prove ourselves over time. Proving ourselves starts with the customer's needs and not ours. We need to understand that even though a customer is asking for a specific solution it is based on two needs-business and personal. When more than two decision makers are involved we need to understand that their individual personal needs can be quite different. So how do we find them out?

Finding out all the needs of the decision makers comes down to the second must which is asking critical questions. Asking questions that go deep makes the difference. Presenting a solution in the beginning of a sales cycle is solution suicide. You don't know what they need until you get all the information. In other words you need to be strategic in the questions you ask. We need a plan that shows the customer we are more concerned in understanding their needs than selling our products and services. If you want better answers from the customer-ask better questions!

The third must which is the result of asking critical questions is-differentiate or die! This happens to be one of the titles of Jack Trout's books. If we don't differentiate ourselves from all the options the customer has, we'll lose every time. If we can differentiate our solutions based on asking excellent questions, we can propose a solution that will more closely meet the needs of the customer. Each time we obtain a critical piece of information it can put us a step ahead of our competitors and earn us the right to come back and ask more. Decision makers respect sales professionals that ask the tough questions. Proposing the right solution is directly proportional to better performance thus leading to repeat business. Remember that products don't develop relationships, people do. You the sales professional make the difference in a world customers have many options.

If you want this next year to be your personal best, have the mindset of building long term relationships, prepare and ask the critical questions and remember we must differentiate or die! Sales is such and exhilarating profession where you the sales person makes all the difference in the world to the customer. We are the quarterbacks, the first person the customer always calls when there is a need. What a privilege we have to nurture and help our customers to improve their business environment!

• Emotional Intelligence account for 58% of performance in all job types
• 90% of high performers have high emotional intelligence
• Only 36% of people can identify emotions as they happen
• The brain is hardwired to give emotions the upper hand over logic

If this is the case then being aware of what's going on in a sales meeting emotionally is critical for success in moving the sales process forward. People buy based on their emotions and then justify their decision with logic, which means we need to connect emotionally with our prospects and customers. People buy from people who take the time to build a relationship. Sales people that are good at building relationships understand what the customer needs, what they value and what's important to them in the long term. It's all about putting the customer first and truly caring for their interests and not about prioritizing the sale of your products and services. The sale is the by-product of successfully building a trusting relationship. So when it comes to the initial meeting with a prospect what should we focus on to improve our social awareness?
I believe there are two points to consider that can improve our social awareness in a sales meeting. First is to be clear on your intentions for the meeting. It's not about trying to make a sale, it's about looking for the opportunity to show the prospect you are interested in them and how you can potentially add value to their business initiatives. What expectations can you set at the start of the meeting that will get them to see you are interested in helping solve their challenges or achieve their goals? As an example, "What I'd like to do during our time together is understand your objectives as it relates to your operation to see if our company might be of value in helping you accomplish them."

The second point is attentiveness. Be aware of both your energy level and that of the prospect. Enthusiasm is contagious and the customer will be more apt to listen if you are excited about the opportunity to support them. Selling is the transfer of enthusiasm and their energy level will be influenced by ours. One thing we must be aware of is not just our outward energy but our inward attentiveness to how they are interacting and that we are intently listening to what they are saying. A customer can tell whether or not you are tuned into what they are saying. An important characteristic of attentiveness is eye contact. Maintaining consistent eye contact with the prospect will help you to see that they are engaged with your conversation. Ask questions that are pertinent to the conversation. Maintain a dialogue where the prospect is doing more than 50% of the talking. The result will help you to determine if the prospect is positive, negative or indifferent towards the conversation and then you can adjust accordingly.

When prospects clearly see that our intention is to add value and support their goals and objectives they will be open and willing to converse. When they see that you are truly attentive to hearing what they have to say and you're asking impactful questions, your chances of getting the next meeting drastically improves. Remember selling is all about people wanting to do business with people they enjoy and trust.

As Dr. Michael Cox states the number one skill needed today in business is people skills and emotional intelligence. Of course you've heard it many times that the best sales people have great people skills. Having great people skills is about having the ability to read the other person's emotions and behavior and taking this into account during the flow of the conversation during the sales meeting. It's also having the ability to identifying how they prefer to communicate and understanding what's important to them. Emotional intelligence is the assessing, expressing and management of feelings while interacting with others.

Travis Bradberry in his book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 talks about the four components of emotional intelligence. The first one is "Self Awareness". Self awareness is the understanding of who you are. What you assess to be your strengths and shortcomings as a person. Most of us are already aware of our attributes but the challenge is to know when to leverage them and when to hold them back. For example, if you like to start a sales meeting with small talk and you have a prospect that also enjoys socializing before getting down to business, most likely you will be off to a good start. But if the prospect wants to get right down to business and you continue with small talk, most likely the outcome will not be as favorable as the first scenario.
There are three important components we need to understand when it comes to self awareness and selling. First, we need to understand our preference when we communicate in a sales meeting. Communication is about speaking, listening and asking questions. Which one is your strength and where can you improve? Some sales people like to go into present mode while others prefer to start by asking questions. We need to assess what the customer prefers.
Second, we need to assess the communication style of the prospect. It always helps to walk in with an agenda to set the expectations for the meeting. Ask the prospect if the agenda is acceptable and get their permission as to how you would like to proceed. This will give you an indication as to whether or not you're on the right track and it will give you a hint to their preferred style of communication. Assess if the prospect is flexible or rigid, casual or formal. Do they like to control the conversation or prefer you to? We need to learn to adjust our approach.
Third, you need to put the prospects communication style first. Let them lead with what's comfortable for them. It never makes sense to try to gain control of a conversation with a prospect that enjoys talking. Let them talk. If they prefer to ask questions, let them ask and invite more follow on questions.

