You may think your product is what you sell and what customers pay for. You would be only partially correct. You are part of your product. Your strategic selling covers not only how you sell your product, but all that you do to protect yourself as you sell. Be protective of your selling time. Athletes don’t let anything get in the way of their practice to improve … [Read more...]
How to Raise Prices and Keep Your Customers
It will happen at some point in your selling career that you will have to raise prices. Your customers are not looking forward to this conversation. Most likely neither are you. You are vulnerable to competition when you raise your prices. After all, who doesn’t think that when prices go up, and especially if too much, it might be time to find another supplier? You … [Read more...]
There’s Still Time to Increase Your Sales and Make Your Sales goals
It’s summer time and the living is easy. Maybe it is if you are on track to make your sales goals this year. What if you’re not? Here are some actions to take to get more sales and make your sales goals this year. Focus on smaller accounts. I don’t normally recommend focusing on smaller accounts. Why? Because you work … [Read more...]
Use LinkedIn for Sales
Are you using LinkedIn to sell? LinkedIn is a valuable selling tool for salespeople when you know how to use it. Here’s how one sales leader uses LinkedIn for selling and recruiting Target your prospects. Georgine Muntz,is a fintech company leader that has held sales and other leadership roles at fast growing SaaS companies. She is currently a board member and angel investor. … [Read more...]
Your Sales Brand: Put More You Into Your Sales
What do you sell? You probably think it’s your product or service. While that’s correct, it’s not all you sell. Your prospects and customers are also buying you. Think of it as your sales brand. How are you including yourself in your sales? What’s your sales brand? Everyone knows Mercedes, Starbucks and Nike. They each have a brand personality. They are more than their … [Read more...]
Bogleheads Can Help You Sell: What Don’t You Know in Sales?
Attention Bogleheads! You know if you’re a follower of the founder of Vanguard Group, John C. Bogle, that he and his followers believe (and have shown) that investing can be simple and cheap. Bogle founded Vanguard in 1974 and introduced the first index mutual fund in 1975. Vanguard says that index funds have saved U.S. investors approximately $150 billion in fees since the … [Read more...]
Everything Old Is New Again in Sales: Apply Ad Principles to Sales
You may have heard people say, “Everything old is new again.” Claude Hopkins was the highest-paid copywriter of his day back in the early 20th century. What he said then about advertising also applies to sales today. Consider how you can apply his last century ad principles to your sales today. 1. Some ads are planned and written with a totally wrong conception. They are … [Read more...]
Sell and Work for a Difficult Boss
It’s not mutually exclusive. You can sell while you work for a difficult boss. Difficult bosses come in all types, whether verbally abusive, incompetent or worse. One of your options is to get another job. You might believe that as the victim it’s not right to be punished in that way. Here’s how to work for a difficult boss and still continue to sell. 1. Make sure you work the … [Read more...]
Time Management for Sales: How Prospects Impact How You Spend Your Time in Sales
Great salespeople master time management to get the best results from their time. Sometimes the choices get tricky when you consider what you should do. You might waste your time when your prospect’s view of a deadline is different than yours. Here’s what you can consider to get the most out of your selling time. What does a deadline time mean? Just because you have a sense … [Read more...]
Sales Principles to Consider
Mathematics and science are based on certain fundamentals. Gravity exists and exerts forces on all of us. Light travels at a certain speed and in theory nothing can go faster than it. What about sales? There are some sales principles that you might not think about, but you should consider. They will help you sell more. Sales principle 1. Your customer is always more important … [Read more...]