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salesperson Tagged Articles
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Clues to Increase Sales -- Listen to the Buyer
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| Prospects hold the key as to why they'll buy, and you will learn this only if they're talking and you are listening. Buyers will tell how to sell them. The trouble is that sales people are always talking and selling and not listening effectively. How then can the salesperson know what the buyer wants. While prospects want to know about features and advantages, they usually buy benefits. |
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Increase Sales - Six Steps to Improve Selling Listening Skills
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| With practice and conscious resolve, a salesperson can acquire the mental agility to become a better listener by mastering these six "mental listening exercises": Vince Lombardi once said, "It's not practice makes perfect, its PERFECT practice makes perfect. The buyer will tell you what they want to buy, but you have to listen very carefully to find out. |
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Tracking & Diagnosing Sales Performance
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| One of my clients was recently wrestling with a common business challenge - a contracted professional salesperson who was not delivering results. She was uncertain about the correctness of insisting on a report of his activities because her initial request had been met with, "I don't have time for that. I'm busy getting out there seeing people. What do you want: Sales or reports?"
Like most "half truths" this one caused her some angst: She did want sales; activities were not what she was paying for - but the arrangement wasn't working, and she could not see why.
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The 18 Disciplines of Selling: Part 1: Rules
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| Not everyone considers themselves a salesperson. But like it or not we are. In fact if you think about it, everyone sells whether they want to admit it or not. It still surprises me when I hear people still turn up their nose or be fearful when I tell them they are sales people. "Oh I could never be a salesperson!" "I don't want to be a salesperson!" If you've ever sold an idea to your kids or a teacher, you've sold something. If you've ever asked for a raise, you've sold something. I believe are the 18 Disciplines of Selling that you must master on a daily basis in order to be a consistent and highly compensated sales producer, whatever you are selling. In this series we'll cover the 18 Disciplines of selling, but in this first installment, we'll talk about the RULES!
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The 18 Disciplines of Selling: Part 2
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| The 18 Disciplines of Selling began with the Rules to understand before you can ever excell as a salesperson of anything. In Part 2 we examine the first three building block disciplines that you must master to excell. Selling is much more than some tricky and slick closes or opening lines or "silver bullet" techniques. It is imperative to excel at the "art" of selling to master the other little things the nuances in order to really win. Whether you're selling an idea; asking for a raise; selling your product or service that your business offers, whatever you're selling you MUST master these 18 Disciplines in order to survive and thrive. We now begin the journey with Disciplines #1 through #3. |
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Remove Distractions to Ignite Sales Growth – Part 1
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| The most common thief of sales growth is distraction. Based on my experience, I estimate that on average, employees lose 40% of their time to distractions. This number ranges between 30% and 60%, depending on the company they work for, and can reach as high as 70%, depending on the individual. Distractions can be classified into two types: 1) leadership and organization; and 2) individual-specific. The leadership and organization distractions can be categorized into poor sales support, customer service mishaps, products that do not meet client needs, bad sales management, and poor communications. “Individual-specific” distractions refer to daily mental or situational conditions faced by the salesperson. Part I deals with leadership and organization because these have a more dramatic impact on growth than most companies realize |
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Losing vs. Not Winning the Sale
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| If a salesperson doesn’t win a sale, then they must have lost it, right? Wrong. There is a not- so- subtle- difference between ‘not winning’ and losing. When a salesperson does ‘not win’ a sale, it indicates that there was something that the salesperson did not do to win the sale. He’s responsible for not winning. Losing the sale, on the other hand, sounds like something simply happened to him. |
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Do I Have What It Takes to Succeed in Sales?
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| This article outlines the attributes and characteristics of successful sales people. If you want to achieve success in sales, you should have some or all of these attributes. |
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Key Ways to Convey Quality
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| Let’s say that what differentiates your product or service from the competition’s is quality. It may seem like advertising “quality” would be a breeze, right? Unfortunately, it’s not. Customers hear the word “quality” all the time –often from companies selling low-quality products.
In this sense, quality is like trust. If a salesperson resorts to “You can trust me,” it’s often an indicator to beware. Accordingly, if a company is too direct in how it advertises “quality,” customers may ignore the claim or be suspicious of it. So how can you prove that your product or service is the real deal? Following are some often-overlooked ways to convey quality.
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The Eight Sales Dysfunctions of a Salesperson
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| If you're like most companies getting fewer opportunities to create sales this year, you need to pay attention to all wins AND all losses in your sales efforts! There are specific things being done by salespeople every day that create the LOSS of sales and the LOSS of customers. Are you sure you and/or your salespeople are NOT doing these?
It’s challenging enough in the marketplace today gaining new business from existing customers and gaining the trust of new customers to take a chance with you. The current state of the economy is driving fear and uncertainty which is driving decisions to new places in the organization. Those decisions are being made slower than ever and often times, by committees. On top of that, the competition is doing crazy things, dropping prices and trimming margins to all-time lows. |
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Generate Leads with Webcasts
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| Providing on-demand webcasts to prospective customers is a rapidly growing demand generation strategy. Instead of having to call a salesperson at a potential vendor, your prospects can complete the research component of their buying process on their convenience. Evaluate your webcast requirements to determine if this tactic should be added to your marketing mix. |
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Off the Cuff --- Sales Execution
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| Execution involves the day-to-day activities of the salesperson. For most industries, this entails both planned, proactive tasks and opportunistic, reactive events that the salesperson uncovers by doing the right things in the right place at the right time. It's critical that the progress of the tasks in target action plans is carefully monitored to avoid surprises. This is the equivalent of monitoring your daily exercise before the effects start to show up on the scale. The SEP circumvents the most common mistake made in distribution today: trying to manage results. You must manage activities because it's the activities that produce results. Once the results are in, the horse is out of the barn and everything you do from that point on is reactive. If you proactively manage the activities, the expected results will follow. |
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Lesson #2: Develop a Customer-Focused Philosophy
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| “Let’s say you decide to buy a car – red, two-door,” says Dell. “All sold out – four months to get one – but a really convincing salesperson talks you into the blue, four-door and probably the rust-proofing too. The salesperson gets a nice commission, when she actually sold you a car you didn’t want. Then, the dealer sends a signal back to the factory that blue four-doors are selling really well – build some more!” Contrary to this, Dell’s philosophy is that, “We’ll listen, and we’ll respond…It’s about the customer. It’s that simple.” |
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Lesson #5: The Follow-Through is the Most Important Factor
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| “Those who are blessed with the most talent don’t necessarily outperform everyone else,” Ash once said. “It’s the people with follow-through who excel.” |
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The death of the sales call?
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| I wonder if the sales call has a lot of life left in it. |
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Look for the Loose Brick
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| I hear salespeople say that speaking to a particular prospect was like "hitting a brick wall." The prospect's guard was up in full force. The prospect seemed to get bored or, worse yet, to actually become defensive or offensive, as the case may be, every time the salesperson mentioned a product benefit or feature. It pains me to hear this, as I've known exactly what it feels like to be in such a position. |
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Most of the Time Talent's Not Enough
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| You're a talented writer, designer, speaker, consultant, coach, salesperson, but doors aren't flying open for you. Why not? Talent, I'm afraid, is assumed - a lot of people have talent. It's the price to get into the game. Talent, married with creativity, however, is how you get out of the cheap seats. (In fact, creativity will allow you to get places with lesser talent than others - oops, potential self indictment) |
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Little Things Make a Big Difference
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| There's an old saying that "by the mile it's a trial, and by the inch it's a cinch." The reason the saying is old is because it's good, it's valid. If it were not, it would be dead and buried. For 24 years of my adult life, by choice I weighed well over 200 pounds. I say "by choice" because I have never "accidentally" eaten anything, so when I choose to eat too much, I have chosen to weigh too much. Every choice has an end result. |
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Want to cut your ad budget?
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| Advertising is a very effective way to generate leads, but it remains one of those double edge swords type of things for budget crunched small businesses. On the surface, advertising can represent the single greatest marketing expense - on the other hand, it is how most businesses take it to the next level. |
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Pre-written emails to the rescue
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| Email is awfully invasive, no way around it these days, but it’s also awfully effective for all types of communication and response. |
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The bad table
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| I saw a marketing dilemma at the hot new restaurant I went to the other night. |
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Triggers
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| Author/Writer/Guerrilla/Genius Joseph Sugarman, author of "Triggers," gives us fascinating information about triggers to making a sale. |
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The 5 Things People Really Buy
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| No matter how many shiny, cool features and benefits you cram into your marketing messages, brochures and presentations, you better find ways to help the prospect get what they really want. And, no matter if you sell heating and cooling services, legal services, hand painted greeting cards, or consulting, at the end of the day, your customers all buy some variation of the same five things. |
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Should Social Media Replace Cold-Calling?
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| Has social media led to the abandonment of time-tested elements such as cold-calling & meeting face-to-face with customers or they can co-exist & be profitable.
