RAISE YOUR BAR! How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results

RAISE YOUR BAR!
How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results

by Andre Bello
foreword by STEPHEN ANDERSON

The e-book is free for your personal use. You can print it, e-mail it
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it in any way, take credit for any of its content, make paper planes
with it or use it for group training without the author’s permission.

And he’s watching you (but not in a creepy way).

RAISE YOUR BAR! How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results
Copyright © 2011 by André Bello
All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy-
ing, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Kiwi Publishing, Inc
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www.kiwipublishing.com
Illustrations and images under a Creative Commons license:
Frits Ahlefeldt at http://hikingartist.com and “Stop_hand” image at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stop_hand.png

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they
make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically
disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by
sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation.
You should consult a professional when appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any
other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

ISBN-10 1935768107
ISBN-13 9781935768104
First Edition
Printed in the United States of America

Contents
Who this book is for vi Right message, wrong timing! 22
Foreword vii The attraction of doing nothing! 23
Acknowledgements ix The art of questioning 25
Three ways to use this workbook x Look beneath the surface 27
Is selling an art or a science? 1 Expand your discussion beyond price 28
Why behavior matters most 2 Align your proposal with their problems 30
Behaviors. Accountability. Results. 3 You may have some hurdles to overcome 31
Technology can help! 5 Eight ways to handle objections 32
Step to success 6 What proof do you have? 36
Start with ambitious targets 9 Close the sale! 37
Suspects 10 Accountability! 39
Outbound vs. inbound leads 11 Results! 47
Are you scared of rejection? 13 Bridge performance gaps! 53
The language of the approach 15 7 really cool things about Goal Smashers! 55
Who else do you need to talk to? 18 Hit bigger targets than your competition! 63
Your product has great benefits. So what? 20 About the author 64
v

Who this book is for
THIS BOOK IS for you, especially if you believe that great salespeople can be developed through
the consistent practice of proper techniques.

There are those few “naturals” who seem to be born with an innate ability to win new business.
But when we ask about the secrets to their success, we frequently discover that they don’t really
know what makes them better than the rest. Some have a knack. Some have charisma. Some put
in hours of effort. It’s often a mixed bag of attributes that are very difficult to transfer to others.

This book is written in the belief that everyone can raise his or her BAR (Behaviors, Accountabil-
ity & Results). It will provide a step-by-step methodology to give you predictable and repeatable
improvements in your ability to sell more, supported by online resources to help you to solidify
your habits for the long term.

This book is for anyone who would like to sell more!

vi

Foreword
One of the great challenges of the next few decades will be exactly how to manage -- and make
sense of -- all the information we’re gathering. From the knowledge we share and create online, to
the growing burden of personal commitments, regaining a sense of control over this information
will be a vital skill. And one for which tools are beginning to emerge.

Fortunately, humans have dealt with information challenges before. When words fail, we revert to
images. We have drawings on cave walls that precede written history by thousands of years. It is
natural to think first in pictures. If I ask you to list how many appliances you have right now on your
kitchen counter, you begin by “seeing” your kitchen and your assorted appliances. Even text -- like
these words you are reading now -- is simply a collection of symbols, each coded with meaning
based on how they are grouped.

While this written word may be nuanced and specific, illustrations are clear and compelling. When
words fail, images can step in and speak with clarity using colors, shapes and the arrangement of
these visual elements.

In my own work, I’ve combined skills of the print-oriented information designer with all the varia-
tions associated with dynamic, changing data. I have a love for information visualization, repre-
senting complex information in a way that is understood through simple visual treatments.

vii

When André first approached me to work on Goal Smashers, it was precisely this visual repre-
sentation of information that I found so appealing. As you probably know, managing dozens or
hundreds of sales opportunities, each at different stages in “the pipeline,” is a challenge. Sales
agents everywhere have devised their own solutions to this problem. Some solutions involve pen
and paper. People have created clever Excel spreadsheets. And others have turned to software
applications that can make life difficult by doing more than they need to do.

With Goal Smashers, we’ve focused on the essential things you need to be successful: Who should
I contact next? Which skills do I need to work on? How am I doing? While there are several screens
within Goal Smashers, it is essentially a one-page application. We’ve tried to create a system that
brings focus and clarity by representing everything you need to see on one page. One succinct
and visual page. While visualizing a sales pipeline is nothing new, using this visual as your primary
means of interaction is something new. Our hope is that you will be able to cut through the noise
and focus on the essential things that make you successful -- without clicking through a bunch of
screens or shuffling through pages. We want to help you simplify the onslaught of information and
introduce some measured control over your sales process.

Our goal . . . is to help you smash your goals.

viii

Acknowledgements
ENDLESS THANKS GO out to Jakub for his tireless work on Goal Smashers. His work is simply
incredible and this project simply would have not been the same without him! My gratitude also
goes out to my official “goal-watcher” Scott Hilton-Clarke for sharing his invaluable insights and
resources on the software business. I have to salute Stephen Anderson for the way he turned the
pipeline ideas into visual candy, while putting the user experience first. Frits Ahlefeldt’s illustra-
tions* are spectacular and truly help to communicate the ideas in this book.

Not least, I must thank my wife, Frances, for her patience and enthusiasm while I spent hundreds
of hours harassing her to peer over my shoulder to scrutinize my work in progress.

* See Frits’ portfolio of drawings at www.hikingartist.com
ix

Three ways to use this workbook

READ AND ENJOY! See what new ideas sprout up.

