You may still be limiting your face-to-face calls because of Covid. Prospecting on the telephone is an essential part of selling even without the pandemic. Here are a few strategies to get through and reach your prospect to get the meeting or make the sale. Get to your prospect when prospecting on the telephone. They’re called gatekeepers for a reason. Their job is to … [Read more...]
LinkedIn For Sales
You may be looking for the silver bullet for prospecting success. I don’t have it. Yet, LinkedIn is a promising tool that you should consider. It might not be the silver bullet you are hoping for, but it just might make your prospecting easier. Seek and you shall find. Here’s how I recommend you start using LinkedIn to find your qualified leads. Do a search by either company … [Read more...]
How NOT to Sell
I was recently asked to review a product for a business owner I had met through a client. We both did work for the client and this supplier’s credentials and work were good. I offered to help because I thought highly of my client. Don’t argue with a customer I listened to the description of the product and what it could do for my customers. I was intrigued. It was a marketing … [Read more...]
How To Prepare for Your Next Prospecting Call
Is it easy to prospect? No. Can you get better prospecting results? Absolutely. You are more likely to get the results you want when you think strategically about your next prospecting telephone call. What do you want to happen? Set your objective. You first have to know what result you want from the call in order to plan your call. One possible outcome is to get your prospect … [Read more...]
When should you stop selling?
You’ve identified a viable prospect. You make the sales call. During the sales call you get resistance from your prospect. Do you push for the sale or do you realize it’s time to stop selling? Sometimes it’s time to stop selling. Sometimes you learn the unexpected. When you decided to make the sales call, there was a reason you thought that the prospect could and should buy … [Read more...]
A Better Way to Plan Your Selling This Year
What is your plan to start the year off right? Now it is time to start selling. Here's a better way to start your selling this year. Where is your plan? Think of the start of the year as beginning your sales journey. You need a map to guide you along the way. That map is your list of prospects or who are the sources of your new business. Write down all your prospects along … [Read more...]
Missed your sales goals? Start prospecting now.
The Selling Quote “Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant." -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894) For Salespeople The year is almost over. I hope you have clearly exceeded your sales goals. If not, Robert Louis Stevenson provides an excellent strategy on what you can focus on these next few weeks. Start … [Read more...]
Prospecting and Are you afraid of Sales?- October 2014
-Monthly Selling Newsletter with Ideas to Sell More Now- October-2014 Selling Quote for the Month “Give ‘em what they never knew they wanted.” - Diana Vreeland, Former Vogue editor For Salespeople... Have you noticed that sometimes your prospects don’t know what they don’t know? You'll especially see that time when they don’t … [Read more...]
Do you work for free when you sell?
I recently wrote a column on customers who want you to work for free. I never fault anyone for asking. I do blame salespeople who get intimidated and do things they don't want to do and aren't strategic for their selling. These sales people are sometimes afraid to tell a customer or prospect no. Sometimes they don't know how to or when to move on. As I wrote in the column, … [Read more...]
Ideal Prospects & Buying Decisions: April 2014
The Selling Quote for the Month “I will play Stockhausen only on two conditions. One, there will be no rehearsal and two, the performance is conducted at gunpoint." -Flautist James Galway on his contempt for avant-garde composers For Salespeople... Galway is pretty clear on what he doesn't want to do. I see a lot of salespeople who lack that same clarity for what … [Read more...]