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Does Volume Make Up for Low Price?
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| Your ability as a salesperson is not in how much you sell, but in how much you earn for your company...Here’s how to ensure you are not only protecting profit, but also ultimately in a place to increase it!
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A born salesperson
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| For seven years I sold equipment and network services for AT&T. I even won several awards and twice was selected to the Council of Leaders, an honor given to the top 3% of the sales force. I am however not a typical sales type. Employers who use the DISC behavioral assessment would screen me out as a candidate for a sales position. |
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A Better Approach with Purchasing Departments
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| A positive attitude is the foundation for profitable long-term relationship with the purchasing department...Make the attitude adjustments that make a difference.
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Don’t Overlook the Wealth of Intellectual Capital
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| “We’re forced to close because the bank will not loan us the money we need.” Phrases like this have been heard too many times the last several years, and yes, it’s unfortunate, but here’s my perspective: “Companies don’t fail due to a lack of financial capital. They fail due to a lack of intellectual capital.” |
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9 Steps to Close More Sales
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| There are typically three things that salespeople want to know how to improve and these include (1) see more people, (2) manage their time better and (3) close more business. |
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Real Estate Marketing Strategies: Are You a Salesperson or Are You a Service Person?
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| Are you trying to sell or provide a service? How you look at it can make a huge difference! |
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My Sales Process, Strategies and Tactics in Your Voice
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| It is extremely important for your salespeople to utilize the strategies and tactics in the context of the sales process that was introduced - AND IN THEIR OWN VOICE. They can't ever stop sounding like themselves!
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When Agreement is Really Disagreement - Happy Ears for Salespeople
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| Happy Ears or Effective Salespeople? It all comes down to training, coaching, observation skills, commitment and practice. When put that way, there is as much burdon on you as there is on your salespeople. Are you up for this challenge? |
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Effective or Easiest - Which Path Will Your Salespeople Choose?
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| There are always one or two crucial turning points in every sales cycle where your salespeople must choose between asking the tough question that's called for, or saying what's comfortable for them. 74% of the sales population will always go for comfort because it's the path of least resistance. |
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The Single Biggest Mistake That Salespeople Make
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| Ask 10 people and you'll get 10 different answers about the biggest mistake that salespeople make. Ask the question a bit differently and I will give you a different answer too. But ask the question in the title - "What is the single biggest mistake that salespeople make?", with the key word being mistake - something they do incorrectly rather than due to a weakness - and I can provide data to back it up. There are actually 3 mistakes that are nearly always made but 2 of them happen as a result of the single biggest mistake. |
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Separating Personal and Business in Social Media
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| How do you keep business and personal separate in social media? A recent panel discussion on social media for SugarCRM observed that whether used for business or personal, as a salesperson or an employee, remember that it's there forever so be careful, professional and aware.
A more advanced way to keep them separate is to go in with a plan and share it with all company participants. Give them the tools and guidance needed to be successful in this new arena. |
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Sales Longevity - Free Webinar Available Here
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| I hosted a Webinar to introduce Objective Management Group's (OMG) newest innovation, The Sales Longevity Finding. In a nutshell, Sales Longevity is the likelihood of being able to retain a particular sales candidate through ramp-up, break-even, and 5X ROI. The attendees thought it was VERY cool! You can view the recorded Webinar here. |
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Salespeople Become More Effective But Can They Get Worse?
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| In most cases, especially when effective training and coaching has taken place, significant to dramatic improvement occurs. Occassionally though, a salesperson will appear to be worse - weaker - than the first time. How could this be?
I'll explain some of the scenarios where this should not be alarming, as well as some where it should.
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Improve How Your Sales Force Sells by Phone
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| If your salespeople are unable to interest their prospects there is zero chance of reaching the goal for the call which, depending on the salesperson's role, could be anything from a qualified lead to a scheduled appointment to a transactional sale. |
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Enhancing Leadership Skills
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| Some people look over the screen at their boss and think there but the grace
go I. After all being the boss, the leader has to be about the easiest job
in the world. What's to do? Sit around ...give orders...check the work...take
the credit for succcesses, blame others for failures.
Problem is it just doesn't work that way and even the best leader needs to brush
up on, improve, hone his/her skills. Here are some ideas and thoughts that may
help you become an even better leader than you already are. |
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How to Close the Deal Your Salespeople Can't Close
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| Sometimes, when your salespeople are trying to close a sale, the deal stalls, gets put-off, or simply doesn't close. This is followed by, well, follow up, leading to more put-offs. There are many reasons why this happens but for the purpose of this article, let's simply assume that the prospect has every reason to buy and the salesperson did not do anything glaringly wrong along the way. Simply a closable opportunity that hasn't closed yet. In situations like this, there are usually two things going on: |
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Recruiting Strong Salespeople - The Sales Candidate Pipeline
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| Recruiting Salespeople - again?
Yes. I cannot write enough about this!
But, as usual, I'll address recruiting from a slightly different perspective this time - the candidate pipeline. Not to be confused with the candidate pool which is simply a single component of the pipeline.
Your sales pipeline should have four stages:
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Case History - Sneak Preview of a Candidate
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| It never ceases to amaze me when clients receive nasty-grams from sales candidates who are - let's call it put-off - by the client's request that they first take our on-line assessment. The candidates receive a very nice email thanking them for sending their resume, explaining the client's recruiting process and asking them to take the assessment. You just wouldn't believe some of the notes I've seen. Name calling, cussing, threats, sarcasm, and more. Here's a typical sample: |
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Fishing and Selling
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| What do fishing and selling have in common? Anyone.... |
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Rejection Proof - The Science Behind Success in Sales
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| The stronger a salesperson is, the less likely rejection is to have a major effect. That said, there are effective salespeople who have a rejection problem but they manage it better than their less effective colleagues. There are also some very ineffective salespeople who don't care about being rejected. In fact, their lack of caring about it may even lead to their ineffectiveness since their strategy rarely includes consideration of how to avoid resistance! |
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Top 5 Sales Recruiting Observations of 2010
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| Today, I'll make some observations about the sales recruiting activity taking place this summer that either reinforces some of the things I've said in the past, or modifies my original stance.
In no particular order, but of equal importance:
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Which Salespeople Use Bad Judgement and Burn Bridges?
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| You want your salespeople to get decisions instead of taking stalls, put-offs and objections. Some of your salespeople are better at this than others. I've written extensively about the difference between the required skills versus the strengths that support closing, as well as recognizing and dealing with put-offs. Today, I will discuss the difference between not getting the desired reaction or behavior, not getting a decision and burning a bridge. |
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Sales Force Compensation - X Marks the Spot
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| Compensation is usually simpler than most companies make it. Most companies seem to either over compensate or under compensate on salary. Most companies tend to do the same with commissions. |
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10 Obstacles That Most Salespeople Can't Overcome
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| An average/ineffective salesperson may not be able to overcome any of the ten with the possible exception of relationship. Some salespeople, while strategically and tactically challenged, are quite good at developing relationships. Unfortunately, while a relationship is important, people won't buy if that's the only thing a salesperson brings to the table. |
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Top 20 Requirements - How Salespeople Can Be Better at Closing
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| While salespeople can get better at closing, closing is an outcome, and with the exception of real estate and banking, not really an event. When we evaluate sales forces and look at their ability to close, they may possess some of the strengths and skills that are part of the Sales Core Competency called Closing, but most of those attributes are used prior to, not during, closing time. The ability to close depends on the following 20 variables (in no particular order) that a salesperson brings to the table - or not: |
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Trigger Events - The Anatomy of Sales Wisdom
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| When a prospect says or does something it should trigger the salesperson's time machine, bringing him back to an important sales event where something like the current scenario took place before. |
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The Delayed Impact of Lack of Sales Commitment
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| If you are a client, upon learning that a top producer lacks commitment you might be asking, "How can that be?" |
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3 Strikes and Your Out - The Need for Sales Force Consistency
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| I place a higher value on consistency than I do on talent. I don't care how much potential a salesperson has. If they aren't performing the basics - consistently - then the talent is wasted. |
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10 Tips for Hiring Salespeople for Your Company
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| This is a perfect time to be hiring - the economy is quickly turning around - heading into an upswing - and you must have excellent salespeople to find opportunities and get them closed by outselling your competitors. |
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Best Sales Strategy for Your Company
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| Let's say that you failed to close a company who decided against buying what you were trying to sell them. Does it make any sense to return to them and offer to sell them what they are willing to buy? |
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Lousy Salespeople and Great Salespeople - Line Item or Investment?
