Words of wisdom for this week.
“Do your duty and a little bit more, and the future will take care of itself.”
– A. Carnegie
For many salespeople it would seem that a ‘let’s get back to basics’ approach would be in order for any number of reasons:
- The emotional buy-in to a difficult economy
- Increased pressure from senior management to increase sales
- More and better equipped competition
So, what are the basics?
Attitude management:
- Setting daily/weekly/monthly/yearly goals.
- Spending routine time reading/listening to self-help/sales materials.
- Isolating yourself from nay-sayers.
- Maintaining a high self-esteem.
- Managing your sales time wisely.
- Relying on your mentor and/or mastermind group.
Effective prospecting:
- Prospecting every day no matter how successful you are.
- Getting more information than you give.
- Getting to the key (right) decision maker(s).
- Asking lot’s and lot’s of urgency building questions.
- Developing strategic alliances.
- Asking for referrals.
- Managing your territory wisely.
Disarming sales resistance in advance:
- Discovering the dominant buying motive.
- Learning in advance what issues can prevent success.
- Using effective stories to illustrate your points.
- Not giving up too easily or quickly.
Persuasive, powerful and successful sales presentations:
- Knowing the prospect’s buying style and emotional wants.
- Listening more than talking.
- Tailoring the presentation to each prospect.
- Selling increased value and not lower price.
- Selling long term win/win relationships and not just making sales.
- Selling customer benefits not features.
- Using showmanship effectively and professionally.
Closing the sale and the prospect:
- Asking for the business.
- Asking for the business.
- Asking for the business.
- Get it?
After sales service:
- Promise a lot and deliver more.
- Sell to the organization not just your contact.
- Honor your commitments.
There’s much more, if you want to become a master salesperson: read my best selling books: Soft Sell, Sales Mastery, Your First Year in Sales and How To Sell More In Less Time. In fact I’ll make you an offer you can’t (shouldn’t) refuse (if you seriously want to sell more with bigger margins, that is) Email me your order by April 22nd and I’ll only charge you $40.00 (all 4 books come to over 80 bucks) OR e-mail me your order by today and I’ll also include a copy of my latest book, Overcoming Life’s Challenges and Difficult Times. Why not evaluate your sales approach against the above basics to see how you are doing.