Flexible Sales Management Generates Better Results: An Interview with Claude Alhanati

Early in the interview, Claude made a point that really puts the art of selling into clear perspective…

“Life is a sales call and the quicker people understand that and figure out that sales is an art form worth studying and practicing, as you use it in every human interaction you have daily. Whether it is a business discussion with a prospect or client or whether it is a conversation with your spouse or kids or friends or neighbors, life is a sales call and the art of sales should be taught, practiced and studied by everyone irrespective of their career path.”

Selling is really the art of influence and we are all engaged in some form of influence or being influenced by others, every single day.  Managing people is largely about influencing behaviour, focus, motivation and results.  Raising children is about influence. Working on a project team and contributing ideas toward the end result is about influence.  Selling is just a more direct and obvious form of influence, but mastering the art of influence and selling can certainly help us professionally, but it can also create a better life on many other levels.

Sales leaders need to adjust to the needs of different team members

Claude emphasized how important it is for sales managers and coaches to be flexible when it comes to managing salespeople,

“Leaders cannot take a cookie cutter approach towards coaching their team. They have to recognize that they can’t get them to do it all the same way and that sales is a combination of two things; 1. directional language, which you can teach, and 2. personal style – you have to allow them to use their own stylistic approach.  Sometimes leaders get frustrated because they’ll see something they know that they personally could fix in minutes. However, they have to recognize there’s no point in fixing it their way, they’ve got to show the salesperson how to fix it using their individual style. You can create proven processes or a set of proven questions or a set of targeted processes to help guide them towards a specific goal but you have to also account for their individual style.”

There are, however, many aspects of selling that have a big impact on results that cannot be taught and are more personality based. We need to help salespeople find their individual style that can work for them, as Claude explains,

“Salespeople are going to do it their way, even if they’re telling you they’re not, they’re going to do it their way. So you’re better off understanding what works for them and building their sales presentation and their sales approach utilizing their individual style.”

What we’ve found, in training and coaching sales teams over the last 30-years, is that if we consistently practice and coach on the sales process skills that can be taught, this can build the self confidence that leads to a more effective selling personality over time.  Claude emphasized,

“It’s imperative that someone practices the various skill sets of selling and there’s always an opportunity for more training, more learning.”

Know your goals and objectives before walking into the sales call

Whether or not a sales call, either on the phone or in person, succeeds is often determined before it even starts in terms of thinking through our objectives and desired outcomes.  Salespeople need to develop the discipline to plan out their sales calls before they walk into the meeting as, Claude explains…

“Don’t ever walk into a sales call until you clearly understand why you are walking in. What is the purpose? No-one wants a Howdy Doody call.  Salespeople need to understand that prospects don’t just grant a meeting. They don’t do it because they think it’ll be a fun way to spend an hour. If they’re granting you a meeting, they have a need.”

Knowing what we’re specifically trying to achieve on the sales call gives us a huge advantage as Claude points out,

“As salespeople, if we understand what the specific objective is, then we can tailor our questions towards directing the conversation to our objective. Directional conversation is tailoring questions to guide the conversation towards that ultimate objective. You don’t want to go in and start pitching things like a shoe peddler, which three quarters of which the customer has absolutely no interest in hearing.”

When we have clear goals and objectives going in that line up well with what matters most to the prospect or customer, we increase our odds of success substantially.

Direct the sales conversation by talking less

Sales executives like Claude, have told us over and over that the most costly mistake that salespeople make is simply talking too much on sales calls and that the better we get at taking a genuine interest in the customer’s perspective and asking thoughtful, engaging questions, the better results we’ll get.  Claude explains,

“The number one thing that people love talking about is themselves. You want to allow them the stage to do that while creating a nearly transparent situation where they don’t even notice that in a meeting. Salespeople need to take immediate control of the meeting. They need to allow the customer to think they’re in control of the meeting, but then direct the conversation. To do this, start by setting an agenda demonstrating you will use the customers time wisely. Then, they granted the meeting, so ask them what they want to get out of the meeting. Write that down and promise you won’t leave until you have accomplished what they wanted to get out of the meeting. Then, ask them a series of questions to better understand their company and their business problems so that you can appropriately advocate business solutions that make sense.”

What we’ve found is that after explaining to the customer the agenda you’ve put together for the meeting, a great question to ask is, “what else would you like to add to our agenda to make this meeting even more helpful to you?”  That simple question conveys so much and the response can really open up the sales conversation.

From transactional focus to building long term relationships

Many of us sell in an environment where the sales cycle can be lengthy, requiring a number of meetings with different decision makers and influencers all focused on moving the process forward toward an initial buying decision that becomes a long term relationship of ongoing repeat business. Claude suggests we apply flexibility to the sales approach to get better results,

“Most salespeople tend to look at sales as a linear transaction where there’s a beginning, there’s a process, and there’s an end. I tend to look at sales as a circle. There is no beginning. There is no end and it’s a bunch of tools with a toolbox that you can tap into. Sales is an ongoing dialogue that has an ultimate objective which is in the middle of the circle, the bullseye. If you hit it dead center, that’s the opening of a new business relationship. Too many salespeople look at sales as being transactional where the end is getting an order. In reality, getting an order is like garbage, who cares about an order. I want lots of orders. I want to open a relationship that will continually order from me.”

When we interview top performing salespeople and observe them on sales calls, we often notice how creative they are in coming up with ideas and tailoring their suggestions to really fit what they’re hearing in terms of specific needs. Claude shared some timeless advice related to this,

“I tell salespeople there’s only one way to sell and that one way is whatever works. Whatever works, as long as it’s moral, ethical, and legal. Whatever works do it your way, but be open to other ways of doing it, don’t be cookie cutter. Then share those practices with other people because we can all learn from each other.”

So, in summary, we need to be flexible in how we coach sales team members and give them the flexibility to apply their own personality, but using proven selling approaches. We need to manage in a way that allows our team to find their own individual strengths, while helping them break the bad habits that hurt their results.  And, finally, we need to break out of the cookie cutter approaches to both managing and selling so that we unleash more of our creativity and stand out from the competition.

SalesGym is a research, consulting, and training company that works with and learns from sales teams all over the world and has refined a coaching and training process that trains sales teams the way elite athletes are trained.  More insights and articles from us can be found on our RESOURCES PAGE.