Just in case you are a regular follower and / or a client, I have had some problems posting to this website. Long story short: my host decided to place my website on another server with a new address and other upgrades. I found all of this out after about 10 days of not being able to post. Part of delay was my being out on the road. It's been corrected and I am almost positive that I will be on track from this point forward.
The TOPIC: enthusiasm is a very important part of your professional sales career. In your phone conversations, face to face presentations, letters, emails, voice mails, networking activities and virtually any activity that allows customers or potential customers to make an impression of you - you need to get excited ! I'm speaking of being enthused about what you do, what you sell, and what the benefits mean to your clients. If your not excited; how do you expect your customers's to get excited ?
We are not speaking of any type of bizarre behaviors. We are suggesting that your attitude and your demeanor suggest someone who enjoys what they do, believes strongly in the value of what they sell, and knows for sure that the TEAM behind them will make everything right. It's a combination of self-confidence, experience, recognizing what affects or justifies the buyers decision, and your desire to win the sales process.
If you have any competitive experiences in your past or current life, think about the value of being competitive. Did you play sports of any type ? Were you on the debate team ? Chess Player ?
Being excited is a significant part of the competitive virtue. Do you like to win ? If you were ever a part of a competitive situation; then you know the value of being excited ! The same ability to get excited, to be determined to win, and the desire to send the other players home with defeat hanging around their neck works in selling situations also.
Get EXCITED about what you do. Get your desire to win / to excel turned ON. Buyers are impressed with professional salespeople who are excited. They meet so many ding-dongs that it's refreshing to meet someone who has what they need and is excited about it. It is an essential part of "earning their business" ! Try it - you'll like it. And it will make a difference in your closing ratio.
Thanks for taking the time to read this week's Perspective. Good Luck and Good Selling !
Challenge yourself to grow ! Challenge yourself to more accountable to yourself and the people who rely on you to make it happen. There isn't one of us who could not be more productive, more focused, more goal oriented, and more open to change - doing things different than what we have ever done before.
Look around for success stories - they are all over the place. Get inspired ! Kick yourself in the butt !
NOW GO SELL SOMETHING - YOUR BABY NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES !
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
WHAT MOTIVATES YOU ?
First of all, I know I'm in big trouble with all of you ! There was no Weekly Perspective last week. I'm sorry. I don't have a good excuse and I don't accept excuses. For those of you who called or emailed as to my whereabouts; I appreciate everyone's desire to keep me on track !
To the TOPIC: What motivates you ? Think about it. Take some notes. Is it money ? Is it position ?
Is it providing for your family ? Very likely it's several things.
Next question. What would motivate you more, assuming there is room to grow, and succeed to a higher level ? Are you a goal setter ? Not that quota baloney that you or someone else sets in November / December for next year and then gets virtually ignored for the rest of the new year.
What if you really set down and gave a lot of thought about your potential for next year. What if you thought about what you could do differently to affect your success. What if you came up with some thing you want or would like to do for yourself and/or your family ? Would that inspire you to grow, work harder and smarter ? Would that inspire you to look at different ways of doing what you do ?
Would you dwell on what you don't know about professional sales as opposed to what you think you do know ?
And would you accept these goals seriously ? Serious enough to develop specific & documented strategies to achieve them ? And would you set down every 60 days to see how you are doing ? Are the strategic steps being done ? Are they working ? If they aren't working would you be willing to change or modify what you have done or haven't done ?
Please don't take all these questions lightly. It's your career. It's your future we are speaking about. It's the future of your loved ones as well as your self-satisfaction from watching yourself achieve beyond your comfort level. Please give all of these questions and statements some thought. There isn't a one of us who can't do more and become better at what we do !
To the TOPIC: What motivates you ? Think about it. Take some notes. Is it money ? Is it position ?
Is it providing for your family ? Very likely it's several things.
Next question. What would motivate you more, assuming there is room to grow, and succeed to a higher level ? Are you a goal setter ? Not that quota baloney that you or someone else sets in November / December for next year and then gets virtually ignored for the rest of the new year.
What if you really set down and gave a lot of thought about your potential for next year. What if you thought about what you could do differently to affect your success. What if you came up with some thing you want or would like to do for yourself and/or your family ? Would that inspire you to grow, work harder and smarter ? Would that inspire you to look at different ways of doing what you do ?