STOP AND DO the exercises. This icon means its time to put your ideas
down on paper.

PRACTICE ON GOALSMASHERS.COM. You have 30 days FREE to build
your personal sales pipeline and track your performance!

x

Is selling an art or a science?
IT’S A FALSE assumption that selling is more of
an art than a science. Consider instead if you
“can do” or “will do!” Your performance can
be broken into five areas: your capability,
knowledge, skills, effort and attitude. Of
these, the first three are “can do.” Capabil-
ity defines your ability to do the job. Knowl-
edge describes your awareness of the infor-
mation required to perform. Skills require
practice to become really proficient. On the
other hand, the “will do” factors are the most
difficult: Are you putting the right effort in the
right areas, and are you confident and motivated to
sell? Having a well-defined system gives you some
structure to identify your shortcomings and helps
you to make targeted improvements. By the end
of this workbook, you will have a complete frame-
work in place for breakthrough performance!

WWW.GOALSMASHERS.COM 1

Why behavior matters most
SALES DRIVE REVENUE. Customers buy stuff. So you
should put your focus on the customer, right? Not so
fast! Take a look at the chart on your right. This repre- Financial
sents a Balanced Scorecard strategy map. Do you see
any potential challenges if your customer-focus is done
in isolation? Customers are near the very top of the
value-chain. If you create systems to manage customer Customers
relationships, but you haven’t developed good sell-
ing systems or behaviors, your success will be limited.

Because of this, it should come as no surprise that
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives Systems
often show disappointing returns. These programs
need to be built on a solid foundation of proper behav-
ioral habits, and simple systems to hold salespeople
accountable. Team leaders should be able to track People
performance at a glance, and know instantly where
interventions are needed. Results should be transpar-
Balanced Scorecard Strategy Map
ent, readily available and should drive decision-making.
Read on, and let’s see how this can be done!
2 RAISE YOUR BAR!

Behaviors
SELLING IS MADE up of a series of skills and activities that align the solutions you offer with what’s
missing or not working in a person’s life. Of the skills you need to perfect, questioning is by far
the most important as it provides a pathway to your understanding of your prospect’s situation.
Of the activities you need to perform, we will focus on six steps in the sales pipeline: leads,
contacts, qualification, interviews, proposals and wins!

Accountability
KNOWING WHAT TO do and doing it are two very different things. Sales professionals need
to keep motivated in order to develop and maintain a consistent level of high performance.
This motivation can come from within, but often it’s much more effective to have someone else
hold you accountable for your actions, sort of like a personal trainer at the gym.

Results
SALES LEADERS SHOULD be able to easily spot “leaks” in the sales pipelines of their team.
A transparent system allows you to see exactly where you and your team are at all times.
Coaching interventions can then be made to solve specific performance gaps, which should be
quickly identified using dashboards that track all your key metrics in one place! As a result, you will
be able to measure the impact of your actions through clear-cut improvements in the numbers.

Technology can help!
ACCOUNTANTS LOVE NUMBERS. They are great with spreadsheets. Salespeople, on the other
hand, not so much! But sales is about numbers. Not just revenue, but the numbers behind the
activities required to make the sale. Since following numbers is not a natural attribute of most
sales professionals, some help is needed -- a simple, fun way for them to understand the flow of
their business, and to put emphasis where it’s required. That’s where Goal Smashers comes in!

Goal Smashers was designed to give sales professionals dynamic
and visual feedback on their activities, and to guide them through
the behaviors that work best for every step along the sales pipe-
line. The web-based software allows you to log on from anywhere
you have an Internet connection and a browser!

Many of you have used web-based software before, but never really thought about it. This includes
e-mail accounts like Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo, social networking sites like Facebook, or even online
banking. Goal Smashers will be as easy to use as those programs. It will help you to manage your
sales opportunities like you never could before. To use Goal Smashers with this book, simply go to
www.goalsmashers.com and sign up for your 30-day FREE trial account. It has been said that it
takes 21 days to form a new habit. Take the extra nine days to make sure it sticks! Then, you might
want to subscribe to the service . . . or not. Whatever you decide, you will already be well on your
way to practicing the behaviors that separate star salespeople from average ones!

Steps to success
HAVING A WELL-defined system
allows you to know exactly when
to do what with your sales opportuni-
ties. The types of questions that uncover
value, for example, are not the same types
you would use in the qualification stage.
The ability to see each step clearly will help
you determine the most appropriate action
to move from “opportunity to close.” Let’s
look at the six most important steps in the sales
pipeline that will guide you toward success!
6 RAISE YOUR BAR!

1 Leads
People you plan on contacting during the month.

2 Contacts
Leads you’ve contacted or prospects who initiated contact with you.

3 Qualified
Prospects with whom you’ve communicated in the target audience for what you sell.

4 Interviewed
You should get a good idea of what’s missing or “not working” through your discussions.

5 Proposals
Value you can offer based on the problems you’ve identified.

6 Wins!
Prospects who have accepted your offer!

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! When you enter information on a lead you plan
on contacting during the month, it shows up in your pipeline as a round dot.
These “opportunity dots” are orange by default, representing a “medium”
probability of success. They can be changed at any time to red or yellow, for “high” or “low”
probabilities respectively. They can also be marked as “important” with a star. Opportunities
that you get based on prospects who initiated contact show up as a teardrop shape so you
can tell the difference.