The first meeting is always the most critical when meeting a prospect for the first time to gain trust and respect and for the opportunity to be invited back. The best approach we can take is to view the prospect from their point of view and not ours. That's critical to improving your emotional intelligence.

2. Not leaving voicemails, or leaving long winded ones - the advertising industry says that it takes seven touches for someone to even remember our name, so why waste the effort involved in making the call and not leave a message? Leave well thought out, concise voicemails.

3. When leaving voicemails, not saying our phone number s-l-o-w-l-y and repeating it.

4. Not letting the suspect know when we're calling for the last time (in this cycle) - users of The Formula get more returned phone calls from a 'Move On' message than any other. But in order to do that, we have to have a plan as to how many times we'll call, how often we'll call, and leave messages when we call.

5. Calling the same day and/or time of day over and over again, or calling the same person over and over again the same day - it just might be that we're calling at a time when they're never there! And with the advent of caller ID, do you really think they don't see that the same person has called multiple times today?

Remember that cold calling is about making an appointment and not trying to sell the prospect over the phone. Having a methodology that can be repeated consistently will significantly improve your ratio of turning conversations into appointments and that is what it's all about. It's about combining efficiency and effectiveness through using best practices. When you have a method that works that angst that goes along with cold calling diminishes considerably.

In this day and age we are all looking for new business opportunities. Many sales professionals are very good once they get in front of the customer. They feel pretty comfortable in moving a sales opportunity through their "funnel." The tough part as we've seen many admit is getting that initial appointment to get the prospect into the funnel!

Over the years they've seen lots of different approaches and talked to lots of people who make their living setting appointments over the phone or by canvassing. Therefore they've been able to craft a methodology with techniques that truly work. They've also seen many techniques that don't. This article covers five of the top ten mistakes they have seen being made while attempting to set appointments. Next month we will address the other five mistakes Barry has seen. These mistakes are doubly painful as they not only drain away those precious few hours we've got to make appointment making calls, but crush the spirit as well.

1. Believing the first (negative) response we hear is true and attempt to counter it with logic - suspects play by two ground rules that we must acknowledge or perish:

a. The rule of the 'Status Quo' - our research indicates that less than five percent of our universe of suspects is currently in the market for what we sell when we call them... so they don't think they need to talk to us
b. The rule of 'Workus Interruptus' - no matter when we call, we are interrupting that person from doing something...so they don't want to talk to us

Ergo, until we get them beyond the initial 'conditioned knee jerk' reaction of saying anything (including lying) to get us off the phone, logic doesn't work as well as we think it should.

2. Tell the suspect all about what we can do for them - remember, they don't think they need what we're selling, so why do we think this approach will work? Instead we should tell them about the results someone else got from using what we sell. (All of us - ok, maybe just most of us - think that there are others who know some little secret we don't.)

3. Assuming we can help them do what they're doing better than they're currently doing it - "I can save you money over what you're paying today." "I can make you more productive." How do we know what they're paying or how well they're doing? For that matter, how do we even know they use what we're selling in many cases?

4. Not 'owning' or internalizing our message so instead of sounding conversational, we sound like the proverbial telemarketer reading a script or delivering it in a monotone voice - only 7% of effective communications is derived through the words we use. The biggest percentage of effective communications on a phone call comes from tonality (38%). Therefore we must not only 'own' our message, but we must deliver it with passion. You do believe in what you sell, don't you?

5. Winging it on each call so that our message is different each time - if we deliver a different message each time, we can't predict and control the responses we'll get, making the task of handling those negative responses even more difficult.

Barry Caponi, a friend and colleague, is President of the Caponi Performance Group. Barry has developed a comprehensive program for cold calling that truly works. Barry says that it's imperative that both efficiency (reaching out to as many targets as possible in the shortest amount of time) and effectiveness (converting more conversations into appointments) be addressed simultaneously. Today, most companies attempt to solve the efficiency challenge with technology (CRM) that was not designed to impact the front end of the selling process. They also attempt to address the effectiveness challenge with the same techniques (selling skills) they use in second half of the selling process (handling objections, etc.). And when neither has worked, they returned to the mantra uttered by sales management everywhere, "Make more dials!" Reality is that more dials does lead to more appointments, but no one has the time, or the desire to solve the challenge in that fashion.

Barry's method for cold calling works (I've seen it). It's called Coldcalling101 (www.coldcalling101.com) and focuses on a comprehensive combination of Art (skills), Science (tools) and Best Practices (processes) for the pursuit of each group of targets.
Just a few short points for you to consider that Coldcalling101 addresses:

• What is the purpose of the call? It's to get an appointment-period, not to sell.
• Understand that when you call someone, they are playing by a different set of rules than you think they are:

1. They don't believe they are in the market for what you are selling so they don't think they need to talk with you.
2. You are interrupting them so they don't want to talk with you.

• Hence, they will initially do anything, including lie to you to get you off the phone.
• You must ask a specialized type of question (Bridge Questions) designed to get them past their knee jerk response and into an open conversation in order to regain control of the conversation and still secure an appointment.

Many companies talk about the Art and Science when it comes to selling. Art being the selling skills and Science being the process to move the sales opportunity forward. We would like to introduce you to our Sales Intelligence System. This system takes a look at the three critical components that are needed in sales today when approaching potential customers.
They are:

• IQ- the Intelligence Quotient for product knowledge, techniques and process to approach customers who have a need for a solution. The emphasis here is aptitude and the ability to know how to craft the right solution to the customer's problem.
• EQ- the Emotional Quotient is being aware of what is going on emotionally in a meeting between all parties involved. What are the feelings with the individuals interacting? Are they positive, negative or indifferent and how can this be influenced? You can call this intuition or people skills. It's being aware of what is going on emotionally with the decision makers.
• Personality Style- being able to understand the personality type of the customer to leverage and anticipate what is important to their temperament. We can gain insight into the person's behavior based on the preferences of their personality style such as what they value, how they prefer to communicate and how they make decisions.