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| Lousy salespeople are a line item but great salespeople are an investment. It's actually much worse than that. The line item on your lousy salespeople is only a fraction of what they really cost. Don't believe me? Then answer these three questions: |
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One Hidden Gem in 10 Sales Management Challenges
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| The salespeople who fit the description of #5 might actually be on to something. They might be right. They're actually trying to make things better. They might even be wrong, but they're being constructive. The challenge with #5 is getting over yourself enough to listen! Here's what you can say: |
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Anatomy of a Million Dollar Producer
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| Do you have salespeople that aren't profitable, don't contribute enough to overhead, won't change what they're doing and simply aren't benefiting the company? |
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Sales Advice in April Inc. Magazine Hits the Spot
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| I wouldn't normally recommend Inc. for your Sales Force but the April 2010 issue actually has some helpful articles.
Their Trio of stories, beginning on page 83, have some good quotes. The first story is about a nuclear power plant salesperson who sells the right way. Here's a great quote from him that your salespeople can use if they're selling something complex or very expensive...
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Call Reluctance - Causes, Factors and Predictors
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| Historically, when salespeople have failed, has most often been because of their inability to get appointments. We are able to identify the three factors that indicate a call-reluctance problem - a malady that is career-threatening for salespeople who are expected to hunt. |
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3 Sales Approaches of Elite Salespeople
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| Great salespeople must be able to easily use all three approaches on their sales calls. Salespeople that struggle tend to have just one approach and it won't work all the time. |
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Latest Sales Recruiting Breakthrough - Download the New White Paper
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| We are hearing loud and clear that companies are ready and willing to hire salespeople again BUT - they don't want to make any more mistakes. If you hire a great salesperson but you can't retain your A Player, on paper, it's just one more hiring mistake. |
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If Your Salespeople Can't Prospect They Will be Marginalized
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| That's according to Ken Edmundson, my guest on yesterday's edition of Meet the Sales Experts.
He said that business as we see it today is the new normal and that for most companies, taking business away from the competition is the only avenue for rebuilding sales and growth. |
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What Happens When Salespeople Don't Meet Expectations?
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| The game and the news are quickly forgotten and don't impact your life unless you bet on the outcome of the game or happen to be the leading story on the news. When your salespeople focus too much of their time and resources on a large opportunity and it doesn't materialize, you can lose 6-12 months of productivity from them. Not only that, your forecasts fall short, your budget goes to hell, and you could have a frustrated, demotivated salesperson on your hands. The worst part is if you have a long sales cycle, say 8-12 months, and the salesperson devoted most of his time and energy to this opportunity for 8-12 months, it will take an additional 8-12 months before the pipeline will produce new, meaningful revenue. |
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A Missing Link to Sales Improvement?
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| I was walking through the Airport when I saw what could be the missing link to sales improvement... |
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My Sales Force Won't Use CRM
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| I mentioned that the key rule to getting salespeople to change is rule #9, Consequences.
There are three primary ingredients to having Consequences. |
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SALES PRESENTATION ... THE BOTTOM LINE IS SELLING
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| Talk about two sides of the coin just think of the sales call. If you're in sales then it is all about the person in front of the other person/group. If you're in marketing it is all about the polished, super slick presentation. If you're the CEO and CFO it's all about the order. Surprise!!!! It takes them all. And a presentation should be tailored by the sales people so that it fits their style and the audience. And it should go where few marketing people have gone before...it should ask for the order. The best sales call is a gentle balance of the sales people and their sales tools. We just want to make it better for them. |
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Great Sales Opportunities That Don't Close
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| If getting opportunities into the pipeline is the most universal sales challenge, then getting opportunities closed comes in a close second. I'm talking about prospects who aren't ready to say, "yes" but are still "very interested". These calls pose problems for salespeople for several reasons: |
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The Top 5 Factors That Predict Sales Turnover
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| Our data shows that only 16% of the A players with experience stick for more than two years. And that brings us back to the original question.
What do you think - A's or Longevity? Should the answer be a direct relation to the length of your sales cycle? Should you go for longevity when you have a long sales cycle and for A's when you have a short sales cycle? We're interested in what you have to say!
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8 Question Sales Quiz - Malpractice?
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| First, there aren't 8 questions in the world where the answers would allow us to make that determination. Even if we tried, we couldn't identify even 15 of our 100+ questions that would allow us to answer that question accurately! But I was curious and clicked on through. 8 Questions and if you get 3 strikes or wrong answers, you're out and shouldn't be in sales. This free test shouldn't even be available for entertainment purposes! |
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How Does the Salesperson Affect Price Shoppers and Negotiators?
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| When salespeople have a discussion about money, price shoppers usually make it very clear what their intentions are. On the other hand, negotiators don't usually advertise their intentions in advance. Instead, they'll negotiate after they have received a proposal. |
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How to Get Business to Drop Out of the Sky
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| I think it's both predictable, phenomenal, and fulfilling. I'm talking about the magic that occurs when you and your salespeople leave their comfort zone and work hard to perform the very work, activity, behavior and actions that, left to their own devices, would choose not to do. Whether it's a salesperson who finally: |
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Born to Sell? Give me a Break
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| We all have opinions. We all prefer one style over another. We all have what we believe are better methodologies, strategies and tactics. But there are some topics that are just begging for data - not opinion - and the author I seem to target more than any other just wrote one such article on whether great sales pros are born that way. All opinion. But based on what? He doesn't really say. He simply uses his two kids as comparison. The problem is, he is dead wrong and the data says so. |
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Accountability Factor for Clients and others
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| Have clients be accountable would be a heven sent for many salespeople, here is how you can make it happen for you. |
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Why Can't We Change
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| The challenges we face in setting goals for the coming year, why do our goals not work, what are the barriers? |
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What is Your Competitive Advantage?
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| Two new baby-easy long-term memory strategies.
Learn these and folks will think you are Al
Einstein reincarnated. Start now. |
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1st of the Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions
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| This is the 1st in the series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.
#1 - COACHING
In its simplest form, sales coaching consists of the following two activities:
1. Pre-Call Strategizing - coaching prior to selected calls to make sure that the salesperson has a good reason for having the upcoming call, a desired outcome, a game plan or strategy, and the appropriate questions/dialog to achieve the desired outcome.
2. Post-Call Debriefing - coaching after selected calls to discover the true outcome of the call, why the salesperson got that outcome, and what they could have done differently or more effectively... |
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Wake Up Sleepy Head, It’s Time to Go to Work
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| As an employee there are a number of expenses you may be able to deduct for income tax purposes if you are required to maintain a home office. |
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12 steps field sales coach plan
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| The reality is that most sales managers do not spend enough time with their staff in a coaching capacity. Providing constant feedback and being a role model who demonstrates the right skills.
Many managers today are still focusing too heavily on short term efficiency and not long term effectiveness. Development of staff through on-the-job coaching is a critical function of modern day managers but can take second place to some of the more urgent, but less important priorities.
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Locating Prospects
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| In the sea of information that is the internet and the ever growing networked communities we live in, you could essentially get a sales lead from anywhere. In principal this sound great. You always have someone to call on or prospect too.
However having too many choices can often lead to feelings of being overwhelmed by too much information. And when you have too much information this can lead to indecision and subsequently inaction. And inaction is the NUMBER 1 killer of any sales prospecting strategy. |
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Evalulate your Sales Team
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| You should always be evaluating your sales team |
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Sales Tip - Increase your prospecting skills by being an Industry expert
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| Ensure your sales prospecting success by becoming seen as an Industry expert. If you follow the techniques shown here, you will soon become the top sales representative in your industry. Check this out here..... |
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How to Do a Lousy Job at Business Networking Follow-Up
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| Neither the salesperson or the prospect wants to be inundated with follow-up that doesn't serve to advance any decision or relationship. More of a spiel, more talk about "me, me, me", less and less additional value will assure you not to get any response. |
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Stupid Choices in the Selection of Sales Assessments
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| When you use an assessment in the sales recruiting process, it must be customizable so that criteria unique to your business, like I described above, can be factored in. That way, in addition to whether the candidate meets our criteria of a successful salesperson, we must be able to determine whether the candidate will be able to succeed in the face of the company's unique challenges.
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Only Losers Cut Their Prices
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| Discounting is for losers...In order to achieve the highest potential possible a salesperson needs to believe in their pricing as much as they believe in their selling skills.
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Close Too Quick and You Lose Profit
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| Striving to build a long-term sales career... Build a solid relationship with the customer instead of going for the quick close.
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Teach your Sales Team to Qualify and Sales will Increase
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| Qualifying leads in its easiest form |
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Sales Scripts - 5 Cold Calling Strategies
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| If you have been in sales any time at all, one of the biggest challenges to new salespeople is the telephone. The fastest way to cover a lot of ground quickly is by telephone. How do you conquer the phone? |
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Are you believable?
