HOW TO SELL MORE:

Modelling the Secrets of

Success in Sales
By Tom Bird and Jerry Cassell

What the best salespeople know, say and do

Introduction

We created our survey of over 200 top sales people

because we wanted to identify good practice amongst
highly successful sales people. This information was to
be used to help us shape our book Brilliant Selling, an
official Amazon best-seller that was originally published
in 2009 and was updated 2012.

Brilliant Selling has been the best-selling sales book in

Europe for the last 5 years. It has sold over 65,000
copies worldwide, has been translated into 14
languages, and is now available in the US.

The strap line for the book is What the best sales
people know, do and say. We had our own ideas and
yet we wanted to hear from salespeople at the coal
face. So we created the survey to identify how the best
consistently get the best results.

We hope you find the survey results interesting and if

you would like any more information on any of the
topics that we have identified please visit www.brilliant-
selling.com.

Best wishes,

Tom and Jerry

What the best salespeople know, say and do

ABOUT THE SURVEY

The Participants

We were not looking to identify key trends in

selling - we wanted to know how brilliant
salespeople achieved success. To this end,
we set up some strict criteria before allowing
anyone to complete the survey.
These were:
employed or self-employed
direct involvement in the sales process in
2009
a minimum of 5 years experience in
selling
recognised by at least one organisation as
being successful
an average income over the last 3 years
of 50,000 per annum
from any market except retail.
210 people (61% between the ages 35-55,
and 85% involved in business to business,
face to face selling) completed our survey
between April and July 2009.
This document highlights various aspects of
the results. The summary is deliberately
short and we have focused on what we
consider to be the most interesting elements
for people working in sales today. Whether
you are self-employed, an entrepreneur,
work in a small or medium sized company,
are new to sales or experienced in selling but
want to benchmark yourself against current
best practice, here you will find essential
information that will help you to focus on
your sales development areas

Although we werent looking to identify key trends in selling we did discover that the 4 key sales
issues that were highlighted again and again were:
reduced customer budgets weaker economy
value for money maintaining margins.

And its still a tough environment right now for many!

How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 2

www.brilliant-selling.com
What the best salespeople know, say and do

The Key Results

From the results of the survey, a few distinct patterns occurred, and the three core areas we want
to highlight from the survey are:

Beliefs
Effect
Trust

By learning the 3 key psychological principles of how buyers make their choices you can turn sales
into much more of a certainty. We have added some comments and ideas to the survey output in
order to add value and help you to identify how to adapt your selling style.

BELIEFS
Your beliefs underpin a lot of your actions in
selling, either consciously or unconsciously.
Quite simply, if you believe that something is
possible for you then you are likely to
attempt it and achieve the result that you
want. If you do not feel it is possible then
you may simply avoid taking any action,
convinced that it would not result in
achieving your desired result.
Most of you have probably heard of Roger
Bannister. He was a 25-year-old British
medical student when he became the first
man to run a mile in less than four minutes.
His time was 3mins 59.4 seconds, achieved at
the Iffley Road track in Oxford and watched
by about 3,000 spectators. Before he broke
the 4 minute barrier many people believed it
was impossible. Indeed some doctors
asserted that it was a medical impossibility!
Yet within 6 weeks John Landy of Australia
had run 3.58 dead and within 12 months 15
people broke the same barrier.
Roger helped people change their belief
around what was possible.
Beliefs are not THE truth, they are just true
for us as individuals. Beliefs are changed as
we recognise that we hold a belief and
choose to question or change that belief.
What we discovered from the responses in
the survey is that Brilliant salespeople hold
very positive beliefs about themselves and
the nature of the relationships they have
with their services/products and customers.
Overleaf are five important examples of
strong beliefs that were highlighted by
respondees:

How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 3

www.brilliant-selling.com
What the best salespeople know, say and do

1. 91% believe that they and the customer have equal footing in the commercial
relationship

Comment: So many salespeople I know believe that the customer/prospect is on a pedestal

and has far more leverage than the salesperson. Often this means he will come across as
desperate and accommodate whatever the customer wants instead of negotiating in a
collaborative way.

2. 76% believe the sales starts right at the beginning of the sales cycle and 52% believe the
sale never ends

Comment: You are always selling. If you get complacent you risk losing customers. You sell
not just to the decision maker(s) but to all people connected within your customer. Once
you have the first order, you need to ensure that the sale progresses smoothly. Then you
are on the hunt for the next opportunity.

