Which part of the sales process are you stuck on?

Every manufacturing process, service provider or business unit has a choke point.  Every salesperson also has them in their selling process.  A choke point is the number one limiter in a process.  It’s the one process…the one service…. the one step in your selling strategy that holds up all the others.

Last time, we covered the topic of stress.  (Selling Stress).  More specifically, we covered your stress.  The Ag sales professional who goes out on a daily basis and calls on livestock and crop producers.  Today, we’re going to cover one critical cause of your stress:  the choke point in your selling process.

In a feed mill, the choke point is typically pelleting and drying the pellets.  In a grain elevator, it’s the speed of the dump pit and possibly drying grain in a wet year.  In many manufacturing processes, it’s the packaging line.

Working with salespeople in all different aspects of agribusiness, I can tell you the most common choke points are Prospecting and Closing.  If you look at the selling process in a linear fashion, it might go something like this:

• Find prospects
• Call on prospects
• Ask questions
• Present products and services
• Close
• Follow up
• Complete the new customer paperwork
• Train them on how to use the products and services
• Coordinate future orders
• Provide ongoing support to insure a long-term customer relationship
  • Handle any complaints they might have
  • Expand their purchases with my company

As mentioned, the most common choke points are prospecting and closing.

I’ve also found the three most common causes are a:

• Lack Knowledge
• Lack of Skill
• Lack of Volume

A lack of knowledge is the easiest to remedy.  Often times, a salesperson just doesn’t know the steps involved or how to implement them with their customers.  DISC is a great example.  Typically, salespeople set out in their territory and sell based on their own style.  The problem is that customers want you to sell to them in their style.  For example, if a salesperson is a data-techy kind of person, they love to fill their presentations with data.  They sell on data, even if their customers hate data and technical info.  Salespeople can remedy this with training workshops, sales meetings, and experience to increase knowledge and open up this choke point.

The next cause of a choke point is a lack of skill.  The salesperson knows what to do, they just aren’t good at it…. Yet!  The “yet” is an important part of that sentence.  Hence the dots and the capitalization.  Many salespeople fail to implement what they know they need to do, because they are afraid of making a mistake or looking incompetent.  Many worry they will appear too pushy or salesy.  So, they stick with their old way of doing it.  You need to become comfortable with trying new techniques to improve your skill level.  Golf is a great example of a lack of skill.  It’s a simple game.  Take a club, hit a little ball down the fairway and into a little cup….18 times!  Not rocket science.  However, it can take a lifetime to develop the skill.  How do we develop those skills?  Certainly, we need some knowledge, but most often, we just need to get out there and golf.

In sales, cold calling is great example when it comes to a lack of skill.  As a salesperson, you know one of your roles is to find, call on and sell new customers.  However, when you get out there, the fear of meeting someone new kicks in and you stumble at connecting or asking good questions on the call.  The socializing part at the opening of the sales call goes well.  Then you start asking a few questions related to your products and the prospect shuts you down.  You get stuck on what to ask and fear upsetting the prospect.  So, you go back to social discussions on weather, crop conditions, local events, etc.  You gain little to no important information which would allow you to come back for the next appointment.  You are now stuck in the “Let me know if you ever need any of our products” zone.  This zone is right next to the, “I’m happy with what I’m doing now.  I’ll keep you in mind” zone.  We all get stuck in these zones.  They are no fun.

The last cause for a choke point in your selling process might simply be a lack of volume:

• not enough prospects
• not enough good prospects
• not asking enough closing style questions
• not asking enough good questions
• not following up enough nor fast enough and dropping the ball

The lack of good prospects is a very common limiter I see with salespeople.  When I sit down with a salesperson to review their selling skills, their sales performance and how I can help them, we first discuss their current territory.  The next step is to discuss how they manage their prospects.  Do they have a list?  Is that list prioritized?  The answers range from no list to color coded Excel spreadsheets or a CRM dashboard.

So, where is the choke point in your selling process?  Where do you lose most prospects?  At which point do you lose a customer?  Is it due to one of the causes mentioned above:  lack of knowledge, lack of skill, or lack of volume? And, how are you actively developing yourself to eliminate that choke point?