As your sale progresses, you can move each dot down the pipeline. In each stage you will find
specific sales prompts to help you along the way.

Leads Contacts Qualified Proposals Interviewed Wins!

8 RAISE YOUR BAR!

Start with ambitious targets
WHAT IS THE one thing over which you have the most
control in any sale? When you call someone, do you have
any influence over whether the phone will be answered? If
it is answered, how can you ensure that the contact is qual-
ified to buy your offer? Of course you can increase your odds
by timing your calls better or improving your lists, but the one
thing that you have absolute and total control over is the
number of people you call! And the number of people you call
is strongly related to the number of people you plan to call.

Simply put, people with ambitious goals tend to achieve more. If
you have a number you’re aiming at, you have the ability to esti-
mate exactly how much energy you need to achieve that goal. If your
target is low, you may reduce your efforts as you start approaching
your objective. Some salespeople are tempted to be pessimistic
with their call forecasts so they can always meet their goals, but this
can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then they push hard at the end
of the year, resulting in a “hockey-stick” effect. Every month, set an
aggressive target for the number of people you will try to contact.
Be realistic but ambitious. Your expectations drive your actions!

Suspects
PROSPECTING IS THE
lifeblood of selling. The
number of people who are
actively seeking to buy what
you‘re selling is relatively low.
However, the multitudes who aren’t
“looking” may be the ones experi-
encing the very same problems you can
solve. They may simply be comfortable
with their status quo, or not motivated to
act. That’s where your real opportunities
lie, since that’s where the numbers are. Your
job is to mail them, call them, meet them,
learn more about them and understand
what’s missing or not working in their lives.
Then maybe, just maybe, you can help them!
10 RAISE YOUR BAR!

OUTBOUND VS. Inbound LEADS
THE MORE EXPERIENCED you are as a sales professional, the
more likely your contacts will come from inbound calls. These can
include sources like “word of mouth,” existing clients, advertising
or the Internet. While it’s important to have a steady flow of inbound
contacts, you should always keep your emphasis on outbound leads.
Those are the people you plan to meet, through networking events,
referrals, internal or external contact lists or even cold-calling.

Outbound prospecting gives you direct control over the number and quality
of your opportunities, and feeds your pipeline with the activity you need to
drive your business. This is the biggest area of weakness I witness in most
sales teams, and it’s the number one action you can take to increase your
revenue. The bonus is . . . as your outbound prospecting increases, the
number of inbound inquires you receive also multiplies.


EXERCISE. You should know what your best sources of prospects are. Particular
networking activities may work best for you, or perhaps a new ad campaign from
marketing drove a high number of calls. Goal Smashers allows you to keep track
of the sources that bring you the most wins. Write down your top five sources of
outbound Leads (names you plan to call) and inbound Contacts (people who initiate contact
with you).

Sources of Outbound leads: Sources of inbound contacts:
1. ______________________ 1. ______________________
2. ______________________ 2. ______________________
3. ______________________ 3. ______________________
4. ______________________ 4. ______________________
5. ______________________ 5. ______________________
*Other
6. ______________________ *Other
6. ______________________

*Always leave one option as “other” to allow for sources of opportunities you didn’t predict.

12 RAISE YOUR BAR!

Are you scared of rejection?
ONCE YOU’VE MADE contact, your main objective should
be to determine whether the conversation should go further
or not. The only way you can get rejected at this point is if
you start pitching your product right away. So you won’t do
that, will you? Instead, ask a few simple, short-answer
questions to discover if this person is an actual
prospect for your product or not.

At this stage, you have as much chance to
decide not to take the dialogue deeper as the
other party does. So there’s nothing for them
to “reject” since you haven’t offered anything
for sale . . . yet! When you’ve judged that you
have a qualified prospect, your next move will
be to get their permission to proceed further.


EXERCISE. Think of five qualifying questions you can ask to help you judge
whether someone is a good prospect for your business or not. These questions
should be designed for quick, brief responses that help you decide if you should
continue further, and if so, in what direction.

I remember a great television scene on Sesame Street with super salesman Grover trying to sell
Kermit a toothbrush. After presenting all the benefits of his range of toothbrushes, he couldn’t
close the sale. His problem . . . failure to qualify his prospect. Frogs don’t have teeth! (At least
puppet frogs don’t!)

Qualification questions:
1. _____________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________________________
5. _____________________________________________________________________

14 RAISE YOUR BAR!

The language of the approach
IN THE MOVIE Hitch starring Will Smith, his character approaches
a woman to introduce himself after stepping in to rescue her
from another guy who just wasn’t taking the hint. Refer-
ring to her and himself in the third-person he says: “. . .
but then he would ask her name, and what she did for a
living. And she might blow him off, or she might say . . .”
As expected, he gets the girl in the end.

Do you notice a particular word that gets repeated in
Will’s dialogue? The word “might.” This non-assumptive
word is very effective in building trust early in your rela-
tionship. Prospects need to feel comfortable that you’ll go
away if you find you have nothing in common with them.
They need to trust you enough to share further infor-
mation about themselves or their company. They
can spot a hidden agenda from a mile away.
“May I,” “if,” “you might,” “you may have,”
“I’d like,” etc., can help you build comfort
as you seek their go-ahead to gather more
details about their situation.

EXERCISE. Sales experts know how to allocate their efforts to get the best returns
on the investment of their time. They recognize early when they are “riding a dead
horse.” There are many reasons an opportunity can go stagnant. List as many as
you can think of. This will help you to identify dead leads early so you can put
more emphasis on prospects who are likely to be more productive for you.

