You may have heard that Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch Wealth Management unit is banning trainee brokers from making cold calls. It seems that cold calling was a rite of passage that was from a bygone era for financial advisors. Times change. Financial advisors had to change how they sell as well. You may have to change how you sell as well. Why change cold … [Read more...]
Don’t Write Another Sales Proposal Unless…
You might gladly write a sales proposal if you were guaranteed a sale. Salespeople, all too often, work very hard prospecting, then writing and presenting proposals. What happens after? They hear crickets (no response from email or phone) from prospects a week or weeks later. How can you avoid crickets? Don’t write another sales proposal unless … [Read more...]
Use the Telephone to Sell
Pandemic or not, you have to make sales. The telephone, especially now, might be your best tool to sell and reach new customers. It’s not so easy to sell on the telephone. Then again, neither is selling face-to-face. Here’s what you can do to make it easier when you use the telephone to sell. It’s all in the execution to use the telephone to sell. How you speak is a … [Read more...]
New Year’s Sales Considerations
According to U.S. News & World Report, 80 percent of New Year's resolutions fail by February. I think I know why. People set some unrealistic, overly drastic goals that have little chance of being kept. You might be leaning to making some dramatically different, challenging new Year’s resolutions. Instead, how about I challenge you … [Read more...]
Strategic Selling: Protect Yourself As You Sell
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...]
Don’t Miss a Clue When You Sell
Hindsight is 20/20 may be true. It sure won’t help you make the sale you lost because you missed a clue as you were selling. Here are some clues that I’ve pulled in over the years that I don’t want you to miss when you sell. There’s a right way and a wrong way to handle problems. No one likes complainers. I never consider it a complaint when the person comes … [Read more...]
How to make sales look easy: Sell & Win Like Mikaela Shiffrin
I’ve written about the amazing Michaela Shiffrin before. She’s the exciting alpine skier who has achieved spectacular results. She’s won the World Cup overall title three times. She has 56 World Cup individual victories and three Olympic medals. Two of those are gold. She’s the best in the world. How does she make it look easy? It’s … [Read more...]
Stop wasting your time at meetings (sales or otherwise)
You probably hate meetings if you’re like most people. When you ask people about meetings they say that meetings are a waste of time. But what about your selling? Your sales calls are meetings and you certainly don’t think selling your products or services is a waste of time, right? Sales meetings with other sales member of your team are often … [Read more...]
Some Solid Advice to Avoid a Few Sales Mistakes
The benefit of listening to some people is that they steer you away from making avoidable mistakes. If you find yourself saying, “I would have liked to know that before I made that mistake,” here are some things you might want to think about. Endless negotiations are costing you profits. One very smart salesman once told me that his philosophy on selling was … [Read more...]
Sales Warrior: Can You Win The Sale?
Any soldier prepares for battle so he has some chance of survival. Have you ever noticed that sometimes it feels like a battle in the world of sales? It’s the sales warriors who prepare as they go into the marketplace that have any chance to win the sale. Here’s what you can do to win the sale. Forget about generic sales … [Read more...]