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- 5 Ways To Have Better Sales Conversations
- 8 Nighttime Routines of Productive People
- Small Business Access to PPP Loans: Study Shows Strong Networks, Business Relationships Key to Success
| 5 Ways To Have Better Sales Conversations Posted: 09 Jan 2021 02:22 PM PST By David Duford Having trained more than 1,500 insurance agents since 2013, I have learned that one of the best strategies to improve the outcome of sales is to improve an agent’s ability to have better sales conversations with their prospects. Simply put, the more significant our conversations are with prospects, both in building rapport, fact-finding, and presenting our opportunity, the more sales we are going to make. In this article I’m going to share five of my favorite strategies for improving sales conversations with prospects that will help you improve trust and close more deals. 1. Adhere to the 80/20 ruleThe 80/20 rule—making sure you only talk 20% of the time and your prospect talks 80% of the time—is always a good acid test for making sure you are paying attention to building rapport, asking good questions, and otherwise having better sales conversations with your prospects. Hollywood has accurately described salespeople as fast talkers and conversation dominators. However, like many things Hollywood portrays, this is not 100% accurate, especially when it comes to experienced salespeople. The best salespeople ask quality questions that facilitate deep conversations with their prospects—so much so, that the salesperson does very little in the way of talking, and the prospect carries most of the conversation. How can you figure out if you’re talking 20% of the time? Simply record yourself during your next sales conversation and see how much time you are actually talking. If you notice that you’re dominating the conversation, cutting your prospect off, or not giving others a chance to respond, it’s likely that you’re not listening well enough or asking the right questions. 2. Good sales conversations include open-ended questionsBuilding on strategy number one, the best strategy for allowing your prospects to talk the most is to ask open-ended questions. Open-ended questions are those questions that cannot be answered with a yes or no; instead, they must be answered with context and description. Open-ended questions are the best way to gain an understanding of why prospects think a certain way. When it comes to selling anything in life, you have to understand the underlying motivation of why a prospect would make the purchase. Adding open-ended questions to your sales conversations also builds tremendous rapport and trust. It makes you a better conversationalist and prospects will appreciate the attentiveness you show by asking quality questions. One of the easiest ways to turn your questions into open-ended ones is to add "How do you feel when…?" or "What are your thoughts on…?" to your questions, versus saying something like "Do you feel good about this?" or "Do you agree?" 3. Capitalize on emotionally charged statementsAll salespeople do some sort of rapport building or prequalifying. You will find sometimes, especially with rapport building, an attempt to ask questions to learn more about a prospect gets a flat, unemotional response. It can be very frustrating, but it's the normal course of any kind of small talk conversation. At least one of your questions, however, will usually get a completely different, emotionally charged reaction. It’s imperative when you get an emotional response that you capitalize on the emotions and go deeper by asking additional open-ended questions that will facilitate more emotion, thought, and concern. For example, I was reviewing a sales presentation from an agent of mine, and a client gave an emotionally charged response, something along the lines of how horrible it was that he knew many people who had died without life insurance. The agent did not follow up with more open-ended questions around this response; instead, he proceeded on to the next phase of his script. This was a tremendous lost opportunity. The agent could have dug deeper into what was horrible and why it was horrible. Perhaps he would have heard stories about loved ones, which would have made the reality of not having life insurance more raw and real. Never miss out on these opportunities because they make a big difference. Other Articles From AllBusiness.com:
4. Picture the hearse backed up against the front porchWhen coaching insurance sales reps, I commonly use this phrase to better help them understand exactly what we’re trying to accomplish in our sales conversations with clients. In other fields, you will want to paint a picture of the real life urgency of what can happen if the client does not buy from you. Obviously, with life insurance the picture has to be presented more deliberately, because life insurance never pays out the death benefit until the insured dies; there’s no way purchasers can actually get any sort of instant gratification. In most sales situations people believe bad things happen only to others, so they may not purchase your product until their situation becomes dire. Understanding that it’s human nature to only react and not be proactive, you will have to deliberately explain to prospects what can happen if they don’t buy from you. 5. For better sales conversations, be sure to show rather than tellIf you want to have better sales conversations, it’s not enough to tell someone how something works, or to tell a prospect what the benefits are. You must show them the benefits, too. There’s a great story about a glass salesman who had his company develop a highly