What are some reasons a lead can go “dead?”:
1. _____________________________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________________________
4. _____________________________________________________________________
5. _____________________________________________________________________
6. _____________________________________________________________________
7. _____________________________________________________________________
8. _____________________________________________________________________


Who else do you need to talk to?
IMAGINE THAT YOUR prospect is excited
about your offer and is ready to buy. Then
suddenly you get a call. She says, “My husband
(or CEO, CFO, uncle, neighbor, or anyone else
you never met) thinks I should shop around (or
wait a while, go with someone else, stick with
what I have, do nothing).” This is one of the
most frustrating calls you can get in sales. But
it can be avoided!

You should find out as early in the conversation
as possible, who are the people who will have
any influence over the buying decision, or who
will be affected once the decision is made. This
is especially important with corporate clients
as you need to understand the perspectives of
as many people as possible in order to identify
opportunities to create value that your compe-
tition might miss. Expand your reach beyond
your primary contact.
18 RAISE YOUR BAR!

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Once your prospect is in the Qualified stage, you
will be prompted to define their role in the buying decision. You will also be
asked to find out who else you should talk to, or who you can connect with a
third-party, so you can deepen your relationship and get a fuller understanding of their situa-
tion. Think of a sale you’re working on now and build a contact matrix for the opportunity.

The role of your primary contact is a:
Gatekeeper Initiator Influencer User Buyer Decider

I need to connect:
Name: Role: Contact Info: Connect them with:
1. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________
2. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________
3. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________
4. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________
5. _____________________ __________________ ________________ ____________________


Your product has great “benefits.” So what?
TRADITIONAL SALES TRAINING puts the emphasis on benefits your product can provide, rather
than its features. This is tricky! The risk is that you could make a premature presentation of your
product benefits to your prospect before you fully understand what’s missing or not working in
their current situation.

And often, a trap is set for you. Your prospect wants to get more information from you than he
wants to share about himself. So he says, “Tell me more about what you have!” Your eyes light up!
“Of course!” you reply. You know your product better than anyone else, and you’ve seen it help
so many people that you’re sure it’s ideal for him. You start your presentation and skillfully demon-
strate all the benefits of your offer. Your prospect gracefully listens, asks some questions, then
suggests you leave your brochures while he thinks it over. He agrees that your product sounds
awesome, and he assures you that he’ll get back to you. Sound familiar?

The problem with “benefits” is that they’re meaningless unless they solve a problem your pros-
pect is experiencing. Even more problematic is that if their problems are obvious to you, but not
to them, your offer is still meaningless. It’s not enough that you identify their needs: they have to
recognize that they have such a need. That’s why experienced salespeople should beware! They
become practiced at identifying their prospect’s problems before the prospects do. If they lay out
their solutions too hastily, the prospects may not see the value. The world’s greatest screwdriver
means nothing to a person who’s planning to use nails!
20 RAISE YOUR BAR!

Right message, wrong timing!
THINK ABOUT THE retirement advertisements you see on television. What are the ages of the
actors commonly featured in these ads? People in their 30s? Hardly! Such ads typically portray
people who have already retired, enjoying the benefits of their retirement. Is that the target audi-
ence? Of course not. But the message is, “If you plan for your retirement with us, when you get to
this age, you’ll be playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship just like these happy folks!” What would
work better to get viewers to change? A message that relates what’s missing or not working in
their lives today. A powerful way to get someone to change is to uncover their dissatisfaction with
their current situation before you show them the joy of your solution!

22 RAISE YOUR BAR!

The attraction of doing nothing!
YOUR PROSPECT AGREES that there is a problem
and acknowledges that you have an ideal solu-
tion. Yet the prospect still takes no action! What’s
going on? Do you remember Sir Isaac Newton’s
First Law of Motion? “Every object in a state of
rest or uniform motion tends to remain in that
state unless an external force is applied to it.”

This applies to people as well. You need to under-
stand what their current state of motion is. They
have been doing just fine without you and have
found ways to adapt to their issues. For example,
Goal Smashers is an incredible way to manage
your sales opportunities, but if you’re used to
using a spreadsheet, you will have to learn
a whole new way of doing things. This is
going to be uncomfortable in the begin-
ning. It’s the same with your product. Pros-
pects must see clear value in your solution
that makes their initial discomfort worthwhile.

EXERCISE. Choose three features of your most popular product and identify an
advantage each feature can provide over competitive products. Next, identify the
problems that your prospect would need to have in order for each advantage to
be relevant to them.

Feature: Advantage: Prospect’s problem that makes this relevant:

1. __________________ __________________ _________________________________________

2. __________________ __________________ _________________________________________

3. __________________ __________________ _________________________________________

24 RAISE YOUR BAR!

The art of questioning
NOW YOU KNOW what you’re looking for . . . prob-
lems your prospect may be experiencing that are
connected to the advantages your product
offers. This is done through skillful ques-
tioning. Start by removing all your
assumptions about your pros-
pect. Building on the responses to
your qualification questions, probe
for further information by starting with
general questions, then becoming more
specific. This order is important. If you
ask specific questions too early, your prospect
may not see the relevance of your question and
may hesitate to answer. Your questions should
have a sequence that builds on preceding
responses. They should not appear random
and disconnected. You are trying to identify exactly
which of your product’s advantages you should present to
your prospect that align perfectly with what’s missing or not
working in the prospect’s current situation.

