Based in Atlanta, Ali Mirza is the President of Rose Garden Consulting, a sales consulting firm that helps sales professionals and sales teams increase their sales through training, coaching, and mentoring opportunities.
Here are the highlights of my conversation with Ali:
Sales and marketing are two different facets of an organization.
- Many companies confuse these two things. They communicate and transition, but these are two separate entities. In sales, you generate revenue. You pick up the check. You are on the transactionary end of the business.
- Marketing is the awareness side of the business.The people doing sales should be doing sales while the people doing marketing should be doing marketing.
- One factor for the tension between sales and marketing is the lack of synergy in their KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators)
Strategies for building the gap between sales and marketing:
- Let marketing do all the indirect tasks.
When you let them do the lead generation, their messaging is always different from that of the salesperson’s. So let the marketing folks focus on all the indirect messaging with nominal input from the VP of Sales.
- Salespeople should be generating their own leads.
When you are the one generating leads and engaging in that activity, your messaging will be consistent.
Ali’s take on sales trends today and the impact of social selling:
- The ones not concerned with sales don’t believe that traditional sales works.
- Content does not always translate into sale.
- If it’s a sale, treat it as such. Don’t make it any larger than it is.
- Be human in front of your client.
The Conversational Methodology
- Being human in front of your clients means having a conversation with your clients. Have the same mentality as if you’re speaking with your uncle where you talk and stand your ground.
- Don’t start to climb up and start to become a robot doing ten different things and making no sense.
- Maintain that frame of mind that you have with your uncle and just have a conversation. Just sit down and talk.
- Whatever they tell you, speak to what they say and not try to remember what you’re supposed to say and how you’re supposed to handle objections. Just be a genuine, likable person and the sale will take place on its own if it’s meant to.
- The best salespeople are just being their “natural self.”
What is divergent thinking?
Being able to think creatively and just in the moment, not with a regimented set of rules. Do that in sales and you would have the best numbers. Do not overcomplicate the sale. Just have a conversation and you’ll be fine.
A brief overview of Ali’s upcoming book:
Ali talks about his sales methodology of conversational selling which focuses on how to go back to a human frame of mind. Help people buy by understanding their needs. Ask enough questions. Nobody cares about you or your company. Just ask them questions, figure out what they want, and wind them up with that.
Ali’s Major Takeaway:
Be prepared for the conversation. Understand that you’re not being pushy when you go in for a close. If you’ve done everything appropriately leading up to that close and discovered the best solution for the person, if you do not close them and don’t appropriately help them, then you’re not doing them any justice. Closing on somebody is not being pushy.
Episode Resources:
Connect with Ali Mirza through their website www.rosegardenconsulting.com or Tweet him @RGCsales or on Facebook.
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