Can you share a few best practices for overcoming obstacles and finding creative ways to get your foot in the door?
 
The best way to overcome obstacles is to eliminate them entirely.  Most sellers create their own roadblocks because they start talking products and services too quickly.

Take a look at the voicemail in Part 1 of our interview.  If I shared that message with prospect, there is literally NO way they could say, "XYZ company does our sales training" or "We don't have any money in the budget."  Those are not appropriate responses.

So forget objection handling and focus on objection elimination and you'll be much further ahead. 

 
How do you make an impact during the initial sales meeting? 

I cover all this in my Sales Call Planning Guide ($19.95).  Your readers can get it as a BONUS when they sign up for my newsletter.

I can't possibly cover all 19 pages here, but here are the essentials:

Be knowledgeable about what's happening.  Know what's going on in the company and their marketplace.  Understand the key issues, challenges faced by the decision makers you're working with.  Learn about their goals, objectives, strategic initiatives, and more.  In short, get smart.

After your introductions/warm up, share an example of how you've helped other customers similar to them.  Make sure you tell a full story that includes what they were doing prior to using your offering, what issues/challenges they were running into and what they couldn't achieve if they stayed with the status quo.  Then, expand on that by sharing the quantifiable business outcomes realized because they worked with your company.

Next, transition to questions.  Plan at least 10 thoughtful questions before you go in.  Write them down and take them in the meeting with you.  Having these questions prepared gives the meeting structure and frees you to really focus on the prospect.

Finally, always suggest a logical next step.  And remember – when you're selling to big companies, it is NOT the order.  It's a follow-up meeting, a presentation, a demonstration or something that advances the sales process to the next step.

You talk about the importance of building value… How do you create breakthrough value propositions?

You can only create breakthrough value propositions if you go talk to your customers and truly identify the impact you have on their organization.  And, the best customers to speak with are the ones who switched to your company in the past year.  They're the ones who can compare you with the "old way," giving you the quantifiable metrics that are so enticing to other prospects.

For example, several months ago I did sales training for the national account team of a large media/marketing firm.  Each seller was expected to target one account they wanted to land as a client in the upcoming months.  I recently learned they had an 87% close rate.

In today's business environment, that's phenomenal.  When we add in the amount of revenue ultimately generated by those sales calls, their investment in the training program paid for itself many times over.  Plus, they'll get ongoing business from these new clients - which will also grow over time.

In short, you need to be able to talk the language of business instead of "telling" about your product/service/solution.  And, you need to get as specific, if you can, with the value you provided.  That's the only reason that someone will give up their time to meet with you.

 
How do you coach sales professionals to differentiate themselves from other sellers?
 
The differentiation comes during the process of working with you.  If you do everything I've suggested above, you will stand head over heels above 98% of the salespeople out there today.

You will be the differentiator – not your product or service.  So invest in becoming an expert in your industry, market, and even in the sales profession.  It makes all the difference in the world.