EXERCISE. Select one of the prospect’s problems from the previous exercise.
Develop a sequence of questions that you could use to uncover that problem.
Your questions should be general to specific and build on preceding responses.
You should practice different sequences using a variety of potential problems.

Interview questions:

1. _____________________________________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________________________________

3. _____________________________________________________________________

4. _____________________________________________________________________

5. _____________________________________________________________________

26 RAISE YOUR BAR!

Look beneath the surface
AS YOU LEARN more about your prospects’
circumstances, try to explore beneath their
stated positions and look for underlying inter-
ests. When you get more information about
the “whats,” probe more deeply for the
“whys.” What issues have you identified?
Why are those issues important? Buying
motives may not always be obvious.

There are some other aspects you
should try to unearth. What are their
alternatives if the deal is not done with
you? Of those alternatives, which is
their best option? At what point do you
think the prospect will walk away? What
do you think is the prospect’s target
price? What broader objectives do you
think could be served by this deal? Is
there an emotional consideration you may
have missed?

Expand your discussion beyond price
WHILE YOU’RE TRYING to uncover openings to create
value for your prospect, they may remain focused on
the single issue of price. From their perspective, addi-
tional value might equal “getting more for less.” So you
end up in a cycle of offers and counter-offers, haggling
until they’re satisfied. Some deals are best suited to this
competitive approach, but you should always be on the
lookout for opportunities to trade on differences.

Mutual gains are created when you can identify
issues that are high value to prospects, but low value
to you, which you can trade for concessions that are
low value to them but valuable to you. For example, if
price is the most important issue for them, but your main
interest is a long-term relationship, you might make a
price concession in exchange for ongoing business
or referrals. You can then look for ways to
expand value for them, maybe by increasing
service levels, especially if that‘s something
that doesn’t require much effort from you.
28 RAISE YOUR BAR!

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Negotiation isn’t just about price. If price becomes
an issue, look more closely for other goals that are important to your pros-
pects. Arrange the issues in order of importance to them. Then, rank your
own objectives. You will get a clear idea of how both your goals are ranked, and can create
value by trading the things they want for things that aren’t important to you, and viceversa.

Negotiation trade-offs:
*What does your prospect want? *What do you want?
1. ____________________________________ 1. ____________________________________
2. ____________________________________ 2. ____________________________________
3. ____________________________________ 3. ____________________________________
4. ____________________________________ 4. ____________________________________
5. ____________________________________ 5. ____________________________________
6. ____________________________________ 6. ____________________________________

*In Goal Smashers you can drag and drop these issues to rearrange their order. This allows
you to speculate on different rankings to see where the opportunities for value trade-offs
might be.


Align your proposal with their problems
AT THIS POINT, you should have a really good idea about what’s missing or not working in your
prospects’ lives, and you would have helped them to recognize their problems. Your solutions
should now align perfectly with those problems. Restate your understanding of their situation to
be sure you’re on the right page, then connect your offer directly to those problems. This isn’t a
premature listing of your benefits, but a focused offer of value directly linked to the issues that
are important to them. The advantages should be clear and tangible to each “influencer and
decider” you identified early on, and the new way forward should demonstrate clear superiority
over the status quo!

30 RAISE YOUR BAR!

You may have some hurdles to overcome
OBJECTIONS ARE A natural part of the process and should be
welcomed. One of the worst situations is a prospect who gives
you a quick “maybe” and doesn’t tell you the truth behind why
he’s hesitating to buy. Your job is to artfully reveal the barriers
to your deal that may be left unsaid. Other times the objections
are front and center, and require a calm competence to over-
come. You want your prospects feeling confident in your
ability to deliver on your promises. The way you handle
their objections often determines what happens
next. Let’s look at some techniques . . .


Eight ways to handle objections
1 AGREE & REDIRECT. Acknowledge their perspective, even if they are incorrect. Don’t agree
with a flawed viewpoint, but recognize why they think that way. Then redirect the conversa-
tion toward a counter-example or different perspective. For example, “I understand why you
feel the price is too high, and would add that the real issue is not so much the price of our
service, but how much money you are losing every day using your current system.”

2 PRE-EMPT IT. You may have a few objections that come up frequently with similar prospects.
You can bring up the issue before they do, then put it in perspective for them.

32 RAISE YOUR BAR!

3 BYPASS IT. Some objections might be addressed later in your discussion, and you may prefer
to continue your train of thought if the prospect raises them. Simply suggest that you are
deferring their concern for the moment, but you will deal with it later.

4 CLARIFY OR EXPAND. They may object because of an incorrect interpretation of the facts,
or insufficient knowledge to form a proper opinion. Provide further or correct information to
resolve the misperception.

5 ANSWER & EXPLORE. Even for simple questions it can be useful to find out the reasons
behind the inquiry. Dig a little deeper! For example, “Sure! We can do that. But tell me, why
is that important to you?” You might unveil hidden concerns that need your attention.

6 ACCEPT & BALANCE. When an objection is about an issue that is a genuine disadvantage,
you should acknowledge the limitation, then counter with value trade-offs based on their
specific situation.

7 REDUCE IT TO ZERO. Your price may be higher than your competitor’s. You can minimize the
impact of the cost by breaking the figure down over a shorter period. For example, a differ-
ence of $1000 a year is only $2.74 a day. Connect the new, small figure with added value.