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| Being believable is not just getting people to follow you - it's also their willingness and peace of mind during the process. Being believable is easier to achieve when you truly believe in what you are selling - so sell something or be a part of a business that you truly believe in. |
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Magnetic Marketing Copy; Writing from a Position of Partnership
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| Do you ever feel sleazy or inauthentic when you write marketing or sales copy? Like you’re pushing people, rather than pulling them in? I know I have. |
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2nd of the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies that are Key to Building a Sales Culture
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| What exactly is a case of Happy Ears? A salesperson has Happy Ears when she hears what she wants to hear. Example: Your salesperson asks her prospect about the budget and the prospect says, "we'll try to find the money". Your salesperson hears, "We have the money, and we will spend the money, and there isn't a limit." |
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C- Level Selling -- Subtleties Make Big Differences in C-Level Selling
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| Just a few words rephrased, or a few actions rearranged can make huge differences when it comes to winning over C-level executives and closing sales. However, without a sales coach you’ll never pick-up what needs to change with your approach and/or delivery. |
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Direct Sales - A Proven Sales Method
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| These days many people, when trying to go about completing sales transaction, go through the services of an agent or other marketing firm. The counterpoint to this would be direct sales, in which the selling agent deals directly with the client, cutting out the middleman. This is a nice way to establish a good working relationship, fostering positive working relations and making further business down the road a high likelihood. The approach towards clients will take on a slightly different feeling with this type of sales, with more personal touches in approach that the wider net of marketing wouldn't take into account.
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Attraction Marketing - How To Make Buyers Come To You
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| In the traditional sales world, the process that a salesperson would use to sell their product or service would be to make cold calls or go door-to-door, informing people about what they are selling and hoping to generate leads that would end in a sale. The difference with attraction marketing, which more and more is used in the place of this traditional sales process, is that a marketer finds out what attracts clients and uses this information to make them come to you. This is far more beneficial and a more pleasant shopping experience for everyone involved. There is no pressure for the buyer. Instead they are buying things that they want to. The key to making this all work is to figure out in the first place what it is that the client will be attracted to. |
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Copyrighting
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| Copyrighting is the science of using words to sell or to influence someone or a group of people to take an action or a decision. It's literary persuasion. In other words, it tells a story and/or communicates a message which shall eventually get a prospect to buy something. |
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Increase Small Business Sales – Stop Asking for Referrals
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| Why would I tell you to stop asking for referrals when every sales “trainer”, sales manager, or sales mentor you’ve ever met tells you to ask for referrals? Oddly enough many commonly held beliefs are based on myths rather than facts... |
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"Our salespeople aren't asking for the business!"
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| Some may find the concept of salespeople not asking for the business, strange even ridiculous given 'the close' has traditionally been a salesperson's end-game. This is analogous to a football player running down the sideline, struggling to avoid the clutches of would-be tacklers - to just sit down on their bum and scratch their head an inch before the goal line. It's just doesn't make sense, yet in sales, this type of conducts is surprisingly common. |
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‘Great’ at sales but they don’t ‘fit’ the culture
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| Sound familiar? A ‘good', maybe even ‘great', salesperson is recruited and hits the ground running, kicking sales goals in the new role, however within a short space of time they have alienated their team, decided that the role is not for them, and left the organisation. As we know the cost of this selection is huge and begs the question, why did this ‘great' salesperson not work out?
While there are many possible scenarios and reasons, we often find that a major contributor is the cultural ‘fit' between the individual and the organisation. |
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Overcoming Objections: "I want to think about it"
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| In recent weeks I have written several articles diagramming the sales process. None have been as popular as the one I wrote concerning Objections. This seems to be a major stumbling block among sales people and the hardest for some to understand. How do you deal with "I want to think about it?" |
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"I'm a Relationship Salesperson"
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| Are you really a relationship salesperson - or do you just think you are? This article will help you decide, and help you really be a relationship salesperson. |
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8 tips to increase bill value for every customer
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| How many of these 8 tips are you applying to increase sales of your retail business? These also help you in building better customer relationship increasing lifetime sales value in addition to the current bill. |
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Do's and Don'ts of Networking
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| Do you oversell when you're out networking? Did you go just for the food and maybe free drink? Do you pull out more than one card? Are you dressed correctly when you go out networking? Funny Networking Poem created after watching the unsuccessful attempt to network and they simply need simple tips and a few adjustments to turn that diaster into a success. |
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Happy Ears or an Empty Pipeline?
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| Very often, when an opportunity dies, salespeople will ask their managers or me for help.
After debriefing, when it's clear that the opportunity is hopeless, and the salesperson continues to ask for help, still wants to schedule another meeting, and still wants to reach out and get it moving again, there are usually three factors at play. The salesperson either... |
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Putting for an Eagle - Closing the Unlikely Sale
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| Veteran salespeople are capable of pulling off the same heroics, but only when they execute the sales process perfectly. Today, one veteran salesperson told me about all of the short cuts he took to reach his lofty goal. |
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Sales Management Training: 8 Competencies of Top Sales Professionals
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| Do you know what separates the top 1% of all sales professionals from everybody else? It's a set of 16 core competencies discovered through years of research, which lead to their extreme level of success. This article will help you understand 8 of these skills so that you can enjoy your own sales success. The next article in this series will discuss the other 8.
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C-Level Selling: Are You a Tiger, a Phil or Struggle to Make the Cut
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| C-Level Selling and professional golf have a lot in common, but there is no money for second or low place. |
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Sales Training - Make sure you choose one that understands the stages of learning
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| Its important to choose a sales training company that understands how people learn and the best way to develop them at every level. If you are considering sales training then you have to read this article to find out more... |
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Why a Sales Manager MUST Evoke "The Law of Reciprocity"
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| For our purposes, the Law of Reciprocity states: If you do something nice for someone, human nature dictates that the recipient will feel compelled to do something nice for you in return.
It is in essence: "you reap what you sow". This is an irrefutable law and one that you should teach your salespeople. The question of will someone actually act upon it at a given time depends on who asks.
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How a Top Sales Manager Gets Their Salespeople to Sell More Stuff!
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| When do you do your best work? When you feel bad or when you feel good?
The obvious answer is when you feel good. No one feels like doing much of anything when they feel bad. When people don't feel so good, they end up doing very little....not a good situation for you.
So it begs the question: does the salesperson brimming with confidence sell more than the salesperson who lacks confidence? The answer may seem obvious, but why do so few average sales managers spend the majority of their time building their people's confidence up instead of ripping it down?
It could be that many sales managers are former sales salespeople themselves and "seagull sales management" (swoop in, dump on the rep, then fly away), is all they know. In this case, unfortunately, ignorance begets more ignorance...
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Motivate Your Salespeople Like Richard Branson
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| Richard Branson, the eccentric founder of Virgin Airlines and multiple other businesses is the epitome of "unconventional" businessman. He does things HIS way, he does things the way he feels are right...and with a billion or so in the bank, he's been more right than wrong. |
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How can I find an independant sales rep?
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| In my opinion, a business owner should only engage a salesperson, either independent or otherwise, when there is a proven sales process and structure in place. This will enable a new person to integrate quickly and successfully to develop their own unique selling style and be guided by the support of an established sales model. |
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RADAR: A DEEPER LOOK
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| Salespeople are faced with many challenges - getting in the door, overcoming objections and the prospects fear of economic uncertainty. But even more frustrating is being rejected after you offer the perfect solution to the prospect’s needs and problems. That difficulty is caused by the #1 sales error of both rookies and seasoned pros. |
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# The Invisible Close Sales Nugget - Using Written Testimonials to Boost Sales - 5 Quick Tips!
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| Using written testimonials allows someone else to promote your product or service, even if they're not there to do it. Here are 5 quick tips from The Invisible Close Ebook for collecting and using written testimonials to boost sales. |
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What Makes a Great Sales Professional?
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| Being great in sales is not about having the "gift of gab" or being aggressive. There are three critical attributes for sales success today. Read on for more..... |
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Personal Branding For Salespeople
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| Are you a salesperson looking for ways to generate more referrals? Do you agree that the best way to do that is to operate in a predictable and professional manner? Then read on to learn some tips to maximize the power of your personal brand and get recommended by prospects and clients. |
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Telemarketing: When to Use it.
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| Telemarketing can be a powerful tool to generate and nurture leads, process orders, keep data current and improve the efficiency of all your sales and marketing activities. |
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Become an Expert at Handling Price Objections
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| You can’t sell an item without agreeing on a price. There is no success without the sale – and there is no sale without the price. |
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Sales Peoples' Biggest Weakness – C-Level Selling
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| If you want overachieving salespeople they must know how to and be comfortable C-Level Selling. Most sales people deliver mediocre results because they lack this skill set. Learn how to put this missing major element into your salespeople.
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Sales Tip: Selling Yourself By being different
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| One of the greatest ways to stand out in the marketplace is to be different. Unfortunately many companies attempts at sellng by being different result ina bland me to message. Read this article to find out if you are at risk! |
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What Is Your Sales Team’s A. Q.?
