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Sunday, February 26, 2012
Check out Ecstasy Consultants
Check out Ecstasy Consultants
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Check out Ecstasy Consultants
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Check out Ecstasy Consultants
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Friday, July 10, 2009
THE PERFECT SALES CALL
What is the perfect sales call?
Giving the best sales presentation?
Being in complete rapport with your prospect the whole time?
Asking just the right pain questions so that you really stir
up trouble and discover powerful purchasing motivation?
Asking for the order, or the appropriate "next step", and
getting it?
One could say that the Perfect Sales Call would include all
of the above (and possibly more).
My standard for the Perfect Sales Call is much lower. It
doesn't include all of the above.
The only thing that matters when you make a sales call is
did you either advance or close the sale. That's it.
Getting the order, or getting to the appropriate next step,
is all that matters, regardless of how sloppy you were or
how pretty you looked along the way.
Giving good sales presentations only matter to the extent
that it helps you advance or close the sale.
Asking powerful pain questions and stirring up their
emotions only matters if it helps you advance or close the
sale.
Being in complete rapport only matters if that aids you in
advancing or closing the sale.
Because the Perfect Sales Call is simply one where you
advance or close the sale.
Any higher standard of perfection, is detrimental to your
sales.
Getting everything "just right" slows you down.
Its best to "get busy" and try some new ideas and tactics to
see what works for you, than to sweat giving the perfect
presentation.
Perfectionism is not a great trait for sales success. Tis
better to perfect execution instead.
You should always be looking for new things to test out and
use to advance and close your sales.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
THE ONLY WAY TO BUILD YOUR TERRITORY
There really is only one right way to build your territory.
First of all you got to realize that you are an interruption
when prospecting, and you have to be comfortable with this
fact if you are going to be successful in sales.
You can't let this fact bother you. And you can't be too
polite about it either.
Because you know what they call polite salesmen?
Poor.
Anyway, I got an email recently from a new commercial
printing salesman. He said he has getting really frustrated
building his territory with prospects blocking access to
decision-makers and telling them that they'll never leave
their current suppliers. Here's what he wrote me...
"I'm new commercial printing sales representative trying
to build a clientele base. It's not going as well as I had
hoped it would - large accounts, insurance companies,
manufacturers and others only allow me to apply to a blind
format on their web site and then *maybe* they'll contact
me. Yeah right! And others proclaim their allegiance to
the printer they've worked with for the last century.
Please share your thoughts." -Greg Steeno
Here's the formula you gotta follow to build any territory,
client base, or business market:
1 - Identify Your Strengths,
2 - Create a Profile of Prospects Who Want Your Strengths,
3 - Advertise to Attract These Prospects,
4 - Sell a Desired Product to an Interested Prospect.
It's very simple, but too many people don't follow this. You
see as a professional salesman, you often have to be a
marketer and a business man too. Either you don't have other
sales-savvy people helping you. Or worse, the help you get
is wrong and full of dumb advice.
Start with identifying your strengths. Know what you do
well, and know what your competitors do well. Get specific,
get nuanced, and get into fuzzy things like the persona,
style and attitude of the company and products you are
selling (because these things attract people).
Create a profile, written down - yes written down - of the
people who will want what you got. This is hugely important,
and one of the easiest and most overlooked methods for
getting more deals.
Far too many sales careers have run out of gas for believing
that "everyone is my prospect." Focus on people who are
likely to want what you got and you instantly will see a
mega increase in your closing ratio.
Advertise to attract your desired prospects. Sales people
think that they can't advertise - that this is something
that "the company" is supposed to do.
Well cold calling is advertising. Emailing is advertising.
Mailing letters and postcards is advertising. Until you have
a relationship established with a prospect, your initial
contact attempts are "advertising".
"Advertise" a message about your strengths to a prospect
that is likely to want what you got, and you'll get some
interested people contacting you.
Then all you gotta do is sell them. And selling a prospect
interested in you, predisposed to think that you can do what
they want is they way to build your territory.
Build your territory on a strong foundation. Do it the right
way, and you'll have long term success in selling.
Friday, July 3, 2009
HOW PROSPECTS PROTECT THEMSELVES FROM YOU
It's a wonderful feeling when you ask a prospect a question,
and he tells you about a problem he's has that you can fix.
It's like having a woman you want tell you that she needs
someone like you.
It's a great feeling cause your prospect does need you when
he tells you that.
And when a prospect tells you that he needs something like
what you got, he's exposed himself and made himself a bit
vulnerable.
Which is why the average sales person doesn't hear such
needs so easily.
Instead prospects tell you either that they don't need
anything, or they tell you exactly what they think they need
to solve their problem.
Either way they are protecting themselves.
If they say they don't need anything that may be true. Or it
may be that they don't know that they have a problem,
because they don't know that there is a better way to do
things than what they are doing now.
Think about it. Every innovation creates a gap that new
things can be sold into. But before such sales can happen,
prospects have to become aware that there is a new and
better way, that there is a gap.
And once there is a new and better way, many people will
want that, and hence will have a "problem" that can be
solved.
Other times prospects protect themselves by telling you
exactly what they want (or think they need) to solve their
problem. This usually causes us difficulty as sellers though
cause the prospect typically figures out his solution by
looking at other products to determine what the
possibilities are. And if your product is not the main one
he looks at, then you are in for an uphill battle.
Most people prospects, men in particular, would rather speak
to you the seller as if they are in control and you are not.
You see most people's experience with sales people is not
good. Yours and mine included.
Most people think of sales people as poorly educated, not
that bight, and aggressive. So people put up their defenses
to protect against the idea that you are going to attack
them and try to get you to do something you don't want to
do.
This is not to your benefit however.
No. You need to be in control of the sale.
There is good news however.
Control over the sale does not have to be a battle between
you and the prospect.
You can respectfully take control of the sale by telling
your prospect what you are going to do.
You simply tell your prospect at the beginning of every
sales call what's going to happen, and 99% of the time he
will agree to it.
Tell him that you are going to start out by asking him
questions, and that after you get through asking enough
questions to understand his situation that you will answer
his questions for example. Your prospect will be relieved
that you are smart and respectful and that he doesn't have
to be in control.
When you run your sales calls this way, you will then have
the chance to probe and hear about the real true nature of
the prospect's problem, instead of his already thought
through and biased-against-you solution.
And you will experience that wonderful feeling of hearing
prospects tell you they need something just like what you
are selling.
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