How To Go Perpendicular In Your Sales Territory
February 23, 2010
First and foremost are you thinking Strategically? "Do you have what it takes to do what it takes?"
1. Did you achieve all of your personal goals in 2004?
2. Did you achieve all of your professional goals in 2004?
3. Did you have double-digit sales growth in 2004?
4. Are you expecting to achieve double-digit growth during 2005?
5. If not why not? (You’ll need some QUIETIME for this one)
If the skills you used during 2004 weren’t sufficient to enable you to over achieve your sales plan what makes you think last year’s selling skills will enable you to achieve your sales plan during 2005?
What’s needed is some radical thinking - let me explain. One of the best ways to outfox the competition is to stop thinking like them. For example, you might want to consider Christopher Columbus (1451 - 1506) as a role model. Back in those days - sailors sailed close to the coastline. Rumor has it that the deck hands on those early ships used to panic whenever they lost sight of the coastline. Naturally they feared for their lives because they believed, they all believed that the world was flat.
Are You Doing What It Takes To Win More Sales
January 29, 2010
What does it take to be a WINNER during these challenging times? Do you really know what it takes to win more sales?
It takes . . . Uniqueness. Being boring, bland, and benign is out. Being different is your first step to being better. If you’re different and you’re better, you’ll be remembered. Type INC. after your name. For example, Jim Meisenheimer Inc.
Don’t view yourself as a person. Think of yourself as a brand or even as a company. How are you positioning yourself? When your customers think of you, how do they think of you? Create a list of ten things that make you different from your competition. If this is a tough exercise for you, you should invest some strategic thinking time. Blending in is out, standing out is in.
How Salespeople Can Create Immediate Believability And Credibility
January 3, 2010
It pays to be specific. I believe that statement is true. If it is true, why do so many salespeople pepper their sales presentations with phrases of generalities? There are two primary reasons. One is habit and the other is instinct.
So many people in and out of sales speak in generalities. It’s really hard to pin them down for the details. If speaking in generalities comes so naturally to so many people - it has to be instinctive. In sales it’s tempting to impress new and prospective customers. One of the ways salespeople do this is with their product and service presentations.
These presentations often include references to the following:
=> How many products are in your product line?=> How many years your company has been in business?=> How many customers you have worked with.=> How much of your business is repeat business?=> How much of a discount you’re planning to offer to get the business?=> How much your product improves productivity?=> How much your product reduces the cost of doing something?
When Youre In sales Always Aim Higher
December 9, 2009
Yesterday I did a sales training program for a great company. This company is 64 years old and makes a product whose name you would recognize immediately. The sales training was scheduled the day after the company introduced a new product. This product has great features and outstanding benefits for their customers.
The outside sales reps were given a goal to sell 25 units within the next 12 months. For the purpose of this newsletter and to maintain the privacy of the company they shall remain anonymous.
I would like to share some of the thoughts I have on how to achieve consistent selling results. Here we go…
Let’s talk about the principles of GOAL SETTING. Most people think they have goals when they really only have dreams. There is a simple yet powerful goal setting model. It has five steps:
1. A true goal is in writing. Always has been, always will be. If it’s not on paper it’s not a goal. When you take a thought and put it to paper it becomes a goal. This is a bedrock principle to goal setting. Write it down!
7 Sales Techniques To Differentiate You From The Competition
November 14, 2009
You have a choice. You can stand out or blend in with your competitive landscape. Differentiation doesn’t come naturally, blending in does. We all want to fit in with the crowd, we want to be like everybody else, and we’ve been that way since we were kids. As a professional sales representative you should focus on what makes you different because the similarities will take care of themselves.
When selling there are three principle things you can differentiate: You, your products, and your company. My observation is that most sales representatives do an adequate job of differentiating their products and their company. They neglect, however, to develop a personal brand. Before a customer considers buying your products, they must buy you.
Here are seven ways to separate you from the competition:
1. Your appearance matters. Look the part because your appearance influences your image. You are walking billboard and how you look is what your prospects see first. Belts and shoes should be the same color. Shoes and shoe heels should be shined - every day. When it comes to your wardrobe buy less and spend more.
Three Types of Salespeople
October 17, 2009
“There are three kinds of salespeople; those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who are wondering what happened.” You’ve probably heard that one before. Actually, there are two different types of salespeople and they are easy to tell apart.