resistive glass that would resist breakage tremendously well. The way he sold it to manufacturers needing glass was that he would take a sample of the glass along with a hammer to his sales meetings. He'd put the glass on a table and hit it with a hammer; prospects would be shocked when the glass didn’t break. And you can imagine, if the prospects saw with their own eyes that the glass didn't break, they were instantly sold and wanted to know how they could buy it. This type of demonstration of showing the benefits outweighs talking about how great the product is. Think about ways you can show your prospects how your product works—don’t just tell them. Showing deepens the effect of the sales conversation because they will actually see it for themselves, making it real, rather than an intangible concept. RELATED: New to Sales? These 10 Great Books Can Help You Succeed in Your Sales Career The post 5 Ways To Have Better Sales Conversations appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Guest Post. Copyright 2020 by AllBusiness.com. All rights reserved. The content and images contained in this RSS feed may only be used through an RSS reader and may not be reproduced on another website without the express written permission of the owner of AllBusiness.com.  |
| 8 Nighttime Routines of Productive People Posted: 09 Jan 2021 01:42 PM PST Have you ever wondered what makes highly productive people so productive? As you can imagine, it's probably a mix of different factors. Some of these factors may be beyond your control; they may have a personality type or natural energy levels that simply make them higher performing than average. But there are plenty of factors completely within your control that you can manipulate for your own benefit. For example, most productive people have a steady, repeatable nighttime routine that sets them up for success each morning. What do these nighttime routines include, and how can you capitalize on them? The best nighttime routines of productive peopleThese are some of the best nighttime routines to set you up for productivity in the morning: 1. Stop drinking caffeine and alcoholToo many people rely on substances like caffeine (for a burst of energy) and alcohol (to relax or unwind) too heavily throughout the day. In small quantities, and when consumed responsibly, these substances can actually have a positive impact on your life. But if you consume them too close to bedtime, your sleep could be practically ruined. 2. Do something you loveEach night, make some time to do something you love—even if it's just 15 minutes. This could mean playing a video game, playing a musical instrument, or just spending time relaxing with your family. No matter how busy you get, it's important to carve out some time for yourself. When you do something relaxing and/or entertaining, you relieve stress and set yourself up for a more optimistic, peaceful morning. 3. Put away the digital screensMost of us spend our evenings staring at digital screens, whether it's watching a TV show or reviewing emails on our smartphones. At least a few hours before you go to bed, do what many productive people do and put the digital screens away. The bright blue light emitted by most digital devices can interfere with your ability to sleep. On top of that, if you're using digital screens to work, it can end up stressing you out. 4. Read a physical bookMany people find reading a book to be relaxing, and conducive to a good night's sleep. And if you're reading about a topic that's important for your career, it can end up educating you or even help you create a thought leadership plan. Keep a handful of interesting books by your bedside or near your couch, so it's easy to pick up something and start reading whenever the mood strikes you. Related Articles From AllBusiness.com:
5. Set priorities and/or tasksIf any of your day work ends up spilling into your evening hours, you should spend some time setting priorities or making task lists. Your mornings will be much more focused and productive if you "hit the ground running" with a rigid set of goals. Write down a list of everything you're hoping to accomplish, preferably on paper, and set a priority level for each of those accomplishments. "A" priorities are "must-achieve" tasks; "B" priorities are important, but can be dropped in favor of A tasks; and "C" priorities serve as "back burner" tasks that aren't nearly as important. Time management is a major factor in boosting productivity. 6. Make decisions for the morningDecision fatigue is a real phenomenon in which the quality of your decisions tends to decrease in line with the number of decisions you're forced to make. In other words, if you have to make 30 decisions in a day, your thirtieth decision will be measurably worse than your first decision. You can mitigate decision fatigue by making more decisions in advance—especially trivially simple ones, like laying out your clothes and prepping your breakfast, which can be handled the evening before. 7. MeditateMany highly productive people spend at least 15 minutes each night meditating. The goal of meditation is to clear your mind of persistent or distracting thoughts, and provide you with a few moments of clear consciousness. It's great for relieving stress that has accumulated throughout the day, and can even help you sleep better. 