What typically happens when we interact with other is that we size up what's happening in a conversation from our perspective. We make judgments and evaluations of the other person based on what we are like and what we prefer. Therefore if the other person is not like us we formulate an opinion that is either positive or negative and sometimes indifferent. We consider them to be warm and friendly or possibly cold and unsociable. Our perceptions of others are not always accurate since we do not consider their preferences based on their personality style, but on our own preferences which quite often can be different. Our perception will impact our emotions which is how we feel about the other person. Our emotions will impact our behavior which will either be negative or positive, defensive or aggressive, proactive or reactive. Finally the way we behave will be directly proportional as to how the other person will behave towards us. So if we behave not that interested in the other person, they most likely will behave the same way towards us. This can all be avoided if we take into consideration that everyone is not always of the same personality style.

We believe that the only component of the Sales Intelligence System that can truly be altered is the EQ or as Dr. Michael Cox calls it People Skills and Emotional Intelligence which is the number one business skill needed today in the US. If we can better understand someone's personality style we can improve our people skills and emotional intelligence (the EQ), which is critical in having a successful sales career. Remember that people buy from people!

If you want to better understand Emotional Intelligence we highly recommend Travis Bradberry's book Emotional Intelligence 2.0 where he discusses the fact that emotional Intelligence is the only part of the three components that can be improved upon. We discuss and share with you how to apply personality styles to sales in our book Four People You Should Know.

1-Where are you now? What is your position of power and what are your costs? As Robert mentions the favorite saying of a client- "We will get the lowest price no matter what it costs!"

2-Where are you going? What is the outcome you expect from the negotiation? As the rabbit asks Alice in "Alice in Wonderland", where do you want to go? Alice replied, "I don't know," to which the rabbit responds, "Then any road will take you there." Develop the road map that will help you get where you want to be.

3-How are we going to get there? Robert says, this controls your negotiation strategy. This is the approach which in a way is similar to the game of "Ping Pong", known as demand and concession in negotiation terms.

As we approach the negotiation with the client we need to know beforehand those items of product, service, warranty and price that we can concede to and those points which are non-negotiable. I'd like to cover three recommendations that will help move the negotiation down a smoother path to success.

Recommendation #1- Set expectations up front with the client. What are the aspects of your solution that you are not willing to move on? Where does the majority of your profit come from and how will you protect it. This needs to be communicated up front. It's like going to the Toyota dealership to buy a Prius when gas was $4.00 a gallon. With the Prius getting 45 miles per gallon and a three month wait for delivery, it was justifiable for the dealership to say "Our price is non-negotiable". You would expect that with short supply and high demand. This is an upfront exclusion from the negotiation. You're saying this point is not up for discussion. It's like telling you fiancée before you set the wedding date, by the way "I don't do windows". Properly setting the client's expectations will save time and narrow down those points that can be negotiated.

Recommendation #2- Know what elements of your proposal you can concede to the client and those that would be more painful to give into. What have you experienced with other clients in a similar situation? Will the client perceive what you concede as value and will it bring you closer to an agreement? Try to put yourself in the client's position. Do they see your concessions providing tangible benefits that would impact their business in a positive way?

Recommendation #3- If you concede, always do so by showing some pain. The client wants to see that you've made a sacrifice which is of value. We also want to give the reason and logic behind what we concede so it doesn't come across like we're giving away the farm. Once you give a concession you need to tie it to a counter demand which is asking the client to concede to what you're asking in return. For instance, if the client demands a 5% discount and an extra 90 days on the warranty, you can acquiesce to this by saying you will agree if they will provide the purchase order by Friday and that there are no more demands. It's a matter of give and take to gain a mutual agreement where both parties view the agreement as a Win-Win.

Setting expectations, know what you can and cannot concede, and when you do concede show some pain and tie it to a counter demand. These recommendations will help shorten your sales cycle and increase you chance of success for both you and the customer. Good selling!

In our model this all translates to:
Analyticals = Greens
Amiables =Blues
Practicals = Golds
Extraverts = Oranges

The Green style for negotiations is high reason and low assertiveness. They think carefully and methodically and ask the tough questions. The will read up in advance and have all the information prepared when getting ready for the negotiation. They hold their cards close to the vest and battle with logic.

The Blue style is high emotion and low assertiveness. They follow the rules and value the Win-Win result in order to build a long term relationship with the client. Blues are more likely to acquiesce to satisfy the needs of the client.

The Gold style is high assertiveness and high reason. Golds will go point for point and can get aggressive when negotiating. Deadlines and timeframes are critical to their needs. Golds also tend to fall into the profession of finance, purchasing and procurement therefore making price, service level agreements and terms & conditions of high importance.

The Orange personality is high assertiveness and high emotion. Oranges look at the negotiation as a game. They need to score points and feel like they have won. It's important for the other side to win, but the Orange must have their needs met. Oranges also lack patience if a negotiation takes a long period of time.

Negotiating is a common practice in the business world both between buyers and sellers and also internally throughout the various organizations within a company. There are two aspects to a negotiation. There is a business component as well as a personal one. Both are equally important but if you can determine the other side's personality style you will be able to discern which might actually be more important. Your right brained negotiators are Orange and Blue and tend to focus on the personal aspects of the negotiation, the subjective criteria and the intangibles. Your left brained negotiators will lean towards the business aspects and focus on the objective points and the tangibles.