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| It has been known for some time that if you want to measure an individual’s intelligence, you administer an Intelligence Quotient test. This has been an accepted method of measuring one’s intelligence for many years. In sales management, intelligence is important, but this does not get you closer to measuring or predicting your sales team’s effectiveness or the ability to predict with any certainty the projections of future sales. How do measure this? With an A. Q. test. |
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Why Customer Service Destroys Salespeople
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| Customer service alone is not going to help a company achieve its growth targets. It is essential for salespeople to be focused on selling as their first priority...
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Sales Will Solve Many of Today's Problems
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| Many businesses are contracting rather than expanding in these difficult economic times. Contracting will insure failure, while the expanding principle will almost surely be rewarded with success. |
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The C Factor!
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| Assembling a 'dream team' sales force is not as difficult as you may first think. I've known of businesses reaching great heights through the salesmanship of only a few sales-guns!
Before creating a 'dream team' you need to have at least one exceptional salesperson you can model. Someone has to go there first! Whether this person is the company founder, (if sales savvy,) or a senior leader, there must be a working best-practice sales-process you can model and replicate.
Once you have a high performing salesperson to model; their core characteristics, behaviours, and activities, then form the blueprint (DNA) of your 'dream team'. Keeping in-mind, that it's ok to have varying personalities in the same team, this enables your team to demonstrate versatility and engage a diverse customer base. You don't need to 'literally' clone sales |
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How do I spot prospects that are actually time wasters?
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| Spotting time wasters is a critical initial step in your sales-process. It's in the knowing how to weed out and manage non-relevant customers, that frees up your time to focus on real customers! |
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How much are your salespeople really worth?
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| Commission only salespeople can be effective - however one of the major problems with a comm-only sales strategy is that salespeople in these roles, more often than not, become all about 'the sell' for obvious reasons: no sale -no pay -no eat! |
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What should I look for when I hire a salesperson?
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| Over the years, I have personally hired and developed many talented salespeople across multiple industries, and for me it's always about finding and developing salespeople who possess the 6P's for Sales Success: |
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The Power of “Liz”
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| The power of our primitive Lizard Brain is unbelievable. This has more control over us and others than one thinks. Understand how you can turn this reality into a viable tool that works. |
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Life without Leaders
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| A discussion on how leadership makes a difference and what makes a leader. |
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Winning the Away Game
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| Persuasion is not always what one thinks it is. It is an away game, yet too many rely on the home court to persuade or sell ideas or products. |
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Saving Selling Time
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| How simply set expectations with others can save an enormous amount to time for both. |
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The Power of Language
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| Developing Awareness and Power in how we use Language in the Art of Communication. |
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Deadly Sin#7B: One-size-fits-all Sales Pitches
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| There are two basic weaknesses to one-size-fits-all sales pitches:
1. Failure to appeal to different types of prospects
2. Failure to discriminate among different types of prospects with the same general interests, but who have different "social styles" |
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A Gazillion Tweets, but What Makes the Cash Register Ring?
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| Tweeting gets consumers all fired up. YouTubing is what a pries the credit cards out of the billfold/purse. Facebooking is where it is at to bring seller/buyer together. Blogs have the real street cred where serious people go to find out the scoop. Robust web sites are an absolute have to if you're going to be serious about separating a consumer from his/her dollars.
If you think consumers are confused you should be on the other side of the desk!
Marketing people are having a helluva time efficiently and effectively reaching the buying public -- corporate and individual -- to sell hardware, software, solutions.
It's horrible in the store because everyone is hollering price. Sales people seldom know enough about the individual product to be of real help. Your mom doesn |
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Deadly Sin #7: Sales Materials & Support Activities aren't dovetailed to optimize sales
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| Prospect Development must be a total team effort:
Management and salespeople see things differently. But the prospect has an even different perspective:
The prospect's interest in buying is rarely as urgent and intense as the supplier's is to make the sale. |
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Top Producer, Top Salesperson or Good Account Manager?
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| When top management is unable or unwilling to recognize the difference between top producers and their good account managers, mistakenly believing that their good account managers are also good salespeople, the company is probably not experiencing very strong growth. |
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One Suprising Key to Selling Value
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| Gary Harvey, my guest on this week's episode of Meet the Sales Experts, has great advice for companies that are trying to avoid getting sucked into having the lowest price. His secret? Purchasing Agents have always told salespeople that they go with the lowest price. When he asks them why they do this, they always tell him the same thing. "Because it works on every other salesperson until we met you." |
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The Hard Sell
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| I declare right up front that I am not, and never have been a fan of the Hard Sell. You have probably guessed that from all my previous posts.
And if you ask most people about what they think about the profession of selling they will often describe something akin to the ‘Hard Sell'. Of late I have also noticed a rise in ‘hard sell' stories where people are being unnecessarily pressured to buy or sales people being pressured to sell at almost any cost.
The hard times may be pushing some people to do things they wouldn't normally do like the "Hard Sell". |
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Use Your Business Card
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| Chris Randolph, author of "The Sales Edge" and several other books on professional selling, marketing, internet marketing, personal development and motivation shares a couple ideas on an inexpensive yet highly effective prospecting and marketing tool that every salesperson already has. |
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The mysterious case of the gun shy salesman...
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| People can become gun shy as well as dogs. This article explored the idea of a gun shy salesman as well as what can be done to repair the condition. |
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Decisions Making in a Blink
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| Choices, decisions and actions take take place in nano-second, yet some have great outcomes and others complete disasters. How can one make better instant decisions and choice. |
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The Creative Executive
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| The ability to be creative is one of the most powerful tools a leader can have. How does one develop more creativity on a daily basis. Here are some tips. |
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Top Salespeople Avoid Commodity Selling
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| If your pushing products/service you may be turning your product/service into a price driven commodity. With small changes in how you approach, talk and present can take you out of the price driven commodity race. |
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Overcoming Risk Aversion in Selling
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| The reality is all people have some aversion to risk in making decisions, how do we overcome this as quickly as possible in our sales and persuasion efforts? Here are key points. |
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Sales Force Lessons from Gates, Crowley and Obama
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| This should happen a lot more often on the sales force. How often do customers become upset over the behavior of a salesperson, customer service rep, technician or even accounting? When controversy jeopardizes a good account, it's time for the president or CEO to reach out and mend fences between adversaries! |
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Creating a Sales Culture
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| One of the challenges that many companies face is to create a sales culture when the existing culture is more orientated to customer service and account management. |
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Do Your Salespeople Build or Lose Credibility
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| In a training session I delivered this week, one well-meaning salesperson said he had a quick point and went on to talk for quite a while before I pointed out that this wasn't a quick point.
Your salespeople lose all credibility when their actions and behavior are not consistent with their claims... |
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How to Beat a Sales Slump
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| Have you ever experienced the dreaded downward curve or slump in your sales? Most of us certainly have. If you’ve been through it, you probably have a clear recollection of that lump in your throat, adrenaline-pumping moment when you realize that you need to scramble if you’re going to make your sales goal or quota. The feeling can be overwhelming and can set even the most seasoned salesperson into panic mode. |
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Frankly My Dear, I Don't Give a Damn
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| Indifference is a fantastic personal characteristic to have if you’re the roguish leading man in a sweeping Civil War tale, but it’s not quite as charming if you’re a career salesperson trying your best to generate business in a slow economy. The funny thing is that many of us have adopted a Rhett Butler style of prospecting that is highly ineffective - particularly in these challenging times.
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How to Convert More Sales
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| As a salesperson, it’s always helpful to have a long list of prospects. However, if you don’t have a well thought out plan for converting them into customers, you are simply setting yourself up for failure. A low conversion rate is a common problem for salespeople, but one that is correctable with understanding the steps to take through the entire sales process. These steps are easily implemented with little or no cost and can make a tremendous difference in converting a higher percentage of prospects into customers.
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Peak Performance in Prospecting
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| A peak performing prospector is a salesperson who displays passion, self motivation and results focus. They are disciplined in their approach, evaluate and purse viable opportunities while remaining optimistic, resilient, committed and energized. They are ethical at all times and display empathy, respect and courtesy towards their prospects. To help us look at this in more depth let's look at what is considered peak performance. |
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Trust-based relationships
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| I typed ‘Sales' into 'youtube' the other day just to see what was on offer. I have to say that some of the initial videos displayed on the front page were very disappointing indeed, especially when it came to building trust-based relationships with clients. |
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3 Tips to Empower Your Negotiations
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| Follow these three simple suggestions that will give you an advantage at the negotiation table. |
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Don’t tell me it’s out of your control
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| ‘It's out of my control.' ‘I can't do anything about it.' ‘I'm just the sales person.'
Sales people who sell in equipment and service contracts take note. This story is about you and your responsibility to the customer for the life of the sale not just the initial sale of the machine and the signing of the contract.