8 END & ASK WHY. If your discussion is not advancing, or you’re getting a series of hollow
objections, you can try asking, “Should we end this?” Follow up with, “Since this didn’t work
out, let me ask you . . . what went wrong?” They might reveal their genuine concerns to you.

EXERCISE. Which of the eight ways to deal with objections are best suited to
these different situations? Write down the ones you think fit best. There’s no single
correct approach and more than one can be used.

Types of objections:
1. NO TIME: “I don’t have time to talk right now.”
_______________________________________________________________________
2. NO VALUE: A lack of perceived benefits from your product or service.
_______________________________________________________________________
3. NO NEED: Value is acknowledged but “not for me!”
_______________________________________________________________________
4. NO MONEY: “I can’t afford your service.”
_______________________________________________________________________
5. NO TRUST: “I’m not sure you have the capability to do this.”
_______________________________________________________________________

34 RAISE YOUR BAR!

6. NO URGENCY: “I’d rather keep things the way they are.”
_______________________________________________________________________
7. COMPETITION: Perception that a competitor or current provider is superior.
_______________________________________________________________________
8. MISUNDERSTANDING: Wrong belief or understanding.
_______________________________________________________________________
9. DRAWBACK: A need you can’t satisfy.
_______________________________________________________________________
10. NO AUTHORITY: “I can’t make the decision on this”
_______________________________________________________________________
11. RED HERRING: False objections to get rid of you.
_______________________________________________________________________
12. BRICK WALL: The prospect declines your offer.
_______________________________________________________________________


What proof do you have?
THE SLICK COLOR brochure that Marketing produced
for you can really come in handy at this stage of the sale.
Some salespeople begin their conversation by pulling
out their collateral material. Mistake! I can’t tell you the
number of times I’ve seen a prospect take the docu-
ment from a salesperson’s hands and wrestle control of
the conversation by going through the product mate-
rial themselves.

Evidence of your product’s performance should come
when you’re getting ready to close. You should be
linking it directly to the problems identified earlier.
Some useful ways to prove your efficacy are:

- Marketing collateral
- Fact sheets or projections
- Customer testimonials
- Newspaper articles
- Product demonstrations
- FREE trial period
36 RAISE YOUR BAR!

Close the sale!
NOW IT’S TIME to close. You’ve identified what’s miss-
ing or not working in their lives, they’ve recognized
and accepted they have a problem, you’ve aligned
your solutions with those problems and uncovered
ways to create value, and you’ve handled all of their
objections. Your language has to make a switch! You
made your approach using non-assumptive words,
but as you close your deal, it’s time for your speech
to become more assumptive. Phrases like, “We will,”
“when can we,” “when you use,” etc. Don’t leave the
conversation open without a clear idea of what the
next steps are.

You might also want to summarize and re-state your
understanding of your agreement to be sure you
haven’t misinterpreted anything. Don’t relax and rest
on your laurels yet! You may still have some follow-
up to do. Set a reminder for yourself. We’ll
see later how easy this is to do in Goal
Smashers, but a simple diary entry will do.

Accountability!
HIGH-LEVEL PERFORMERS typically have someone who watches their progress, identifies perfor-
mance gaps and coaches them to higher and higher levels of achievement. Master sales profes-
sionals are no different. The Goal Smashers system is designed to improve your sales behaviors
by holding you accountable in three ways. Accountability to:

1 Yourself

2 Your peers

3 Your team leader

As a salesperson using Goal Smashers, your activities will be viewed by your team leader. While
she will be able to see your progress, she will not be able to edit anything in your pipeline. She
will, however, be able to add customized coaching checklists for her team. These checklists feed
directly into editable structured notes for each of the six stages down the pipeline. Her prompts
ensure that you have reminders for all the important selling behaviors that work best for every step
of your interaction with your prospect. Each industry will require its own unique hints, but the exer-
cises you’ve completed in this workbook will help you think them through. You will have someone
acting as a “goal-watcher” who can identify performance gaps in the key activities you need to
successfully complete a sale, and provide the coaching necessary to fill those gaps.

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! You can manage all your sales opportunities in your
Goal Smashers pipeline. Dots of different colors and shapes let you plan your
activities, and monitor your progress for the month.

40 RAISE YOUR BAR!

OUTBOUND OPPORTUNITIES. Leads from your prospecting activity (Page 8).

OUTBOUND OPPORTUNITIES – IMPORTANT! The star marks them as important.

INBOUND OPPORTUNITIES. Prospects who initiated contacted with you.

INBOUND OPPORTUNITIES – IMPORTANT! These can be “starred” as well.

“GHOST” DOTS. Let you see active opportunities from previous months (Page 57).

“COLD” DOTS. After a period of inactivity, dots turn blue, then drop out (Page 58).

ACTIVITY DOTS. This stage of the pipeline has been completed for this opportunity.

“DEAD” DOTS. This opportunity has nowhere further to go.

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! To make this a bit more interesting, have some fun
with the Goal Smashers card game in the “How am I doing” section. At the
beginning of every month, all cards start face down. Then, things get interest-
ing . . . by getting more than 80% of your average score over the previous six months, you get
a “10-card.” Your cards then change as follows:
90% to 99% = Jack 100% to 109% = Queen 110% to 119% = King 120% = Ace!