When you enter a negotiations keep the following in mind:

• What are the critical points of contention that are keeping you from gaining agreement?
• Take into account the other side's personality style to determine what is most important from their perspective- Total cost of ownership, Quality, Service or Delivery?
• What can you give up that is important to the other side that is not much of a sacrifice to your position?

Sometimes intangible points are just as important as the tangibles. It all depends on how they are valued by the client. Knowing their personality style can give you that extra edge to make the deal happen!

One of the best examples is going back to May of 1991 when we bought our house in Garland, Texas. Being an Orange personality style which makes buying and selling more of a competition I had to find out information that can help us leverage our position. The house was exactly what we were looking forward and in our favorite neighborhood. The house was listed at $219,900 which gave me the perfect opportunity to start the negotiation with the most elementary of tactics "the price is too high". But before I can counter with a lower amount I needed to gain information to shift power to our side. The only way to shift power is to ask questions. The questions that will impact gaining inside information in a negotiation are around time, economic considerations and sense of urgency. Let's take a look at these as it related to buying our house and the questions we asked.

We asked how long the house had been on the market and the response was nine months. Obviously the house was not moving at the going price. To further the questioning we asked what the original price was nine months earlier and to our surprise in was $259,900 a drop of $40,000 and the house was still sitting. The economy was in a recession at the time and there was more supply than demand. It was as we all know a "buyer's market" which was a great position to be in. Based on this information the power was shifting to our side which would justify a lower bid. The icing on the cake was finding out the sense of urgency. We all know when mortgage rates drop or three people bid on a house there is an increase in the sense of urgency. When there is a shift to greater demand and lower supply the seller has the advantage.
Coming up with the right questions to uncover the sense of urgency requires a little thought to uncover information that can give you that final competitive edge to make you offer. We finally asked why the house was not occupied and there was no furniture. We found out that the owners were living in a townhouse in McKinney. If the house had been sitting for nine months you would think they would want to sell since they were living somewhere else. We also found out that they were retired and the final piece of information was that they owned the house outright. Knowing that they had equity tied up in a house that was in a down market for nine months we finally offered $180,000 and we were told we couldn't go that low. We came to an agreement at $187,000 and the house was ours.

Gaining inside information is critical when shifting power to your side and if you can't you need to re-think whether or not to enter the negotiation. Important considerations as we mentioned are timing, the economy and the sense of urgency. Every industry and business has other points to consider. The most important thing to do is your homework. The more information you have on the customer the more leverage you have. Taking into account personality styles can also impact the negotiation. Oranges will always negotiate since life is a game. Golds focus on going item for item and being left brained will have the financial details figured out. Greens will find out more information that most with their thirst for research and asking the tough questions. Blues will build a relationship that will be very convincing to move forward gaining a win-win.

Quality is often the most important element of TCO but it depends on the product you're purchasing. Quality is very important in the purchase of a fault tolerant computer system. Service depends upon the type of service contract you purchase and the coverage. For maintaining a computer system for a mission critical application like an airline reservation system you would want an immediate response time. Delivery's importance varies depending on the industry. If you need to replace an air condition system in a hospital in Phoenix during July, immediate delivery would be critical and you most certainly are willing to pay for it.
The importance of Price depends on the product or service. A buyer will typically rank Price higher in the case of a "commodity" purchase. For instance, a Fortune 500 company buyer of ten thousand plain ball point pens determines that Price is has a far greater impact on the TCO than the service (none), quality (all pens are pretty equal) and delivery (no sense of urgency).

We must rank the most important cost elements to the buyer to determine our negotiation strategy. By doing so, we can concede on a point of low actual cost to to us but of high perceived value to the customer. For example, an upgrade may cost us pennies but may be extremely important to the customer. We can afford to stand firm on Price if our service is perceived as high importance and critical to the customer's success and we can sacrifice delivery if the cost of it is negligible to us. We must know where we can concede without hurting our bottom line and how to provide the lowest TCO to the customer.

The objective of every negotiation is a win-win for both parties involved. Understanding the personality style of the customer can help us in anticipating their negotiation strategy.

Blues will focus on making sure a win-win is established for both parties with minimal negotiation and gaining agreement as soon as possible.

Golds will focus their negotiations on all of the financial aspects of gaining agreement. Give and take with excellent documentation along the way will be their approach.

Greens will negotiate by asking for reason and justification for each and every aspect of purchasing the solution. Greens need to know all the information and what they are getting in regards to service, delivery, price and quality in regards to the overall cost of ownership.

Oranges will focus on getting a great deal and rely mainly on service and price. If the Orange scores points they will feel they have accomplished their objective for making the purchase.

Going into the negotiation with information about the company and their issues, along with knowing the personality styles of the decision makers involved can give you the insight you need to close the sale as a win-win leading to a long term partnership. I highly recommend Robert's book!

Whether it's buying a multi-million dollar software solution or buying a house, understanding where the power lies and who holds it is crucial. Who has the power in the negotiating parties? Your perception of where the power lies will determine how you react in the negotiation.

Establishing a perception of power is itself a negotiating tactic. As an example, if I walked down the street of a dangerous neighborhood I would certainly be in jeopardy of being attacked. If I walked down the same street wearing a Karate gi with a black belt I would significantly reduce my chances of getting harmed based on the perception that any attacker would think I am more than capable of defending myself. What the other party perceives is their reality.

What the other party perceives from your actions and image is their reality. When they feel you have a better bargaining position, their negotiating position is perceived by them as weaker than yours. In this case, perception determines reality.

