Some people think selling is easy. If it were really so easy then everyone could do it. Selling is not easy. Your job is to reduce your sales frustrations and make your selling easier. That’s why you should focus on the sales process, not sales results. Accept that you cannot control what other people do. What makes selling so hard is that you can only accomplish your sales … [Read more...]
Sales and Operations=More Sales
What's sales have to do with operations? Everything if you want to sell more. Think about who you could invite to your next sales meeting. Are you thinking you should invite people from operations? That department might not be the one that comes to mind. You may be thinking, what would operations people have to contribute to a sales meeting? That’s not the point. Salespeople … [Read more...]
Sales preparation counts.
"After the game is before the game." - Sepp Herberger, Manager of the '54 FIFA World Cup Soccer winners For Salespeople... When does your selling start? Your sales preparation should start well before you sit down in your prospect’s office or call a prospect on the phone. You have a lot of preparation to do. I work with my clients to prepare before their sales calls. Here … [Read more...]
Measure to Improve Sales Performance
Let’s say you’re having a great year. What if you want to do even better next year? You can improve your sales performance if you know what to measure. Here are some areas to consider. Number of Sales Calls made. You are making it harder to be successful in sales if you’re going to sit in your office all day. While you’re there you spend time working on prospect research … [Read more...]
Put Your Sales Manager To Work
How much easier would your selling be if you could partner with another great sales professional and sell? In sales, two heads are better than one. That second head just might be your sales manager. If you want to tap into another great selling resource, put your sales manager to work. Make sales calls. Are you always making sales calls by yourself? Now is the time to … [Read more...]
Confusing customers loses sales
Is Customer Confusion Costing You Sales? You confuse ‘em, you lose ‘em. That’s what a great direct marketer Paul Goldberg once said. It’s the same for sales. You certainly wouldn’t confuse your customers intentionally. But what about when you don’t know that you’re creating confusion? I recently needed to purchase a certified letter for a business document I … [Read more...]
Women who sell need to manage their manager
I recently got a call from a female sales professional. She had been working for her sales manager for 7 weeks. I had a meeting scheduled with her male sales manager. She was calling to reschedule the appointment for him. Why was she calling when my appointment was with her manager? Her manager asked her to. It seemed odd to me that she was asked to do this. I thought it was … [Read more...]
What consultive selling questions do you ask to sell?
Are you wondering what consultive selling questions you can ask to sell? I have a consultive selling process that I teach that shows you how to learn about your customer, uncover business problems he cares about and motivate him to buy. Here's the process. It’s as simple as A,B,C and D. Consultative selling starts with what you know ABOUT (A) your customer. Rather than … [Read more...]
Small talk helps negotiations if you are male
Who knew? What women do so easily (make small talk) will get better results in negotiation. But, only if you're male. If you read the study it says that women don't benefit as much as men do with the small talk. Why? It seems that men are inherently less "communal" so the chit chat helps them be perceived more positively so they get better results with negotations. Here's … [Read more...]
3 Instant Sales Ideas
Here are 3 instant sales ideas for you to sell more now. 1. Live within your means. Don’t buy the foolish thinking that more stuff will make you happy. When you start to acquire stuff that you can’t afford you start down a path that might lead to becoming a desperate salesperson. Nothing causes a sale to fail faster than desperation. How do you avoid participating in the … [Read more...]