Email is a sales tool. Are you doing all you can do to get your emails read and useful for selling? Here’s what you can do. Be strategic with subject lines. Make it easier for other people to read your emails when you write them. Here’s what you can do. Write a better subject line so it’s clear what you want. You can take a page out of the military. Here’s what they do. Their … [Read more...]
Marie Kondo for Sales
Have you heard about Marie Kondo? She’s the international expert on organization and leading a simple life. She emphasizes organization to simplify and find more joy in life. Simple rules of sales will give you more joy in business and in life. 1. Plan ahead. You can avoid a lot of wasted time if you plan ahead. Think about the materials you need to take on business trips. … [Read more...]
Generate Value from Selling
Sample Value Generation Letter Date XYZ Transportation Anytown, USA Dear (Maintenance Manager): We have been working with the XYZ Transportation staff in our role as your lubricants supplier. Super Supplier Inc. would like to report the savings and revenue contribution we’ve been able to provide your operation. We discussed extending your oil drain intervals … [Read more...]
Sales is common sense, but common sense sometimes isn’t common.
What would you think about standing too close to a customer to make him uncomfortable? You would never do that, right? It's just common sense that you don't make a customer uncomfortable if you have any hope of him buying again. Well, sometimes salespeople don't realize that what they're doing is wrong. Just imagine you worked with a salesman for several months. You arrive … [Read more...]
Gravity and your selling word of mouth
If you haven't seen Gravity (the movie!) yet, I highly recommend it. I'm not the only one. It defied predictions that it would be an enormous success. "It didn't look like it would go on to be a phenomenon," said Warner's president of world-wide marketing, Sue Kroll. If current trends continue, Gravity is likely to end up grossing more than $500 million world-wide, territory … [Read more...]
Is what you’re saying (or not saying) killing your sales?
I often say that words are the tools of the sales trade. It's really more than that because what you don't say often says more than what you do say. What do I mean? It's the nonverbal that counts. You know, it's everything you communicate without words. I often wonder how some people can be so unaware about what they're saying nonverbally. Here's a great article if you want … [Read more...]
Are you done learning for selling?
I marvel at the difference in really successful salespeople and those simply getting by--or not getting by. The successful sales professionals that I've met have one thing in common. They all recognize that there is always more to learn and they will never be done learning. Do you have that curiosity about life and your surroundings? I hope so. It seems to help those who … [Read more...]
Want to shorten your sales cycle?
Here are a few ideas to shorten your sales cycle: [table id=1 /] Hope this helps you sell more now! … [Read more...]
How to know if your customer is ready to buy.
There are two factors that motivate customers to buy. They are pain or pleasure. Pain motivates more than pleasure. Unless your customers are experiencing enough pain there is no reason to do anything about it. Yet, just experiencing pain is insufficient to motivate a customer to do something about it and buy. You have to be very clear about how much pain he’s experiencing. … [Read more...]
A new kind of tweet aimed at customer service
You don't hear much about lost luggage any more. This customer turned his negative experience into an interesting use of social media. You may be tweeted about in ways you never thought of if your company provides less than stellar customer service. Here's more about this unhappy customer. … [Read more...]