In other cases, need determines the reality of power. Who has the power is inversely related to "who has the greater need"? Greater need equals less power. Do you have a greater need to sell your products/services or does the customer have an issue that must be solved immediately and your product is key to their solution? One way need is expressed is "who has the greater sense of urgency?" Remember back to the last time you went shopping for a car. Who had the greater need to make a deal that day, you or the car sales person? How quickly did you need to buy the car: your old lease was coming due next month vs. your old car had thrown a rod? Conversely, how badly did the sales person need to sell the car: for example, in order to make their monthly quota? So how do we assess who has the greater need to take action, the seller or the buyer? The relative balance of urgency vs. patience: sometimes this is obvious. Sometimes personalities add extraneous influences that shift the perception of need. And as we said, perception is reality in negotiation.

Urgency: Both parties must have a need to enter into a transaction in the first place. The party with the most urgent need is the less powerful party in the negotiation. Let's look at supply and demand. The greater the demand for your product and service, and the fewer avenues for supply, the greater your power in the negotiation. A perfect example of this was the Toyota Prius when the price of gas hit $4.00 a gallon. Everyone wanted the Prius (high demand) and there was a three month backlog (low supply). Did buyers get to negotiate on the price? I don't think so. Having a vehicle that gets over 40 miles per gallon at a time when the price of gas jumped gave Toyota dealers the power to stand by the price of the Prius, or even add on surcharges. Buyers, reacting to escalating gas prices, wished to get the Prius as soon as possible; they perceived an urgency to react to events and therefore enter into the transaction.

Personality plays a role in the perception of urgency and also in ones reaction to urgent situations. Blue and Green personality types, being intuitive, are more concerned with the process (Greens) or experience (Blues) than in the results. There is no driving need to bring a negotiation to closure, so these personality types will not have the urgency of Golds and Oranges. Golds usually start the negotiation with a preexisting timeline of when things should be checked off; it is in their nature to schedule things and put timeframes in place. They will be procedural in a negotiation. Find if their timeline requires your product now, if so, there will be urgency on the part of the Gold to tick off this box. On the other hand, Oranges will shoot from the hip and like to score points and win. Oranges are naturally urgent ("gotta win") I need it now.

Patience: Who can wait the longest? Marketing is all about generating urgency, convincing the public that "they want it now". Think of this when you next look at TV commercials. A great historical example of this is the Paris Peace Accords with North and South Vietnam in the early 70's. First the Vietnamese argued over the shape of the table: round or rectangle. You can see how this negotiation would shape up. But the clearest indicator was when the US team checked into some hotel rooms in Paris and the North Vietnam team placed a 2 ½ year lease on a villa! Who was in a hurry? The party with the most patience has the power.

So in a negotiation (1) determine the perceived ratio of patience to urgency and (2) who has the greater real or perceived need - the buyer or the seller. These will allow you to see where the power in the negotiation will lie. Yet a special negotiating skill comes from understanding how different personality styles will react to pressure and urgency and what each color perceives as a need. Using the color personality tool by Insight Learning we have the advantage of knowing that:
• Oranges are natural negotiators since they look at everything as a competition.
• Golds will always negotiate for the best financial deal based on their comparison study.
• Greens will look at every possible alternative and negotiate the best price based on quality and capability.
• Blues will leverage the relationship they have with you to get a concession.

Remember that when it comes to negotiating you have a choice as to whether or not you want to enter in to the negotiation. You are much better off assessing where the power lies before you engage!

First and foremost, we need to revisit our value proposition during these times. What worked prior to 2008 might be the wrong strategy moving forward. Customers have different priorities and strategies when economic times are challenging. Your value proposition is what uniquely differentiates you from your competition. It needs to address both the real and the self-perceived needs of your customer. What is their main priority - beyond survival? How do they plan to pull ahead in these turbulent times? Is it their plan to increase revenue, cut expenses, or increase customer satisfaction?

Fine tune your value proposition specifically to each and every customer, knowing that each customer has a unique set of needs and plans for their projects moving forward. Be specific in what you are offering and make sure you can be explicit with tangible value. Provide references that back up your statements on short term successes inside your customers. Show them how your product and services increased revenues 15% or cut expenses 10% in the first six months of use.

Second, customers buy for two reasons - personal and business. Overall these split 50/50, but specific to your customer personality style and their current circumstances this weighting varies. We know that people that are right brain dominant usually lean towards the personal side: looking more at the intangibles and the subjective reasons to purchase. These are the Orange and Blue personalities. The Green and Gold personalities, being left brain dominant, will lean more towards the business side, the tangible and objective reasons in their decisions. However, the economic issues we face today can change behavior in personality styles. In periods of FUD and downturn, all personality styles lean towards the business issues at hand.

Why? Executive management mandating cut backs in budget and a refocusing of their efforts can cause a change in priorities. Their personality styles have not changed, but the environmental pressures on them have changed. Discover what has changed for them. Perhaps, with revenues uncertain or turning down, cash is king and keeping expenses under control is paramount with your customers. Alternatively, perhaps they see the downturn as an opportunity to gain ground against weaker competitors. Understand your customer's priorities and don't present benefits of your solution that don't matter right now. Find and present the benefits that do. Your value proposition is your trump card.

However, decisions are still made by people and people also react individually to our economic downturn and increased pressures from management. It is more important than ever to discover who makes the buy recommendations and the ultimate buy decision - and ease their worries. How does each personality color respond to fear?

• Blues fear lack of safety and security: for their business, their colleagues, and themselves. More than ever they want clear, positive messages and directions. Blues despise fear and worry the most; focus on alleviating their fears with compelling value and building trust.
• Gold's business fears center on financial stress, but their personal fears are about things being out of their control. Golds will overcome these fears themselves; give them the actionable levers to pull.
• Greens business fears are about missing key information but their personal fear is about being wrong with resulting dire consequences. Greens will analyze and assess their fears, over and over again, captured in a loop; give them the information needed to pull out of this loop. Then they will act.
• Oranges fear losing the business and also losing face. Oranges will face their fears head on; leverage their optimism.

