Steven Weinberg On How to Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy

It is important to earn the trust of the buyer. One way to do this is to never lie, always be respectful, be on time for all meeting, follow up on all commitments and do not try to sell them something they do not need.

As a part of my series about how to be great at closing sales without seeming pushy, obnoxious, or salesy, I had the pleasure of interviewing Steve Weinberg.

Steve Weinberg has spent his entire adult life selling and helping others sell better, sell faster, and sell more. He is an expert at building, guiding, and sustaining high caliber sales teams, and creating exemplary standards. He has over three decades of leadership experience in sales, most recently at Accuity, now part of LexisNexis Risk, Dun & Bradstreet, AC Nielsen, EDS, and Deloitte and Touche.

Thank you for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us the “backstory” about what brought you to this career path?

My academic training and my initial profession was in accounting. When I was employed by Ramada Inns, they assigned me the task of automating their fixed asset accounting, which was in a terrible mess. I selected a software package from McCormack & Dodge, then a small start-up. After the implementation was successful, I was offered a sales position with M &D in Chicago. So, I was not initially a salesperson and had very little training before I embarked on the new career. I was now a salesperson selling an accounting system to accountants, who were like myself. So, I was not initially and have always been a non-salesy salesperson.

Can you share with our readers the most interesting or amusing story that occurred to you in your career so far? Can you share the lesson or take away you took out of that story?

If you’re not winning, you’re losing.” The first time I said this to a group of salespeople they looked at me like I was “nuts.” It sounded like a stupid or perfectly obvious statemen. Isn’t that like saying that if it not daytime it is nighttime? Isn’t it the reverse? If you are not winning, then the opposite is that you are losing. No, not really. It also could be neither. Or isn’t it an axiom? Or self-evident?

I need to explain the real meaning of “If you’re not winning, you’re losing.” It is not so obvious or stupid. How does one know whether they are winning or losing? By guessing? That’s not usually accurate. By directly asking the buyer? Sometimes they will not answer, or they will tell you that everything is fine. They will almost never tell you that you are behind your competitors, or that maybe you already lost. By asking one’s sales manager. That is not likely to happen, as one does not want to let the manager that you have no idea of whether you are winning or losing an opportunity. That is a quick way out of the sales force. The real answer is that we should be receiving feedback from the buyer, or buying signals, throughout the entire sales process. This feedback could be verbal or even non-verbal, as would be the case if the contact is avoiding your calls or not returning messages or requests. If we are doing a very good or excellent job during the sales cycle, we are receiving continuous questions, requests for additional information, objections and feedback from our contacts. Sometimes buyers have told me that I was winning or losing — and why, but usually not. If we are not receiving feedback or signs that they are still interested in our solution, we should be actively soliciting this information from the buyer. If we are not hearing anything for a period of time it is likely that we are not in the final two or three solutions being considered. So, a long period of continued silence by the buyer is usually very bad news. Yes, I know that sometimes there are illnesses and vacations, but these are exceptions.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Yes, my first book “Above Quota Performance” is being published by Armin Lear on October 11. It has been written to transfer knowledge to those 50% of salespeople that do not reach their quota. There are over 1,000 tips and techniques in it that will help them surpass their sales quotas immediately.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I have had a lot of people help me along the way. Probably the most influential was Frank Dodge of McCormack & Dodge. Frank was formerly a high school math teacher, then an IBM technical pre-sales person. He was able to bring his knowledge of how to speak to groups of people to me and coached and critiqued me for the first few months that I was in sales.

For the benefit of our readers, can you tell us a bit why you are an authority on the topic of sales?

Steve has mentored and trained over 1,000 salespeople Today, he consults on his insightful, proven methods with companies all over the world.

A few of Steve’s awards and recognition:

• Top salesperson at McCormack & Dodge each year in sales, before being promoted to Regional Sales Manager, and top salesperson at Accuity twice, after moving from sales management
• Top regional sales manager at McCormack & Dodge five times before being promoted to Vice President of Sales
• Last three years of sales performance versus quota: 2018- 152%, 2017- 279%, 2016–287%
• Presidents Club for exceeding quota attainment 16 times
• Closed the largest sale in the company’s history (by 8X) in 2018.)

