You probably don't like it very much if you find yourself having to sell by submitting an RFP or sales proposal. Most salespeople spend a whole lot of time generating their RFPs and miss the opportunity to be strategic about the RFP. You might also wonder what to include in your sales proposals and RFPs. Here's a recent column on how to be strategic when you have to write … [Read more...]
27 Key Sales Performance Drivers
In a recent AchieveGlobal report they identified 27 Key sales performance drivers. How many do you think you have mastered? This is a good topic for your next sales meeting. Your sales team can discuss how to develop more of these sales performance drivers. If successful salespeople master these sales performance drivers, you should be more successful if you do, too. Key … [Read more...]
Value Selling Beats Price Every Day
If you sell on price you will lose business on price. Selling price is a bad way to sell. Instead, you should be selling on value. But, how do you do that? Here are the words to use when you sell based on value. And remember, one of the mistakes too many salespeople make is when they quote price early in their sales process. If that's you, you'll find that you're not very … [Read more...]
2 Important Rules for Your Selling Success
Here are a few rules for you to shorten your sales cycle and ensure your selling success. Here’s how you can make more money in sales. Rule #1. Have a plan for every sales call. How will you know your sales call is a success? It’s not when you feel like it was a great call. It’s only when you’ve left the call with more than you had when you went in. That … [Read more...]
Make better sales decisions.
There are going to be times when you sell when you have to make quick decisions. Of course you have two ways to decide. You could very carefully analyze the information you have and make a thorough, logical decision. That might take you time. It also might not be the best way to decide. You could also pay attention to your gut and make a gut decision. How do you know … [Read more...]
Avoid Lowering Your Price
Consultative Selling: The Questions to ask to avoid lowering your price Sales miracles do occur. In 1995, I was brought into a distributor’s account where they were having equipment problems. I planned to begin the sales call by discussing a product that could solve their problem. As I suggested the product and before I could go into any detail, my customer said, “Send me … [Read more...]
Why You Should Bring Bagels to a Sales Call
Did you know that a hungry, tired judge is much less likely to grant a defendant's request than one who has just eaten or taken a break? At least that's the finding of an ingenious new study looking at the rulings made by parole board judges in relation to when they had taken a meal break. Overall, prisoners saw a 65 percent success rate if their cases were heard early in the … [Read more...]
What’s your pricing strategy when you sell?
It's always important to consider your pricing strategy when you sell. Recent research shows that in negotiations, higher first offers from sellers drive up sale prices—reversely, buyers benefit from lower first offers. You can increase that advantage by stating your offer as a precise, rather than a round number. Here's what they found. In an experiment involving customers … [Read more...]
Did you forget about your most important customer?
I often marvel how salespeople spend so much time managing their customers. They will prioritize them by size, revenue, profits and all types of criteria to see where they should be spending their time and effort. Of course that's a good idea. What they're forgetting is that they have another very important customer. It's their manager. Even if you're on commission, your … [Read more...]
Do you want to make your next prospecting call less stressful for you?
I often ask salespeople how they customize their selling. I get nervous when they say that they sell the same way to every prospect. Why? Because customers are different and they prefer you to be like they are, not necessarily how you are most comfortable. That's why the most flexible salespeople are the most successful. Here are some ideas to start with if you don't know how … [Read more...]