8. Go to bed at the same timeSleep is vital if you want to achieve peak productivity, and one of the best ways to get better sleep is to be consistent. Try to go to bed at the same time every night, even on the weekends, and follow the same routine just before getting into bed. Over time, you'll find it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep. Productive people know importance of establishing a routineOne secret to success here is to make these routines actual routines. Merely trying them once or twice isn't going to be enough to make them effective. Commit to following your chosen routines three days in a row, and if that's successful, try to make those habits stick for an entire week. If you can do that, it will become much easier to repeat these patterns of behavior indefinitely and unlock their true potential. RELATED: 10 Productivity Tools That Entrepreneurs Can't Live Without The post 8 Nighttime Routines of Productive People appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Jayson DeMers. Copyright 2020 by AllBusiness.com. All rights reserved. The content and images contained in this RSS feed may only be used through an RSS reader and may not be reproduced on another website without the express written permission of the owner of AllBusiness.com.  |
| Posted: 09 Jan 2021 01:21 PM PST By Neil Hare and Mark Madrid As small businesses seek to access the newly authorized $284 billion in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), they should draw upon the lessons learned and the many positive stories that emerged through the first round of PPP in 2020. The main lesson is that the small businesses that successfully secured and got access to PPP loans leveraged strong resource networks, and were better prepared to apply, receive, and track loans, and request complete forgiveness. The good news is that these networks are accessible for all small businesses. While the design and execution of PPP certainly had its problems, it largely accomplished what it set out to do: deploy funds to businesses with less than 500 employees for the purpose of keeping those employees on the payroll for an eight-week period. In March 2020, when Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or CARES Act which authorized the PPP program, the federal government estimated the Covid-related shutdown would be for only two months—wishful thinking. When PPP closed on August 8, 2020, 5.2 million loans had been issued for an estimated $525 billion with notably $130 billion still left in the program. Aside from PPP's flaws, what it exposed, however, was that businesses that were prepared to document their payroll, revenue, and expenses, and that had pre-existing, personal relationships with lawyers, accountants, and bankers, applied and received the money; businesses that did not, largely didn't even apply. And, like many factors in this pandemic, women- and minority- owned businesses, and those in economically disadvantaged areas, were the least networked and prepared and, therefore, received PPP funding in disproportionately low numbers. Critical research on U.S. Latino-owned businessesThis fact was documented in a research brief funded by Latino Business Action Network (LBAN) and conducted by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI) at Stanford Graduate School of Business. LBAN fosters growth and scale among Latinx entrepreneurs through research, education, and development of a national ecosystem—providing both with "what you should know" and "whom you should know." The research surveyed 7,000 (total) Latino-owned businesses (LOBs) and white-owned businesses (WOBs), with at least one employee, regarding the impact of Covid on their businesses and their ability to access PPP funds. Most of the findings on how the two groups thought about the pandemic at its onset last March were not surprising. Both groups, in roughly equal numbers, predicted that Covid would lead to revenue decline, business closures, a decrease in productivity, layoffs, and supply chain shortfalls. An almost identical number, 82% of LOBs and 81% of WOBs, said they were negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and an identical number (33%) of both groups applied for PPP loans. Related Articles From AllBusiness.com:
When it came to barriers to access PPP funding, a comparable number of LOBs and WOBs claimed the lack of a banking relationship and technical issues, such as trouble with submitting documents via websites. The gap widened when it came to lack of guidance on how to apply (45% of LOBs versus 37% of WOBs), and lack of required application materials (22% of LOBs over 15% of WOBs). Despite these relative similarities, however, WOBs were able to overcome these difficulties to receive PPP loans at over double the rate of LOBs. Next, the study looked at scaled businesses, those defined as having at least $1 million in annual gross revenue, that applied for PPP loans. In this group, the gap was widest with 54% of WOBs reporting they received all PPP funding applied for versus only 20% of LOBs. The real eye-opener, however, was when the study layered scaled LOBs who had graduated from the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative Education-Scaling Program over the other two groups in terms of applying and receiving access to PPP loans. An overwhelming 82% of this group received PPP loans versus 18% of scaled LOBs and 28% of scaled WOBs. Peer-to-peer and resource networks increase access to PPP loansA key focus of the Stanford Latino scaling program is to empower businesses to scale through the powerful networks created around the program. The SLEI research shows that businesses, Latinx or otherwise, that are part of established networks are more resilient in times of crisis like with Covid, as they have the trusted contacts and resources necessary to survive. To further document this fact, it is helpful to look back on the requirements of the PPP program—largely the same for the newly passed PPP relief law—and how an established network was