Would you dwell on what you don't know about professional sales as opposed to what you think you do know ?
And would you accept these goals seriously ? Serious enough to develop specific & documented strategies to achieve them ? And would you set down every 60 days to see how you are doing ? Are the strategic steps being done ? Are they working ? If they aren't working would you be willing to change or modify what you have done or haven't done ?
Please don't take all these questions lightly. It's your career. It's your future we are speaking about. It's the future of your loved ones as well as your self-satisfaction from watching yourself achieve beyond your comfort level. Please give all of these questions and statements some thought. There isn't a one of us who can't do more and become better at what we do !
Saturday, September 5, 2009
SELF PROMOTION - DO YOU GET IT ?
For the last two weeks I've spoken a lot about cold calling and almost everyone doing sales for a living wants to talk about doing something besides doing cold calling. Cold calling can be one of the most fruitful ways to promote yourself and increase your sales. A lot of salespeople have a million excuses about why it doesn't work, etc., etc. The debate is over as far as I'm concerned. I will continue to coach the individuals who hire me and they will excel at cold calling. What are the rest of you going to do to promote yourselves ? Yes you ! People buy people first and then they buy your product or service.
So, how are promoting yourself ? Many,many people I talk to believe strongly that Web. 2.0 is the answer to everyone's sales challenges. Just get on Linkedin, twitter, facebook, and 18 others and you will own the world. Web.2.0 can be a good thing I agree. It's another step in a strategy to make people aware of who you are and what you sell. But, it's only one step. What else are you going to do in your campaign to make potential customers aware of you ?
"It's not who you know but who knows you" Those of you who have worked with me, been in my seminars, and enlisted my coaching services know that I beat that axiom to death. But, it's true !
Your awesome challenge as a sales professional who wants to make more sales is to develop a campaign that includes specific steps that promote you and what you do for a living to potential customers ( and existing customers as well - just because they bought once or twice doesn't mean they will buy again ). You should be doing something different every two or three weeks to keep your name and your product / service in front of every lead, target, opportunity in your data base without fail.
Do you really want to make a lot more money ??? That's a question I ask every coaching client I have on a regular basis. If you do, you will do the things that are required to achieve that goal and stop whining about it. Here's the gist of a conversation I have everyday ( at least once ) with somebody. If you were a professional athlete ( quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys ) and I was your Coach. My salary and continued career is based upon bringing the owners a winning season and beyond every year. How much patience do you think I will have with your lack of coachability and follow through when we are paying you $20M a year ? And this is when a few say, but I don't make $20M per year.
What's the money got to do with you being a professional ? Are you one or not ?
Thanks for taking the time to read this week's Perspective. Good Luck and Good Selling !
So, how are promoting yourself ? Many,many people I talk to believe strongly that Web. 2.0 is the answer to everyone's sales challenges. Just get on Linkedin, twitter, facebook, and 18 others and you will own the world. Web.2.0 can be a good thing I agree. It's another step in a strategy to make people aware of who you are and what you sell. But, it's only one step. What else are you going to do in your campaign to make potential customers aware of you ?
"It's not who you know but who knows you" Those of you who have worked with me, been in my seminars, and enlisted my coaching services know that I beat that axiom to death. But, it's true !
Your awesome challenge as a sales professional who wants to make more sales is to develop a campaign that includes specific steps that promote you and what you do for a living to potential customers ( and existing customers as well - just because they bought once or twice doesn't mean they will buy again ). You should be doing something different every two or three weeks to keep your name and your product / service in front of every lead, target, opportunity in your data base without fail.
Do you really want to make a lot more money ??? That's a question I ask every coaching client I have on a regular basis. If you do, you will do the things that are required to achieve that goal and stop whining about it. Here's the gist of a conversation I have everyday ( at least once ) with somebody. If you were a professional athlete ( quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys ) and I was your Coach. My salary and continued career is based upon bringing the owners a winning season and beyond every year. How much patience do you think I will have with your lack of coachability and follow through when we are paying you $20M a year ? And this is when a few say, but I don't make $20M per year.
What's the money got to do with you being a professional ? Are you one or not ?