Ok. Thanks for all that. Let’s now jump to the main core of our interview. As you know, nearly any business a person will enter, will involve some form of sales. At the same time, most people have never received any formal education about how to be effective at selling. Why do you think our education system teaches nearly every other arcane subject, but sales, one of the most useful and versatile topics, is totally ignored?

I cannot explain, or justify, this. As management guru Peter Drucker has said “nothing happened without somebody selling something.” There are people such as Frank Cespedes of the Harvard Business school that are trying to change this by teaching how to sell.

This discussion, entitled, “How To Be Great At Sales Without Seeming Salesy”, is making an assumption that seeming salesy or pushy is something to be avoided. Do you agree with this assumption? Whether yes, or no, can you articulate why you feel the way you do?

I disagree that one needs to be pushy to succeed in sales; in fact, the opposite is true now in the 2020s. One needs to focus on building trust and helping fix the buyers’ problems. Being pushy usually leads you to be discarded from elimination.

The seven stages of a sales cycle are usually broken down to versions of Prospecting, Preparation, Approach, Presentation, Handling objections, Closing, and Follow-up. Which stage do you feel that you are best at? What is your unique approach, your “secret sauce”, to that particular skill? Can you explain or give a story?

I think I am excellent at all of them, but probably best at handling objections, because I welcome, and seek objections. They are the clues that help me close the sale.

My secret sauce is using LinkedIn.com to find prospects and approach them. I used LinkedIn.com to develop the lead that turned into the largest sale in the company’s history.

Lead generation, or prospecting, is one of the basic steps of the sales cycle. Obviously every industry will be different, but can you share some of the fundamental strategies you use to generate good, qualified leads?

I discuss looking for prospect that are in the “sweet spot” in my book. This is at the intersection of the prospect’s needs, your value proposition and your product or services’ competitive strengths. The more the prospect fits into the sweet spot the greater the chances are you will win and close the sale. Sales can be closed outside the sweet spot, but it is more difficult.

In my experience, I think the final stages of Handling Objections, Closing, and Follow-up, are the most difficult parts for many people. Why do you think ‘Handling Objections’ is so hard for people? What would you recommend for one to do, to be better at ‘Handling Objections’?

Salespeople have for years been trained to overcome objections. I believe that is not advisable anymore. As I noted above, I welcome objections, even encourage them. They provide you with the essential information that you need to build your revised sales strategy. I discuss how to do this at length in one chapter of my book.

‘Closing’ is of course the proverbial Holy Grail. Can you suggest 5 things one can do to successfully close a sale without being perceived as pushy? If you can, please share a story or example, ideally from your experience, for each.

1. It is important to earn the trust of the buyer. One way to do this is to never lie, always be respectful, be on time for all meeting, follow up on all commitments and do not try to sell them something they do not need.

2. Do not try to close them too early and too often. That will alienate them.

3. Do not ignore the non-decision makers. They cannot sign a contract or a check, but they can be influencers. Technical buyers cannot approve a sale, but they can veto it.

4. I believe in a natural close. Once you have made a proposal and satisfactorily answered all questions you can approach the buyer and ask if they are ready to sign. If not, ask them what they need to get to that point.

5. Be sure you contact — and meet with — the decision maker, or what Miller Heiman terms the “economic buyer.” I have seen many sales fail, or not close, because the salesperson only called on the contact person.

Finally, what are your thoughts about ‘Follow up’? Many businesses get leads who might be interested but things never seem to close. What are some good tips for a business leader to successfully follow up and bring things to a conclusion, without appearing overly pushy or overeager?

Salespeople must follow up and close every call or meeting with agreed upon follow-up tasks. Then put these in writing and share it with the prospect and your team. There must be a date established for the next call or meeting. Neve r leave it to “will call later” to set up a call.

As you know there are so many modes of communication today. For example, In-person, phone calls, video calls, emails, and text messages. In your opinion, which of these communication methods should be avoided when attempting to close a sale or follow up? Which are the best ones? Can you explain or give a story?

Avoid emails to close a sale. There are many miscommunications, and most emails are not read. Use the telephone or a video call to speak with the buyer in real time. Texts are becoming more popular.

How can our readers follow you online?

At www.steveweinbergsales.com and on LinkedIn.com

Thank you for the interview. We wish you only continued success!