Third, remember that it is an easy trap to view each and every sales opportunity through your own eyes: 'how will gaining this business benefit me?' More than ever this year, we need to view the issues through our customer's eyes. How will our service benefit them! Put yourself in their shoes and understand the issues from their perspective. Our priorities are never the same as our customers. Rather than dwell on how long they are taking to make a decision, find out why the delay is occurring. Do not just assume it is the bad economy. Find out their response plans to the bad economy. Look at the situation from their perspective and understand what's going on internally.

More than ever the internet can be extremely advantageous in finding out inside information on a prospect company: what are their priorities and what changes are taking place. The sales tools and messages that worked in 2008 may not be the tools that work today. If necessary, get your company to engage researchers or business development specialists to help tune your message. A relatively small investment can help focus your value message. Just as investment drives the economy, strategic focus and clear market intelligence information can drive your company's success via your successful sales.

First and foremost we must build a relationship with our customer. This last year we've explored many ways to increase our effectiveness once we know our customer's personality style. So how does all this lead to greasing the wheels toward that end-of-year buying decision?
Knowing the decision making style of your customer significantly improves your ability to accurately predict when a customer should complete their decision process. It will also help you set the proper closing strategy, including what incentives or actions on your part might motivate them to buy. Understanding their personality style will provide us guidelines on how they judge incentives and make decisions.

First determine if your customer's primary personality style is "left brain" or "right brain". Right brains and left brains approach the closing decision differently. Left brains are more objective and look for the tangible benefits in your products and services. They are likely focused on the task and look for business benefits over personal benefits. Left brain's personality styles are either Green or Gold. Right brains are more subjective about their decisions and look for intangibles and personal interests. They will be concerned with how people will regard the decision they make. Yet they are also concerned with how this decision will affect others in their organization. Rights brains are either Orange or Blue personality styles.

Next we need to consider how much "urgency" is attached to their decisions. Myers-Briggs classifies both the Blue and Green styles as "Intuitive". Their decisions rely less on what their five senses experience. There is less of a sense of urgency from intuitive clients about making final buying decisions. Left alone they are less likely to make a buying decision before the end of the year. With a Blue you must find someone on their team who will suffer if the decision is delayed. With a Green you must show an improvement that cannot wait to be implemented. Intuitive personalities do not like to be pushed to a decision; however, you can remind them of the next logical step in the sales evaluation.

Orange and Gold personalities are classified as "Sensory" in the Myers-Briggs model. They are concrete thinkers generally using their five senses to make a decision. Concrete thinkers are more bottom line driven. When an Orange sees an immediate benefit they act. When a Gold sees strong financial justification they act. And when either style reaches a decision, they will stick with it. If you read their expectations correctly, and position the product or service so they understand that it meets these expectations, the Orange or Gold personality will proactively move the sale forward.

The good news here is that 84% of the population is either Orange or Gold and only 16% is Blue or Green. The odds are in your favor that the CFO or CEO is either Orange or Gold. Communicating a clear immediate benefit or a strong risk arising from delays should influence them to decide before year's end. Unfortunately, if you are in the world of technology sales, most CIO's and CTO's are Green. This helps explain the long sales cycles in Technology. Speed their decisions by appeals targeting their secondary color which might be Orange or Gold. The rarest of personality combination is the Green/Blue mix. They will look at every possible angle when evaluating a solution. Speed up their decisions by showing that a consensus of others in their team favors the product or service.

It's our job in sales to recognize the characteristics of our customers and relate to them from "their perspective" not ours. Develop your strategy for bringing the sale to closure by emphasizing the business or personal side based on their personality. Then consider if they are intuitive or concrete in their thought process. Adjust your sales approach to fit the speed of their comfort in making decisions quickly (concrete) or less urgently (intuitive). Focus on the needs of their personality style and your forecasting accuracy will improve as well as your win rate for closing business!

Its been obvious to me that the business I've won in the past is directly related to how much face time I had with the customer. The number of opportunities the customer allows us to meet indicates the customer's level of interest in what we have to offer. The more meetings, the more interest - in other words, they see value in meeting us. How often have you only met the customer two or three times, and therefore, deep down, you knew your chances were a long shot? Customers accept a meeting when there is a clear purpose and value in getting together. We earn the right to meet with the customer when our message is clear and concise as to the tangible value for the customer in our products and services. For example, if we have a proven track record of how we have helped others, customers are interested. If our agenda is entirely focused on the customer's needs and issues, they know it! It's a very positive sign when the customer is the one to initiate the next meeting. When you use this face time wisely, the customer will come back for more.

Follow through is a huge indicator of character and credibility. Character and credibility strongly influence customer's evaluation of whether or not you are a person with whom they want to build a relationship and engage in ongoing business. Follow through is about putting the customer's priorities ahead of everything else, and making this obvious to them. Follow through shows the customer what they can expect when they commit to your products and services. It sets an expectation of how the relationship will evolve as it moves forward. When you start delivering results beyond the customer's expectations you strongly capture their attention. Follow through is about being proactive on the customer's behalf by doing what you have learned is important to them - without even asking permission. The result is customer delight and enthusiasm.
The last critical factor in building strong customer relationships is the implied communication of your motive. What is it that motivates you to close this business? Do you focus on the commission or the commitment to giving the customer what is in their best interest? If you are committed to solving the customer's issues, first and foremost, the commission will follow. Customers are good at reading a sales person's motives. They can see the facial expression and read your body language. How do you respond to a delay in the sales cycle or a new customer objection that needs to be addressed? The customer can tell if you are putting your own concerns before their interests. Clearly communicate that the heart of your interest is in continuing to address the customer's needs. The result is customer commitment to you and your services.