42 RAISE YOUR BAR!

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! As you try to improve your performance, you’ll
need to keep score of your progress. For each stage in your pipeline, you
will be able to see how your numbers have trended over the previous months.
Simply click on each stage to reveal its history.

At a glance, you will know exactly where you need to place more emphasis in order to improve
your results!

Your Pipeline trends for previous months


GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Team dynamics improve through collaboration
within the group. You may excel at certain stages of your pipeline perfor-
mance -- for example, interviews and proposals -- but may be slipping at
generating new leads or following up with contacts. There’s a lot of information and advice you
can exchange with your peers on the things you do well, as well as the activities you could
use some help with.

Goal Smashers allows you to see how your numbers are ranked for each pipeline stage. You
can quickly figure out how you are performing relative to your other team members, and who
may be best suited to give you some peer-to-peer coaching.

Team Member Pipeline rankings


Results!
THE ONLY WAY to move forward in a predictable and repeatable way is to keep score. But too
often, sales managers place their focus on dollars and cents, and although revenue is the most
important of all metrics, it quantifies output. Revenue goes up or down as a result of the activities
of your sales team, and if these actions aren’t tracked, you are left to guess what to do to advance
your business. Metrics must reveal the inputs that drive revenue. Stop working with a blindfold on!
You should know, at a glance, how you are progressing in:
- Leads vs. your forecast (Are you setting ambitious enough goals?)
- The number of people you’ve made contact with (Are your leads accurate?)
- Outbound vs. inbound contacts (Are you looking for prospects or are they finding you?)
- The number of prospects who are qualified (Are you talking to the right people?)
- How many interviews you do (Do they trust you enough to share information with you?)
- Your proposals (Are you identifying what’s missing or not working in their lives?)
- Your wins! (Do they agree they have a problem and that you have the right solution?)
- Your sales cycle (How long is it taking you to close the sales?)
- Revenue vs. your target (Are you on track to hit your dollar target?)
- The source of your wins (Where’s your business coming from? How can you improve it?)
- Frequent objections (What resistance keeps coming up? How can you reduce it?)
- Your “dead” leads (What keeps going wrong? How can you do things differently?)

When these numbers are at your fingertips, you can act to create measurable improvements!

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Each salesperson should be able to review their
own numbers. While opportunities can be tracked in the pipeline screen,
performance summaries can be found in the “How am I doing?” section.

your pipeline numbers!

48 RAISE YOUR BAR!

REVENUE THIS MONTH. Figure updated in real time. Arrows compare with the previous month.

AVERAGE MONTHLY REVENUE. Your average monthly sales figure over the past 12 months.

REVENUE YEAR-TO-DATE. Total revenue since January or the month you started using the tool.

WINS THIS MONTH. The number of sales you won for the month.

AVERAGE WINS PER MONTH. Your average closed sales over the past 12 months.

WINS THIS YEAR. The total number of sales you closed since January, or your start date.

OUTBOUND VS. INBOUND LEADS. A quick look at where your leads are coming from.

MAIN SOURCE OF WINS. The top three sources of leads that end in wins.

TOP 3 OBJECTIONS. These three objections came up more than any others for the month.

WHY OPPORTUNITIES WENT DEAD. The top three reasons prospects fell out of your pipeline.

TRENDLINE GRAPHS. How your revenue and wins are trending for the year or since you started.

GOAL SMASHERS ALERT! Team leaders will be able to see the pipeline scores
for each salesperson who reports to them. At a glance, they will know exactly
where team members need to place emphasis in order to win more deals.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

50 RAISE YOUR BAR!

1 SALESPERSON’S NAME. Members of the sales team can be ranked by revenue or wins. Click-
ing on names links directly to individual pipelines for the month viewed.

2 PIPELINE SCORES. These six boxes display the scores of the six stages of the pipeline. The
highest and lowest scores for each stage are shown in green and yellow, respectively.

3 REVENUE SPARKLINE. This simple line-graph shows the revenue pattern over the past 12
months. This can be used to quickly check for trends or irregularities.

4 REVENUE FOR THE MONTH. Green or red figures show higher or lower scores than the group
average, while green or red arrows show up or down movement from the previous month.

5 REVENUE YEAR-TO-DATE. Shows a cumulative figure from January, or from the start date.
Similarly, green or red figures compare this score with the group average.

6 AVERAGE DAYS TO WIN. Displays the average number of days it takes from when an oppor-
tunity enters the pipeline to the completion of the sale.

7 MONTHLY REVENUE VS. TARGET. The vertical line in this “bullet-chart” represents monthly
sales targets. The horizontal line is not to scale, but gives a clue to relative revenue.


Bridge performance gaps!
ONCE YOUR ACTIVITIES become quantified and visible, you will know exactly where the “leaks”
are in your sales pipeline. You can focus on strengthening the specific behaviors that are unsatis-
factory while you continue to master those actions you perform well. You can re-examine the five
areas of performance. Answer these questions:
- Do you have the capability to sell?
- Do you need to improve your knowledge of your products, markets or customers?
- Are there skills you need to acquire or practice?
- Are you making enough effort in the right areas?
- How’s your attitude? Do you need to boost your confidence or motivation?

You should be open to feedback from your team leader or your peers. Feedback shouldn’t just be
given during periodic evaluations, but should be shared informally on an “as needed” basis. Don’t
be defensive! Become more introspective and learn to focus on what you really want. Then ask
yourself, “What do I need to change to get there?” Develop action-oriented checklists and keep
yourself accountable to the tasks you set.