The quotes above are what I heard this week from a sales person from a well-known equipment manufacture who sold us a complete equipment and service package 18 months ago. It certainly wasn't what I wanted to hear. Without going into too much detail we have had the ‘printer from hell'. |
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The 5 Biggest Sales Management Coaching Blunders
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| Transforming your sales managers from good to great coaches can have a dramatic impact on sales. In fact, sales coaching is the management No. 1 activity that drives sales performance. The only problem is that managers have not been taught how to effectively coach. Coaching is a skill that takes time to perfect and unless effectively coached or trained managers make all types of mistakes. |
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2 Things Race Car Driving Has in Common with Selling
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| Karl said that for him, the single biggest commonality between racing and selling is the ability to be in control of his emotions, a strength which, in selling, not too many salespeople have mastered. It was as a professional race car driver when Subaru, his first real employer, would send Karl to struggling car dealers to help them push cars - despite the fact that Karl didn't view himself as a salesperson. However, if you listen to his very entertaining stories about growing up, you realize that he was always selling - because he had to. |
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING 2
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| Telemarketing 2 |
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PSYCHOLOGY OF SELLING:
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| Ten keys to sales success in a down economy
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RADAR
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| An Overview |
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The Magic Minute of Sales: Mind Reading your Clients and Prospects
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| What if you could read your prospects' and clients' minds? Well, you might not be able to do it with ESP, but you can listen to them for just one minute and know so much about how their mind works that you can tell them exactly what they need to hear so they do what you want to do. It's easy when you know how. |
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Hypnotic Influence with the Instruction Manual for the Mind
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| The world’s top sales superstars have a secret. What is it? It’s simple; their secret is that their communication is... hypnotic. For millenia thinkers, scholars and researchers have sought to uncover the keys to masterful persuasion and effortless influence, but it's only now that we have decoded the structure of persuasion. You can learn to sell hypnotically with the Instruction Manual for the Mind. |
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5 Sales Tips to Turn Hot Leads into Hot Sales
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| So how fast do you believe leads stay hot? Or would you prefer this question, how fast do you believe leads get cold? |
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Influencing vs Negotiating
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| It has often been said that very strong negotiation skills are critical to being a high performing sales person. However, findings from our "sales force fitness" profiling work, where we profile critical qualities for successful sales performance in many businesses, large and small, is telling a very different story. |
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Changing sales perceptions
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| Stop for a minute and reflect: What is your view of selling? Has your perception of sales changed over the years?
Your answer is most likely ‘yes' if you are a customer or salesperson in business to business (B2B) sales. But not if you are a customer of retail. More about that another time.
Today's changing B2B and high-end B2C sale practice styles are an adaptation to the environmental forces. The change towards people-centricity is evident in a number of organisational functions, in particular the sales function where there has been a significant shift from product-focused selling to relationship selling. |
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Does everybody live by selling something?
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| Whether we call ourselves a salesperson or not, if we have an idea, product, service, skill, capability, talent, or opportunity by which we can make a living and others can benefit from, we need to be able to sell.
This means that whatever role we are in, we all need to put ourselves in a position to secure the ongoing custom of customers, members, patients, supporters, peers, students, sponsors, or clients to make a living. Even internal service providers such as HR and Procurement professionals need to be able to sell and consult in order to fulfill their roles accordingly. |
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The Invisible Close Sales Nugget: How to create ‘A Small Window of Opportunity’ so that you can see Big Results!
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| Ever find yourself in a situation where you’ve been asked by an interested prospect for a price quote, a bid or simply for your rates? You quote them and then you don’t hear from them for a while? |
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The Invisible Close Sales Nugget: Want results? Give them a choice!
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| When presenting special offers from the stage, I generally recommend having two or three clearly outlined packages to choose from. |
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Sales Simplified - Discovery... The
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| Salespeople must be skilled at asking key questions on every call in order to find the solution that would best fit the needs of the customer/client. How do we do we do it effectively? |
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Buyer's Remorse Is Not To Be Ignored
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| Buyer's remorse is something that no business owner wants to see. Yet, how many times are the signals for buyer's remorse ignored? |
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Elevator Questions and Defining Statements
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| If you were able to get an appointment with the president of an organization that was a potential customer who could give you more business in one sale than all of your other customers combined and when you sat down in front of their desk they said to you, "OK salesperson, you have 3 minutes, why should I do business with you and your organization?" What would you do or say? |
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Sales Management Requires a Different Mindset Than Sales
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| It was on the corner of 82nd Street and 37th Avenue in Queens where 12 year-old Mark Berezow learned to approach strangers and provide them with some compelling reasons to vote for his friend's dad. He believes that experience had a great impact on his ability to sell, manage salespeople and for the past 20 years, help companies grow their sales. |
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10 Lessons from the Sales Candidate Who Smelled Like He Peed on Himself
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| It was quite the claim. I remember telling my client that the next candidate we were to interview was the best sounding candidate I had ever spoken with on the phone. Robert, the sales manager, went to the lobby to get the candidate and returned, an ashen look on his face. Ray, the candidate, followed Robert into the conference room and suddenly, I had the same ashen look on my face. It seemed that the best candidate I had ever spoken with by phone was, well, a bum! |
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The Biggest Obstacle To Sales Success Is I Am Not A Salesperson
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| Yesterday during a conversation with an international colleague where we were discussing business and how to increase sales, I heard this dreaded comment: I am not a salesperson.
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New Manager LifeSavers
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| A spark from "Survivor" gives a key to success for new managers. The fun, the motivation and drive come from saying you'll do it, and doing it. When a manager fans those passionate sparks into flames great things happen. These are critical elements in increasing productivity, building trust and worthwhile relationships. |
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How I Don’t Know Can Increase Sales & Build Customer Loyalty
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| Are you afraid of the I do not know response to a customer’s question. Have you ever considered this an opportunity to build a loyal customer and not a threat to your sales ego? |
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How Sales Training Forgets This Essential Sales Tool
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| How well have you trained your sales staff? Possibly, you may have missed this one essential sales skill? |
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Customers are begging for discounts but we don't want to drop our prices. What selling strategies should I use?
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| If a significant number or customers are begging for discounts, I would be inclined to explore the reasons behind the requests to understand what is actually motivating your customers. |
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Are Customers begging you for discounts?
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| When a customer begs you for a discount you can simply reply with yes or no, or you can employ a strategy to address the request and reposition your offering in a more valuable light. |
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Five Reasons Prospects Stop Responding To Your Sales Process
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| How long do you pursue a "hot prospect" that is not responding to your sales process? |
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Are You Selling Your L-Factor
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| This is my article from the new Summer eBook from Top Sales Experts International.Itfs 147 pages and includes articles from some of the foremost sales experts in the world. People like Dan Adams, Keith Rosen, Wendy Weiss , Nancy D. Solomon, Joanne Black, Jonthan Farrington, Paul McCord , Cindy King and Kelly Robertson to name but a few. |
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So What
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| Learn how to make sure your customers aren't thinking "So what" during your sales presentations. |
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Sales Assessment Says He's Weak but He Made President's Club
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| Yesterday a well meaning Sales Manager, in defense of his salesperson, asked me how a salesperson who made "Club" could possibly assess so poorly. It's a great question with a dozen or more possible explanations. Here are some: |
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Reference Requests for Salespeople
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| For the first time in months, I was recently asked for references. No problem!
But it got me thinking about who asks for references, why they ask for references and when they ask for references...and what salespeople do when they're asked for references, and whether those references lead to closed business.
As I thought this through, quite surprisingly, my three largest personal clients - all multi-billion dollar corporations, never asked. Three medium sized companies - over $100 million - never asked. I am personally working with only a handful of smaller companies and only one of them asked.
Those insights tie directly to why people ask for references: |
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180 and 360 Degree Assessments for the Sales Force
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| There are not a lot of companies that undertake 180 degree or 360 degree assessments of the sales force and that's a good thing because there are so many limitations.
The 180 - The salesperson or sales manager does a self-rating on the predetermined competencies and attributes and the individual's boss conducts the same ratings.
The 360 - The sales manager does a self-rating on the predetermined competencies and attributes and both the sales manager's boss and the salespeople that report to the sales manager conduct the same ratings.
So the 180 and the 360 are nearly the same except for the number of people and the vertical depth.
What are the limitations? |
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Real Estate Marketing Strategies - Tips for Creating Success
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| Have you ever been concerned that being successful means you have to be pushy? This article shows how re-thinking the way you view marketing will improve your business and increase your personal production capacity at the same time. |
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DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE REAL ART OF ‘CLOSING-A-SALE’ IS?
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| I LEARNED A GREAT LESSON FROM SOME PROS. ON THE REAL ART OF 'CLOSING A SALE'. |
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How to Feel Even More Self-Motivated
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| If someone leaves an interaction with you feeling better than they did before, then they are much more likely to pass that feeling onto someone else. This articles shows you how. |
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10 Ways to Better Manage & Motivate Your Sales Team
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| Ten great strategies for elevating your success as a sales manager and motivator |
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How To Get Customers for Life For The Success Of Your Direct Sales & Direct Selling Business!