critical to applying and receiving funds. Since the PPP was intended to keep employees on the payroll for roughly two months, the loan amount was calculated by documenting one month of payroll in 2019 multiplied by 2.5; borrowers would apply for this amount through a lender. Then, in order for borrowers to apply for and receive forgiveness, which would turn the loan into a grant, they would need to use at least 60% of that money for payroll and the remainder for a limited number of expenses: rent, utilities, mortgages, and interest on existing debt. Borrowers needed to track the appropriate use of this money over eight to 24 weeks, and then they could apply for forgiveness. Applicants, including sole proprietors and independent contractors, were required to provide documentation to their lender on their 2019 payroll, profit and loss and bank statements, and two years of tax returns. This is what caused the widespread deviation among businesses that were able to quickly and confidently apply and receive access to PPP loans, track them efficiently, and apply for forgiveness without fear of acquiring unwanted debt. Businesses that were not prepared and unclear on the regulations feared not just acquiring debt, but incurring civil or perhaps criminal penalties for misleading the government through inaccurate reporting on applications. Establish banking, accounting, legal and payroll relationshipsWe recommend for all business, scaled or not, to establish the following relationships to avail themselves of the new PPP program and to ensure resiliency in the future: Banking relationshipBusinesses that had a personal relationship with someone at their bank were able to understand the program and what documentation was necessary. In many cases, that relationship meant expediting applications to the SBA and obtaining a loan number in a matter of hours. This was especially important in the first round, when money did run out and quickly. It was and remains clear that most business owners do not have such a personal relationship. Businesses that did not have relationships were relegated to long wait times on customer service lines, confusion, delayed applications, missed deadlines, and, for many, the decision not to apply. The lack of a banking relationship was even greater in minority communities that are unbanked, underbanked, or have a history of distrust with bankers. Accounting and legal relationshipsMany small businesses were not current on their tax returns, with some several years behind. For many this made applying for PPP loans impossible or very difficult, as documenting 2019 income and expenses was burdensome. Most small businesses do not have internal bookkeepers, accounting software, financial managers, or CPAs at their disposal. Likewise, most small businesses do not have access to a lawyer to advise them on the legal parameters around PPP. Payroll provider relationshipThose businesses that run payroll through a payroll provider were quickly and easily able to document one month of 2019 payroll when applying for access to PPP loans, and can now easily document use of PPP funds through reports designed especially for the forgiveness process. Of course, for many small businesses, sole proprietors and independent contractors, payroll is not run through a provider, making documenting payroll cumbersome, difficult, and time-consuming. Better Access to PPP Loans: Lessons learnedThe ongoing Covid-19 pandemic did bring some good news stories and important lessons. For small businesses, the main lesson is access to trusted networks to answer questions in real time; commiserate; refer accountants, lawyers, and bankers; and provide moral support—makes all the difference for surviving, persisting, and thriving. The good news is these networks exist already, and every business, whether minority-owned, women-owned, or white-owned, should make their first decision of 2021 to take advantage of the services they offer. These networks include influential organizations like LBAN, chambers of commerce, trade associations, Women's Business Centers, SCORE, and Small Business Development Centers. The new PPP loans and other relief programs will remain complex, with new regulations changing the game on a regular basis, making these networks more important than ever. The time is now for the American business community to work together to provide real-time solutions to help our small businesses battle through the Covid-19 pandemic, and emerge on the other side stronger than ever. RELATED: New Guidance Issued on Next Round of PPP Loans: An Overview for Small Businesses About the AuthorsNeil Hare, an attorney and President of Global Vision Communications, specializes in small business policy and advocacy. Follow him on Twitter @nehare and LinkedIn. Mark Madrid is the Chief Executive Officer of the Latino Business Action Network, and a national champion of the Latinx business community in the United States and Puerto Rico. Follow him on Twitter @madridinspire and LinkedIn. SLEI (Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative) is a research and education collaboration between Stanford University and the Latino Business Action Network. The post Small Business Access to PPP Loans: Study Shows Strong Networks, Business Relationships Key to Success appeared first on AllBusiness.com. Click for more information about Neil Hare. Copyright 2020 by AllBusiness.com. All rights reserved. The content and images contained in this RSS feed may only be used through an RSS reader and may not be reproduced on another website without the express written permission of the owner of AllBusiness.com.  |
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