3. 69% believe that problem solving is one of their core strengths

Comment: Customers are in front of you because they have a problem/issue they need to
resolve. You are there to act as a catalyst to help solve the problem with minimum fuss
and often with a fair degree of creativity.

4. 67% believe that they are outstanding at relationship building

Comment: Its a foundation to all selling. Knowledge is never enough the old adage that
people buy people (often like themselves) is still true!

5. 64% believed attitude in selling was more important than skill

Comment: We have trained hundreds of salespeople over the years and so agree with the
majority view here. Start with a great attitude and things tend to go your way!

How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 4

www.brilliant-selling.com
What the best salespeople know, say and do

on these assumptions from which are beliefs

These strong beliefs act as the foundation for are formed. With every rung of the ladder we
Brilliant salespeople to develop an influential climb, we are moving further away from the
relationship with their customers. Beliefs, objective truth. By the time we have formed
thoughts, emotions and physiology make up a belief, it is not really based on objective fact
our state. A resourceful state such as at all.
confidence, determination, openness or joy
allows you to communicate passionately and
convincingly. To develop influential I act on my beliefs
relationships with your customers our I adopt beliefs
research has shown that you need to exhibit
confidence, credibility and have a strong I draw conclusions
connection. If you would like to find out
more about how to influence when selling I make assumptions
you can visit www.c-cubedinfluence.com for
I add meaning
free resources on confidence and influence.
I select data
Un-resourceful states, such as boredom,
apathy, disinterest or not believing in what Observable data &
you are selling are likely to come across to experiences
the other person, and you are less likely to be
convincing. What makes me believe in
something? The answers are going to be
This is the start point for changing our
closely linked to your values.
limiting beliefs they are not objectively
true
Some beliefs may limit your sales success. In
his book The Fifth Discipline Peter Senge
For each limiting belief, start looking for
summarises William Isaacs Ladder of
objective evidence to the contrary of the
Inference model to describe how beliefs are
belief. For example, if you belief that
formed.
everyone I cold call feels that I am
interrupting them, start looking for evidence
At the bottom rung we observe data we see
that this is not true. It might be that you have
things as they are. Because we cannot
managed to have useful conversations with
process all the data that we receive, we make
some people as a result of cold calling or
unconscious selections of the data to which
secured an appointment. Well, for these
we will pay attention. We then add meaning
people your belief does not seem to be true.
to the data that we have selected and then
The problem with a belief is that we often
we make assumptions based on this
discount evidence that does not support it.
meaning. We then draw conclusions based
We are likely to say things like Well, thats
an exception.

How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 5

www.brilliant-selling.com
What the best salespeople know, say and do

The keys to success in changing your limiting beliefs are:

Be aware of those beliefs that limit you.

Think about the ultimate cost of holding these limiting beliefs.
Think about an alternative belief that you really can hold to be true.
Practise thinking about the new belief whenever you can and relate to the benefits of holding
it.

By identifying and addressing limiting beliefs, and changing these to positive beliefs, we can focus
on those things that we can control and that will improve sales performance.

EFFECTS Educating and Adding Value

Part of building credibility with buyers is

Do we really know what sort of effects we
through educating and adding value. 92% of
are having in our sales role? We are talking
all respondees attempt to educate the
here about the consequences of our actions.
customer. They do this in a whole host of
We cannot control everything in a sales
different ways. Here are the top ten ways in
situation. The economy, the current financial
which, according to our survey, we educate
restrictions placed on a buyer, the past
customers:
history with your business; these are three
examples of things we cannot influence.
demonstrating value
We can however control the effect we highlighting expertise
produce in two key areas: suggesting new ideas and solutions
demonstrations
the relationships we establish and explaining technical issues/language
develop delivering seminars/workshops/tasters
how we control the results of sales offering free services to help processes
situations that form part of working life in
sales.

