The Selling Quote for the Month
“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.”
–Chinese Proverb
For Salespeople…
It’s time to for salespeople to get lazy. How? You follow this proverb. The next time you have to develop a sales strategy why not talk with someone who has already experienced your situation or one similar? You don’t have to spend countless hours developing a strategy that might not work. Instead, listen to someone who has executed a strategy successfully. You may have to adapt it to your style. Then go do it. You just might find out that you learn something new, you make your selling much easier and you become even more successful in your selling.
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The Selling Ideas for this Month
Your Selling Strategy
At some point in your career you’re going to want a raise, change jobs or enhance your existing job. That’s when you have to formulate your selling strategy. Your selling strategy for this sale is just like your strategy for other sales.
What do you do when you get push back? A professional wanted to move into a different position at his company. His boss didn’t want to lose him because he was good at his job. The professional scheduled a meeting with his manager to discuss the career move. At the meeting, the manager said the professional would be good at the job and would support the move. Then nothing happened for months. When the professional asked the manager for an update, the reply was, “I’m working on it.” When you get non-answers or no action, your manager is dodging you. With customers, it is the same.
Action step. Anytime you get no action, you know it is time for you to take charge. Stop asking your manager (or customer) to take action. You take action. In this case, a more senior manager was visiting the office. This professional realized that he had to meet with him. The professional set up another meeting with his manager. The objective was to get out in the open the reasons the move was going nowhere and to take charge of getting the meeting with the senior manager.
The professional said, “I know in previous meetings you said you supported the move. What is keeping it from going forward?” That forced the manager to say that he was unsure that the senior manager would support the move. The sales professional said, “Ok. I know that the senior manager will be in our office next week. I would like us to meet. Since I know you are busy, I will arrange to get on his calendar.” By taking charge, the manager was now out of the loop for taking action. By indicating the manager was busy, the professional had a legitimate reason to take action that allowed the manager to save face. The professional could take charge.
Prepare. The professional prepared just like any sales call for the meeting with the senior manager. He considered the senior manager’s goals and objectives to develop the strategy. He would sell his new job as helping the senior manager achieve his objectives. To make the decision easier and less risky, the professional demonstrated that this promotion decision conformed to company policy. He included his sales manager in the meeting so his manager would not feel excluded. He also included him because the professional believed that the manager would support him in the meeting.
When you are in any sales situation, you must remember that there are always people issues at stake. Excluding people can breed anger which can hurt your sale in the long run.
The outcome. The professional arranged the meeting. He stated his reasons for meeting. His minimum objective for this meeting was to uncover any objections that the senior manager would have. He started the meeting by saying, “My manager supports this move and we wanted to discuss with you the best way to get this to happen. What are your thoughts?” That would uncover any concerns. There were none. The sales professional got a timeline with specific actions that would happen to ensure he could move into the new position.
In any sales call, you are more likely to get the results you want when you and your customer agree on what actions need to occur and the timeline for them to occur.
Your sales strategy is key for your sales success. With thoughtful planning and execution, you can be sure to get your next sale whether your career or something else is the product.
Best wishes for your selling success!
Action Items
1. Which of my prospects is stalled in my sales cycle?
2. What action will you take to move the sales process forward with this prospect?
Did You Know?
Here’s a tip this week for your sales success.
So I never assume, here’s a brief list of services I offer.
A. Consulting/Coaching/Mentoring
By hour or by project.
- Plan sales call strategies
- Develop effective proposals that prevent “low price” shoppers from picking your competiton
- Reduce the stress of working for a difficult manager
- Shorten the time for a new hire to be productive
- Design customized selling tablet app
- New ideas to sell more
- Develop questioning strategy to shorten your sales cycle and increase sales
- 90 Day Performance Plan for new sales hires to be productive faster and increase retentionFor info, please see Consulting/Coaching.Call 972 380 0200 for a free initial consultation.
B. Speaking at Sales Meetings to Improve Sales Performance
Present Sales Performance improvement programs at sales meetings and conferences
RECOMMENDED IF:
- Your salespeople lose proposals based on price.
- You have underperforming salespeople.
- Your salespeople have too many deals that they say are closing and they don’t close.
Upcoming Programs
Visit Best@Selling to see upcoming programs.
Sell More Now Programs: Selling Strategies to Sell More Now!Your successful selling is more than talking and listening. It’s developing the strategy to get in front of the right customers the easiest and most effective ways. This thoughtful, strategic approach to your selling will shorten your sales cycle and increase the profitability of your business. You will learn to develop your successful selling strategies in this one-hour (approximate) program.
You will learn to make strategic decisions that help your customers make a buying decision and see you as the preferred supplier. Your strategy work continues as you demonstrate why they should continue to buy from you. This program will guide you to formulate your sales strategies so you get in front of the right customers, help them make buying decisions faster, and create long-term business relationships.
You will learn:
1. How to get customers to quickly understand that you are the preferred supplier.
2. How to identify the customers you can best serve.
3. How to get customers to come to you.
4. How to avoid wasting time on the wrong prospects.
5. How to be perceived as an expert so customers quickly trust you.
Sell More Now with Mentoray Marketplace
You Can Still Learn!
Did you miss the webinars to help you sell more. View them now!
On-Line Webinar: Would Have Liked to Know That!: A Salesman’s Guide To Sales Success If you’re new to sales or thinking about a career in sales, you will want to avoid the setbacks and obstacles that might be part of your career. Selling is a fulfilling yet challenging job. You can learn to maintain the selling attitude you need to thrive. You will learn to focus on the skill that’s most important to sales success (and it’s probably not the one you think.) You will identify the strategies to implement that will lead to your sales success. |
On-Line Webinar: Secrets of Persuasion to Sell More Now
Sales professionals who use persuasion and influence get better results in business. This seminar will teach you to identify the behavioral clues you need to effectively
persuade others. You will learn what the clues mean and how to use them with customers to shorten your sales cycle. You will increase your sales when you have the tools to persuade.
Do you need to increase your sales? Why not consider sales coaching? Are you looking for proven strategies to sell more?
Contact Maura@Bestatselling.com or 972 380 0200. Free 15 minute consultation to determine if this program is for you.
“You have also taught me a great questioning strategy for every account. I can now get past price and get deeper into a business than before. This has not only given me more confidence when I walk into a prospect, but it has shortened my sales cycle. This has been my biggest goal throughout our working together.”
Jordan Dale
Account Manager
Western Marketing, Inc
“Maura has proivided the expertise to retool our entire sales process. She has single handedly created the sales side of the cutting edge technological sales tools we are implementing at this moment. She has been invaluable.”
Charles Read
President
Custom Payroll Associates Inc.