Showing posts with label selling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label selling. Show all posts

Monday

Selling tip of the day - inertia

Today is all about inertia.  You remember your HS physics right?  Inertia is somethings desire to stay where it is unless acted upon.  You need to overcome inertia today.  Its Monday and you might settle into the old routine you're used to, but how has that worked for you?  if you're doing well, then, by all means, keep it up.  if you are looking to make a change, then the week starts now and so does the change.

Great selling starts with becoming a great seller.

Saturday

Great Sellers tip of the day - joint call

I highly recommend setting up a day/week where you both go on a sales call with a successful sales person and then have them go on one with you.  The experience, no matter how much experience you have, is a positive one for both of you.  Besides gaining a little morale boost from the trust you will share for the sales calls, you will also probably pick up something you can use.  It might be something to do, or might be something not to do, but either way you will learn.  In addition to learning you can hopefully help the other person learn something too.  Do a post sale cool down with the other person after each call.  I suggest the person who setup the appointment do a self assessment first and then have the tag-along respond.

What doesnt kill you only makes you a stronger sales person and that makes for great selling.

Wednesday

Great Sellers tip of the week - Elephant Hunting, or know your 3

Know your 3. What I mean is know the 3 big businesses you want to land, the elephants. These will be high impact-to-your-sales-goal type businesses. Of these three you may only get 1 or even none, but if you don’t have targets you don’t know how to aim. So pick 3 businesses you really want to get into and know why you want them. Set a plan on how you will try and contact the owner. The objective in the beginning is to get an appointment with a decision maker. Who do you know that might know the right person? Have you checked reference USA or Linked-in to see if you have any useful information there? Do any of your current clients or networking contacts have a contact to help you? Would anyone mind writing you a business letter of reference to help you establish why they should do business with you? Track your plan and adjust it as necessary. You can land that big client; you just have to make sure it’s not by chance.

You cannot spend all your time elephant hunting, but the 3 you pick should be worth it to you.  They can be year long or longer projects.  Just getting to the right person is time consuming enough.  I know I am making this seem like a huge process but its not.  Just identify the target and do a little research.  Be prepared for a long journey, but also be just as prepared if someone asks you a closing lead-in question.  Is does have to take long, but it probably will.

Great Sellers can sell to top clients, medium clients, and entry level clients.

Monday

quote of the day - insanity

Paraphrasing Mr Einstein

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.

How does this play into sales?  If you are not getting the results you are looking for why do you keep doing the same activities.  Make a change, either major or minor, but dont keep doing the same things in the same ways.  if you are a route person, go backwards through the route.  if you normally call in the mornings, call in the afternoon.  If you usually hold your employees one on ones on Friday, make it Wednesday.

Like exercising, you need to change the workout to make it effective.

Do something today, just do it different

Great Sellers are not set in their ways.

Saturday

Great Sellers Tip of the Week - Contact Sport

I am sure we have all heard this before, “In sales, you must contact as many people as possible to be successful.”  This is certainly important, but part of that mantra is contacting the right people, the other part is knowing what you are going to say.  Are you a person who is looking to cold call and sell something or are you the kind that is going to concentrate on deepening  a relationship?  Both have their places.

Developing the relationship.
If you are developing a relationship, make sure you call or email and mention nothing about sales most of the time.  You will want the impact of you having an idea or desire to sell something not to be the expectation when you call.  Your relationship will not blossom if they cringe at the site of your number on their caller ID.

I’m calling to sell you something
Make sure you have a connection of some sort to the person you are calling.  try and get a referral.  If you are calling dead cold, you need to make an impact in the first 2 sentences or your call is over.  You will have to assume what the benefit is for the prospect before the cal, so some industry knowledge or research will be important.

It’s not just the phone
You cannot win at the contact sport of sales with just the phone and email.  You will need to use your network, both physical network  and your virtual one.  In person meetings work as well, but don’t forget to embrace the preferences of those you are targeting and adjust accordingly.
How much is enough?  You have to develop your own sales ratio, but if you want a place to start, in his book, “Never Eat Alone”, Keith Ferrazzi says you will not be successful in sales unless you talk to 50 people per day.

Great Sellers Recommended Reading - Switch

I wanted to take a few moments to give you my impression of "Switch".  Many people may not see the connection to this book for selling.  Understand what makes people choose is an important piece of the sales puzzle.

You can read all the "wedge technique" or benefit statements rationale, but if you don't understand why people make the choices they do then you are really missing out.

The book is easy to understand and a fascinating look at society in general.  I have used this in sales as well as the sales coaching I do with my team