One key aspect of your motive has to do with your personality style. Each personality style chooses a career in sales for different personal motivations:
• Blues are motivated by building a long term relationship and pleasing the customer.
• Golds are motivated to sell their company's reputation and are driven by the financial benefits the customer will receive.
• Greens are motivated to help the customer craft the perfect solution and enjoy solving technical problems and resolving complicated issues.
• Oranges are motivated to beat the competition, win the business, and help the customer achieve the immediate benefits of the solution.
Knowing your personality style will help you emphasize what you can naturally offer in building relationships. It also can teach you when to downplay your primary characteristics and how to pull out your other character traits that the specific customer personality style likely will respond to favorably.

You must also discover the customer's personality style to understand what engages them. Discovering your customer's personality style is crucial to knowing just what parts of your personality to emphasize in order to positively click with the customer. It also shows what parts of yourself to downplay when engaging that color style. Each personality color is influenced by different factors:

• Blues by what a solution can do for people and productivity.
• Golds by financial returns.
• Greens by innovation and improvement.
• Oranges by improving their competitive position.

The bottom line: you will have a significant advantage when you know your customer's personality style and what motivates them to buy.

Face time, follow through, motive: three key points to building the customer relationship and influencing their decision to buy from you. Proper understanding of personality style improves the relationship, leading to more face time and more effective follow through. To put the customer first, you must know what of yourself to emphasize. To effectively communicate the value of your products and services, and therefore get more face time, you need to know what the customer personality style values.

Keep reading! This is not an uncomfortable pop quiz. Remember, we talked before about the relative valuation of social intelligence vs. analytical intelligence. Physics and sales are, of course, different practices and our business world requires both of these honest trades to function. What we find fascinating is the extent of the crossover.

We can develop a comparative analogy between Newtonian momentum (p=mv) and sales momentum. We can develop a similar formula for success with a winning sales team. In physics p=mv, this is the relative measure of the amount of kinetic energy in a moving body. Sometimes this formula is used to determine the impulse needed to get a resting body moving; other times it is used to examine the inertia of a body. All these italicized words from physics have crossed over into our everyday language in sales. Why is that?

In many of the sales' team meetings and sales training workshops that I've participated in over the years, a "buzz word" that keeps cropping up is velocity or speed - more "borrowed" words from physics. In physics velocity is measured by distance moved over an interval of time; here in sales, velocity means moving the sales cycle forward and bring business to closure. We keep hearing these critical questions in our profession:

o From the professional on the front line: "What can we do to move that sale along and close before the end of the quarter?" "How many deals do we have in our pipeline?"
o From the sales vice president: "How can I help? What resources do we need?"
These questions crop up time and time again at the end of each quarter and again at the end of the year. And it's coming up on that time of year now. Do you have the winning answers?
In the best of all worlds, here is what we would like to experience:
o The contract will be signed today and they want to start next Monday on the implementation. They plan to pay in advance to get the 3% discount.
o They have two other facilities they decided to include on the initial phase of the project.
o I must send apologies to this customer. We cannot meet this week because our calendar is already full with 3 other prospects that insist on seeing us immediately.
This was my dream last night, and then I woke up! This is your wake up call.
"Sales" is a game of momentum, part of which is definitely psychological for both the sales leader and their team members. Just as in physics, momentum is mass times velocity. Mass is the entire team. Is this a mass at rest or a mass in motion? Velocity is the speed with which the team executes to win both new and existing business. Everyone is aligned on the same vector. As members of the team win business, it can be contagious for the other members that buy in to the team's leader and their philosophy for winning business. Inertia is overcome. The team gains momentum.

Back to our formula analogy. There are three points that seem to be present with every winning sales team. m times v equals p:

o (m) The first point is all team members must buy into the leader's vision on where the team is headed. More motion equals more momentum. With the team in motion, there is an attitude of "Playing to win"; everyone does what it takes to close the business. Here the leader leverages the strengths of each team member and doesn't focus on someone's weakness. Momentum is apparent to the customer and becomes contagious. The team's every action expresses: "We will do what it takes for you the customer to be successful." "Playing to win" puts the customer first, and our commission, second.

o (v) The second point is gaining "confidence". Velocity is speed aligned along a specific vector, distance traveled along one direction in a unit of time. As each team member closes a piece of business, it boosts the confidence of every team member that is aligned with the goals and philosophy of the team. Just look at any sports team that has "momentum" moving the ball down the field or firing the ball across the plate. They know what's working for them. Your confidence from knowing who you are and how you can help customers will be conveyed in your behavior when meeting with the customer, be they Gold, Blue, Green or Orange personalities.

o (p) The third point comes from exercising points one and two: Performance. "Playing to win" times "having confidence" leads to an increase in "sales activity". The sales plan is working. Team members are now at the point that things are clicking. They know what works for them and they maximize their performance. By repeating successful activities and picking up the pace they have gained momentum. With more successes, the team becomes full of energy. Since activity levels are increasing, a little rejection does not hurt: they maintain successful inertia. They are busy with multiple opportunities to help customers succeed in their goals and objectives.

Sales is a game of momentum. Yet everything we just covered holds also true for a customer service team or an information technology team. You gather momentum as you exercise social intelligence. Understanding personality styles will add a new dimension to your team's social intelligence that can bring it to the next level. Understanding each other's motivations and leveraging the specific strengths of each member ,generates a team impulse to succeed. Great teams play to win, have confidence in themselves and their teammates, and enjoy a flurry of activity throughout the year! In short, they perform.