The first type is the improvisor. He seldom prepares, his preferred style, is to take things as they come. He likes to be spontaneous. He relies on his instinct and counts on his intuition to carry the day. His days are fun filled and exciting, because he literally treats each sales call like an adventure. He’s the Indiana Jones of selling, foot loose and fancy free, what ever that means.
The second type is the professional. He also enjoys his work, for different reasons. He anticipates everything, especially the routines. He knows the routines given the opportunity to prepare in advance. For example, he handles recurring objections. He knows he’ll get them over and over again, so he prepares in advance how he will deal with them. He plays with words, until he creates power phrases that work. Once prepared, he knows that to execute the delivery, he must practice what he has prepared. He records his power phrases into a recorder a plays them over and over until they are anchored. He treats sales calls as opportunities not as adventures.
Closing The Sale
September 23, 2009
Several weeks ago I asked my Newsletter subscribers to send me their biggest sales challenges. So far, I have received 275 challenges. While I am still in the process of categorizing them, Inoticed that a number of them mentioned “Closing the sale” as yourbiggest challenge.
Closing the sale, cinching the deal, tying up all the loose ends, and getting to a yes decision is an important skill in the selling process. Even getting a “No” decision is better than holding onto an everlasting pending one.
Joe K., a friend and former client, discovered the importance of an effective close at an early age. Joe has been the president of major corporations and currently serves on several corporate boards - so pay attention to his comments.
Here’s what he has to say about closing the sale . . .
In Sales The Biggest Rolodex Wins
August 27, 2009
How many names do you have in your business Rolodex? ______
If you respond the way most salespeople do ? you’ll estimate 200, 400, 700, 1,000 etc.
Remember this, if your answer ended with a zero ? you don’t really know, do you?
Your Rolodex, or contact management system, is one of your most important business assets. Not using it properly is a huge mistake and a big liability for you.
Here are several ways to build your Rolodex.
1. First, get rid of your paper planners. This is 2004. Invest in an account management or data base management software. Check out ACT or File Maker Pro.
2. While you’re getting rid of your paper planners you may want to invest in a good PDA like Palm or one of their competitors.
3. Don’t treat anyone anonymously. Today’s assistant could be tomorrow’s decision-maker.
4. When adding contact information be sure you get all of it including:
NameCompany NameStreet AddressCity, State ZIPTelephone number + extensionVoice mail number Fax numberE-mail addressWeb site
Special interests
Once you begin to build your data base (Rolodex) use it to promote your company, your products, and yourself. The more your customers and prospects hear from you the more they’ll buy from you.
How To Achieve Excellence In Sales
August 2, 2009
Most people are always striving to better themselves. It’s the “American Way”. For proof, check the sales figures on the number of self-improvement books sold each year. This is not a pitch for you to jump in and start selling these kinds of books, but it is a indication of people’s awareness that in order to better themselves, they have to continue improving their personal selling abilities.
To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge. You have to know and understand yourself and your goals. You have to recognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your special talents. This requires a kind of personal honesty that not everyone is capable of exercising.
In addition to knowing yourself, you must continue learning about people. Just as with yourself, you must be caring, forgiving and laudatory with others. In any sales effort, you must accept other people as they are, not as you would like for them to be. One of the most common faults of sales people is impatience when the prospective customer is slow to understand or make a decision. The successful salesperson handles these situations the same as he would if he were asking a girl for a date, or even applying for a new job.
Equal Chance of Winning The Sale? Bah!
July 9, 2009
Are you going to win this deal?
With just less than 3 weeks left in December, I am sure that you are really busy closing out your year-end sales. This has been a tough year for many people. With the economy proving to us that business cycles still exist, spending has been cutback, many people have lost their jobs, and a lot of companies have simply gone out of business.
In a year like this, every sales opportunity you get is a precious one.
Tough times like these make for fierce competition. You and all of your competitors have been scrapping over a shrunken pie. This puts our buyers in a stronger position than before.
Even though this may be true, don’t let this turn a difficult year into a horrible one. You always have to use clear and sound judgement on every sales opportunity that you work.
It is the second week of December as of this writing. Your December sales prospects should be telling you one thing right now - “You are going to win this deal”. If they are telling you anything else, then you are in all likelihood going to lose. And if they aren’t telling you this, you can bet they are saying this to one of your competitors.