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| Direct sales, party plan and home parties the business of acquiring and keeping a customer. If your direct selling business successfully creates and keeps customers in a cost-effective way, you the home party consultant will profit while continuing to survive and thrive. |
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Sales Force Alignment with Market Strategies
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| Most companies differentiate between inside and outside sales; domestic and international sales; products and services; equipment and consumables, etc.
But if you are into breaking down processes, approaches, market strategies and positioning, there is more to it than these obvious differentiators... |
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Focusing on the Outcome
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| Learn how focusing on the outcome, rather than your products and services, can help you connect with customer needs. |
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What Causes Your Salespeople to Fail in this Economy?
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| Bob was getting anxious over what to write to a suspect that blew him off. The prospect canceled an appointment and was vague about whether or not he would reschedule. This stopped Bob in his tracks and he literally spent an entire day getting feedback on what his email should say. Not only is Bob wasting time, it is time that could be spent finding and identifying additional opportunities, moving existing opportunities along and connecting with customers or clients and collecting referrals. So what causes Bob to do this and could we have predicted this behavior? |
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Reversing Risk
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| How can you help improve your sales? Reverse the risk on the customer! When risk is taken out of the picture a customer is much more likely to make a purchase. How can you achieve this? Read on to find out! |
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Sales Best Practices: Maintain a good filing system, with all the useful information readily available.
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| Not being organized is a crippling excuse to being successful in sales. Renowned sales trainer Dave Kahle discusses how to improve your organizational skills in this best sales practices article. |
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Sales Best Practices: Systematically pursues
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| Being a successful salesperson requires you take a different mindset, and this article from sales guru Dave Kahle takes a look at finding that right mindset. This is one part of an ongoing series of Sales Best Practices articles. |
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Lemonade From Lemons
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| Making lemonade from lemons is a cliche' used often in life, so why not apply it to your business? It's important to have a passion for the work you do. How do you find this passion? Grab a cool glass of lemonade and read on. |
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The Never-Fail Recipe for Ads That Work Like Crazy
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| It’s always surprising to us to see so much advertising, especially in print, which does not work. It simply doesn’t contain the ingredients needed to successfully communicate with customers.
If you make a cake, you don’t leave out any ingredients — right? Then why leave out an important part of your advertising message?
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The Ben Franklin sales close. For when they say "We want to think it over"
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| Every salesperson I have ever worked with has heard a prospect says those immortal words "We'd like some time to think it over". That's the time to use the Ben Franklin sales close. There are two types of "Think it over", the Fob off and the Bungy effect. Good salespeople can spot the difference and respond accordingly. They're the one's who come away with the deals. |
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The "Lunch Bucket Salesperson"
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| What is a "bucket mentality"? Usually this phrase is referenced with football players and their approach to the game. “Rough, tough, lunch bucket group of guys...they'll do whatever is takes to win". Can this mentality be applied to sales? Are you a "lunch bucket salesperson"? Read on. |
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Coaching Tip - Top 4 Ways Pressure Salespeople Gain Their Reputation
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| Why do we have negative salespeople stereotypes? Because unbelievably there are still salespeople who don’t understand that selling isn’t about them; selling is about the customer. How do you have to act to be a pressure salesperson? |
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Meeting with people- Establish rapport
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| Last week I started talking about an important part of your Marketing and Branding Strategy, which is to meet with people, usually one-on-one. I made some suggestions on agenda topics you can use with these meetings.
This week, I will discuss establishing rapport. |
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What Does Sales Improvement Have to Do With Sleep Apnea?
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| Compare my journey to the journey of a salesperson that is being trained, coached, or mentored to improve in sales. Your "apnea" is that you stop asking questions, listening, pushing forward, following an effective process, closing, or any one of many other life supporting strategies and tactics. |
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You Are A Brand
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| Developing a strong sense of who we are takes both introspection and courage, but it is the core of finding our own brand. |
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Recruiting Top Sales Pros is now HARDER, not easier
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| Businesses need to take a step back and consider all the factors before embarking on a course of action. What might seem obvious at first rarely is. Top 5% sales performers can deliver huge ROI. A little investment in one now could be one of the very best ways of combating the downturn |
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Sales Tip – Top 3 Selling Crimes: Bring in the Sales Crime Stoppers!
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| Salespeople need an edge in a down economy. You can get some edge from being a sales crime stopper and here are some sales crime stopping tips. |
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Sales Tip - Stupendous Sales Results Accent Tremendous Value and Avoid Horrendous and Hazardous Actions
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| Salespeople get more sales with a focus on the only four words in the English language, which end in 'dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. |
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Everyone SHOULD BE a Salesman
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| In most businesses a small percentage of the staff is actually responsible for generating sales. Did you realize that you can leverage the strength of all of your employees to “sell” for your company? Sales is the life blood of any business and as sales go so goes profits. All of your employees need to understand that their job security and the viability of their company is tied to the revenue stream.
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Mars and Venus Part I. Sales people are from Mars, Buyers are from Venus - Introduction
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| Many of you are probably familiar with John Gray's famous relationship book, "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus". In his book, he talks about how to overcome the different way men and women think and indeed often act. Buyers and sellers also have different viewpoints, and not knowing how your audience makes decisions can be disastrous.
This series of articles, will take you inside the mind of buyers, to help you fulfil their needs, to create successful commercial relationships. Buyers, like sales people, are also focused on WIIFM, What's in it for me. |
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Ride For the Brand
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| I've never seen anyone make it to the top who wasn't completely loyal to the products, services, organization, idea, philosophy or cause she represented. Why would you waste your time and energy on something you don't or can't believe in? |
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Sales Scoreboard
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| Having a scoreboard is an essential element of any game. Constantly showing the score helps you know where you are, evaluate your performance and make the adjustments necessary to win.I've used this same type of scoring system to help organizations and individuals increase their performance and achieve record results.
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Sales is an Obstacle Course
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| If you sell, then you encounter obstacles every step of the way. There are the prospects you can't get through to, the same ones who don't return your calls, and those who offer so much resistance that the obstacle appears to be more like a road block than an obstacle. Then there are the obstacles of timing, competition, budget, and disinterest, along with using and happy with someone else, doing it themselves and bad experiences with your company or simply companies like yours. There is no selling without obstacles.
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Are You Missing These Sales Rejection Signs on the Path to Increase Sales?
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| Do you fail to recognize the sales rejection signs that keep you from your goal to increase sales? Learn what some of these signs are. |
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Product selling Ideas for Peoples who Shy
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| You have most likely all heard from the proverbial organic salesperson. You realize the 1 I'm speaking about-the 1 who can market something to anybody at any time? |
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Why Sales and Customer Service Should Be the Same Person if You Want To Increase Sales
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| Does your business have one person to make the sales and another to handle customer service? If so, this may be one reason why you may be having challenges to realize your goal to increase sales. |
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Value need not be the Transaction point
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| Everything has a value but the motivations of the Seller and the Buyer will decide the transaction point - the PRICE |
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Make down times up TIMES by investing in YOU
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| Cutting costs is NOT always the solution. Sometimes we need more skiils, more training, a better environment or inspired leadership |
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The perfect sales call
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| 15 things to consider when making sales calls |
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How to Shift From Fat & Nice to Lean & Mean to Increase Sales
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| Have you ever considered that maybe one of the reasons for your less that stellar sales is because you are just too fat and nice? Read how by being lazy to not having enforced accountability, you may be your own worst enemy. |
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Finding a Way to Succeed
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| Strategies and Tactics are important - very important, especially in this economy. But even today, they take a back seat to your ability to find a way to get the job done. Whether that job is making appointments, uncovering compelling reasons to buy, getting opportunities qualified, making compelling presentations, dealing with objections or closing, you must find a way to master that part of the sales process. |
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Will Gifts Get Prospects to Return Calls from your Salespeople?
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| A fruit basket arrived this morning. My first reaction was, "who would want to send me a fruit basket?" It turned out that a salesperson sent it, hoping to get me on the phone. He had already left two voice mail messages and stopped by on one other occasion.
As I write about his attempts to reach me, a few thoughts are running through my mind: |
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What's Wrong With E-Commerce Websites?
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| What is going on with e-commerce websites? It appears that online entrepreneurs spend so much time worrying about website traffic that they ignore the customers who actually want to buy something. |
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Ask, and You Shall Receive
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“Ask” is a powerful word because it calls upon another person’s most noble motive—to serve. As a result, I’ve found that nearly all people will give when asked. You may recall the greatest teacher said, “Ask, and it shall be given you.” I believe you can get almost anything you want … if you ask.
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Leadership: The Successful Use of Conflicting Principles
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| “The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.”
-Niels Bohr, Nobel-Prize winning scientist
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What to Do When Customers Are Few
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| The measure of a salesperson is whether they flourish in bad economic times not in good. Peak performing salespeople are always producing. “They do what the average salespeople are unwilling to do.” Average salespeople blame the economy, or the boss for not advertising enough or the pricing for the lack of sales. Are you a typical salesperson, feet up on the desk, eating lunch, reading a book or a newspaper, or chit chatting with the salesperson next to you? |
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Enthusiasm - “It’s Showtime!”