Finally, be open to coaching. You are not alone. There’s someone who has already perfected the
behavior you need to improve. Seek their guidance. Focus on the facts and check your emotions.
Have someone watch your numbers and constantly check for improvements or shortfalls. You’ll be
amazed at the growth you will experience when you put your energy in the right places.

7 really cool things about goal smashers!

#1. GOAL SMASHERS MAKES your life easy! If you get an e-mail from a pros-
pect on your Smartphone while you’re on the road, you can simply forward the
message to your account, and the software automatically adds your prospect’s
name, e-mail address, website and the body of the message to your contact list. Then you can
update the information or make changes later on. How easy is that?!


#2. AT THE BEGINNING of every month,
you will be alerted to set your goal for the
number of leads you plan on pursuing. This
is the one activity over which you have the
most control, and it helps you to set the
pace for your entire month. You will get an
immediate look at how you’ve been doing
over the past months, compared to your
forecasts.

You’ll also get a quick view of your revenue
since the past January, or your start date.
Then you can set or edit your annual finan-
cial target for the year, to give you an idea
of what you’re aiming for in the month.

56 RAISE YOUR BAR!

#3. AT THE END of every
month, each active oppor-
tunity will move forward to
the current month as a ghost
dot. These ghost dots actually
allow users to see active oppor-
tunities from preceding periods,
but do not count as current activi-
ties until the salesperson advances
them to a following pipeline stage. They
then enter the current pipeline for the first
time, revert to their previous state and count
toward the statistics of the current month. Ghost
dots do not leave behind green activity dots until
they are activated in the current month.


#4. SALES TEAM LEADERS can set how
long an opportunity will stay in the pipe-
line before it expires and drops out. By
default, if an opportunity is not moved
forward for 45 days, it will warn
users by turning blue. This
means that if no action is
taken, the opportunity
will NOT move forward
to the next month.

58 RAISE YOUR BAR!

#5. MAKE SURE THAT you never forget to
follow up with an opportunity again! You
can set a reminder to yourself for tasks,
phone calls, meetings, or to send out an
e-mail to your prospect. Write yourself a
note, and an e-mail reminder will be sent to
you on the date you specified.

At any time, you can review, change or
remove your reminder. You will also get a
countdown indicator of the number of days
left till your follow-up is due!


#6. THE MORE YOU use the software, the more it
remembers about you. As you begin typing in certain
fields, you will find drop-down options of information
you’ve entered previously. This is especially useful
if you’re entering a new opportunity with an
existing contact. Why waste time typing
when you can be out there selling?

60 RAISE YOUR BAR!

#7. MANAGING YOUR CONTACTS is effortless!
You can easily select the contacts you plan to follow
up with during the month and move them into
your pipeline. But that’s not all! If leads
have been generated by marketing or
another external activity
-- for example, a trade
show -- team leaders can
import those contacts
and assign them to their
team members. All with
a couple of clicks!


hit bigger targets THAN YOUR COMPETITION!
NOW YOU HAVE the techniques and tools to blow your competition away! Not only do you
understand how to systematically improve your sales behaviors, you have a simplified interface for
entering the details on your sales progress and tracking your performance. The only thing left to
do now is to put what you’ve learned into action.

Here’s the problem . . . you are just like your prospects. You have an existing way of doing things.
Maybe you use a spreadsheet to track your sales numbers. Maybe you use a diary. Some of you
use nothing at all. And you know your current system well. After all, it’s gotten you this far. So the
new skills we’ve covered in this workbook won’t seem right at first. You’ll constantly be tempted
to revert to what feels most comfortable. Overcome the power of the status quo! Habits need to
be broken and rebuilt, and that takes practice.

But this system monitors itself. It allows you to see where things aren’t working, then prompts you
to take corrective measures to develop your business. It helps you to sharpen your positive sales
behaviors. It encourages you to set more ambitious targets, makes it easy to plan, and data-entry
couldn’t be simpler. All these elements come together to create a methodology that produces
more wins. At the same time, you’ll be deepening your relationships with your clients and recog-
nizing new sources of value for them. They’ll reward you with repeat business and referrals. You’ll
see the shift in your number of inbound contacts. I want to encourage you to use this know-how to
RAISE YOUR BAR to a new level of performance. Your competition won’t know what hit them!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ANDRE HAS LEARNED a whole heap of stuff
about selling and loves sharing it with people :-)
He created Goal Smashers to give you a compre-
hensive way to improve your sales performance!

64 RAISE YOUR BAR!

ANDRE’S OTHER BOOKS


“. . . illustrates more clearly what we mean by a ‘mutual-gains
approach to negotiation’ than one hundred repetitions of the
theory could accomplish on their own.”
- Professor Lawrence Susskind on “The Sword & The Spirit”
Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School

66 RAISE YOUR BAR!

Get a 30-day free trial!

www.goalsmashers.com


BUSINESS/SALES MANAGEMENT

ARE YOU DREAMING about closing more sales?

You can! Simple changes in how you manage your
sales pipeline can help you to RAISE YOUR BAR!
You will learn how behaviors, accountability and
results can provide a solid framework for your
breakthrough sales performance.

Read the book, do the exercises, and sign up for your
free trial account on www.goalsmashers.com. Then get
ready to blow your competition away!

RAISE YOUR BAR! How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results

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RAISE YOUR BAR! How to Smash your Sales Goals through Behaviors, Accountability & Results