We bought the Honda and four years later it is still working like new and we have spent no money on service or maintenance. I still haven't even changed the oil! Which mower had greater value? Well the lower long term costs of ownership offset the higher up front cost of the Honda. The Honda saved my time managing annual service and my son's time at yard labor. We both felt better at the environmental plus of mulching over landfill. So which supplied better value to us, the customer? After four years the Honda was a smaller dollar and time investment than the low cost Murray.

One of the challenges every sales professional faces is positioning value of our product or service to prospects and repeat customers. It's natural for us to convey value to the customer from our perspective since we know our products and services better than anyone else. Or do we? Does not the customer use the product and depend on it? The buyer must continually justify his purchase through the life of the product; where the sales professional justifies it only pre purchase. We need to position our product's or service's value from their perspective and not ours. For example, we might be leading with the value that our products or services can increase productivity by 30% over the course of a year or that it may improve customer service response time by 20%. The question becomes, is that what the customer needs? What if the customer's biggest challenge is to reduce operational expenses by 20% over the next 6 months?

When positioning value, put yourself in the customers shoes and ask "So what?" and "Who cares?" Honestly answering these questions can help you discover the value perspective of the customer and who in the customer's organization will most benefit from the product or service. The argument is tuned to the correct target.

"If you cannot price your value, all you can price is your cost". If you do not correctly set the value in the customer's terms, the customer will stay focused on costs over benefits. The customer will either not buy or negotiate for a lower cost. A simple formula for value is Customer Value=Benefit/Cost. The only value the customer acknowledges is that which meets their needs. The more benefits the customer can see, the more value they receive which minimizes their focus on cost.

We like to categorize value in four areas. They are:
o Total Cost of Ownership [TCO],
o Quality,
o Capability,
o Service.

Customers will look at your solution and use these criteria to measure what they perceive as value. The question becomes what is their priority among these? Which is most important and which is the least important? Here is where personality color will help with this sale. Different personality colors will rank these differently. As you have discovered the target, you are no longer selling to a whole company but just to the specific decision makers the company has elected to evaluate your product's value.

Determining their personality color gives a wealth of information on their engrained criteria of setting value. For example, Quality is prestige to a Gold personality but reliability (remaining hassle free) for an Orange. Service is more important to right-brained personalities such as Oranges and Blues. Capability is most important to a Green. A Green will need to agree with how you calculate TCO, while a Gold needs to trust you, in order to trust your calculation of TCO. TCO quantifies the sum total of quality, service and capability; but may be ranked of lower priority than immediately solving that "burning customer service issue" to a Blue or Orange.
When you know a client's personality color, you know what kinds of things they value. When you have identified the customer's needs you will know how to position your value. Customers will invest in you when they clearly see the value from their perspective!

Yes to all. Prospecting creates anxiety. Either the salesperson is anxious or anxiety is created in the potential buyer. There is no established relationship.

Recently, we were fortunate to vacation in Marbella, Spain. On a side trip to Morocco, we walked down side streets that looked like Indiana Jones's Cairo in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was beautiful and interesting; but we were bombarded with peddlers that were trying to sell gold chains and bracelets and other assorted merchandise. They approached and asked if I would buy? I said no thanks. They continued to walk with me and tried to convince me I should buy! As they walked the next 200 yards with me, their price dropped by 75%. They ignored my expressed lack of interest. They did not care that I had no need for their jewelry! They were peddling their merchandise and couldn't care less who I was and what I needed. There was no relationship.

There are three approaches that address this quandary and lead to successful prospecting.

First reality: prospecting is NOT selling. We often mistake prospecting for selling, but its not. Customers do not buy when they are called by someone they don't know. Prospecting is only the start of a longer process which may eventually result in a sale. Or it might gain you something else of value. Even if you establish at the outset that they do not need your products just now, building a relationship can lead to a referral down the road.

The main purpose of prospecting is to develop a relationship. Find out who the prospect is and what their business is about. There is a good chance they might not be a fit for your products or services, but they can become interested in you or appreciate your interest in them. The relationship is built over time and typically not on the first sales call. The call is the first step down a road to creating a relationship. When calling a prospect for the first time we need to establish "a reason" for us to meet. Customers will meet if there is a good reason to.

Second reality: intent counts more than technique. You might have a well established method for getting meetings with clients, but if you don't have the right intentions the customer will reject you. Your intention should be to establish rapport and build trust. Let the customer know that you plan to learn about their business and their needs. Once you establish this, you can begin providing value. Value is only measured by the needs of the customer. If they don't have a need for your products or services, you cannot provide value!

Third reality: customers reject sales people, not solutions. In your initial talks with a customer, you are "guilty until proven innocent." Overcome this negative barrier by actually learning about their needs. The sales professional's purpose is to see if they can "help" the customer and not "sell" the customer. Establish that you are a person that wants to, and eventually will, convey value to the customer. If you are perceived as a person that can provide value, they will meet with you all day long!

Prospecting is critical to every company's sales force. It provides "new" customers to the company's revenue stream. As a general rule of thumb, successful sales professionals prospect four to ten hours a week through networking events, luncheons and other events that get them out of the office and into the field. There they plant the seeds to establish new relationships.

Understanding the personality style of the prospect can dramatically increase your ability to "connect" with them. Identifying their personality style gives you a window into understanding what they value and how they like to communicate. You can tune your approach to best meet their expectations. You start down the road to establishing a relationship with extra intelligence about who they are. Keep in mind that:
o The Blue personality values people and relationships. Provide them the small talk they enjoy.
o Golds value their organization and the financial impacts of products and services. Meet Gold's expectations for timeliness and firm agendas.
o Greens value technology and innovation. Keep your conversations succinct and to the point.
o Oranges value immediate benefits and enjoy fast moving and exciting conversation. Tell them how to gain a competitive advantage from your solutions.