How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 6

www.brilliant-selling.com
What the best salespeople know, say and do
introducing complementary
services/products
benchmarking
introducing white papers, books, articles,
reports
Two other ways in which respondees stack
the cards in their favour are:
33% use recommendations
84% believe networking is either very or
quite important, with 37% actively
network online (24% using Linked in).
These are all examples of techniques that
Brilliant salespeople use to develop strategic
relationships and become a trusted advisor
to their key customers.
Most salespeople know to focus on benefits
based selling so that the client sees the real
value of our solution in terms of what they
will get as a result. But if your mindset is on
benefits selling you still fundamentally have a
product focus and this can lead to
conversation where the salesperson is
transmitting rather than engaging in a true
two-way discussion.
Brilliant sales people develop strategic
relationships with key customers. They build
a relationship of equals by talking about what
is going on in the business, what the other
person is facing in terms of priorities and
challenges. They are having more
conversations that are not product specific.
How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales
www.brilliant-selling.com
They are seeking to understand their
customers, their role, challenges, priorities
and worries. And in understanding they are
able to solving problems and, in doing that,
are adding true value.
In a strategic relationship Brilliant
salespeople have a level of openess in the
conversation that is often lacking from more
tactical sales relationships. The focus is on co-
creating rather than having to have all of the
answers. The client is likely to admit to more
personal concerns that they have, be open
about the internal office politics, etc.
Often their customers will introduce them to
their contacts. Rather than the Key Account
Management tactic of planning to increase
your contacts, in a strategic client
relationship, the client sees this expansion of
your contacts as a natural thing based on
how your relationship is. If you are really
looking to add value and not doing it as some
sales tactic to win a deal your contact won't
feel threatened. Over time, your contact base
increases.
Page 7
What the best salespeople know, say and do

Questioning If you want to reference the whole list take a

We all know that questioning is a core sales
skill. Here we highlight a selection of
questions that successful sales people use in
their work. The question we asked was:
What specific sales questions work best for
you?
look at the resources at www.brilliant-
selling.com - Great Sales Questions. Here is
an edited version of questions we think are
great and you may not have used before. We
have grouped them for ease of reference. In
addition, we have used the SPIN model
which will be familiar to many of you and is
referenced in our book Brilliant Selling.

Personal Questions/ Building Relationship and Values Questions:

What is your background?
What do you want/need to accomplish in business, in life?
Why is that important to you?
What annoys you?

S = Situational:
How is the business doing against stakeholder expectations?
What does your business offer that creates a clear difference from your competitors?
What do you consider is a good level of service?
Where do you see your business in five years?
What do you like best about the present situation?

P = Problem:
What are the three biggest challenges that your business faces today?
What keeps you up at night?
What issue or problem would your boss/board love you to solve as a priority?
If you could redesign your dept / structure / process from scratch - what would it look like?
What problem area is costing your company the most money?
Is there anything else I have not asked that I should have asked that you can think of?

I = Implications:
What would happen if you didn't address that challenge?
What would happen if you did not act now?
If the status quo remains, how do you see things in 6 / 12 / 18 months?
What would be the consequences of inaction?
How long can you survive without addressing this issue?

How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 8

www.brilliant-selling.com
What the best salespeople know, say and do

N = Need Pay Off:

What would it mean if there was a way to remove the issue of (insert biggest challenge?)
What is the compelling reason for going ahead with this project?
What is your perfect solution in your mind's eye?
How would you roll something like this out to your organisation?
How might you measure success?
12 months from now how will you expect my product / service to have benefitted your business?
On a scale of 1 to 10 how committed are you to fixing that?
What would make it a 10? (if necessary)

Obstacles and Barriers:

What has stopped you putting your ideal solution in place before now?
What potentially would prevent you from implementing this at this time?
Is there anything we have discussed which would make you think twice about dealing with me/us?
Where do you see potential problems arising in buying a solution like this?

Purchasing History and Buying Decision Criteria:

How did you go about purchasing this particular product or service before?
What criteria would you use for selecting a new supplier?
Under what conditions would you consider a new or additional supplier for XYZ?
What would you need to know about the service I provide, to be convinced that I can provide this
for you?
What do we need to do to win your business?
What is the decision process for solutions like this in your company?
Who would be affected if you were to implement this solution?

Momentum/Closing Questions:
Do you see any reason why you can't proceed with this order?
Have I answered all your questions?
Are you ready to sign the proposal?
Does this solve your problem?
Will you buy this if it works?
Do you think we can make progress together?