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| “It’s Showtime, and you’re only as good as your last performance.”
Stanley Marcus
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“Empathy? I hate that touchy feely stuff”
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| Study after study has shown that KEY to solid relationships, selling, leading and parenting is empathy. Indeed, empathy is the prime characteristic of great salespeople. |
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Empathy
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| When your customer feels understood they are more open to influence.
Ability to read people, feel what they are feeling What is it? Understanding a need is as good as fulfilling it. People buy what they need from salespeople who understand what they want. Empathy leads to sensory acuity – “Unlike the mind, the heart finds it difficult to lie.” Robert Cooper.
Empathy leads to trust – It makes the connection. Integrity |
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Choosing the Selling Attitude
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| Think for a minute about the best salesperson you have ever known. Do you ever wonder what the secret is to his or her success? You can forget the old expression “Natural-born salesperson” because, believe it or not, there is no magic involved. |
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Are You a Rookie or a Pro?
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| In a recent study at Cornell University, it was found that people who are arrogant about what they know are incompetent. In other words incompetent people don’t know that they are incompetent. That also matches a study that found that average and mediocre sales people consider themselves outstanding or peak performers. How come on average, the top 25% of a sales force generates nearly 60% of a company’s actual sales increases?
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Know yourself before you decide to buy someone else
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| According to a survey conducted by the Hay group and published in 2007, 91% of all M&A efforts fail to meet their pre-transaction goals. How many activities can a business undertake that fail 91% of the time, yet keep doing them over and over again? That is what happens with mergers and acquisitions. The sad truth is making these growth strategies work is not hard - it is complicated, but not hard. If you do your due diligence, and pay close attention to all the myriad of details, you will succeed. This article talks about what you need to know about your business before you try to buy someone else’s! |
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Quantifying the User Experience
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| The user experience isn't esoteric at all; it's quantifiable, you just have to think about measuring in a new way. And by quantifying the user experience, ebusinesses can position themselves to be even more successful in terms of ROI. |
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Five Ways Hispanic Business Owners Can Boost Sales with Promotional Products
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| Let's face it. In today's world, people are bombarded with advertising so it can be hard to market your business effectively. Promotional products offer a unique and affordable way for Hispanic business owners to get their name out to potential customers without being obnoxious.
Promotional products range from pens to totes to key chains, all with your company's name and contact information imprinted on them. Here are 5 ways Hispanic business owners can boost sales with promotional products |
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You Like Me...You Really, Really Like Me
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| Sometimes in the rush to judgement we forget how important it is for our sales force to build rapport and gain the trust of their prospects. This is particularly true given the current business climate. People have become suspicious, cautious, and protective. Everyone is playing defense. Many salespeople I’ve come in contact with recently have been more assertive in qualifying and jump immediately into product presentations rather than spending quality time to get to know the personal side of their prospect or determine their specific needs. Let finance determine whether your potential customer can buy while you focus on their buying motives. You will be better equipped to match the specific attributes of your product to the specific needs of your customer.
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Expansion Plans
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| If you have a service or product based business you have the opportunity to expand sales within your customer base without adding new customers. Many times customers seek a supplier for a specific product or service and are completely unaware of other offerings from your company. There is also a chance that your customers are buying products from your competitors that you can provide them. |
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Stop Selling Coaching, Just Let Your Potential Customers Buy You
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| Are you a business consultant, executive coach or sales coach? Do you have to sell your services before you can deliver them? How is that working for you? Maybe it is time for a different approach that can quickly increase sales. |
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Sales Assessments vs. Personality Assessments Episode III - The PHD's Strike Back
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| Are PHD's more sensitive to criticism than the rest of us?
I heard from a few over the past week and they weren't happy with what I wrote here and here. I rocked their world and they couldn't cope. |
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How to Be Different in a Homogeneous Business World
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| It's hard, isn't it? Making your service business stand out from the rest is a challenging task. When it comes down to it, every realtor helps people buy or sell property. That's it. Every consultant offers advice that will either help people avoid pain or increase pleasure. Every doctor diagnoses illness and prescribes a remedy. Every salesperson offers a product that is strikingly similar to the competition's offering. What do you need to do to stand out? |
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How to Stop Suffering From I Hate to Sell But I Need to Pay My Bills
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| As a sales professional, small business owner or service professional have you ever suffered from either or both of theses thoughts? I hate to sell, but I need to pay my bills. Boy, if I could only do what I love to do. A recent survey of 135 business consultants, executive coaches ad professional facilitators revealed these exact thoughts. Read on to learn the answer to this dilemma. |
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Increase Sales By No Longer Being the Toad in the Road
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| If you could be anything but a salesperson and still increase sales, would that be of interest to you? Read how you may need to change your focus from your weaknesses by truly leveraging your talents.
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Do Your Prospects Have a "Crush" on You?
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| Do Your Prospects Have A "Crush" On You?
Here's the deal lady.
When sales are sluggish it can be very easy to drop your "customer filter" and start taking any old business that knocks on the door. Sometimes those prospects want to pay you far less than you're worth - and sometimes those prospects are just not the right fit (but you're tempted to take the biz anyway).
Because this can very dangerous to your profit margins, time, energy and possible frustration levels - let me give you a Sales Diva warning. |
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Small Business Ideas For The Experienced Salesperson
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| Sales is perhaps the world's older profession, and if you have the skills to make a great salesman, odds are you also have the skills to make a great small business owner. Here's a few tips to make the transition as smooth as possible and be running your own business in no time. |
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Do What You Love
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| The more you learn about things you're interested in, the more fresh and fun ideas you'll have to mull over in your pursuit of your Core Desires. You'll continually be looking for things to help you be a better parent, salesperson, businessperson, doctor, lawyer, accountant, or PR person. You'll enjoy learning constantly, and you'll discover many benefits.
I know a twelve-year-old boy who can tell you the batting averages of all the professional baseball players, yet he can't recite the names of the four types of clouds that move across our skies. |
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Overcoming Barriers and Obstacles
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| There will always be barriers and obstacles between where you are right now and where you want to be. If your desire is fairly strong, you will definitely get started on it. You will probably spend a lot of money and time on it, too. You may even get most of the way there. However, the day you encounter a barrier or obstacle that is bigger than your desire, you will be stopped. That's the bad news. The good news is that there are no barriers or obstacles that can stop you when you are pursuing a Core Desire. The obstacles you encounter may be intimidating, they may slow you down, they may be difficult, they may hurt like crazy- but they won't stop you if you focus on your Core Desires. When you are less than wholehearted, you are easily derailed. |
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Identify the Perfect Salesperson for your Sales Force
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| During 2008, we worked to make our sales candidate assessments even more customizable and predictive. We already had hirable and not hirable recommendations but we wanted to go even further... |
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3 Simple Steps to Using Email as a Sales Tool
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| E-mailing is now undoubtedly the main means of communication between businesses and business people. I would continue to advise salespeople to always try to speak directly to prospects where possible. There are times however that e-mailing is the only available option, so the ability to craft effective e-mails is now a very necessary sales skill. |
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Sales Tip – Selling Without Follow-up with Your Customers or Prospects Gets Poor Sales Results
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| Salespeople can get a selling edge, even during an economic down turn, by using the same extraordinary follow-up with customers and prospects alike, following some dog treat guidelines.
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Cold calling is part of any sales process
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| Lessons learned from many years of cold calling |
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Why Fearbased Selling Is A Bad Bet
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| If you’ve worked to make your product or service the best it can be, and you’re still using fear-based marketing, shift your approach and see what happens. People will want to work with you, not out of fear, but because they trust you; you solve a problem for them, you’re reliable, you make them feel good about their purchase. They want to work with you, or buy your product out of trust, not fear. |
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What Am I Doing Here?
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| All too often, salespeople find themselves doing battle with unworthy opponents, only to discover too late the time invested was really time wasted! How did they get there? Why didn’t they recognize where they were? And, why did they stay so long?
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Focus on Five Areas Today to Close Business Tomorrow
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| All too often, salespeople focus on the wrong elements in their attempt to increase sales. They turn their attention to the features, benefits, and value-added aspects of their product or service in an attempt to differentiate it from that of the competition and ultimately convince prospects to buy. While these elements may eventually play a part in the presentation (more on that later), it is not the place to start.
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Formula for Sales Templating
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| Sales templating is a technique that can help you develop a consistent sales process regardless of the background of your individual salespeople. What is sales templating? It is the technique by which you document the steps of the ideal typical sale. Sales templating allows you to capture the best practices and nuances of each of your salespeople to create a model sales process that all of them can follow. In addition to making your job as manager easier, sales templating will improve the performance of your sales force. By creating an overt, step-wise sales template or process, you give the salesperson the means to maintain control of the sales situation.
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