Thanks for taking the time to read this week's Perspective. Good Luck and Good Selling !
MORE ABOUT COLD CALLING & ITS VALUE
Did I get some responses from last week's perspectives ? Yes, I did ! More than I expected for sure.
What kind of responses ? Most positive but several people were convinced that it had no value and just irritated customers. I didn't debate with them - some people just won't change - no matter what. Especially those who have been doing it for a long time and satisfied with their income level and / or can blame their spiraling sales revenue on other causes.
Obviously, you can think and do whatever you want. But cold calling is still the backbone of selling success in the commercial marketplace and the really successful salespeople do their share of it !
Do they enjoy it ? Probably not, but they enjoy success and recognize the value of initiating new relationships. Cold calling is hard work and can be very draining of your energies if you aren't good at it. But those of us who are good at it are less troubled by the effort. Do we do enough of it ? Could we do more ? Would we rather do other tasks ? The answer to those questions will vary with each individual but I have to admit I would rather right orders, prepare presentations, and go to the beach.
Cold calling works and will get you face to face with more potential customers than anything else you can do. Networking, emarketing, trade shows, Web 2.0, and all the other ways of getting out amongst them will work but the shortest route is cold calling. But you gotta be good at it. What does that mean ? I'm going to give you some tips; before I do please do not lose sight of what I'm saying, Most Sales Pros who don't want to cold call are not good at it - keep that in mind as I share some tips:
1. Develop a script - get comfortable saying what you are going to say on a voice mail or in person - not something that's different every time.
2. Role play every possible thing they may say when they answer to get comfortable and ready to deal with whatever they say. There really isn't that many things they can say or do.
3. Don't try to sell over the phone - you want a face to face appointment - people buy people. Explain to the person that most people in their position are more comfortable buying from someone that they have met and so I want to meet with you. It isn't fair to me or you as a potential customer to try to measure the value of what I offer over the phone. If not this week what about next week ?
4. Do your homework. Know whom you are calling, what they do, why they need your product or service, who they are currently buying from, how many locations, how many employees, etc., etc.
That's a start. I have about 25 more tips for you. It works people - try it - you'll love it !
Thanks for taking the time to read this week's Perspective. Good Luck and Good Selling !
What kind of responses ? Most positive but several people were convinced that it had no value and just irritated customers. I didn't debate with them - some people just won't change - no matter what. Especially those who have been doing it for a long time and satisfied with their income level and / or can blame their spiraling sales revenue on other causes.
Obviously, you can think and do whatever you want. But cold calling is still the backbone of selling success in the commercial marketplace and the really successful salespeople do their share of it !
Do they enjoy it ? Probably not, but they enjoy success and recognize the value of initiating new relationships. Cold calling is hard work and can be very draining of your energies if you aren't good at it. But those of us who are good at it are less troubled by the effort. Do we do enough of it ? Could we do more ? Would we rather do other tasks ? The answer to those questions will vary with each individual but I have to admit I would rather right orders, prepare presentations, and go to the beach.
Cold calling works and will get you face to face with more potential customers than anything else you can do. Networking, emarketing, trade shows, Web 2.0, and all the other ways of getting out amongst them will work but the shortest route is cold calling. But you gotta be good at it. What does that mean ? I'm going to give you some tips; before I do please do not lose sight of what I'm saying, Most Sales Pros who don't want to cold call are not good at it - keep that in mind as I share some tips:
1. Develop a script - get comfortable saying what you are going to say on a voice mail or in person - not something that's different every time.
2. Role play every possible thing they may say when they answer to get comfortable and ready to deal with whatever they say. There really isn't that many things they can say or do.
3. Don't try to sell over the phone - you want a face to face appointment - people buy people. Explain to the person that most people in their position are more comfortable buying from someone that they have met and so I want to meet with you. It isn't fair to me or you as a potential customer to try to measure the value of what I offer over the phone. If not this week what about next week ?
4. Do your homework. Know whom you are calling, what they do, why they need your product or service, who they are currently buying from, how many locations, how many employees, etc., etc.
That's a start. I have about 25 more tips for you. It works people - try it - you'll love it !
Thanks for taking the time to read this week's Perspective. Good Luck and Good Selling !
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