How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 9

www.brilliant-selling.com
What the best salespeople know, say and do
Of course questions dont stop when the
prospect becomes a customer. Keep on
asking questions. If they are delighted by you
and your service then ask questions which
will allow you to extend the relationship or
cross sell. Or ask them to give you a referral
people will happily do this if they like the
product /service and like you! Ask for
referrals at the height of the gratitude curve
when they think you are great and have
offered an outstanding service.
Objection Handling
You would expect that Brilliant salespeople
would be good at handling objections.
However what is interesting here is that the
top five answers do not coincide with the
now outdated (in our view) training that was
probably drummed into you - that you have
to overcome objections. Who would really
like their objections overcome? It smacks of
arrogance, manipulation and aggression.
We asked the question: How do you deal
with objections? Here are the top five most
popular ways in which respondees deal with
this thorny issue:
1. Listen, understand and review
requirements
2. Understand motivation behind it
3. Offer alternative options/solutions
How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales
www.brilliant-selling.com
4. Answer the objection with integrity - be
open and tell the truth
5. Evaluate how real the objection is and
how critical to the successful completion
of the deal.
Sales Process
One of our first questions when we work
with organisations is - what is your sales
process? It is amazing how many different
answer we can get from individuals working
within the same company. Interestingly, in
our survey, 70% follow a distinctive and
recognised sales process.
Preparation
Yes of course we know the old clich that
salespeople are bad at administration and
getting themselves organised. Brilliant
salespeople know the value of preparation
for all key sales tasks.
We asked the question: What preparation
do you do before seeing/calling a new
customer? Here are the top five most
popular responses:
1. 55% research the organisation
understand company, background and
key situational information, search online
2. Prepare client case studies
3. Plan a series of questions
Page 10
What the best salespeople know, say and do

1. Competency
4. Visualise successful outcome
5. Prepare agenda, objectives and get We asked:
customer to participate in agreeing these.
What are your key strengths as a sales
person?
After Sales Call Debrief
The 5 top answers were:
We have been out with many salespeople
and many do not recognise the importance of
1. Listening
a post call debrief.
2. Building rapport and managing the
68% of respondees write notes, send a relationship
summary of key actions and plan the next 3. Presenting and persuading
steps for the customer as part of this
reflective exercise. 4. Questioning
5. Gaining agreement.

TRUST Brilliant salespeople recognise the

importance of continuous improvement -
63% choose to improve their skills with
If you think about the psychology behind
regular training, which has this sort of
selling, being trusted is of critical importance.
impact:
Would you buy something from someone
you did not trust? Unlikely. And yet how do
you guarantee that a customer/prospect will Better techniques and planning process
trust you? This is trickier to define. We
Up-to-date with latest thinking and jargon
would argue that trust comes from 3 core
areas: Improved presentations
More variety of techniques used to suit
1. Competency (ability or skill) different customer types/social styles
2. Integrity (honest, sound, moral) Reminder of the basics.
3. Benevolence (disposition to do good).

These three areas are highlighted in the

research.

How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 11

www.brilliant-selling.com
What the best salespeople know, say and do

2. Integrity Finally
All customers are sorting for integrity. Do
If you are interested in learning how to
you demonstrate consistency with your
influence effectively in sales situations then
promises, actions and behaviours?
find out more about our unique concept
called the C3 Model of InfluencingTM. This
Interestingly 34% of respondees mentioned
focuses on influencing through your
honesty and integrity as a core strength.
behaviour rather than using techniques,
making it authentic, individual to you and
easy to learn. Visit www.c-
3. Benevolence
cubedinfluence.com to find out more.
So often it is the small things that matter.
If you would like more information on our
Tom spent 2 years chasing a client whose first
Brilliant Selling sales programmes, or would
order was over 20,000. He did this by
like to receive free resources and sales tips,
constantly being benevolent. For example,
visit www.brilliant-selling.com and subscribe
the client was interested in mentoring and he
to our Bulletin.
dropped around a manual on the subject for
no charge. We occasionally do taster
You can also connect with us on Facebook to
sessions to allow clients to identify what we
hear about free material, offers and
can offer. Equally we always provide
promotions, or follow us on Twitter
welcome packs for all new clients. They cost
(@BrilliantSell) for sales tips and thoughts.
us less than 50 but are the sorts of
You can find many more sales resources on
benevolent actions that will build trust.
the Brilliant Selling website too.
Examples of benevolent actions identified by
Brilliant Selling is published by Pearson
respondees included:
Publishing and is available from all good
retailers (including Waterstones, WH Smith
Passing on a key contact and effecting an and Amazon) or from our website
introduction www.brilliant-selling.com
Corporate hospitality
Training internal people
Help with positioning presentations
internally
Responding quickly and under-promising
and over-delivering

How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 12

www.brilliant-selling.com
What the best salespeople know, say and do

What the best salespeople know, say and do

www.brilliant-selling.com

About Brilliant Selling

Brilliant Selling was written by Tom Bird and Jeremy Cassell (Tom and Jerry) who offer sales
training, keynote speaking and consulting in all areas of sales and influence. It is a resource for
salespeople of all levels and in all sectors.
How to Sell More: Modelling the Secrets of Success in Sales Page 13
www.brilliant-selling.com